Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ware Might Not be unresticted in 2010?

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/...-unrestricted/

Is Ware Aware He Might Not Be Unrestricted?

Posted by Mike Florio on April 30, 2009, 9:16 a.m. EDT

The range is set for the new contract eventually to be signed by Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware. At the high end? Albert Haynesworth’s $100 million contract in Washington, with $41 million guaranteed. At the low end? James Harrison’s $51 million contract in Pittsburgh, with $20 million guaranteed. So where does Ware fall in the $49 million gap?

“It’s not $51 [million],” Ware told Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News. “It might not be $100 [million]. It’s somewhere between the two. Maybe it’s $94 [million].” (Ware’s jersey number is 94.) But there’s a big difference, as we see it, between Ware’s situation and those of Haynesworth and Harrison. Haynesworth was fully unrestricted, with no ability by the Titans to put the franchise tag on him, under the terms of his one-year deal in 2008. He hit the market free and clear, and the Redskins opened up their vault for him. Harrison, like Ware, was entering the final year of his contract. But Harrison would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2010. Ware won’t be. It’s the one fact that many players seem to be overlooking. Absent an extension to the labor deal, 2010 will unfold without a salary cap. And, under the rules of uncapped free agency, players with less than six years will be eligible only for restricted free agency.

After the 2009 season, Ware will have five years of service. As a result, the Cowboys will be able to squat on Ware in 2009 by tendering him a non-guaranteed one-year deal in the range of $3 million or so. And if someone else wants to swoop in and take him away, they’d have to cough up a first-round pick and a third-round pick. We wonder whether Ware knows this. We wonder whether any other players with four years of current service whose contracts expire after this season think otherwise.

Ware is worth more than a 1st and a 3rd.. But I don't think he's gonna get more than Fat Albert..