If OBD is serious about building their team with quality people and players that can actually play, then they need to get Jackson signed. I have no problem with giving him 4 yr. $20MM total with $8mm – $10mm guaranteed. He has proven to be a valuable commodity on this team and with Lynch being a ? at this point it needs to be done.
I wasn’t on the “bring in another back” bandwagon before but now with the situation OBD is presented with it might be a good idea, either later in the draft or through FA.

but 4M per seems high for me. As you stated Ryan Grant was signed to be Green Bay’s number 1 guy so I throw his numbers off the chart. Fargas then becomes the only 4M per and we have exclusive negotiating rights with Action Jackson.

Best guess from me: 4 years, $14M, $6M guaranteed, with performance bonuses that can top it out at 4.5M a year or something like that.

But not to far off. I think you’re spot on with the length. I’m inclined to lean towards MRW’s numbers.

I can’t wait to see the argument you and Kurupt get into on this. My guess is it’ll start in about a half an hour. He’s been on record as saying Jackson should get close to the minimum, as he has no leverage.

We should have waited two days to do this. It’s his birthday on the 20th, happy 28th Freddy, but I think I have some bad news for him.

Jackson may ask for this much money, but I will be shocked if Buffalo gives it to him. I don’t think any of those guys are a relevant comparison to what kind of leverage Jackson has.

Ryan Grant was an ERFA, but he was also coming off a season where he almost had a 1,000 yards and averaged over 5 yards per carry. He scored 8 TDs in the last 8 games of the regular season and then went off in the first round of the playoffs and basically won the game on his own as he ran for 200 yards on 27 carries (7.4 ypa) and scored 3 times. Green Bay had nobody else on the roster and going from obscurity to a starter who changes the way you do things on offense as opposed to going from obscurity to a great backup is totally different.

Chester Taylor was signed away from Baltimore in unrestricted free agency and to be the starter.

Ernest Graham was a restricted free agent who had well over 200 carries and was the team’s starting runningback. 10 TDs is a pretty good bargaining chip. Graham was holding out from the team’s OTAs and offseason stuff and the Bucs only had Warrick Dunn as the other viable running back on the roster.

Fargas was the starter when he got that contract. He was signed well before the 08 draft when they took McFadded and before Michael Bush established himself as an NFL back. He was also coming off a 222 carry, 1,009 yard season (4.5 per carry).

Fred Jackson still doesn’t have 200 CAREER carries.

None of those teams had 1/4 of the leverage that Buffalo has in these negotiations. Jackson is an ERFA this year and with the bargaining agreement set to end, an ERFA next offseason too. That will make him a RFA after the 2011 season. If Buffalo wanted to play hardball (obviously they won’t play to this extent) they could pay Jackson a grand total of 2.5 mil over the next 3 seasons! My guess (and hope) is that Jackson gets stuck here for another 3-4 seasons at about 2 mil per year with incentives that could bump that up almost another mil per year.

Fred Jackson is a very good football player, but the facts remain: He has little leverage, since he’s ERFA, which of course means that he’ll either retire, get traded (which isn’t happening unless someone offers a second rounder) or play for the Bills. The Bills certainly love Fred, but let’s not go nuts here, like Brian is doing imo. He’s a very good backup; he can carry the load to a certain degree like we saw against Denver and New England, but he’s still backup, who gets 15-20 % (at most) of the running carries against Marshawn’s 80-85 %. If we go out and give him 4,5 million dollars a year to a 28-year-old backup RB, that is not a good idea.

I think he should get a four-year 14 million dollar deal with six million dollars in guarenteed money, where the deal is heavily front-loaded like with Lee (meaning that he makes a lot now, but peanuts when he turns 31 and 32.)

I’d be interested to see that, if someone has it.

I’m thinking he has a nobody for an agent, as I’ve never heard anything mentioned about it.

$4-5M per season for a 28 year old backup RB? Yeah, that just doesn’t seem like the wisest move, IMO.

I just don’t see how you can give a contract like that to a backup RB even if he’s a good, hardworking guy that has some value for the team. Lynch’s off the field transgressions should have nothing to do with Jackson’s contract. I didn’t see other teams going out and signing their backups to big contracts when a starter got in trouble or hurt. Why should the Bills?

If Jackson had ANY leverage, I’d see how it’s possible, but he doesn’t. I don’t want the team to lowball him, say $600K per year or something, but I also don’t want them handing out starter’s money to a backup, because that’s what Jackson is. I would be offering him a 4 year $10-11M deal, maybe with some incentives thrown in. I just can’t fathom giving a $4.5M a year contract to a guy that might get 5-10 carries a game. Remember, prior to the NE season ender, Jackson only had double digit carries 4 times last year….

Jackson asks for about 4 years, 4 mil a year, and about 8 mil bonus, but

I see 4 years, 15 mil, 6 mil bonus, with an incentive if he starts 8 games or more, considering Lynch’s possible suspension or inclination to injury.

BUt either way, i hope he is a top priority. He can add even more this season as i see it and is one of my favorite Bills

“The deals that Oakland’s Fargas and Green Bay’s Grant signed are the most relevant here”
   sure they were the most recently signed but Grant is a starter for green bay while Jackson is a back up. I don’t see that as being too relevant.

done and done.

After reading everyone’s thoughts, has everyone forgotten that Jackson has played in just 24 career games? We’re talking about giving a guy that has 1.5 years of experience, for all intents and purposes, a guy that is a backup, and a guy that will be 28 tomorrow potentially $4-5M per season????

He has 2 accrued seasons right? If he was drafted in the 4th round, he’d still be a year or two away from restricted free agency. I just can’t wrap my head around the basis for giving him such a generous deal when he hasn’t really been around long enough to truly deserve it yet. We’ve all talked about whether guys have earned a new deal (Peters being one), but fail to suggest the same for a guy like Jackson. Maybe it’s just me….

4 years with an option for a 5th
Base Salary- $2 million a year, $2.5 for option year
Signing Bonus- $4 million
Roster Bonuses- $1/2 million a year, $1 million for option year
Incentives- various yeardage, TD, carries, and catch clauses= another $1-3 million over the contract.