Packers re-sign CB Sam Shields for $39 million
Packers CB Sam Shields re-signed with Green Bay for $39 million.
The Green Bay Packers have re-signed up-and-coming cornerback Sam Shields to a 4 year, $39 million deal. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the deal includes a $12.5 million signing bonus.
Shields’ agent Drew Rosenhaus confirmed the deal via Twitter.
That’s a lot of dough for a corner who has the talent to be one of the best, but isn’t quite there yet. But this is a deal that the Packers probably had to make.
Now it’s time for Shields to 1) stay healthy for a full 16-game season + playoffs, and 2) take the next step and become an elite cornerback.
65 Comments On “Packers re-sign CB Sam Shields for $39 million”
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Congrats Mr Shields on your new contract, one less hole to fill on D. 10M a year? Hopefully it’s a back loaded deal.
Sooo happy about this. He will be well worth the money. The fact that TT stuck with one of his own guys is great. Also of all the FA CBs, Shields was probably the most ascending of the group. He has all the tools and has delivered in the clutch before. Big relief.
Just said to someone this morning I had a feeling they’d strike a deal before Free Agency officially starts on Tuesday. I give it a thumbs up!
Here’s hoping he’s still hungry and doesn’t turn into a fat-cat.
He worked hard this past season to get a good contract, so I’m hopeful he will continue to perform in line with his pay.
That’s a LOT of money for a top end 2ND tier corner. He’s too short and light to consistently compete with the 6’5″ 225 4.4 40 WRs out there (Megatron, Marshall, Julio etc)…
I’d have been happier for around 7 mil a year – but this (along with getting Raji on a short term deal) was probably necessary in order to have ANY chance at rectifying the mess at ILB and S in the draft.
With the kind of cash Shields is making, along with the upcoming deals for Jordy and Randall… Byrd (or any other top tier S) ain’t coming to GB. Sigh.
No corner can compete with the likes of Megatron, et al.
This is a deal that had to be done and the Packers got it done.
Look – I’m not saying that I’m rooting for the contract to be bad. I’m not a troll.
And it looks like the cap hit is better than I thought it would be for the first 2 years, so that’s good.
What I am saying is that Sam is short and light. That’s great for speed. And he’s got ball skills. BUT he just got paid top tier CB money. And he’s just not a top tier CB. What’s worse, he’s not growing any taller or getting much stronger, so he can’t grow into the role of a top tier CB either.
He’s a good player, but IMO not worth 10m for 4 years (when he can hit the FA market again at 30 btw)
Darrell Green was 5’9 and built for speed just like Shields (except he’s taller). Did you consider him to be top tier CB? The Pro Football HOF apparently did.
Shields tackling improved greatly last year and it should continue to get better.
We’ll see what Verner, Davis and Talib get, but I’m guessing all 3 will come in higher or similarly and Shields is the youngest w/ the most growth ahead.
Like I said – I hope I’m wrong. With the yearly breakdown looking better than I thought it would be at first and the salary cap probably going up 30 million in the next 3 years… it looks like it’s going to be fine so this is probably a moot point.
Sam’s got potential. But he’s no Darell Green. Plus, in Green’s day, there were no 6’5″ 4.4 WR’s. Corners have gotten bigger over the years too…
Maye not 6’5 but Chris Carter 6’4, Randy Moss 6’4 and Jerry Rice 6’3? were a couple pretty big WR. There weren’t any Megatrons, but there were some big WR. Green always took them one on one.
You talked about Shields size and speed, so I found another smaller CB built for speed to show size isn’t everything. Tho it helps at times, it also doesn’t preclude a CB from being great. Shields arrow is still pointing up and while he isn’t Green, he has the same attributes and could be a very similar player.
BTW Verner considered by many the best FA CB is only 5’10. And Shields has more turnover plays than Verner in their careers (same number of years).
“Brent Grimes’ contract set an early bar when he was retained by Miami on Monday with a four-year deal worth $32 million. Grimes will turn 31 in July; Shields will turn on 27 in December. Shields has as many interceptions in four seasons as Grimes in seven”.
I look at the job Shields did this poat season against the Lions and Da Bears and I’ll take it, look at the stats and they ain’t bad. I like a 26 y/o with his potential, and I’ll bet a lot of other teams would too.
Damn right Bubbaloo. I said at that time Shields deserved what Grimes got and was ridiculed for saying it. I knew tho… Grime is a descending player at 31 and Shields is an ascending player at 26. INT’s are the only thing but it is a good gauge of a CB ability. You have to be in good coverage and have good ball skills to get INT’s. They don’t usually just fall into your lap. Its not like Grimes is so good teams won’t throw in his neighborhood.
The teams could start talking to agents Saturday morning, so the Packers and Shields both knew very quickly what his market value was. The Packers had to pony up or lose Shields!
