His first extension he predicted his worth to be top 7 then he went and got thst contract from lions. He said he was worth $16m and he was right and then some since Eagles pay him that. Therefore he’s doing a great job of reading his worth on the market no matter whst we think of his play.
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I think that’s the issue. So many here think of this in terms of employer/employee relationships. It is not. This is not like your job. Unless you work at the top of your field, with the most talented people in your industry who can make or break a company and have 10 more bidding to steal them away, it is NOTHING like your job.
If you think the rainmakers at the biggest companies think to themselves, “My direct report is a total fool who’s wasting my talent and driving this company into the ground, but I’d never make a peep about that because, well shucks, he’s my boss!” well… they do not.
Good NFL players are not “employees.” They’re the people who will make or break your career. If you’re Bill Belichick, and you have 8 million Super Bowls, then yeah, anybody on your team is replaceable and you can treat them like that. If you’re not—especially if you’re a first time head coach with no track record of leading a team at any level—then it’s on you to figure out how to work with your star players. Or, you can field a shit team and lose games and get fired, your call.
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I do agree to the emotional content of your post… I have a fairly good control of my self and my emotions… so without knowing me… you can’t really speak from my perspective. I appreciate alternative input… but no… and yes… I’ve been in similar positions where my ego could’ve screwed up the organization… it didn’t at the time… and it was because I was wise. Slay and wise, Patricia and wise… should never be used in the same sentence
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The whole falling out between Slay & Patricia should’ve never gotten that out of control. Quinn and the owners should’ve gotten on that & had a close door meeting with both guys the 1st minute they saw this problem and said we’re not leaving this room until everyone is at peace and we’re on the same page. Patricia seemed like a cocky guy who was in way over his head and didn’t relate to some people very well. And Slay seemed like a pretty immature guy who holds major grudges & won’t get over stuff. I’ve said it many times and I’ll keep saying it. I’m glad both guys are gone.
Problematic take?
My take on Slay is spot on, it was my take when the story of what took place came out by Slay himself, he admitted he checked out. As far as him being cancerous in the locker room…that’s coming from inside the locker room and was reported as such.
This is not a one or the other scenario … Slay can be the big bitch he is and Patricia can suck as a Head Coach … Any take that has to paint Slay as a victim in this… is a joke. It’s not a democracy.
Slay was part of a Caldwell regime that did not get it done. The person who pays Slay felt a change was needed at GM (Wrong or Right) that new GM felt a new HC was needed (Wrong or Right) the Coach has his way …that’s it.
Agree or disagree with the Coach’s methods and how he went after Slay, ( I have no issue with it ) he was making an example out of Slay and I understand what he was doing … it failed. He didn’t read Slay properly
This was told and explained to Slay by a position Coach on what Patricia was trying to do.
Slay said nothing, he cried a little & then held resentment & bitched later on about it. He failed his teammates and Fans by checking out and being a disruptive figure in the locker room.
Patricia failed as well… it is very much a 2 wrongs scenario.
@RickOShea, my response was to your post, but I didn’t intend to mean “you” specifically there, or make assumptions about your personal work experience. I apologize for coming off that way, I can get carried away with my rhetorical “you.”
I think a lot of people on this board view this through an inaccurate lens based on their own work experience, which is usually not applicable. When you’re talking about a pro bowl player who’s considered among the best in the league (which Slay was at the time even if he’s not having a great year now), it’s closer to think of him more like a movie star. Robert Downey Jr. may work with a particular director for a movie he’s making, but that guy is not his “boss” in any traditional sense. Much more they’re partners in an enterprise that they’re both invested in. The director takes care of directing, and Downey Jr makes people show up and buy tickets. If a first-time director wants to swing his dick around, there’s a thousand other projects that’ll be happy to have Mr. Iron Man.
I also think the things Slay actually said at the time have been blown out of proportion. He spoke out that no one was safe when Diggs got traded, which was obviously true. Beyond that, most of what was actually said publicly was pretty standard NFL contract dispute stuff for a player approaching the last year of his deal. He consistently said he wanted to be in Detroit, until he wasn’t. And as far as I recall, he didn’t publicly criticize Patricia until he was traded, at which point he’s not even part of the organization anymore and can say what he wants. Most of the rumbling about how he was undermining the locker room came from posters on message boards like this one, and from reporters speculating about why MP may want to get rid of him. Publicly, there were reports Slay wasn’t happy, but it’s not like he was posting on Twitter, “my coach doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” Even if that was also obviously true.
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The Eagles have someone of his skill level, and are paying him more than he’s worth, and they still suck LOL
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Darius will have his hands full again this Sunday in Green Bay when he faces Davante Adams, Aaron Rodgers & the Packers. Of course this is a game where the Packers may struggle, they seem to do that sometimes when they are heavily favored. At any rate Darius will have his hands full. He might want to give his full attention to the Packers & stay off social media
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I view what Slay said more as a confession. He came clean about how offended he was (shaking and in tears, inconsolable) and how he has never gotten over it. He said how Patricia would try to talk to him after that episode but “he wasn’t trying to hear none of that”. There were player tweets about how others cracked up at Patricia’s delivery and still others that mentioned a cancer and someone that would trash the coaches after their meetings. So, after the season that Diggs and Slay were dealt and Slay vents about how wrecked he was, Spielman’s observation that there was an obvious “lack of communication in the backfield” earlier that year started to make a bit more sense.
