Crabtree ends hold out, signs deal

After a long hold out, the San Francisco 49ers and Wide out Michael Crabtree finally reached a deal on a six year contract. As we start to look at the details of this contract we start to realize that Crabtree didn’t get anything more than what he was going to get in August. Crabtree essentially flushed a good portion of his rookie year away, for a couple of incentive clauses that will be nearly impossible to reach. He is still getting paid by where he was selected, 10th overall.

So overall this is a six year 32 million dollar deal. Around 17 million of it will be in guaranteed money. It is also right in line with the deal that 9th overall pick BJ Raji received. There is a clause in this deal that can void the fifth year. However several other performance clauses make Crabtree and his agent look kind of silly for holding out this long. IN the first four years of the deal Crabtree must make two pro bowls, or he must make a pro bowl and participate in 80% of the offensive snaps in a season where the 49ers make the playoffs.

Since this is year one of the deal and Crabtree is unlikely to participate in 80% of the Niners snaps, and he is but one receiver in a crowded NFC receivers crops it doesn’t seem likely that he will be able to make the pro bowl either. On top of the clause to make this a 6 year 40 million dollar deal is totally unreachable.

In the end this deal is worth a tepid 2.83 million dollars guaranteed, and one has to wonder what did Crabtree really achieve with this holdout? On the surface it looks like nothing but having his ego stroked, and that is a dangerous sign of another Diva player headed for a meltdown.