rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
The KO situation could have impact, but its easy for the team to spin. He was a clearly descending player, who had largely been benched for declining production, who felt they wanted surgery to repair an issue the team thought he could play through. It's basically just he said, he said.The theory of the draft is quality player at below quality contract, but most times its middle of the road to bad player that the team can soon move on from. This is one of the reasons I loved the Minkah trade for the Steelers (the other being money), you trade1 year off a first-round pick for the knowledge that the guy is legit as opposed to the 50 percent of busts.
Basically I think teams tend to overvalue draft picks and think they draft better then they do.
As for 2nd contracts I agree its the most money, but forget the Bell situation its the KO situation that could cause problems. The one thing every player cares about is their own health, and that story might make players just not be willing to deal with them.
He will say he's injured and needed surgery. The teams doctors say he could have played through it, and from the teams POV, he just wanted to get surgery so he could land on IR and the team would be forced to pay him the rest of the year.
Its an ugly situation, but I can't say its unheard of either, or that it would damage their reputation for FAs.