We still have a lot of cap room. I never felt the Packers were going to make a serious run at Byrd. Clemons from Miami, however, would still be affordable and could be a significant improvement over MD Jennings. GoPack!
Yup, I’ve been on the Clemons wagon for weeks. I think he’d be affordable and a huge improvement. Not the ball hawk Byrd is, but a good Safety. With Shields locked up I wonder if they try Hyde at Safety?
Sams cap hit this year is only 5.6M, next year 9.1, then restructure if he’s not elite or pay him the 12M he would be due in year 3 of this contract if he becomes an elite shut down CB by then….I like the deal
According to Tom Silverstein (journal/sentinel) Shields cap hit this year is only $5.6Million. That my friends is a very cap friendly deal orchestrated by TT. It means we still have a lot of room, approximately $29M left in cap space for this year. –keep in mind that the figures in a deal are not as simple as $39M divided by 4. He is our best corner and has gotten better every year. He was going to get paid by someone. I’m glad it was us. GoPack!
I’m not sure where they got $5.6 mil cap hit. the article says he is set to earn $15 mil in the 1st year. If the signing bonus is spread over the 4 years, as usual, that’s $3.1 mil cap hit just from signing bonus. are we to believe that 1st year base salary will be only $2.5, and the other $9.4 mil are performance-based incentives? looks kinda weird.
It also say that the deal includes “Shields would make $15 million in the first year, $20 million in the first two years and $30 million in the 1st 3 yrs.”
What it doesn’t include is a lot of guaranteed money.
Figured Shields would get a bigger contract than Tramon’s was. The going rate for players continued to go up despite the cap being relatively stable till this year. Said when he became a FA 9-11M might be the range. 🙂
Glad to have Shields back in the fold. Guess Rosenhaus didn’t have his own agenda after all, except to get his client the best deal he could.
Nopainnogain, did you read the part about “Signing Bonus”? He gets that $12.5M when he “Signs” the contract. So your math is OK, he gets the $12.5M and the $2.5 this year for a $15M total. The Cap hit is 12.5 X 25% = (3.125M plus the 2.5M salary for 2014 = $5.6M). Pretty good deal for GB considering the cap will rise to over $160M in 2016.
Another thing I love about this deal is that it free’s us up even more to take best player available. If we lost Shields you’d think it would almost force TT to look CB or S at 21(although he doesn’t seem to operate that way). Now, I think the window is open a little further to take whomever is rated highest on their board, even if its an offensive player. GoPack!
Byrd would have been the better deal. We could have gotten a decent corner cheaper. We are still weak up the middle. I only hope we don’t screw up the draft. I like shields but, I think we over paid once again.
Who’s to say they can’t still sign Byrd? I think they could fit both for a year, and then next year Tramon’s contract is up, and he’ll either be renegotiated or become a FA.
Packers still have a glaring need for a playmaking Safety. It also needs someone who will help Burnett make the Defensive calls. A rookie will take a minimum or a year or maybe 2 to be effective.
Which cheaper but good corners are you referring to? Just curious.
Yes, this year’s base salary is low..2.5m
Congrats to Sam Shields. Just stay hungry and healthy! This was the deal TT needed to get done and did.
Congrats to Sam Shields. Just stay hungry and healthy! This was the deal TT needed to get done and did.
Was hoping TT had learned to not overpay players after what happened with Burnett and Jones, but I guess not. I would not have signed him for that ridiculous amount of money.
Shields better shut down every receiver this year including megatron, or this kind of deal is a nut buster.
I like what he did last year to Torry Smith and Josh Gordan. Shields has played corner for just 5 years, 1 in college and 4 with the Packers. He’s gotten better each year, especially the last two. Is he Sherman? No but Sherman will make close to $20 million his next deal, especially
if Revis is making $16 now. Shields is worth the contract and I’m glad the Packers signed him before someone else started driving up the price and they’d have to let him walk or pay more.
What about the job he did on AJ Green? That was even better! Held Green to 4 rec for 60 yds. The TD and a significant chunk of the yardage was due to a blown play by the safety. Take that out and its 3 rec for about 25 yds.
Right now Revis is 16M per and Cromartie is 15M. Sherman will be in that range. The contract for Revis is basically a series of one year deals tho. IIRC TB can get out of that contract at any time w/o costing anything in dead money. Sherman will probably get something close but w/ more guaranteed money making it more difficult to get out of for Seattle.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000162249/article/darrelle-revis-bets-on-himself-with-unique-contract
Yup, you’re right about Green, I knew there was another top 5 receiver and just couldn’t recall at that moment. Sherman and that whole Seattle team will be interesting to watch in next few years. Schneider has a few locked up but you can’t keep em all. If the cap goes up again which it’s supposed to, $18 to $20 million for Sherman might be what it takes.
