Pennington signs 7 year deal

[Bob_R]

The New York Jets don't have their Westside stadium yet but they have their quarterback locked up for nearly the next decade. FOXSports.com has learned that Chad Pennington has agreed to a 7-year extension that includes approximately $23 million in total bonus money, $18 million to sign and $5 million in non-guaranteed bonus money over the next two years.

In the first five years of the deal, Pennington will earn an average of $8.6 million per year of new money. The contract balloons in the final two years, making the total value of the deal a little more than $64 million.
The Jets can now turn their attention to defensive ends Shaun Ellis and John Abraham, also scheduled to hit the free-agent market.

The quarterback, entering his fifth season, will receive the second-largest amount of up-front money, behind only Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, who got a $34.5 million signing bonus earlier this year. Both of those contracts were negotiated by Tom Condon, who was not available for comment Wednesday. The Jets do not release contract terms.

Pennington, 18th overall pick in the 2000 draft, has been the Jets' starter in only 23 games. He took over a month into 2002 for the benched Vinny Testaverde and led the team's turnaround to win the AFC East crown and one playoff game. Pennington was the league's most efficient passer.

A year ago, he broke his wrist and hand in an exhibition game and was sidelined for two months. The Jets wound up 6-10, and their poor record emphasized Pennington's value.

"Getting an extension is not going to make me play better or make me rest my head easier or anything like that," Pennington said after practice Tuesday.

"What an extension does, in my opinion, it gives you a sense of excitement knowing you have more than one chance to help this team, and it is not just a one-year thing. If things should happen, I know for a fact I will have some time to get to build a championship program. What is exciting is that I can finish what we started."

With the 2004 season being the last under the contract he signed as a first-round draft choice, the team recognized the need to re-sign Pennington before he became a free agent.

Curtis Martin, the highest-paid Jet, will make $5.2 million this season. Martin thinks Pennington's new contract will be well-deserved.

"I don't say it because he's my teammate and I think he's a good guy," Martin said, "but Chad is a good quarterback and he's as smart as they come. When I look at him mentally, there are very few quarterbacks I see in the same light - like Peyton Manning - who mentally see the whole game, the whole picture. You know that they know the game so well, almost like a chess guru.

"He has a football mind, whether it's natural or not I don't know. I know he's prepared as well as anyone, and he's always here studying or lifting weights or going over the game plan ...

"He should have built his house next to our facility."

[Sammy Who??]

excellent

[Figs]

Great news! The offense is going to be good this year. Not too sure about the defense.

[ALinChainz]

by Profootballtalk editor Mike Florio


http://www.profootballtalk.com


POSTED 6:25 a.m. EDT, September 2, 2004



JETS OVERPAID, BUT HAD NO CHOICE



Not surprisingly, various league insiders believe that the Jets' overpaid by giving quarterback Chad Pennington a seven-year, $64 million contract with $23 million in guaranteed money.



(As an aside, the New York Times reports that -- surprise, surprise -- the actual amount of guaranteed money is closer to $18 million.)



Pennington still is unproven, given that he first got into the starting lineup in 2002 and was injured for a significant chunk of 2003. Many folks around the league think he simply hasn't done enough on the field to justify that kind of money.



As we see it, however, the Jets had no choice but to pay Pennington based on perceived potential, since the Jets kept him in mothballs for more than two full seasons. With a five-year rookie contract that would have expired after this season, the Jets faced a dilemma -- pay him a lot now or pay him even more if he has a great year in 2004.



And since no team in the parity-packed NFL is inclined to bet against the possibility of a solid season, the Jets really had no choice but to take their medicine now, since waiting could have jacked up the price tag by another $5 million or so in bonus money, and perhaps another $15 million in total value.



The lesson, in our view, is that a team that drafts a quarterback in the upper half of the first round must be prepared to play him sooner rather than later -- if for no reason other than to best gauge his value when his rookie contract approaches its expiration date. Pennington has shown enough to justify a long-term deal; he hasn't shown enough to justify a $64 million contract.



But the Jets had no other choice, given the realities of the free agency system.

