Eugene Parker

[CodeMonkey]

I'm actually starting to hate football because of all these greedy scumbags.

Free agency has kind of ruined the game...

Yeah it was way better when only the owners were allowed to be greedy scumbags,

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

 

 

Free agency has kind of ruined the game...

 

Strictly from a bills perspective the hard part about free agency is our team adapted horribly to the new nfl. They had a huge run of success right into the teeth of the new era of unrestricted free agency.

 

Once that new era began, They failed over and over again to adapt. It could be because Ralph was pulling the strings and came from an era where you could pick up a prospect and cultivate him for years and years also once you filled a hole with a player you were set for a while and could move to the next hole.

 

Today's game is different. Completely different. Teams need to be nimble and prepared to accommodate high turnover across the roster. Teams need to put depth behind the most talented players knowing you won't afford them all. Teams need to target free agents selectively knowing they will tie up a lot of cap, so they'd better carry a cost benefit.

 

Bryd, Parker, they are artifacts of the system, a system the bills are hopefully now, young and agile enough in the decision making ranks to contend in.

[4BillsintheBurgh]

Cornelius Bennett

Thanks.

[NDBUFFCUSEFAN]

Yeah it was way better when only the owners were allowed to be greedy scumbags,

 

This is what I try to explain to people who get upset at players for chasing the dollar. If I was an agent I would recommend that every one of my clients take the most money regardless of team unless someone in their family has a unique medical problem, they are chasing rings, or their spouse is also famous and certain cities were better for them. The first big contract is the most important and Byrd has every right to look for the biggest offer.

 

That being said I still would have tagged his ass and tried to force him to sign a long term deal. No way would I want to set a precedent of bowing down to Parker and his clients. Hopefully I am overreacting to this and there really is a master plan being executed.

[Fan in Chicago]

Strictly out of curiosity, which (if any) of Parker's clients have the Bills signed or extended ?

[Mickey]

This is what I try to explain to people who get upset at players for chasing the dollar. If I was an agent I would recommend that every one of my clients take the most money regardless of team unless someone in their family has a unique medical problem, they are chasing rings, or their spouse is also famous and certain cities were better for them. The first big contract is the most important and Byrd has every right to look for the biggest offer.

 

That being said I still would have tagged his ass and tried to force him to sign a long term deal. No way would I want to set a precedent of bowing down to Parker and his clients. Hopefully I am overreacting to this and there really is a master plan being executed.

If tagging him didn't work with him getting 6.4 million, why would it work when it ends with him getting 8.4 million? If the Bills could force him to sign a long term contract that fit their budget, they would. The tag is not the all powerful, bad for Bird and good for the Bills, bargaining chip fans think it is which is why the Bills aren't using it. They aren't refraining from the tag out of the goodness of their hearts.

[K-9]

Force him to sign a contract? WTF? Is this Don Corleone and Luca Brasi going to meet with a band leader?

 

GO BILLS!!!

[NDBUFFCUSEFAN]

Force him to sign a contract? WTF? Is this Don Corleone and Luca Brasi going to meet with a band leader?

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

I should have been clearer, if he is tagged he is only guaranteed the 8.4 million and would get much more guaranteed with a long term deal so the tag could have helped pushed Byrd to sign.

[Reed83HOF]

Strictly from a bills perspective the hard part about free agency is our team adapted horribly to the new nfl. They had a huge run of success right into the teeth of the new era of unrestricted free agency.

 

Once that new era began, They failed over and over again to adapt. It could be because Ralph was pulling the strings and came from an era where you could pick up a prospect and cultivate him for years and years also once you filled a hole with a player you were set for a while and could move to the next hole.

 

Today's game is different. Completely different. Teams need to be nimble and prepared to accommodate high turnover across the roster. Teams need to put depth behind the most talented players knowing you won't afford them all. Teams need to target free agents selectively knowing they will tie up a lot of cap, so they'd better carry a cost benefit.

 

Bryd, Parker, they are artifacts of the system, a system the bills are hopefully now, young and agile enough in the decision making ranks to contend in.

 

When I said that it was partially out of frustration for what you said; even more holistically - the game was just more fun to watch; such as the rule changes skewing the game in favor of offense.

 

You also really lose the essence of a team being a team in it's purist sense. Speaking in terms of the Bills; you will never see a team close like what we once had. In today's environment, Kelly never would have stayed here and would have been gone. Look at how a person who wanted no part of Buffalo has turned out to be an ambassador for the region. You just really loose that in this type of system.

 

Again yeah there are players like Fred, Wood and SJ who do love the fans and the atmosphere and want to be a prt of things. Feels like the only way we can compete and resign our players is to really do even more homework to hunt these players out. If we don't we end up with the McGahee's, Lynch's, Byrd's etc....

 

And the rinse and repeat cycle. Sadly we are not well equipped to handle this modern era....

[offyourocker]

Force him to sign a contract? WTF? Is this Don Corleone and Luca Brasi going to meet with a band leader?

