Around the League: 2017 offseason edition / 2018 Season

[Enscheff]

I agree they help the player more than the team.

But I think they are more valuable to the team than a standard 7 year contract

They aren’t.

A player only opts out if he is projected to have surplus value moving forward. They only opt in if they are projected to have negative surplus value.

A regular 7 year contract gives the team some chance of having a player with surplus value. Opt outs remove the chance for the team to have an asset with positive surplus value. The team is guaranteed to have control over a player with negative value, or no control over that player at all.

It is a negative for the team. The best they can do is mitigate that risk by front loading the deal as we are seeing teams do this offseason.