More NFL Quarterbacks Should Hold Out (or In)
I think more NFL quarterbacks should hold out (or hold in, where they report to camp in order to avoid a daily fine and refuse to practice until they get a new contract). Why are we discussing this? For the most part quarterback contracts are crazy lucrative. Quarterbacks usually get whatever they want. And what they want is to make more than the previous major QB contract. As Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagavailoa says, “The QB market is the QB market.” In other words, it is time for a new contract so pay me top dollar.
We will revisit Tua in a moment. But Saturday Packers QB Jordan Love told the team he will not practice or play in pre-season games until his new contract is done. This puts the Packers in a bit of a bind since training camp starts now. The move absolutely puts pressure on the Packers to act quickly.
![Drama for the Packers](https://espnswfl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2024/06/GettyImages-1942952635_1718219876_.jpg?w=1024)
QUARTERBACKS SHOULD HOLD OUT
This got me thinking about why quarterbacks don’t do this more often. Quarterbacks should hold out more often. Do they assume that since they are the quarterback that their deals will eventually get done? Do they not want to let their teammates down because their position is the most important on the team?
When Dak Prescott and Jerry Jones were negotiating (fighting over) his current deal which is about to expire, I always wondered why Dak didn’t hold out during the process. I thought he had a lot of leverage at the time but he never made that move. Instead those contract talks lasted almost two years.
Lamar Jackson was another QB I thought should have held out during his contract talks. His situation was complicated by a couple of factors. First of all, he and his mother negotiated his contract instead of an agent. This prolonged the situation because the player and team had long periods of time where they did not speak regularly. Also, Jackson was using the foolish market breaking deal the Browns gave to Deshaun Watson as his template. No team other than the Browns would do such a dumb deal.
Matthew Stafford’s contract suddenly fell about 15 million dollars below market value. The Rams just gave him a raise with no added years so he would not hold out of camp.
And this brings me to Tua and why quarterbacks should hold out. The Dolphins want him (sort of), but they don’t want to pay him market money north of 55 million dollars a year. Tua is in the same exact position as these other guys. I would bet if he decided not to practice during training camp his deal would get done a lot faster.
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