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

I am wondering how many here will not get that reference. Luca Brasi sounded like such a bad MF when he was intrdoduced in the movie that I thought he was going to inflict some serious damage but then he was done right away.

[Trader]

I think that the OP has a point. I would not go so far as to boycott a player with Parker as his agent but I would ask in an interview this question to every player. "How did you go about selecting an agent? What criteria did you use? What are your expectations? The answers may give the team some understanding as to what motivates a player. I want guys who love to play not just play for the cash.

[Webster Guy]

What is so hard to understand? He is just doing his job and he's good at it. He gets his client what the Bills won't give. This is a career for these players. They don't owe the Bills anything. Your anger is misdirected, folks.

 

From what I've seen, if I was an nfl player, I'd love to have this guy as my agent.

Wait what did he do that makes you say he's good at his job?

 

Because he failed to negotiate a good deal for his client last year and forced him into risking injury for 10 games that would have cost him a huge contract? Byrd didn't need an agent to get himself franchise tagged and paid, that's automatically calculated by the league.

 

So last year the only thing he did for his client was make him seem like a selfish me-first player who wouldn't even man up enough to play a full season like all the other tagged guys in the league did. He faked an injury and skipped camp and hurt his team. His client now gets as much respect as a Maybin or a Revis or a Crabtree. And now Byrd can yank his kids away from their friends and schoolmates to go live in another city so daddy can make $23M instead of only $20M in a low cost of living city like Buff.

 

Yeah great agent. It's all about the money Jairus. You need more money Jairus. You can make an extra 15% elsewhere (yeah sure 47% of that goes to the IRS but YOU NEED THE MONEY JAIRUS) Hell you only made $7M in 10 games last year, you need at least another $25M for your children's college fund man. Now go tell your kids to say goodbye to all their friends forever and lets sell this house and go get a bigger one in some other city with 25 rooms instead of 10.

 

Dopes.

[bobobonators]

 

 

Free agency has kind of ruined the game...

 

And our FO has ruined this franchise.

[bbb]

Strictly from a bills perspective the hard part about free agency is our team adapted horribly to the new nfl. They had a huge run of success right into the teeth of the new era of unrestricted free agency.

 

Once that new era began, They failed over and over again to adapt. It could be because Ralph was pulling the strings and came from an era where you could pick up a prospect and cultivate him for years and years also once you filled a hole with a player you were set for a while and could move to the next hole.

 

I don't really agree with this. They got burned by dirty pool on Will Wilford............And, then they had great free agency signings in the Nineties - Spielman, Paup, Washington

[maryland-bills-fan]

Saying it again. The franchise tag was devised between the players union and the league, to allow teams to hold onto core players in the interest of competitive balance (which keeps the fans happy by giving everybody a chance to be a winner) and team continuity (which helps keep fans happy). The teams are held to the legal terms because the are written and measurable, so they live up to it. That a player should play when tagged is assumed. Byrd and Parker didn't live up to that part of the deal and Byrd sandbagged last year by taking part of the year off and just coming in for a cameo appearance, at the time when people might start to wonder if he really did have an injury. Byrd also demonstrated that if tagged again he would take 13 games off and again lie about "my footsies hurt". If you remember, Peters was working on a new, post rookie contract when he developed "I can't play" injuries. Sorry, Parker is not a honest person and sleazeball lawyers have been getting away with such tricks forever. You can not assume that lawyers follow the road of high moral conduct. It is not the way the system works. They do whatever they can in their client's interest. That is the morality. The lawyer jokes are true. Every child molester and rapist has a lawyer there looking for some way to avoid justice. That is the American system of justice- there are others where judges have more of a role and may be better, but it what is. The Bills have run up to an agent/lawyer who practices that way and a player, (sugar wouldn't melt in his mouth) who goes along 110% with his actions. I say screw both of them and people who can't see what clearly is.

Edited March 5, 2014 by maryland-bills-fan

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

. . . Hopefully I am overreacting to this and there really is a master plan being executed.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the "master plan" was for Ralph to pay Parker under the table to shepherd young Pro-Bowl caliber players off the roster so that Ralph didn't have to pay them Pro-Bowl caliber salaries? But that couldn't be the case, 'cause then the Bills would just make bigger profits in a small market, Parker would take the heat from fans, and Ralph ain't cheap, right? . . . . . right? Edited March 5, 2014 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[machine gun kelly]

Whaley is playing an interesting game of poker. He offered excellent money to Byrd and let him look elsewhere. As good as Byrd is as a free safety, I don't see many teams paying him $10 million a year.

 

The likelihood is he tests the market will only capture $8-9 million and comes back to Buffalo.

 

I've held to position that Buffalo's problem is they don't recognize their talent early enough and do not extend contracts early. We could have kept Levitre if we extended him a year earlier and probably paid him $4-5 million per year.

[Thurman#1]

What Parker is doing is representing the interests of his client in a way consistent with Byrd's objectives and instructions. Parker isn't out to screw the Bills for some personal satisfaction. As I always believed, Byrd's main goal, for whatever reason, appears to be to get out of Buffalo. That's what Parker is setting up here. From what I hear of the money offer from the Bills it sounded more than reasonalbe and subject to a little negotiation back and forth on duration, guaranteed money, and total dollars. You'd think two motivated parties could get a dealfrom there that would make both sides happy. But you can't negotiate with somebody that is not interested in negotiating.

