Quote Originally Posted by Craic View Post
You're thinking about two parties that have nothing else to do but sit down and negotiate a contract. Bell's agent represents probably dozens of players at least. I wouldn't be surprised if he devotes less than an hour a week to Bell and the Steelers when it comes to contracts. Only in the final stages of negotiation can I see it going higher than that. Of course, once they receive an off, then, in some cases, it goes off to a lawyer to read and review, then highlight and suggest. That would come back to the agent who would do the same thing. Then, it'd go out to Bell who would also do the same thing. Once that's all done, they have to agree on it, which with all their schedules, may take a month or more. Then, the response gets sent to the team, who goes through the same thing. Cap figures are figured, reviews happen, items discussed, and that is around everything else that the principals involved are deal with. Figure that takes two or three week. Then it gets sent back to the player, and it starts all over gain.

Granted, as they get closer and closer, the time period gets shorter between turnaround, except I imagine the Steelers office putting most of it on hold during OTAs so they can focus on other things, including signing the draft picks. On top of that are stalling tactics on both sides which are common contract ploys, legitimate stalls like not being able to contact an agent or player because they are in the midst of a final push signing another player to a team or vacation or family emergency or the player is focused on training and misses calls until late night and they play phone tag or . . .

So, I understand how it can drag on. "Really wanting to get it done" doesn't erase calendars and the vast amount of other work the agents put in with other players or the front office puts in on all sides of the work they do.
One would think the essential part of the process, which is also the most important, would go rather quickly if both sides are serious about it:

1. Communicate your offer to the player/agent, or counteroffer from the player/agent back to the team;

2. Are they happy with the dollar amount, length, guaranteed money? (yes/no);

3. If yes, start going through the details and the legal bullshit; if no, go back to step 1 and repeat.

I mean, you can cycle through that part in 10 minutes a pass, and do it by text message if you want. Then the rest would maybe be more involved work that could take a few days, but probably would go pretty quickly given the incentive on everyone's part to get it finalized. One would imagine both the team and the player have figures in mind that they are comfortable with going in to step 1. So if that part is what's taking forever, it suggests one or both of them is way outside the other's range.

Maybe one side or the other changes their mind over the course of months as the deadline starts looming, but to me that's a pretty tenuous hope to hold on to.