All of last year, there were many Raider fans worried about Nnamdi Asomugha’s impending Free Agent status. Now he is the last big name CB in the league who has yet to be signed to a long term deal. There is no question of what he means to this team. The only question is whether Al Davis would be willing to pay that price or let him walk. It looks like AD has chosen the “wait and see” approach by slapping the franchise tag on Asomugha for the upcoming season. The way Al has been spending money this free agency period it would stand to reason that Asomugha will be signing to a new deal before the beginning of the season because his franchise cap number (9.46 mil) is quite high and can be brought down by a long term deal with a prorated signing bonus.
Corners have officially blown past the 10 mil per year barrier with signings like by Asante Samuel (who signed for six years, $57 million), Nate Clements (eight years, $80 million), Quentin Jammer and DeAngelo Hall (seven years, $70 million). If Al Davis was to wait until next years free agency to sign Aso, his numbers will be more like 11mil. All of this signaled good news for Trufant and Asomugha as the only remaining CB to be locked up long term. But recently Trufant bucked that trend slightly and gave the Seattle Seahawks a home team discount to stay.
Trufant reached a six-year, $50.2 million deal with the Seahawks that includes $20 million in guarantees. In the first three years of the contract, he will make $28 million.
All along, Trufant wanted to stay in Seattle. He grew up in nearby Tacoma and was drafted 11th overall in 2003 out of Washington State. Nnamdi Asomugha wants to stay at home playing for his home team of the Oakland Raiders. He is from nearby Lafayette (about ten minutes east of Oakland for those who aren’t familiar) and he too was drafted in the first round in 03 (30th overall) and also stayed at home for college having gone to Cal.
Although Trufant got off to a great start to his career, Aso started slowly and got better every year. Because of that slow start, Trufant’s career numbers are twice that of Aso but in the last two seasons they are nearly identical. Aso has one more interception (9) and they have the exact same number of passes defended (26). These numbers are all the more impressive considering last year he rarely saw opposing quarterbacks throw the ball to his receiver.
Both players were franchised by their respective teams and now that the Trufant deal is done, Al Davis has a perfect blue print to go into negotiations with Trufant with. I know that Al would not try and insult Nnamdi by offering him less because he thinks he is just happy to be playing for his home team but the Trufant deal is really good news because it means that 1) Asomugha will not be as expensive as some rumors (ehem Patrick) have suggested and 2) that there is a solid deal in place for a similar situation on a top flight corner so a deal can be completed hopefully quickly and reasonably painless.
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