 

 

 

And yet nobody but fans with sour grapes syndrome are saying this.

 

Whaley says it's about both sides having different ideas of the guy's worth, and he was right there.

 

It isn't about wanting to get out of Buffalo. It's about money.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Thurman#1

[Thurman#1]

The players that hire him want to maximize their value, just like Peters did. There were some front offices that actually liked dealing with him because he did his homework when he set his value for a player. The team knew where they stood and could take it or leave it, there wasn't much negotiating. Someone had posted a good link a while back about how Parker operates (maybe when Peters left) and it was a good read. I think I remember reading that Parker usually finds someone to hire his client at the value he believes is fair. Does anyone know if the Bills have ever re-signed one of Parker's clients?

 

 

Cornelius Bennett was a Parker client throughout his football career. He was in Buffalo for nine years, and I can't believe that was only one contract.

 

James Hardy was a Parker client. Assuming we'd been willing to have re-signed him, he likely wouldn't have demanded a whole lot of money. Heh heh.

 

I remember one other guy around 10 - 15 years ago, but the name escapes me. He wasn't a star and the negotiations were extremely easy.

 

Wait what did he do that makes you say he's good at his job?

 

Because he failed to negotiate a good deal for his client last year and forced him into risking injury for 10 games that would have cost him a huge contract? Byrd didn't need an agent to get himself franchise tagged and paid, that's automatically calculated by the league.

 

So last year the only thing he did for his client was make him seem like a selfish me-first player who wouldn't even man up enough to play a full season like all the other tagged guys in the league did. He faked an injury and skipped camp and hurt his team. His client now gets as much respect as a Maybin or a Revis or a Crabtree. And now Byrd can yank his kids away from their friends and schoolmates to go live in another city so daddy can make $23M instead of only $20M in a low cost of living city like Buff.

 

Yeah great agent. It's all about the money Jairus. You need more money Jairus. You can make an extra 15% elsewhere (yeah sure 47% of that goes to the IRS but YOU NEED THE MONEY JAIRUS) Hell you only made $7M in 10 games last year, you need at least another $25M for your children's college fund man. Now go tell your kids to say goodbye to all their friends forever and lets sell this house and go get a bigger one in some other city with 25 rooms instead of 10.

 

Dopes.

 

 

 

Yeah, moving to different cities for a better job has destroyed so many lives. I know most Americans would never move to a different city for a higher-paying ... oh, wait, they would and they do.

 

 

 

Like it or not, yeah, Parker has indeed done a terrific job for Byrd.

 

Byrd's in the catbird seat right now, and it's Parker's advice that has helped put him there.

 

And you're kidding yourself thinking that guys who negotiate hard are destroying their reputation or losing respect. Do people have bad memories of Reggie White? Cornelius Bennett? Bruce Smith? Outside of Buffalo, Jason Peters is highly respected. Is Curtin Martin hated by anyone? Deion Sanders? Get real.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Thurman#1

[Thurman#1]

Saying it again. The franchise tag was devised between the players union and the league, to allow teams to hold onto core players in the interest of competitive balance (which keeps the fans happy by giving everybody a chance to be a winner) and team continuity (which helps keep fans happy). The teams are held to the legal terms because the are written and measurable, so they live up to it. That a player should play when tagged is assumed. Byrd and Parker didn't live up to that part of the deal and Byrd sandbagged last year by taking part of the year off and just coming in for a cameo appearance, at the time when people might start to wonder if he really did have an injury. Byrd also demonstrated that if tagged again he would take 13 games off and again lie about "my footsies hurt". If you remember, Peters was working on a new, post rookie contract when he developed "I can't play" injuries. Sorry, Parker is not a honest person and sleazeball lawyers have been getting away with such tricks forever. You can not assume that lawyers follow the road of high moral conduct. It is not the way the system works. They do whatever they can in their client's interest. That is the morality. The lawyer jokes are true. Every child molester and rapist has a lawyer there looking for some way to avoid justice. That is the American system of justice- there are others where judges have more of a role and may be better, but it what is. The Bills have run up to an agent/lawyer who practices that way and a player, (sugar wouldn't melt in his mouth) who goes along 110% with his actions. I say screw both of them and people who can't see what clearly is.

 

 

"That a player should play when tagged is assumed." No, it's really not. Which is why the consequences for not doing so are right there in the same Collective Bargaining Agreement that you're treating as holy writ in part of your post. What's assumed is that if they don't play when tagged, they'll suffer the consequences, namely that teams can fine them and that if it lasts into the season they'll lose game checks.

 

Another assumption you're making is that Byrd sandbagged. Which Marrone doesn't agree with. Nor Whaley. Which is why they're trying to re-sign the guy. Don't pretend you know more about Byrd's medical condition than the team and the doctors do, because you don't.