BarleyNY

Nope, no way. That’s because the dead cap for trading him after this season would be $31.6M. Two more seasons would make it $17.2M. And then under $3M after three more. So unless Rodgers forces a trade they don’t have to be in a hurry to do anything. Rodgers sat for 3 seasons while Favre was the starter and I expect Love to do the same. At minimum it’ll be two, but probably three. I don’t even know that Love will work out at all as a starter in the NFL, but if he does it won’t be replacing Aaron freaking Rodgers next season unless things have really gone off the rails up there in Green Bay.

This might actually be a move to create cap space. The Saints need a little more to sign their meager draft class. I’ll explain. Hill was in the last year of his deal. They can convert some salary to a signing bonus and extend his deal a couple seasons to spread that out. The large numbers might only be due to a pay-me-or-release-me structure. IOW he might not be getting any more money this season but the Saints will be paying him next season if they’re going to keep him. Or he hits free agency and can get what he can there. There’s probably a big roster bonus due or guarantees that kick in within a few days of next season starting.

Regarding using the spread formation. Yes, you absolutely still have the threat of Allen running the ball which pressures the defense. It also makes it much more difficult for the defense to disguise its coverage/blitz. I think we did it so much mainly for that reason - to make it easier for Josh to correctly read the defense. (Daboll should get some credit for this.)

That is correct. Same thing for cap purposes. The only rare exception to that is if a player retires soon after receiving a large singing bonus, then the team may able to recoup some of that signing bonus cash. Really rare situation that requires a team to actually get money back from the player in order for it to come off the cap. The retirement has to be elective, not due to injury. That’s why Wood changed his press conference at the last minute. His agent must’ve told him not to take any chances by making it seem like he was electing to retire. It had to be because he was physically unable to continue playing.

My thoughts exactly Not all that much smaller. Those numbers are based on a salary cap increase from $198.2M to $209M. It might be more than that, but it’s not going to be by much.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of that.

Looking at our competition I’d say it has a lot to do with which team we happened to play at home versus on the road - and the states of some of those teams. Plus if you’re looking at wins and losses it’s tough to count the L in week 17 against the Jest. Road wins against the Marcus Mariota led Titans and Duck Hodges led Steelers did us some favors. Not only did we get the wins, but we didn’t exactly have to open up our offense against those two defenses to do it.

Deleted my prior post. Misunderstood his contract details because of that article. He’s got 4 years left on it at very reasonable hits for a QB of his ability. That really makes the Love pick confusing to me.

Grading out OL is tough to do as a fan. It requires grading out every player on every play. It’s worth using sites that do that for you and then seeing if that matches what your eyes tell you on whatever limited snaps you do see. Often it is easy to see when a player is terrible, but sometimes there are other factors. For example, QBs have a huge impact on sacks and pressures. Passing scheme too. Gotta hold pass blocks a lot longer for a vertical game versus a WCO. Stuff like that has to be considered.

Muti was thought to be an excellent match for our gap/power scheme. So that sure fits.

The Steelers are such a wildcard IMO. You could see the pride that team had last season. They won several games they had no business winning without Roethlisberger. That was just their pride. Many teams would’ve quit at some point. But word is that Roethlisberger is not in playing shape and hasn’t been in some time. They should be good enough to make the expanded playoffs, but I don’t think they are any threat past the first round.

From a purely academic perspective the marriage of Winston and Belichick would have been of great interest to me. Could BB reign in the very talented, but highly erratic Jameis Winston? Peyton offers a similar experience, but he’s not #1 down there so his development won’t be job 1.

IMO the only criteria to use when immediately grading a draft is: 1) were the risks/rewards for players and trades reasonable, 2) was draft capital used efficiently and 3) did it fit the overall plan and circumstances? The a Diggs trade was particularly good on all three of those. We needed a WR1 who could contribute immediately. We sure got that for a reasonable amount of draft capital (even with his contract). Young player who separates as well as anyone in the NFL and fit our #1 need. Beane did really, really well here. Epenesa sure seems like a reasonable choice at 54. His risk is that he’s a power end and is not going to beat anyone with speed. He is so strong though that he can win with power. He can also hold the edge well and push the pocket from the edge (and maybe the middle). I just see a slightly slower and noticeably stronger version of Shaq. The difference between getting a player like that at 54 versus 19 can’t be overstated. Really happy with the risk va reward here. Moss seems like a soild choice too. Getting a really good RB in round 3 should not ever be difficult, but we really needed one. The only real risk here is opportunity cost. We could’ve gone with higher value position like CB or OL and gotten a good RB later. Fine. That’s probably true, but I’m not going to get too stressed about that. For the record you can throw Bass into the same boat. Analytics will tell you to never ever draft a kicker. But I also don’t put any value on 6th and 7th round picks (and technically analytics doesn’t either) so I have no problem with that selection. He’s a priority free agent that we automatically get to sign, just like every other 6th and 7th round pick. On the flip side of that coin analytics would love that we took players at two high value positions with our 4th and 5th round picks. Fromm in the 5th has tremendous upside with very little risk. Put that man on the same vitamin regimen as that weak armed college QB Tom Brady was on and see what happens. I don’t know much about Davis, but a 4th round WR in this draft is a good move. Lots of WR talent got pushed down due to the sheer number of quality prospects at the position. And it’s a high value position which makes the risk-reward even better. That got long! It’s difficult to not like the job Beane did with this draft, especially with the Diggs trade included. All of these players won’t work out, but there’s very little to complain about when I look at the shots Beane took.

They were still holding out for that level of total compensation - late first/early second - as of the first day of the draft. I’d guess they were hoping some team would flinch or get shut out in the draft. Didn’t turn out that way and they got less than what they could have.

Definitely fills a need. I don’t know much about him personally but his draft reports read well. Looking forward to seeing him share carries with Singletary.

I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING.

I wouldn’t have wanted Epenesa at 22, but I’m happy to get him at 54. It took me some time to come around on him because I didn’t understand what a power DE should look like. He’s going to be a good player and it’s definitely a position of need.

I don’t see Cleveland as a fit in any way, shape or form for Gap/Power schemes, so no bueno for the Bills. If I were an OZ/IZ team needing a developmental OT I’d be interested. He shouldn’t even be on the Bills’ board though.

I did not know that. Thanks for the clarification on that.

Good point. It really does change things. It increases both the urgency to get a deal done before that 5th year hits as well as guaranteed money of new deals. The other thing it does is it diminishes the urgency to get players - especially QBs - at the end of the first round. No need to trade up into the bottom of the first when you can just franchise the guy for year 5 for almost the exact same guaranteed money.

The Raiders were too cash strapped to sign Mack. Their poor revenue when they were in Oakland and the fact that the team is the main (only?) source of income for the Davis family was the problem. There is a CBA rule that requires that all guaranteed contract money is set aside at the time of signing. It’s a holdover from when the league was small and not guaranteed to succeed, but is still in effect. They were stuck.

I was going to treat myself to wings (Bar Bill or Elmo’s) and beer and Zoom with my uncle (Cleveland) and best friend (Chicago).

New CBA changed the 5th year option rule. It is now fully guaranteed immediately.

I actually misunderstood what we’d have to pay him and edited my post. My bad.

Fournette is in the last year of his contract unless you want to exercise the fifth year option. Trade for a RB only to have to give him his second contract? No thanks.