And you’re right. He did say, even in one of the interviews where he was bagging on Patricia, “shoot yeah, dem checks still cash” (or something similar) when asked if he would have signed with the Lions if Bob Quinn had offered 16 mil per year. Doesn’t that bother you a little? Patricia is the worst, but he’s not even going to test Free Agency if Quinn paid what he agreed to with Philly? You and I never hear about any of this if Quinn was agreeable to that extension?
MP created the mess. It didn’t have to happen and he is what his record says he is as a HC. He was a major disappointment for anyone that wanted him here or expected some level of success. He’s fired, deservedly so. His vulgar delivery is only going to come off as NOT demeaning if it’s clear already to everyone in the room that you have the greatest respect and a close relationship with the person you’re saying it to. That person has to know that, too. He/they didn’t, making his delivery a terrible, immature gaff.
His first year here was riddled with mis-steps. Unfortunately for all of us, even with progress he seemingly made with the media and players, he still sucks. They’re lucky to even have the 4 wins they do. They’re the same team in 2020 (with a full Patriot-type roster and no drama/distractions) that couldn’t beat the 'Skins in 2019. Horrible, unwatchable team. Terrible. I say all that to bring into focus that I pin the failure here in Detroit 100% on Patricia and Quinn. It is in no defense of them whatsoever when I hold Slay responsible for his own words or actions.
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Suggests had Slsy done everything right
Then Patricia succeeds.
Which is problematic because if Patricia can succeed lions were dumb to fire him now after investing so much in Patricia’s way when players like slay told us early … Patricia sucks.
I believe you said Slsy was wrong , or at least many fans do yet iMO Slay was very right. He was worth more than lions wanted to pay him
Which is easy for you to leave other people’s millions on the table.
Also assumes that had lions hired a competent coach , like they did with Caldwell ,
They might’ve gotten more from their best DB and maybe a hometown discount when extension was due.
Trufant at $10m is quite the savings yet he hasn’t played every game. Nor been that great.
The lions actually still have unused cap space that could carry slay’s contract anyways so
The savings is a nice savings for ownership
Really hasn’t translated to a better team.
All the players suck and are st fault. Being a good soldier yet not following orders good enough doesn’t save the head coaches job.
We heard Calvin say it before Collins
“Coaching above my pay grade”
Collins got himself kicked out of an early crucial game.
But if you blame slay
I hooe you also hold Matt staffird acvountable fir the last year of JBC.
When your most powerful player advocates for a coach …
Given how MP wax using him … to cover the number ones with no help
Suggests he wasn’t a locker room cancer
Or why would Patricia lean on him so much ?
How do you get paid more than your worth ? Who decides worth ?
Stafford is getting paid more than he’s worth. Flowers. Collins.
In football anybody with a huge salary is getting paid more than their worth meanwhile fans say don’t pay golladay who is way underpaid fir his worth.
This is the problem… those folks aren’t so easy to find. This profession requires the best of the best of the best. The cream of the crop. Elites in any field tend to have huge egos. Even if they aren’t the most vocal, very few elites are the humble or self sacrficing type. If they’re slighted, they’ll let it be known and felt one way or another. An NFL locker room, like pretty much everything else in the world, doesn’t run on right and wrong, it runs on leverage and power. A head coach’s job, more than any game plan or strategy, is asset management. Getting the most out of the unobtanium he has at his disposal. If he can’t manage to do that, he’s not going to succeed and it isn’t the talent’s fault. The talent’s job is to play football…period.
If the talent truly isn’t worth the headache, it will be ejected and replaced. But usually the talent to headache ratio is about right (of course there are extreme exceptions on the fringes, see Brown, Antiono). Slay was a pro bowler for us, he knew that. He was under no illusions that the Lions needed him as much as he needed the Lions. Somehow Patricia was under the illusion that he didn’t need talent, he needed “buy in”. That didn’t work, it usually doesn’t.
And contrary to the marketing, “buy in over talent” is NOT the Patriot way. BB is just a preternaturally good judge of what someone’s talent level is and how to extract every ounce of unobtanium from a player. When the ratio is off or the talent has been exhausted, he ships the empty husk off to some sucker team like the Lions.
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This is so, so true.
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Slay what you want but Oku and Oru are going to rip it up next year!
Post more. Lol 
Their contributions to the team determines their worth… Hopkins is worth his salary, Ramsey is worth his salary… They both contribute immensely in every game. Slay does not, not to the level of his contract. You know who’s worth their contract when you see extensions and expiring deals instead of getting cut after 2 or 3 years. Look at Marvin Jones for a perfect example, he’s worth every bit of his salary… It falls in line with his production which is why he played all 5 years of his contract.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do that. Mr. Quinn, you’ve mentioned that your door is always open. There is really something I think you should be aware of. If you find that you approve of that type of behavior from your coach, please seek a trade for me as I’m not able to play for a guy like that. Am I certain that conversation didn’t happen? No. If it did and nothing changed (but he admitted it actually did) then I guess one has to do what they have to do. But once you are gone, really what’s the point? Again, STFU and do your job in Philly. Don’t be unprofessional and accuse the other guy of being unprofessional. Even if you are better at being a player than the other guy is at being a coach. The coach did have rings, you don’t.
Can’t wait to watch Davante Adams tear Slay a new on this week.
As a fan though
These are the moments that break the cliche sports answers.
A big part of being a head coach would be dealing with these personalities … young guys who are go getters.