NFL 2012 Draft Thread

Considering last year, I'd go for "paper lack of 12-game losing streak".

Where's the in-depth discussion of the supplemental draft?

On a related note, Cleveland made a big gamble today. I hope, for their sake, it works out.

MilkmanDanimal, nice bucs comment on PFT's site. ::

karmajay wrote:

MilkmanDanimal, nice bucs comment on PFT's site. ::

I have no idea what you're talking about; I would never ramble on about Tampa. That being said, if I were to ramble on about Tampa, it might be to argue that Tampa should not be 26th in the incredibly-meaningless preseason Power Rankings; the team has enough talent where even decent coaching and leadership should bump them up to .500-ish territory.

Can we all breathe a sigh of relief now that the Brees contract is done. Man, was that ever a non-story.

garion333 wrote:

Can we all breathe a sigh of relief now that the Brees contract is done. Man, was that ever a non-story.

But the contract talks were all that were saving us from Brees' weekly bounty-denial.

Not sure why Brees was demanding all that money. Sure, he compiled a s-ton of yardage and stats last year, but in the end, what did that get him? An early exit in the playoffs. In the last 5 seasons, Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls to Brees' one. Don't get me wrong, I am not remotely saying that Eli Manning is the best QB in the NFL, he's not. But is there really a clear cut #1? Cases can be made for Brady, Rodgers, and Peyton Manning, what makes Brees so special that he needed a 100 million dollar contract. What should the Saints have paid him if he HAD won a Super Bowl last year? Someone on the radio this morning brought up the fact that Brees always gave off the appearance that he was this "good guy who really loves the city of New Orleans". I can just look at him now as the guy who needed to squeeze every last penny out of a desperate Saints team that was in their darkest hour.

Brees did win a Super Bowl. Brees keeps them winning. He is their Peyton Manning. He has as many Super Bowls as Peyton Manning. He's a pretty damn elite QB. Why is he making as much as he is? Because of those factors, the fact he's passed for more yards, touchdowns and a higher completion percentage than anyone in the past 5 years or so and because of Peyton Manning's gigantic contract.

If Brees' contract had been up after the Super Bowl win it would've been for the top contract at that point (say, $18 mil/yr). When Aaron Rodgers' contract comes up, he's probably going to be looking at something close to Brees money, if not more. It's just how this sh*t works. Will Eli ask for the same when his time comes? Probably.

The Saints are hardly in their darkest hour. Pretty sure that happened when the city got destroyed. Yes, they're in a pretty bad place and this was a bunch of bad pr for Brees, but they front loaded his contract, which can be seen as a good or bad thing, so if his body falls apart in 2014 they can dump him without taking anywhere near the cap hit they would've otherwise. Obviously they don't want to do that, but this way they're "safer" as he ages. It's not the best contract in the world to me, but it makes sense based on how the business side is run.

Kush15 wrote:

Not sure why Brees was demanding all that money. Sure, he compiled a s-ton of yardage and stats last year, but in the end, what did that get him? An early exit in the playoffs. In the last 5 seasons, Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls to Brees' one.

Didn't know football was a single player sport.

Anyways I have 0 problems with this. Every contract is the players vs the owners. Its Brees unwritten rule to push price up so the next round of guys can point and want the same. I watch football because the players make it entertaining. I never get upset when they take a deserved chunk of the mega millions floating around.

I don't fault Brees for pursuing the best contract he could get.

I do fault him for speaking to the media and characterizing the Saints as negotiating in "bad faith" during the process.

*Legion* wrote:

I don't fault Brees for pursuing the best contract he could get.

I do fault him for speaking to the media and characterizing the Saints as negotiating in "bad faith" during the process.

Exactly. He's gone from a class act to an asshat in my view during this offseason because of bounty BS and now this. I don't blame anyone for wanting to get paid - not him, not Mario Williams who is leaving Houston, nobody.

$32/mil seems like a bad cut of the Bear's profits.

Looks like Matt Forte finally got paid: 4 yr, $32 mil

I don't know what you're talking about.

jowner wrote:

Didn't know football was a single player sport.

Then why do QBs get paid more than a lineman?

*EDIT*
I bring this up, not because I don't know why QBs get paid more, but because this is a stupid statement. Yes, I also know that football is not a single player sport, but yet you're acknowledging that it's common place for a QB to get way more than other positions, and that's because the QB position is one of, if not, the most important piece to the offensive side of the ball.

I do think QBs like Brees should get paid. I had a problem with, like most of you have pointed out, the way he went about requesting the money. Part of that was the fact that he pretty much thought that the offer that the Saints made was insulting. I was pointing out that for a guy who only won 1 Super Bowl in the last 5 years, that it seemed that the Saints were probably offering a suitable compensation.

Contracts are completely out of control, and I also understand that in football, more than any other sport, that contracts are meaningless. Possibly, if contracts were more reasonable, you might not have so many broken ones, but that is either here nor there. I think that Brees does deserve the money, QB is a punishing position, and he has proven himself as one of the league's best. I just thought he came off as an ass, and I don't think my previous post reflected that opinion.

Kush15 wrote:
jowner wrote:

Didn't know football was a single player sport.

Then why do QBs get paid more than a lineman?

*EDIT*
I bring this up, not because I don't know why QBs get paid more, but because this is a stupid statement. Yes, I also know that football is not a single player sport, but yet you're acknowledging that it's common place for a QB to get way more than other positions, and that's because the QB position is one of, if not, the most important piece to the offensive side of the ball.

