Bengals make it official with Bryant

Football Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals announced the signings of wide receivers Antonio Bryant and Chris Davis Friday.

Terms of the contracts were not released, but Bryant's deal is believed to be for $28 million over four years, according to a Cincinnati Enquirer report on Wednesday. The pact equals that of cast-off wideout Laveranues Coles, whose contract was terminated last week after a single underwhelming season with the team.

It's unclear the terms involved in Davis' signing.

Bryant spent the past two seasons with Tampa Bay and fought through a knee injury in 2009 to catch 39 passes for 600 yards and four touchdowns over 13 games. In 2008, the eight-year veteran set career marks in nearly every offensive category with 1,248 yards and seven TDs on 83 receptions.

Over 106 career games for the Bucs, 49ers (2006), Browns (2004-05) and Cowboys (2002-04), the Pittsburgh product has amassed 5,685 yards, 30 touchdowns and 372 receptions.

Davis, a three-year NFL vet, was away from football in 2009 after reaching an injury settlement with Tennessee prior to the season. The Florida State product has seven career receptions for 69 yards in 17 games, appearing mostly on special teams.

In addition, he averaged 26 yards on six kickoff returns and 9.1 yards on 33 punt returns from 2007-08.

Wwwvacationspot Football Betting News

<< George Karl to miss 3 more road games
DENVER (AP) -George Karl will skip the last three games on the Denver Nuggets' road trip as he adjusts to a feeding tube that was placed into his stomach as part of his cancer treatment.The Nuggets coach has already missed two games since being diag

<< Dynamo bring back Serioux
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Dynamo acquired defender/midfielder Adrian Serioux from Toronto FC in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2011 draft, the Major League Soccer clubs announced on Friday. The 31-year-old Serioux,

<< Fire sign former Fulham striker John
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire Soccer signed 24-year-old Dutch forward Collins John, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday. "We are very excited to have Collins join the Chicago Fire," Fire Technical Direc

<< Blazers try to enhance playoff chances in clash with Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers hope to improve their playoff chances tonight by earning a sixth straight win over the lottery-bound Sacramento Kings. The Blazers, who currently lead Memphis by four games for the eighth and fin

<< Bulls, Heat set to battle in Miami
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of teams battling for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference square off tonight at Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena, where the surging Heat continue an important homestand by taking on the slumping Chicago Bulls.

Karl to miss remainder of Denver road trip >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver Nuggets coach George Karl will miss the remaining three games of the team's road trip as he continues his treatment for neck and throat cancer. Karl missed the opening game of the trip on Wednesd

Eagles bring back WR Baskett >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Eagles announced Friday they have signed wide receiver Hank Baskett to a one-year contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Baskett spent his first four years in th

Cards bolster O-line with Hadnot, Claxton >>
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Cardinals announced Friday they have agreed to terms on contracts with offensive linemen Rex Hadnot and Ben Claxton. Hadnot's is a three-year pact and Claxton's a one-year deal. Financial t

West Ham tries to overcome Bolton disappointment >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last weekend's 2-1 loss at home against fellow relegation-strugglers Bolton did not sit well with West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola. But he is calling on his team to recover and pull off a stu

Two-Year-Old Champ Returns to the Races >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In what could be the sign of the times, Lookin At Lucky, last year's Eclipse Award-winning two-year-old, will have just two prep races prior to the Kentucky Derby. If the Bob Baffert-trained colt winds up c

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.