RFAs Offered $150,000 (with a Minor Stipulation) to Attend Minicamp

In an effort to bring the team’s restricted free agents to the current minicamp, the Browns have offered each player $150,000 in incentives. While running back Jerome Harrison and fullback Lawrence Vickers have begun to attend the team’s off-season activities, the other three restricted free agents – D’Qwell Jackson, Matt Roth, and Abe Elam – continue to sit on the sidelines.

These players have until June 15 to sign the one-year deals offered to them or risk their 2010 salaries being only 10% above their 2009 base salaries. So why aren’t these players jumping at the chance to make $150,000? Because I might have a better chance of finding $150,000 under my pillow one morning than these guys being able to earn it this season.

I don’t mean to knock the Browns’ chances in 2010 just yet, but here’s the stipulation in these incentives: the Browns have to either win 10 games or make the playoffs for the players to obtain the $150,000. And for added measure, a player would have to reach a personal milestone. In other words, in a rebuilding year such as this impending one, there is little hope that such a goal will be reached. Even the most optimistic predictions usually have the Browns finishing somewhere around 8-8.