The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Salary Cap Expert, Joel Corry, Explains Texans' Weak Position

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Former Agent, Joel Corry, explains why the Texans have put themselves in a situation that gives Laremy Tunsil a "Blank Check"

The pandemic continues. The no damn sports pandemic. I'm not leaving my house. Luckily, the most infectious lineup in Houston sports continues. Now, here's masked, rubber-gloved, but still Jesus-sandled. Matt Thomas, sanitize those toes, would you? You don't know where they've been. The previous liner goes without comment on this radio show.

1232 is the time. It is the Matt Thomas Show, Sports RV, and Pornick-Low with us as well. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show 7-1-3-212-5-790 Joel Corey is a salary cap expert from CBS Sports you've heard him on 790 on occasion first time with me here on this program Joel it's Matt thank you for the time I saw your tweet a couple of days ago and man it was so solid and so true that Laramette Tunsell should get a blank check doesn't necessarily mean he deserves it

By the way, the Texans have kind of put things around him and the trade and the departure of DeAndre Hopkins. He really does have a blank check, doesn't he? Yeah. The first mistake was not getting a extension or at least agreeing to parameters when you traded for him. Whenever you don't get the deal done, it's going to cost you more money in the long run. Just look at what happens in Dallas. They gave up one first round pick to get a Marty Cooper in the middle of the 2008. 18th season, if they had signed an extension for Mari Cooper at any time before Michael Thomas

and Julio Jones signed their extensions, he's not making $20 million per year. So that's the first problem. Second thing is you gave up a King's ransom to get Laramie Thompson. That's the biggest trade compensation this century outside of the CaliO Mack trade. But they got to deal with him to Caliomac when he was signed. So basically, as I said, hand him a blank check and let them fill it in. That is crazy. Let me ask you this.

How much of Laramie's dollars could ultimately affect Deacon's? Now, obviously, Deshawn, it's kind of waiting to find out what happens with Pat Mahomes this season. But is there any correlation between what tensile signs for and what Watson might ultimately get? Maybe from a cash standpoint, not necessarily from a cap standpoint, because, savvy teams can manipulate the salary cap however they want to in terms of how they structure contracts, where they restructure contracts. So it may be more of a cash situation than a cap issue. But either way, you're going to have what will usually be the highest paid offensive linemen in the NFL, and you're going to have what will probably be the second highest paid quarterback right behind packing homes.

How did this, Joel, how did it come about to, it just seems like standard operating procedure in the NFL when players, it's just, it's your time to be the highest paid at your position, even if you're not the best at its position. I mean, Laramie Tunsell is good, but I don't think anybody's confusing him for the best left tackle in football. How did that just become a standard operating procedure in the NFL? It doesn't happen at all positions. We didn't see DeForest Buckner, Fish Trade, leapfog, Aaron Donald, and you didn't see Mari Cooper jump over Julio Jones. But one thing you have in Laramie's

case is traditionally left tackles make significantly more than right tackles. And in 2019, you had two right tackles become the highest paid guys at the position, highest paid offense of women in football. That's something that will be

corrected with this Laramie Tunsell deal. So if you go back throughout the last CBA, it's been roughly about a 25 or 30 percent gap on average salary. And given the leverage that Jeremy Tustle has, I'd be surprised if he's not one of the five highest paid non-quarterbacks when the deal's done.

How good was it for him when the first offer, the Texans, again, we're going off of published reports. The initial offer was $18.5 million. That's a starting point, which will make him the most expensive offensive linemen in the NFL. I mean, that's got to be a win-win for him knowing that anything north of that is going to really put them in rarefied territory? Yeah, that's what I call a good faith first offer.

When I was an agent, sometimes I was involved in negotiations with players, which you wouldn't believe, were you like, really? That's the first offer for a guy this caliber, which in turn would force me to come back and give a ridiculous offer on the other side, just to send them a message. So I don't think that's going to have to happen in this situation since the Texans came in with a good faith first offer, which, is going to fall well short of where I think this deal will end up. What do you think?

I mean, we were talking $20 million a year yesterday. Do you think it sounds like you think it could be north of that, right? Yes. Right now, the five highest paid quarterbacks number four and five, they're tied, are the Forrest Buckner and DeMarcus Lawrence, a $21 million per year. And it wouldn't surprise me if I'm Laramie Tunsell. I'm saying, hey, for what you gave up for me, which is almost unprecedented, in a compensation for a non-quarterback, then how about we just take the average of the top

five non-quarterbacks, and then I'm making roughly $22 million a year. Do you expect it'll be maybe like a four-year deal so that you can get paid again at 29? I mean, if you're representing Laramie Tunsell, how many years are you thinking you want? Three new years. I'm on a contract for four total years, and we saw in free agency this year that a lot of guys were opting for the shorter model because you're going to see the salary cap go up significantly. Once we have the 17th game, the percentage of revenue for the players

will hit 48.5. It's 47 this year. And new TV deals will come into the equation. And an unknown factor is how the gambling, gaming revenue is going to impact everything. So you would want to do a shorter deal to come up again in your prime and then get another chance to get a massive payday. Former agent now CBS Sports salary cap analyst to Joel Corey with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Obviously, DeAndre, all the reports are consistent that he was looking to add salary to his three remaining years here in Houston. And the Texans said thanks, but no thanks. How hamstrung would the team have been if they would have bumped his salary to, say, were close to where Julio Jones would have been? Would that really, according to what the Texans logic in play, would have, were they really been screwing themselves with potentially?