I do think QBs like Brees should get paid. I had a problem with, like most of you have pointed out, the way he went about requesting the money. Part of that was the fact that he pretty much thought that the offer that the Saints made was insulting. I was pointing out that for a guy who only won 1 Super Bowl in the last 5 years, that it seemed that the Saints were probably offering a suitable compensation.

Contracts are completely out of control, and I also understand that in football, more than any other sport, that contracts are meaningless. Possibly, if contracts were more reasonable, you might not have so many broken ones, but that is either here nor there. I think that Brees does deserve the money, QB is a punishing position, and he has proven himself as one of the league's best. I just thought he came off as an ass, and I don't think my previous post reflected that opinion.

I'm confused as to what you think was a stupid statement is. Your comparison of QB's and Linemen or my statement.

My statement was directed towards the nonsense of measuring an individual players worth by how many Super Bowls they have won compared to someone else. I'm not sure what Eli has to do with it at all. The facts of the situation is Brees is a top 5 player at his position which is the most important position in his team sport. In a team sport with boatloads of cash involved. Feel free to think hes a jerk the way everything was handled but I'm not going to hold it against him for being extremely valuable.

Also confusing is you think Brees should get paid but the contracts are completely out of control.

edit: Also as was already mentioned Brees was up for contract this year. When QB's of his caliber come up for contract in following years expect the same kind of money. Maybe not the same attitudes.

And now Ray Rice got locked down. 5 yr, $40 mil. Considering how much of a factor both be and Forte are to their teams this is money well spent...barring (further) injury.

Kush15 wrote:

Contracts are completely out of control

What do you base this on?

Players make more money than ever, certainly, but this is a $9 billion a year league, and the guys who do the important work ought to take home a decent share of that, right?

Also, this is the NFL, which means contracts are very much under control, more than any other sport. The percentage of money that goes to the players is strictly defined. Every team's contract spending is controlled by a meticulously designed salary cap. There are no guaranteed contracts that allow a player to sign for a huge amount of money and then be a paycheck-collecting bum for 10 years. And now, even the chaos of rookie contract growth has been stomped out with the advent of the rookie wage scale.

I'm at a loss to see where the "out of control" part is.

By out of control, I mean that compared to jobs that actually make a difference in this world, athletes make way more. It's a problem that is beyond repair, and since owners are making so much money off of the players, they in turn have to be this high. But did Brees have to have 100 Million? He couldn't be happy with, say 80 Million? Maybe help the Saints to improve/keep talent?

In terms of contracts by league and salary caps, yes, the NFL is doing a better job.

*Legion* wrote:

There are no guaranteed contracts that allow a player to sign for a huge amount of money and then be a paycheck-collecting bum for 10 years.

Yeah, it's not baseball.

Kush15 wrote:

By out of control, I mean that compared to jobs that actually make a difference in this world, athletes make way more. It's a problem that is beyond repair, and since owners are making so much money off of the players, they in turn have to be this high. But did Brees have to have 100 Million? He couldn't be happy with, say 80 Million? Maybe help the Saints to improve/keep talent?

In terms of contracts by league and salary caps, yes, the NFL is doing a better job.

Brees is paid that much solely because both he and the Saints organization agree that he is worth that much.
That's it. Its not moral, its money.

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

There are no guaranteed contracts that allow a player to sign for a huge amount of money and then be a paycheck-collecting bum for 10 years.

Yeah, it's not baseball. ;)

Or what the NHL is becoming.

Kush15 wrote:

But did Brees have to have 100 Million? He couldn't be happy with, say 80 Million? Maybe help the Saints to improve/keep talent?

Quarterbacks with big deals like this are often the first to restructure when there's a need to open up cap space to keep people.

The Saints don't need an extra few million a year to improve their team. They need what every NFL franchise needs: good draft classes. That's the primary constraining factor on building quality teams.

boogle wrote:
Kush15 wrote:

By out of control, I mean that compared to jobs that actually make a difference in this world, athletes make way more. It's a problem that is beyond repair, and since owners are making so much money off of the players, they in turn have to be this high. But did Brees have to have 100 Million? He couldn't be happy with, say 80 Million? Maybe help the Saints to improve/keep talent?

In terms of contracts by league and salary caps, yes, the NFL is doing a better job.

Brees is paid that much solely because both he and the Saints organization agree that he is worth that much.
That's it. Its not moral, its money.

Whoa, the move to Texas is showing already!

Seriously, my take is similar, and I think Jason Alexander from Seinfeld said it best (defending himself and the cast) - this pot of money is already out there. It already exists. Who should it go to?

I'm all for capitalism and the rights of owners, but I have zero problem with the people doing the entertaining getting paid very well. This is a wonderful contrast to, say, the music industry.

Sports players have an incredibly short career window, sacrifice a career in anything else (this is no longer true for many), generate enough income for owners to pay high salaries, and are the best in the world at what they do. I have no problem with high player salaries.

Favre news!!!

“First of all, the money was too good,” Favre told Deion Sanders on NFL Network. “The money was too good, and I hate to say it’s about money. But, you know, I felt the money was a lot.”

Oh, and Andrew Luck signed a 4 yr contract. Whoopee.

Kenny Britt, as dumb as they come.

Lmao. Priceless. Lions are probably interested in him. Wide receiver AND trouble with the law...

He gets in trouble so much, you'd think Floyd Reese drafted him!

...

*taps mic*

Floyd Reese!