Beck Water

You don't use a 1st round pick on a TE3. You don't.

I can't keep up. Who do the Vikings have throwing the ball at the moment? His payday from Minnesota and now from the Falcons does not say "underrated".

Makes sense.

Yes

Announcements like this make it clear that "legal tampering period starts today at noon" is such baloney. Gabe didn't sign a 3 year deal just after noon today because his agent started negotiating at noon today. This has been in the works for weeks.

I see more than 2 in this thread, but who's counting You were speculating "wonder what one does to get fired from this rather low level position?" By asking this question, you yourself indicate that there is a difference, and you know it. Typically people who are fired have done something wrong. On the other hand, people who are not re-up'd at the end of a contract haven't necessarily done a thing wrong and may have done a decent job with everything that was asked of them - but either the organization wants new blood, or the org has decided they no longer need that position.

First off, I would not bet Beane won't be wheeling and dealing some of those picks. So expect the pool to change. Second, until we need to cut to 53 just before the season opens, we only need top-51. So the amount of cap needed for rookie pool will be cut down because they will bump lower paid FA and vets out of the top 51. Our cap situation got screwed up because Beane counted on Tre White to continue as a lockdown corner and a cornerstone on our roster, but Tre got hurt for the last 2 years; he also "shot his shot" on trading for/re-signing Diggs then recruiting Von Miller, only to see him go on season ending reserve one year, and come back as a ghost of himself this season. Honorable mention goes to inadequate DL performance from our own guys, thus the need to back-fill with FA signings.

According to Ian Rappoport, who has connections, they're looking to move Connor McGovern to center

Always wait for the details to come out on a contract. "Up to" means, if he meets all the incentives. Let's say there are $2.5M in incentives. $12M/ 3years or $4M/yr is like 28th in the league money for a safety - yeah starter money but barely I'm not a fan of this signing - I don't think he's fit to carry Poyer's cleats or Hyde's jock, but let's wait and see what it is.

This.

Good Golly Miss Molly. For those scoring at home, this means that Denver is taking on $85M in dead cap this season. Think about that one moment. Out of a cap of $256M, that's basically 1/3 of the cap devoted to one player - who is not on the team.

Why? From watching him painfully try to play in Pittsburgh, my thought was "this guy is toast and I never want to see him on a football field again" I would really like us to have a backup who can actually finish a game constructively or maybe even win one.

My thought

"Contract expired"

I'm not sure Douglas is redundant even if Elam can start. We really don't know what's going to be "up" with Tre White. He's got $16.4M cap if he plays, $10.4M dead cap if he's cut or traded. Something like 40% of players don't return to play according to this (relatively limited) article, and those who do are apparently impacted the season following their injury. $16.4M is a lot to pay for a guy who may be playing at a backup level. It would be very un-Beane-like to give up a 3rd round pick (even with a 5th back) for a half-season rental. Douglas has a $9.9M cap hit with no dead money. I think we keep either or, but not both. I think you might be reading in a bit much here, though I agree tone of voice, facial expression and etc might strengthen the significance you attach. But if I'm talking about (say) meeting a new coworker that I just spent 3 months on a project with but am now not in the same building, I would say "it was a pleasure getting to know him" not "it is a pleasure getting to know him". If we're talking about the defense we had last year, it may not be significant to say "I liked what he brought". I'd have to listen to old Beane pressers where he talks about other players. I don't think he's an absolute lock - I think it's Douglas OR White, either or not both. But I'm not sure this is significant.

The thing is, if their charter is a standard configuration of 737, there are something like 16 first class seats. So I can see where, if you allocated them to players, that could quickly become an issue too. "OK, Josh Allen gets a seat, the starting OL and DL get 10 seats, but now what? Rotational DLmen? The long snapper? The starting TE - who is that, Kincaid or Knox or both? The starting LB - wait a minute, is Bernard bigger than the nickel corner? Oh, what about the biggest stars, they should get one, move over and let Diggs have that seat. I could see where it could quickly become a divisive issue giving the players the players the 1st class seats

Is it safe to say, "alcohol may have been involved"?

I seem to recall some comments from the last report card that the team's nutritionist or dietician was shared with the Buffalo Sabres so the players felt they didn't have enough time to craft individual programs for them. I'm surprised by the "team travel" thing though, because I remember McDermott saying that the Pegulas had ensured they were comfortable when they traveled, and he appreciated that. Hopefully someone will look into the basis for these ratings and fix them. Right, and this is the team where players have played in 4 Superbowls the last 5 years and won 3 of them. Boggles the mind - like, the other 31 owners want to be that guy