Shields is good, I get that. But it’s not like he’s a top 10 CB like everyone hypes him to be. Do people really think he was worth the kind of money close to what we were paying Charles Woodson?
If I recall correctly, Nick Collins never made this kind of money.
I think the problem was TT was concerned this one would get away, that he’d be in a bidding war. The way the deal is structured is excellent for Green Bay. If Shields starts to regress instead of what TT is banking on, progressing, Thompson can cut him.
Thank you tt now go get stark from the dolphins let raji walk and get a safety on round one and inside lb with # 2 or visebersa.
Wonder if this means they’re going to ask Tramon to take a pay cut. If so, can’t see Tramon very happy with make so much less than Shields.
This is what Tramon tweeted after Shields got signed…
“Congrats to my bro @ShieldSam37 for getting what he deserves! I’ve had the honor to watch your growth. I’m proud of you bro!”
Tramon has made his money, why would he begrudge Shields his? Who was better last year Shields or Williams?
He also tweeted, “dude @ShieldSam37 we got TT so under our thumbs, we got the money, now lets dog it Raji style the rest of the way”. Oh lets meet Raji at the buffet tonight.
First or second half of the season?
After 2011, 2012, and early 2013 Tramon should be happy to have a job and he’s was once in Shields shoes! He started to look like the old Tramon in late 2013, but which player is the real player. Hopefully Tramon is really on the comeback trail and Sheilds continues his upward swing, that would give us 2 pretty decent corners.
Agreed… Tramon’s season those years weren’t up to standards even tho he had a good reason. He still got paid tho… Shields is right were Tramon was a few years ago.
I really think that his shoulder made a big difference and finally got to full strength. You could tell his tackling was much more aggressive later in the year, so was his play for that matter. He looked like the Tramon we saw in ’10!
Did I not just read Cory J’s article earlier this week saying It was OK that Shields was going to test free agency because he was not that good and now Adam insists a deal had to get done with an apparently indisposable SS?
I guess SS was really not that good, until TT made him the 2nd highest-paid CB and now he is?
Free agency hasn’t even started and you’re calling this ($5.6M cap hit in 2014) a bad deal? Watch the numbers soar when Monday come around and tell me what you think next weekend. Someone would have paid the 26 y/o Shields a lot more!
You seem to understand that these articles were written by two different people. And different people can have different opinions.
Personally, I agree with those that think this is a very good deal and am excited to have Shields back next year.
Maybe this contract works in out favor by raising the market price for teams trying to sign the other corners while having less cap space than the Packers. They are forced to spend more money they can’t afford, thus opening up other prospects for us….or this could just be wishful thinking
Shields was upset when GB tendered him last year. He was slow to sign the tender. I wrote back then that GB should be signing him to a long-term deal which would save money in the long run. Of course, its impossible to know whether TT made an offer or what Shields wanted. Maybe they were too far apart. i was thinking back then that Burnett money or a bit more would be fair to both sides. This deal given the market is probably fair.
I would rather cut Tramon (although I hate the $2 million dead money) or renegotiate his deal and sign Byrd or Clemons. GB needs a veteran FA safety who can be plugged in and play next year, not a rookie who only learns the position 3 or 4 years down the road.
They tried to sign Shields last year before the ’13 season. We don’t know what the offer was then, but I don’t think Shields was upset by anything. He was tendered just at a lower level of compensation and it worked as no other teams signed Shields. The Packers got a great deal and Shields got a chance to earn the big money (which he did). Both side got what they wanted. Its called a win/win…
I agree they need to sign a FA safety. Byrd and Clemons are among the top Safeties available. I do think that they could sign either one and carry him along w/ both Shields and Tramon. I have a feeling the Packers will renegotiate Tramon to extend him for another 2 or 3 years at a lower salary.
Clemons is still possible. His deal will be in the 4-5M range, not 10-12 like Byrd. We still have 28M left in cap room.goPack!
Lot of money. I think that they should have signed him early if they were going to pay-out top-top dollar in the end. The good thing, it takes cornerback out of the rebuild equation.
What I am learning is that the early reports about a 4 year deal in the $25 million range are total fabrication. Raji’s 8 million dollar offer has been thrown around as fact and yet nobody can cite a real source. People don’t know what is being offered and don’t know what is being turned down but people like to whisper.
Go Packers
Razer, Raji’s $8M per year offer is a fact, that offer was made last fall, early in the season, and Raji turned it down! The source was the GB Packers and just about every sporting news publication in the US, not exactly a secret! No way they make that offer today, nope, no way!
Razer, the ‘leak’ of 4 years for 25 million was a ‘feeler’ (the leak came from a ‘souce’ in Shields’ camp.) EVERYONE in the media and blogosphere immediately responded with ‘Gee that would really be cheap.