Tunsell and Watson if they would have given DeAndre those three bonuses each of the next three seasons? Not necessarily. It's just that you typically don't adjust contracts when they're three years remaining, and this isn't quite the Andre Johnson situation where Andre Johnson sold himself short when he did his deal years ago and they had to keep adjusting it because he kept outperforming it. I don't consider DeAndre Hawkins to be dramatically underpaid. I would have wanted to do. I would have wanted to look more at what happened with Antonio Brown. He had three years remaining on his deal, and then they added like $11 million into it when he was traded from Pittsburgh to Oakland,

now Las Vegas, obviously didn't play under it and voided a guarantee. But that would have been the model I'd have been looking forward to bump him $10 to $15 million over the three years, and whether you wanted to prorate that money or just add it into the, to the, actual base salaries. And some teams are now starting to add voidable years to contracts so they can stretch out the proration because then you could prorate any bonus money over five years as opposed to the three years. So there are a number of ways you could have done it where it would have been able to be manageable from a salary cap standpoint. To me, the bigger issue is you have to have a high-price running back who hasn't played well since 2016 is what you got in return.

Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. It makes us feel really good. Joel Corey with us here from CBS Sports. Joel, if the deal is not done with Laramie, and we had Aaron Wilson out from The Chronicle yesterday, but I respect your opinion as well. What kind of mood, and I don't know if you know if you know Laramie or not, but what kind of mood is a general player that has to go into the final year before a potential franchise tag? How is that going to play in that locker room? And how is that going to play with Laramie Tunsell, who knew that coming to Houston was going to be a better spot than where he was in Miami, but it will be ultimately maybe even two seasons before he gets that new contract he's been asking for

from the day he really left the dolphins to begin with. Well, just as big of concern would be how it's going to play in the locker room because you didn't give up all those picks. And I basically caught essentially two first and a second. I know there was other stuff involved to have him not sign a long-term deal. So one, you've already traded the best offensive player you have on the team, in my opinion, Arizona, who also went to the same school as your quarterback. So they probably had a pretty good relationship just because of that factor alone.

So if you're not going to get the guy who protects him done, you're going to alienate your quarterback even more than you may have already done so. And then you're sending a signal in the locker room that we're not going to pay our best players or we're going to ship them out if you don't get Laramie done. And then if he goes out and has a better year than he did last year and he made the Pro Bowl, whatever you're going to have to pay him this year is going to be obsolete because it's going to be like the Dack Prescott situation where he's going to pry a premium for making him play out his contract. So you're best off just trying to get this thing done sooner rather than later, acknowledging the fact that he holds all the cards, has all the leverage, and just go ahead and bite the bullet and get him done for whatever he wants. Is how I look at it.

Last question. Will Pat Mahomes get his deal done this off, do you believe? Yeah, I suspect that he won. He's the first $40 million per year quarterback, and he's not going to give up any more than four new years. There's no sense in Kansas City waiting. I know Clark Hunt said that during Super Bowl week, and I'm like, really?

You wouldn't want to get a deal done this year because how long do you wait, the more is going to cost you in the long run, and it's always been that way with good to great players. Joel, we'll leave it at that. CBS Sports, Sattery Cap expert. Thank you very much for the time. I hope we can bother you again when the time is needed.

Thank you for the opportunity this afternoon. Sounds good. You got it. Joel Corey from CBS Sports on Saturday Capmania. Again, I think for most of the audience, it's like, I don't care with these guys. May just sign them and get them done? Because here's the thing, Ross, if he does not sign his deal, if he does not sign his deal and they want it franchising,

this team is going to be like, you did all that and gave up all these picks to have an offensive lineman disgruntled and not happy about being here long term? Yeah, that makes me think it's going to get done. I mean, you start off of the offer, most highest paid, they'll meet somewhere in the middle, it'll get done, it looks too bad if they don't. I think the Texans are definitely aware of where they stand right now with the fan base. Do you think they do, though? Yes. I think you're right, but there's somebody.

We went through every one of their tweets. I mean, some of that has to get to Bill O'Brien, unless he's just completely insulated. He's muted it. No, I'm sure he's muted. I'm not saying the individual tweets. I'm saying somebody's probably made him aware that, hey, the fan base is. is crushing you over this. I'm sure he knows that. Yeah, he does. But does he care. That's a bigger issue.

1243. It is the Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The Rockets. Daryl Morey spoke to Jonathan Fagan. Jonathan will speak with us in 45 minutes right here on Sports Talk 790.