Briggs discusses why a market never took shape for him

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.

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