Condon: Eli willbeshown the money
TOM CONDON will soon begin negotiations on what likely will be Eli Manning’s final NFL contract, and he’s confident a deal with the Giants will eventually get done.
Just don’t expect it to be at a discount, because the agent to the Manning brothers knows exactly what top quarterbacks are worth.
“It’s an extraordinarily hard position to fill, as you know,” said Condon. “You actually have some leverage with the quarterbacks. The only problem is there’s a salary cap. But let’s face it, sooner or later . . .”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence, because everyone in the NFL knows that sooner or later the elite quarterbacks get paid big money. Condon knows that better than anyone because he represents seven of the NFL’s 32 starting quarterbacks — five of whom make an average of at least $17 million per year.
He also knows Manning still ranks among the elite. He has won two Super Bowls (named MVP in both), surpassed 4,000 passing yards in four of the last six seasons, and at age 34 — having never missed a game — he’s coming off what might be his finest statistical season. Half the teams in the league, maybe more, would gladly grab Manning if they could.
But as Condon noted, top quarterbacks are almost never available, which is another reason he’s confident the Giants will eventually pay Manning. They have no other viable option, so they don’t have any choice.
“The interesting part about it is, since 1993, the inception of free agency, has there ever been an elite quarterback who hit the open market?” Condon asks. “Peyton (Manning did in 2012), but he had four neck surgeries and no idea if he would ever be well enough to play. Drew Brees, when he went to New Orleans (in 2006), he had 15 studs in his shoulder, in his throwing arm (from a hit he took in the final game of 2005).
“There’s nobody else that’s ever come up. They just re-do you.”
That’s what Condon believes will eventually happen with Manning, who signed a sevenyear, $106.9 million contract in August of 2009. That deal — which included $97.5 million in new money in what was a six-year extension of his previous contract — expires after this season in which Manning is due to make $17.5 million. And if a new deal isn’t reached by March, the Giants could always use the “franchise tag” on him at a cost likely near $20 million for one year.
That’s probably what Manning will cost anyway. Six NFL quarterbacks currently have contracts that average more than $20 million per season — Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Drew Brees. Condon represents two of them — the 30-year-old Ryan, who signed a five-year, $103.75 million contract with $42 million guaranteed in 2013, and the 36-year-old Brees who signed a five-year, $100 million deal with $60 million guaranteed in 2012.
And of all those $20 millionper-year quarterbacks, only one — Roethlisberger — can match Manning’s two Super Bowl rings. Plus, Condon added, Manning’s value goes beyond what he’s done on the field.
“In all the years that he’s been here, has he ever said anything that’s been scandalous in the newspaper?” Condon said. “Nothing. And in this market? He’s a genuinely good guy.”
The Giants understand that too, which is why a team source said they’re also confident a new deal will eventually get done.
“The quarterbacks always get done,” Condon said. “And the Giants are not a skittish team. So it’s not one of those things where they get nervous or they jump around or anything like that. You know you’re going to go in and it’s going to get done. I’m sure at the appropriate time it’ll happen.”