*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Apr 13, 1999: -- Three Re-Sign --
The Dolphins re-signed restricted free agents Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, Shane Burton and Stanley Pritchett to one year contracts
today. All three signed contracts for the one year tender offer that
the Dolphins made to keep them as restricted free agents.
The signing of these three players leaves the team with only 2
restricted free agents left to sign - OJ Brigance and Shawn Wooden.
My Comments:
The timing and nature of these signings is very curious.
First of all, JJ generally doesn't like to sign players to short term
deals, especially if he is going to use them in the future.
Secondly, the draft is just 4 days away and JJ would like to
move up in the draft to get a super quality running back - of which
there are only 2 available this year.
At least, that's what the pundits tell us.
But if the pundits are right, then JJ will have to have some
decent trade bait and he doesn't have enough decent draft picks this
year to really move up to the top ten, let alone the top 5 or 6.
That is - if he is only going to trade draft picks.
Could this be a preliminary move to a blockbuster trade deal
on draft day? While that is still unlikely, it's a lot more possible
this year than it's been in any year since JJ took over the Dolphins.
Shifting to wet-blanket mode now, these three players could
just have decided to take the Dolphins' offers so that they can play
out their remaining restricted year with the Dolphins and become free
agents next year. Of course, all three would have to have very good
years this year in order to command a big price next year as free
agents, but in signing one year deals, they will be unrestricted free
agents next season.
And the timing isn't really all that curious. The deadline
for these players to accept offer sheets from other teams has just
passed, so there is no chance at this point that anyone else is going
to try to sign them away from the Dolphins.
So I expect that the bottom line is that each player decided
to sign their one year offer and play out this season so that they can
become free agents next year.
Still - it is fun to speculate, isn't it?
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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