Ryan Grant’s career turn in the last year is exactly why he held out of training camp back in 2008 looking for a new contract.

Grant was coming off a breakout year entering the ’08 season, but he also was already 25 years old but going into only his second NFL season for free-agency purposes. That meant he wouldn’t have been eligible for unrestricted free agency until 2011.

Grant also knew that running backs have especially short careers in the NFL, and that he might not have much o f a market at age 28. So he held out from camp in ’08 and a week into practice signed a four-year contract that paid him $8.6 million in ’08 and ’09, and another $6 million last year.

Going into this season, which would have been his free-agent year if he hadn’t done the holdout and contract extension, Grant was scheduled to make $5.5 million in salary and bonuses. But Grant was coming off the broken ankle in last year’s opener that had landed him on injured reserve, and earlier this month the Packers asked him to take a $1 million pay cut in exchange for guaranteeing his $2.5 million in base salary in 2011.

Grant accepted the pay cut for the security of guaranteed pay and with his bonuses now can make $4.5 million.. At age 28, he’s getting old for a halfback and would have had little negotiating leverage if he’d been a free agent this past offseason, and probably will have a limited market when he’s a free agent next year.

packernews.com wrote: