Lance Briggs just wrapped up a conference call where he touted his deal as being in line with what the New England Patriots paid linebacker Adalius Thomas a year ago.
The math works, sort of, if you factor in the franchise tag Briggs played under last season that paid him $7.206 million. If he knew then what he knows now, maybe the tag wouldn’t have been such a big deal.
But Thomas bagged $20 million guaranteed from the Patriots. Briggs gets $13 million guaranteed in a $36 million, six-year contract. He will collect $21.6 over the first three years of the deal, and will be at $28.8 million for four years when factoring in his 2007 pay. But the contracts themselves are not similar.
Briggs on what a market never took off for him:
“There were certain things that happened. Obviously, you know, I mean, I thought San Francisco was going to be a place I was going to be. New Orleans was another place that was high on me. But obviously, you see what happened, they traded for Jonathan Vilma, got a linebacker. Obviously, you have the teams you that want you. Those are kind of the setbacks as far as free agency went.”
Washington never got into the action either.
Check back for more news later on.