Which was a signal for Rosenhaus to ask for more. 8 million a year for Grimes, who is older and not as good, set a bottom, the franchise tender amount of $11.8 million set an upper bound because if TT thought Shields was worth that much he would have used it.
They settled for $9.75 million per year, right in between the tag and Grimes’ number, with the contract backloaded enough to make a re-do or cut after two seasons reasonable.
That is probably very close to what Shields might have gotten on the open market. So it is ‘fair’ from that point of view.
No way is Shields worth 25% more than Grimes. Maybe 25% less. TT could have locked this guy up last year for half as much. This deal and the $8MM offer to Raji and the deals to Burnett, Jones & Hawk make me think it’s time to take the checkbook away from Grandpa Ted. For the record, Shields has never had the season that Williams had in the Super Bowl year. The guy is a solid starter, nothing more, nothing less. To me this move shows TT is in a panic about his defense. Expect more outrageous signings ahead.
There is no way Shields takes a below market contract last year. Rosenhaus was **ALREADY** his agent.
But then you also think Shield is not as good as Grimes, who is 4 years older and gets about half as many INTs per season. So you have that going for you.
I too am wondering about some of the second deals that TT and company offer these guys. Archie cites Burnett, Hawk, Jones and he is right to question the rationale behind these deals. You could add Finley to this list. Maybe it is the money hangover affect, either way, we have a clear history of overpaying average performance.
My theory is that we overpay our own rather than overpaying a FA. If you are not going to play in the FA market then you are apt to bet on the average player on your own roster. Make the pond bigger Ted and you may get more bang for the buck.
I also think that they overpaid Shields. I won’t participate but it won’t be long before people start complaining about Shield’s tackling, injuries or some other shortcoming. He is the devil that we know.
Grimes is 31 yrs old and a descending player. Shields is 26 and an ascending player! What about that is unclear to you?
Teams could start contacting agents on Saturday morning. It became obvious VERY Quickly what Shields was going to get if he got to FA in a few days. The Packers and Shields both knew what he was going to get in FA. Packers had to pony up to keep him and they did.
You wanna use Grimes contract as a gauge, it probably will be for Tramon if the Packers decide to renegotiate w/ him.
Grimes and Shields are going in opposite directions. Bad comparison to make.
I am glad that Shields will stay with the Pack. The 2014 cap hit is acceptable. Beyond that I am not sure, depending on how Shields develops at the position. He still needs to improve against the big WRs Especially in the NFC North. He is not a shut down corner like Revis but he is improving. I like that this contract is not all guaranteed and leaves some flexibility down the road. Now TT needs to focus on the Safety position. We have enough cap room to sign a veteran and to draft a safety who can be developed. We also have some money left to re-sign EDS and maybe extend either Cobb or Nelson. Shields signing may be an indication that TT is going to keep his own FAs again, like EDS and Raji. Next 2-3 weeks will tell the story. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since ’61
Pretty much agree. Hope they can keep Quarless and add another DL in FA. Cobb and/or Nelson probably get extended after the draft, if they want to sign that is.
Revis is getting 16M per and Antonio Cromartie 15M, Shields contract is nowhere near that stratosphere.
Sign a vet Safety in FA and move Hyde to Safety. Problem solved… Hyde can still play dime CB if he’s a safety too. He won’t be the nickel CB, cuz he’s not better than Hayward. Hyde is a good dime CB and can be a FT Safety and be the dime CB.
I am glad to see that my fellow Packer fans are beaming over this deal however, let’s not forget Shields was on the team last year and we had one of the worst secondaries in the league. Our pass rush although improved early in the season was almost non exsistent on third down. The middle of our secondary was tourched early and often. Bottom line we still have done absolutely nothing to improve our defense . We need a proven playmaker on D. So until then I won’t get to excited. The draft is a crap shot.
sure, the defense had a rough year, but I think the situation gets overstated sometimes. the previous year, they graded as the 12th-best overall defense and the 2nd-best in pass coverage. even last year, they started out well before injuries took their toll and still played well in the playoffs (I put that loss as much on the offense as the defense). we are getting proven playmakers in Matthews (missed half the year), and Hayward (missed almost all of it).
agree with # 1 & #2, with being healthy and playing all the games (#1) a must before he can take the next step (#2)
Don’t get me wrong and think we’re a long way off from being a better defense. What i’m saying is we still after the lost of Collins and Jenkins, witch by the way was our strength up the middle, both playmakers, has not been rectified. Until this happens we willl continue to struggle against the elite teams.
Fact our last two Superbowl wins where won when our defense was strong up the middle, at all three levels. Last three playoff losses we have been weak in these area’s.
Shields is just a modern day Terell Buckley and we all know how that ended up. Sorry to break it to you guys but Shields is not the greatest thing since sliced bread. By reading these posts, one would think that Shields is the God of cornerbacks. The receivers today will eat eggs off the top of Mr. 5 foot nothing Shields head…