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Linebacker Bobby Wagner recently signed a new contract with the Seahawks. Without a traditional adviser to represent his interests , Wagner got advice from plenty of people. Including a fairly well-known basketball player.“You have to lean on people, you have to ask people,” Wagner told reporters on Sunday. “There are certain people that I talked to. You know I’m with the Jordan Brand. It’s cool, I can talk to Mike and he can give me his advice because he owns a team. I asked his advice.“I asked different people’s advice and how they would look or feel if a player came and try to do his deal, what are you looking for, what do you expect a player not to know, what you want him to know. You just ask that, ask these questions , try to get as much experience as possible or as much knowledge as possible and hope it turns out for the best.”Wagner explained that his decision to handle the negotiations on his own came in large part from a desire to eliminate a third person to whom the team would criticize Wagner’s skills in order to justify offering him less.“I didn’t want them to say all the bad things to the agent,” Wagner said. “I wanted them to say it to my face. I can take it. Especially nowadays, you have Twitter and you got somebody telling you you’re trash every day. It can’t be worse than Twitter. As long as they don’t go outside of that, we’re good, at least I could see their face. [With] Twitter, I can’t see their face.”Helping Wagner’s cause, as one league insider explained it to PFT, is the fact that there isn’t much bad that can be said. Wagner is regarded as the best inside linebacker in the game. So the negotiation basically entailed taking C.J. Mosley‘s contract with the Jets and pumping up the annual average.Another source explained that the negotiations essentially consisted of Wagner meeting with the team , taking breaks to calls his lawyer and other advisers, and then re-entering the room to continue the negotiations. While that was the right decision for Wagner, it’s not the right decision for every player.When making the decision, the last reason for doing so should be avoidance of the agent’s fee, because a good agent will typically get more than the contract and his percentage (a maximum of three percent), likely putting the player ahead of the game without having to enter an arena where he may feel intimidated or inadequate. Having a knowledgeable third party will serve as protection against a team’s temptation to take advantage of a player who doesn’t understand the nuances of the process, ensuring that the right structure is used, preventing a situation where the NFL Players Association would have to approach the team to soften the terms of a grossly team-friendly contract that was negotiated directly with the player and not through an agent. As we mentioned in our Monday Night Football thread , the Arizona Cardinals are participating in the Miami Dolphins’ fire sale and have traded for running back Kenyan Drake per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.Cardinals getKenyan Drake. This is something they needed yesterday. David Johnson is dealing with an ankle injury that sidelined him against the Saints. Chase Edmonds, who had a field day in Week 7, ran into a hamstring injury that limited him against the Saints.So enter Drake. When/if Johnson returns along with Edmonds, the addition of Drake makes an intriguing running back room. At one point, the Dolphins saw Drake as their future at the position, even bringing in Frank Gore to mentor him after Drake’s strong finish to 2017. It looks like that never panned out as Drake couldn’t break 650 yards in any of his seasons, and 2019 has been disappointing. Though his 2019 can be blamed on the Dolphins as a whole and not on him. Drake is a free agent at the end of 2019 as his rookie deal comes to an end. Much like the 49ers trading for Emmanuel Sanders, this is an 8-game rental.Regardless , that’s a decent three-headed beast the Cardinals have there if everyone can stay healthy.Dolphins getPer Ian Rapoport, the Dolphins received a conditional sixth-round pick. It can become a fifth-round pick if certain requirements are met. The conditions haven’t been disclosed as of this writing, but it’s safe to assume it involves playing time, snaps, etc.So why a sixth? Well, Drake’s numbers have gone down since that impressive 2017 finish. He’s in the final year of his contract as well. This isn’t a wide receiver like Sanders either. Trying to figure out who won this trade is an exercise in frustration. The Dolphins started using Mark Walton more over Drake, which may have made him expendable, and they wanted whatever they could get from a departing free agent. The Cardinals get a rental out of Drake to maybe bring him in as a third running back in 2020 on a new contract.49ers getWell , they won’t get Drake on Thursday. At least not a fair amount. Given the short week, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Cardinals were to not dress him until Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.The 49ers instead will be dealing with Alfred Morris, who played for them in 2018. Drake could spell Morris a bit, but Morris will be very busy on Thursday.
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