The compensation thing is rather confusing. I am thankful for Milk's post, but I am still not sure I completely understand how it works. It would be nice to know for sure because that would help me formulate my opinion on the Baker situation, but it is what it is.
Of course, what's important is that I believe the FO understands how it works. We have a very intelligent guys running the show and I trust them to handle this properly. I am not in the camp that is blaming them for this situation.
No doubt the comp formula is complicated. It might be as guarded a secret as the formula for coca cola...lol
I know there are a few sites out there that seem to have it pretty down pretty close and seem to be accurate when predicting what teams are going to get picks each year.
I don't believe the playing part has anything to do with it. If a player got injured I believe you would still get a pick for him if he left via free agency as long as you meet the requirements of the formula used.
All I think I know is it has to do with dollar value of contracts gained v dollar value of contracts lost. After that it is too complicated and frankly not worth it to me to try to investigate further.
As I said earlier, if there is even a chance we can gain something in the way of a pick by keeping him, it is worth doing so.
I know many are down on Baker, but he isn't simply some scrub QB with no value. At the very least he would be the best back-up QB in the league and teams trade for back-up's all the time. I don't think he is simply a back-up. He is a good starting QB. Good enough that had Watson not been available, he would still be the starting QB for the Browns. He may not have been a top 5 type QB like Watson, but he was a middle of the pack guy who many teams want...and they do. One of them is going to step forward and make a trade before the season starts.
The problem is right now we have ZERO leverage. None. As the season inches forward we will begin to gain some.