Not quite. The 4 year, $40 million contract will include a signing bonus, which will be paid to the player** up-front. Let's say in this case the player received a $12 million signing bonus. The player puts $12 million in his piggy bank, but for accounting (cap) purposes, the team gets to amortize it over the length of his contract, so $3M each year for 4 years. Then the player will typically be paid a lower salary in his first year (because he got a fat signing bonus) and more money the rest of the contract. For example, in 2021, when Tre White's contract extension took effect, he was paid less than $1M in salary (NFL minimum). Let's say the player's salary will be $1M the first year, $8M his 2nd year, $8M his 3rd year, and $11M his 4th year. So his cap hit is: 1: $1M + $3M = $4M 2: $8M + $3M = $11M 3: $8M + $3M = $11M 4: $11M + $3M = $14M Hold on, next wrinkle: $20M of the player's contract was guaranteed, meaning his $12M signing bonus, plus $1M of 1st year salary, plus $7M of his next year salary. So if the team cuts the player in year 2, they owe him $7M additional cash, and that $7M PLUS the $9M of his remaining year's salary bonuses count against the cap. They have $16M dead cap for that player. On the other hand, if the team cuts the player in year 3, they're only on the hook for $6M (two years of amortized signing bonus) dead cap, which is already in the player's bank account. In year 4, they're on the hook for $3M, since none of his $11M salary was guaranteed. Now let's say in year 3, the team was cash-strapped. So they converted $7M of the player's $8M salary to "restructure bonus". They can amortize it against the length of his contract 3:$1M + $3M(signing) + $3.5M (restructure) = $7.5M This gives the team an extra $3.5M in cap space to sign a low-tier FA or 2, but the player gets paid the same. 4: $11M + $3M(signing) + $3.5M (restructure) = $17.5M. But, if the team cuts the player in year 4, they now take on $7.5M dead cap instead of $3M There are more games that can be tucked into contracts to try to manage the cap while bidding competitively for players - option bonuses, void years, etc but this is just a basic example. One more piece. Let's say the player hasn't quite lived up to expectations and in year 3 has no guaranteed money. Maybe they go to the player and ask if he'd be willing to take a $3M pay cut, to $5M salary. The player sees his status on the team is in jeopardy, but he likes his chances to start and play well with this team. So he says "OK, I'll do that, but in return, I want you to fully guarantee my $5M salary and $3M of my salary next year". The player is, at minimum, still guaranteed the same amount of money as he'd get this season (just spread over 2 years), the team gets cap relief, and the player is trading guarantees for a reduction in his overall contract value.

I may not be clear on what you're asking, so feel free to help me better understand. I think you're asking if a player's amortized bonuses, which have either already been paid or are already committed to the player and guaranteed, can be "given back" as part of a new contract. The only circumstance of which I'm aware where signing bonuses can be given back, is if the player retires before his contract is complete. And then, it's usually only if the player retires pretty immediately after he signs the contract, not a couple years down the line (in theory, the team could request repayment but often don't). So fundamentally, the contract consists of two types of money: yearly cash (salary, per game roster bonuses, and workout bonuses; incentives), and bonuses already paid, but amortized over the length of the contract. The yearly cash can be re-worked as a new contract. The bonuses already paid can not. For example, when a player is traded, his bonuses stay with the trading team, but he is still under contract to the new team with the yearly cash specified in his deal for the duration of the deal. The new team can negotiate a new contract and tear up the old contract, but old team can't (in the immortal words of Eric Wood to Aaron Maybin) say "Give back some of that (bonus) money you ain't *****in' earned!"

Yeah, that was weird. Graham states that per Butler and per McDermott, Butler left on amicable terms. There is the implication that he wanted to receive the DC job, and that he left after he got passed over for Bobby Babich. Then Graham several times implies it couldn't have been amicable - earlier than the piece you quoted he alludes that "amicable parting" is a term used to cover-up a some internal brangling: But, he offers no evidence to support his implication and in fact quotes Butler several times as saying no scandal, amicable, no crazy story. Then he uses examples like Brady leaving the Patriots and the Beatles breaking up (well known to have rancor behind them) to conclude if those could happen "an assistant coach can conclude it's time to move on". Either Graham is obtuse, or he's being too cute with trying to imply that there's something shady going on behind the scenes without offering any evidence. It seems logical to me that if Butler thought he should be tapped as DC, he wouldn't be happy sitting in a meeting room with Bobby Babich as his boss. Personally from what I can tell, Babich may be more qualified, but the ultimate judgement on that is of course McDermott's. I thought there were a couple of glaring omissions in Graham's Ode to Butler as our DB coach. One of them was the mysterious case of Kaiir Elam, a first round pick who had some good play at the end of last season and then seemingly fell down the depth chart to game-day inactive. He has talent, so if Butler is a great talent developer, why is Elam collecting splinters in his butt? Then there are some questions about key breaks in coverage at key moments. Not dissing Butler, he's obviously done some great work here, but I thought Graham's article had some weird aspects.

Shirtless or open vest/jacket is part of Dion’s “jam” these days. He’s said stuff about it showing confidence in his “skinny bod” or something

Perhaps? The concerns about Araiza were 1) inexperience as the holder for FG and XP 2) lack of directional control and finess - he’s a “boomer” who can kick it really far, but not necessarily keep it away from a dangerous returner or down it on the 3 yd line instead of kicking through the EZ He may have been working on these skills the last 2 years, so maybe it’s all good now. Townsend is a free agent AFAIK.

“”Easily a top 15 QB” I could be mistaken, but I don’t think you want to pay a guy whose ceiling is perceived as “top 15 QB”. That’s probably not the path to a championship

I love Josh Allen as our QB, but i thought PFF QB ratings didn’t make sense back in 2015 when we all could see Tyrod Taylor wouldn’t throw with anticipation or to anyone who wasn’t wide open on short or intermediate throws, but he was PFF’s 10th best ranked QB. So I can’t turn coat and be all thrilled by them rating Josh #1.