According to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, the 49ers and Michael Crabtree have agreed to a six-year deal after his agent Eugene Parker had a face-to-face meeting with the team’s vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe on Wednesday morning.

Contract details weren’t immediately released, but Glazer reports that the deal can be voided after five years if Crabtree has “two very good years among his first four.” If he doesn’t, he’ll make $4 million in the sixth year.

If the final contract numbers are similar to the Niners’ first offer of five years, $20 million with $16 million guaranteed, then this was a massive fail by Parker. In the end, he essentially advised Crabtree to holdout for all of training camp and four weeks of the season only to receive the same contract that he would have had if he signed in the offseason. Only now, Crabtree gave up four-plus games of his career and is now behind the eight ball in trying to get that final year voided.

This will go down as one of the all-time agent blunders. The arrogance of Parker to think that he could command more money than the draft slot his client was taken in is outright laughable. And if other athletes were paying attention to how this all went down then Parker also cost himself future clients with his stupidity.

Moving forward, Crabtree probably won’t see the field for the next couple weeks as he attempts to get caught up on the playbook and back into playing shape. He probably won’t make an impact in his first year, which is another thing he can thank Parker for.

Eugene Parker cost Michel Crabtree, at the very least, half of his first season. The kid could have gotten better advice from a dead squirrel lying on the side of the highway.

Crabtree’s fantasy value? In most leagues, he doesn’t have much. Rookie wide receivers don’t usually make a splash their first year, and Crabtree has missed all of training camp and the first four games of the regular season, so he is WAY behind. That said, if you’re in a keeper league with big rosters, Crabtree does have some value. If you have a place to stash him and he becomes a decent threat for the 49ers late in the season, then he would be an asset heading into the summer. Obviously, Crabtree has a lot of value in dynasty leagues.

ESPN.com reports that wide receiver Michael Crabtree has agreed to reopen contract discussions over the 49ers.

Eugene Parker, Crabtree’s agent, is scheduled to arrive in San Francisco on Tuesday. Parker declined comment when reached.
Niners coach Mike Singletary said Monday that he would still like to have Crabtree play for the team this season.

“Any guy that can play and help us win, I would never say, ‘No, we don’t need him,'” Singletary said. “We need all the good football players we can get.”

Crabtree, the 10th overall selection in April’s draft, is the only unsigned first-round pick. He has missed the first four weeks of the regular season.

I don’t think Crabtree is dumb. I think he got dumb advice from his dumb agent who only now realizes how bad a mistake he’s made with his client’s future. If I were Crabtree, I’d fire Parker immediately to ensure he doesn’t screw this deal up even more than he already has.

Parker and Crabtree played Russian roulette and lost. At 3-1, the 49ers have proven that they don’t need him to win and had Crabtree held out any longer, I’m sure the front office was thinking about cutting their losses and using that money to re-sign players like Patrick Willis.

This is a win-win situation for the 49ers. If Parker balks and Crabtree continues to holdout, then San Fran can use the money elsewhere and remove themselves from the situation. If Crabtree signs, then Mike Singletary can get his big paws around his young receiver’s neck and strangle some sense into him.

Either way, this is a positive for a Niner team that has a lot of hope building on this young season.

According to a report by the San Jose Mercury News, 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree might not sign a contract until September at the earliest.

The key: (Eugene) Parker doesn’t want to budge, well, at least until September, on his demands for a slot-busting deal that would get Crabtree something close to one of the biggest guarantees among the rookie deals of ‘09, despite his being drafted 10th.

Parker’s reputation, for now and in recruiting for future No. 1 picks, is at stake.

The bigger key: The 49ers aren’t budging either, well, at least until September, on their insistence that Crabtree’s deal remain generally in line with his No. 10 slot and beneath the guarantees of the deals for the players selected ahead of him.

The 49ers’ desire to be an unbully-able team is at stake.

The largest key: Crabtree’s absence might be jeopardizing his ability to produce right away, but he’s not jeopardizing any serious money until the week of Sept. 13–that first game check.

This is ridiculous on the part of Crabtree’s agent, who is trying to get his client a better deal than what his draft slot would garner. It doesn’t matter that the consensus was that Crabtree should have been taken in the top 5 because he wasn’t – he was taken with the 10th overall pick and thus should be paid like a 10th overall pick.

I side with the 49ers in this situation. They shouldn’t have to pay a player based on what draft slot his agent felt his client should have been taken in. While it would be incredibly frustrating not to have their first round pick contribute for an entire season, the Niners can’t give into Parker’s demands because then every agent will try to get his client a more lucrative contract than what the player’s draft slot is worth.

The NFL rookie salary structure is already messed up as it is. If Crabtree (again, the No. 10 pick) gets paid like a 2nd or 3rd overall pick, then the situation will provide further proof that the league has to change how its rookie salary structure is set up.

According to a report by ESPN.com, the cousin and adviser (whatever that entails) of Michael Crabtree states that the rookie wideout is prepared to sit out the entire 2009 season and re-enter the NFL draft in 2010 if he doesn’t get fair market value in terms of his contract.

“We are prepared to do it,” Wells said. “Michael just wants fair-market value. They took him with the 10th pick and you have Darrius Heyward-Bey [the seventh overall pick by the Oakland Raiders] getting $38 million? This week is crucial. Michael was one of the best players in the draft and he just wants to be paid like one of the best players. This week is very crucial.”

Crabtree’s agent, Eugene Parker, says that no such threat has been made, although he also says that the 49ers’ initial contract offer is not acceptable. Profootballtalk.com suggests that Parker had promised Crabtree that he would be drafted in the top three and now is trying to get the rookie top three money, although that hasn’t been proven.

I highly doubt that Crabtree will sit the entire 2009 season if he doesn’t receive the contract that he and his agent wants. Besides, it wouldn’t be in his best interest to do that, seeing as how teams picking at the top of the draft next year would likely stay away from him knowing that he was out of football for a year and would be a hassle to sign.

I’m assuming that San Fran will have to get close to the number that the Raiders gave Heyward-Bey, although I don’t blame the Niners if they feel that they don’t have to match that number considering Heyward-Bey was taken three spots ahead of Crabtree in the draft. Considering the rookie salary structure is already screwed up, teams shouldn’t have to pay players for the draft slot that their agents felt they should have been taken in.