Rams News

Don't count on McNeil
to show up at Rams camp
07/20 09:16 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

MACOMB, Ill. -- Waiting for veteran cornerback Ryan McNeil to appear at training camp? Don't hold your breath. McNeil isn't officially AWOL until Thursday, when all Rams veterans are due to report to Western Illinois University.
But at the moment, it's more likely that McNeil will sit out all of training camp -- perhaps even the entire season -- than arrive in Macomb on Thursday.
``Ryan's ready to go, ready to play,'' said McNeil's agent, Brian Ransom. ``He's looking forward to the season.''
But McNeil still does not plan to play for the team's one-year franchise player offer of $3.2 million. Nor does he find the team's four-year, $13 million contract offer acceptable.
``By Sept. 1, he's going to make a final decision,'' Ransom said. ``And that'll be a decision on if he's going to play this year or not.''
When asked for the odds of McNeil being in camp Thursday, Ransom replied: ``You should lay your money on Ryan not being there, probably. Because you know that the Rams aren't going to do whatever it takes to get him there, simply because that's how they operate historically, traditionally. We don't expect them to do anything. And if they do, it'll be a surprise, it'll be great, and Ryan will be happy to be there.''
Ransom called the one-year tender offer of $3.2 million ``about a tenth of what Ryan should getting.''
Asked what would would be an acceptable long-term deal, Ransom said, ``Five years, $30 million is his value.''
Given the Rams' current long-term offer, that would put the two sides a mere $17 million apart.
``We have a very serious difference of valuation, and it appears at this time that we will not be able to agree on any type of long-term deal,'' Rams executive vice president Jay Zygmunt said. ``As far back as February, we suggested that Ryan could agree to accept the one-year tender offer, and then we could continue to work on a long-term deal, because we would have liked to have him participate in the offseason program.''
McNeil has bypassed all team activities, which to date include the offseason conditioning program and two minicamps, while his contract status remained unresolved.
Ransom and Zygmunt held discussions again on Monday. Ransom told Zygmunt that McNeil will play for the franchise amount in 1998, but only if the Rams agree not to place the franchise tag on McNeil again in 1999. But the Rams are unwilling to waive that right.
``This debate should really be between Ryan and the NFL Players Association, not Mr. Ransom and the Rams,'' Zygmunt said. ``We don't ask players to give up their rights under the (collective bargaining agreement), and it's not appropriate that players ask clubs to waive their rights under the CBA.''
Zygmunt likened it to the Rams asking an unrestricted free agent to waive his rights to shop the market, just because the Rams wanted to keep him.
``The franchise player designation was the result of the collective bargaining process -- reached after extensive litigation and a players' strike,'' Zygmunt said. ``It is the only right that a club has to restrict the movement of one player on the roster.''
Ransom countered by saying, ``The Rams have made no effort to sign Ryan McNeil. None.''
What about the $13 million offer?
``You compare that to what Doug Evans and Jeff Burris got, and tell me the difference between just those three (contracts) alone?'' Ransom said. ``Does that seem close to you?''
Evans signed a five-year, $22.5 million deal this past offseason with Carolina; Burris signed a five-year, $20.5 million deal with Indianapolis. Both players were unrestricted free agents. As a franchise player, the Rams would get two first-round draft picks if McNeil signed elsewhere, a price too steep to attract any interest from other clubs.
``The point of the matter is the market would have generated its own value had he been a free agent,'' Ransom said. ``He proved his value by leading the league in interceptions, by doing all the things that he's done. . . . He's one of the more durable cornerbacks in the league. What more can a guy do?''

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