[rustoffa]

Wonder if he's still toolin' around in that car he had in high school?

[ALinChainz]

by Profootballtalk editor Mike Florio


http://www.profootballtalk.com




POSTED 6:40 a.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 8:30 a.m. EDT, September 3, 2004



PENNINGTON PROFITS FROM POOR PLANNING?



In our conversations with league insiders in the aftermath of Chad Pennington's $64 million contract, a couple of themes keep coming up.



First, there's a sense in some league circles that the Jets backed themselves into a corner on this one because of their unprecedented four-player haul in round one of the 2000 draft.



Criticized at the time for not selecting among that quartet a receiver to replace Keyshawn Johnson (whose trade to Tampa provided two of the four picks), the Jets selected defensive end Shaun Ellis at No. 12, defensive end John Abraham at No. 13, quarterback Chad Pennington at No. 18, and tight end Anthony Becht at No. 27. (They addressed the hole in the depth chart at receiver by drafting the round three a guy named Laveranues Coles, but our goal for now isn't to pick at that particular scab.)



So with four first-round picks in one year, what did the Jets do?



They signed them all to five-year contracts.



This means, of course, that all four will become unrestricted free agents in the same year.



Complicating matters is the fact that starting tackle Kareem McKenzie was drafted in the third round of the 2001 draft and signed a four-year deal. Backup running back LaMont Jordan, a second-round pick in '01, also signed a four-year contract.



And have we mentioned 2001 first-rounder Santana Moss? The emerging star is under contract through 2005, but he wants a new deal, oh, now.



The Jets made this bed, and they've failed until this week to take any steps to avoid a salary cap freight train that's due to pull a Silver Streak in March 2005. In hindsight, why not give Chad Pennington a modest extension in 2002 after he showed he can perform respectably as a starter? Four years and $20 million would have been a fair reward for Pennington's playoff push two years ago, and it would have nudged the target for his big-money deal into 2005 or 2006, enabling the Jets to get their other core players under contract.



Abraham and/or Ellis likewise could have gotten new deals after a couple of years. They didn't have to be blockbusters -- just fair increases to reflect their value and, more importantly, to keep six key players from hitting the market all at the same time.



For now, then, the first one to benefit from this dynamic is Pennington, whose seven-year take dwarfs the four-year, $19.1 million extension signed by Rams quarterback Marc Bulger.



Both Bulger and Pennington are represented by Tom Condon, and no one seriously believes that Pennington is $44 million better than Bulger.



Indeed, some think Bulger is the better player. Though Pennington has the first-round pedigree and arguably more upside potential, Bulger has showed more skill and consistency in the same two years that both he and Pennington have made it onto the field.



Second, Pennington might have benefited from the fact that the Jets are trying to finagle a new stadium. When a team is hoping to get a new stadium, they tend to go out of their way to keep their high profile players under contract in order to preserve the notion that they're serious about putting a quality product on the field.



This factor likely contributed to contracts given to Peyton Manning by the Colts and Drew Bledsoe several years back by the Patriots. It also will help Deuce McAllister reel in a big-money haul from notorious skin-flint Tom Benson.

[Figs]

Only time will tell if Pennington stands the test of time.

[ALinChainz]

That is really the about the size of it.

It could very well end up like the situation in Indy, where Manning's giant deal may cripple them after this season, signing other players. I know both Harrison and James have contract expiring.

As do the Jets with their players. Ellis and Abraham will stay, I think Becht is out of there.

[Figs]

Then he'd better be a Pro-Bowl caliber star. They were in big cap trouble after the Parcells years, I'm not sure about now. No system is perfect, a lot of teams get hung up on a few players' salaries and eventually go downhill. The fans (myself included) and papers would have gone nuts if he got away, so what can you do?

[ALinChainz]

Not much, they pretty much had to ante up.

All those factors too, the new stadium they want, the other players they sgied to 5 yr deals that season.

He needs to stay healthy.

[Tex]

He's worth every penney. The Steelers should have taken him in the draft instead of depending on that fag Cordell Stewart.