Read the debate intro and Bleacher Fan’s argument the 49ers should sign Michael Crabtree.
By a show of hands, who here likes rookie contract holdouts? Anyone? Hello? Bueller?
No one likes rookie contract holdouts. That is why many sports fans are celebrating Michael Crabtree’s just desserts (hmmm, tastes bitter). The 49ers drafted him tenth overall in the 2009 NFL Draft, but Crabtree has not signed a contract yet because he does not believe he should be paid like a tenth overall pick. Another receiver was taken before him by the Oakland Raiders at number seven, and Crabtree and his handles simply cannot deal with reality. They are holding out for “first receiver taken in the draft money” instead of “tenth overall selection in the draft” money.
However, Crabtree hard-headed approach to the contract negotiations with his would-be employer is not going well – for Crabtree. He is holding to the belief that since the one billion mock drafts we all see prior to the actual NFL draft he should be paid in the spot he was predicted to be drafted at. It is a completely ridiculous notion, and the 49ers management is not buying at all.
After the 49ers week one victory, the team lowered the offer to the holdout. (Another win in week two will likely lead to another lowered offer.) The more Crabtree holds out, the more value he loses for the team. If I am head coach Mike Singletary right now, there is no way I sign Crabtree. In fact, I push to just release his draft rights. My team has good chemistry and it is getting built upon winning – winning without the holdout prima donna receiver.
Though if anyone can fix Crabtree’s indulgent attitude problems it is probably Singletary, why disrupt a winning team? The coach also must think about his time investment. At this point in the season he is working with an entire team of players who have either gone through rookie mini-camp, all of the OTA’s, training camp where the offense gets installed, the preseason where it gets practiced, and now two games of the real “these games actually count” season. Signing Crabtree now would be forcing a “special player status” into the team dynamic (something Singletary cares about a great deal). He simply has too much to learn right now, and the investment of time and resources to get him up to speed is not worth the return… especially when considering the fact that the team is actually winning!
It is easy to talk about the time and resources problems that Crabtree presents… especially when he is an unproven talent at the professional level. Right now he is just another rookie that thinks he deserves more than everyone else. But he has proven nothing in the NFL, as either a professional person or an athlete.
Crabtree is just another in a long line of prima donna receivers who believes he is better than everyone else in the league. He is a player who sees only his value in his own created context, not what the market or smart people are telling him. The 49ers hard line with Crabtree is absolutely the right move. They owe him nothing. Plus, now they are proving they do not need him on the field, either. The 49ers stand to gain a lot by allowing Crabtree to re-enter the NFL draft in 2010, and it starts with money. In what will likely be an uncapped year, the 49ers will now have extra cash to go after proven players.
Posted by Sports Geek 
