NFL 2018 Offseason Thread

Boo! Mustard sweat stain uniforms forever!

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Likely landing spot?

Uh oh, hopefully no one signed with the Ravens this week pending a physical.

garion333 wrote:

Uh oh, hopefully no one signed with the Ravens this week pending a physical.

RG3 contract voided, Dez Bryant now Ravens QB2.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Uh oh, hopefully no one signed with the Ravens this week pending a physical.

RG3 contract voided, Dez Bryant now Ravens QB2.

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Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

garion333 wrote:
Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

I have to admit the idea of seeing Dez Bryant's face after Joe Flacco checks down over and over and over again has some serious potential for hilarity.

I've been largely disconnected from most news over the last week, but did the Browns really give Jarvis Landry $75.5 million over five years?

Somehow that "Mike Evans gets $82.8 million over five years" thing seems like an astounding bargain now.

More mock drafts are suggesting Rosen could be the 4th quarterback taken.

Madness.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

I have to admit the idea of seeing Dez Bryant's face after Joe Flacco checks down over and over and over again has some serious potential for hilarity.

Between Bryant and Crabtree the Ravens would have the slowest WR pair in NFL history.

Paleocon wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

I have to admit the idea of seeing Dez Bryant's face after Joe Flacco checks down over and over and over again has some serious potential for hilarity.

Between Bryant and Crabtree the Ravens would have the slowest WR pair in NFL history.

I would say surliest. If Bryant goes there, I've got dibs on second quarter of game three for the "Joe Flacco punched in face by own WR" pool.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I've been largely disconnected from most news over the last week, but did the Browns really give Jarvis Landry $75.5 million over five years?

Somehow that "Mike Evans gets $82.8 million over five years" thing seems like an astounding bargain now.

Yuuuuuup.

I like Landry a lot but this is about as anti-Moneyball as it comes. #BringBackSashi

Paleocon wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

I have to admit the idea of seeing Dez Bryant's face after Joe Flacco checks down over and over and over again has some serious potential for hilarity.

Between Bryant and Crabtree the Ravens would have the slowest WR pair in NFL history.

When your QB's passes are shorter than a top RB's runs, you don't need WR speed.

*Legion* wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Report: Ravens interested in Dez Bryant

Not sure how they can afford him with only $10 mil in space, but I assume they'll convert some of Jimmy Smith's mammoth $15 mil hit to a bonus as they've done the past two seasons.

Or get $1 mil back by cutting RG3...

I have to admit the idea of seeing Dez Bryant's face after Joe Flacco checks down over and over and over again has some serious potential for hilarity.

Between Bryant and Crabtree the Ravens would have the slowest WR pair in NFL history.

When your QB's passes are shorter than a top RB's runs, you don't need WR speed.

I, for one, am looking forward to Baltimore's .3 yards and a puff of dust offensive strategy.

garion333 wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I've been largely disconnected from most news over the last week, but did the Browns really give Jarvis Landry $75.5 million over five years?

Somehow that "Mike Evans gets $82.8 million over five years" thing seems like an astounding bargain now.

Yuuuuuup.

I like Landry a lot but this is about as anti-Moneyball as it comes. #BringBackSashi

I have a lot of things to say on this topic, but I'm out of town on business this week, so I'll just boil it down to this: the salary cap rollover era, paired with the "4 year average" salary floor, has changed the free agency business in ways that league pundits seem incredibly slow to pick up on. Team economies are now a multi-year concern, and spending less one year in order to target high quality talent the following year (paying above-market value using last year's cap dollars to cover the excess) is going to be a growing tactic among both rebuilding teams (see: 2016-2017 Jaguars), and I envision a near future when teams underspend one year in order to load up the next year for a Super Bowl push.

I don't disagree and a lot of the "worst contract ever" claims I saw around the interwebs were quite a bit overblown, but I don't feel like Landry's quite ascended to 2014 Randall Cobb level of play but he's being paid like he is. Then again, he did play with Jay Cutler at QB last year, which means it's a gimmee year and possibly clouding my judgement.

That said, Mike Evans is underpaid if you ask me. But I guess when you're in Florida you don't care as much because all that money is hitting your bank account tax free.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I've been largely disconnected from most news over the last week, but did the Browns really give Jarvis Landry $75.5 million over five years?

Somehow that "Mike Evans gets $82.8 million over five years" thing seems like an astounding bargain now.

Yuuuuuup.

I like Landry a lot but this is about as anti-Moneyball as it comes. #BringBackSashi

I have a lot of things to say on this topic, but I'm out of town on business this week, so I'll just boil it down to this: the salary cap rollover era, paired with the "4 year average" salary floor, has changed the free agency business in ways that league pundits seem incredibly slow to pick up on. Team economies are now a multi-year concern, and spending less one year in order to target high quality talent the following year (paying above-market value using last year's cap dollars to cover the excess) is going to be a growing tactic among both rebuilding teams (see: 2016-2017 Jaguars), and I envision a near future when teams underspend one year in order to load up the next year for a Super Bowl push.

Which I'm all for; having that kind of churn in viable contenders makes things more interesting, and it was certainly interesting to wait for the Jaguars to implode all year, at least until the offensive gameplan in the 2nd half of the AFCCG did it for them. I'd like to see teams cycle in and out on a regular basis, partially because rooting for the Tampa Bay Dumpster Fires can get exhausting.

garion333 wrote:

I don't disagree and a lot of the "worst contract ever" claims I saw around the interwebs were quite a bit overblown, but I don't feel like Landry's quite ascended to 2014 Randall Cobb level of play but he's being paid like he is.

Honest question, asked in general and not targeted at you or meant to be snarky: So what?

Landry's contract details aren't released yet, but barring something inexplicable, it's going to be front-loaded. Essentially, the surplus of money Landry's contract has over what would be expected of his deal is from rollover money. They're paying him with 2016 and 2017 dollars.

Overpaying a guy in and of itself is not a problem. Where overpaying becomes a problem is if there's a consequence - being unable to sign someone else, being unable to extend a guy you want to keep, etc. If the "consequence" is that you have $30m of unused cap space instead of $40m, so what?

More to the point, a contract exists as a portion of an overall team economy. If the best roster you can assemble comes by overpaying one guy that you can afford to because you're underpaying three other guys on their rookie deals, then you absolutely should do so.

The only time I have a problem with a deal is when a team cannot get out of it. That's increasingly becoming rare, especially in the rollover era, because guaranteed money is just being paid up front in roster bonuses and guaranteed salary in years 1 and/or 2. Signing bonus is on the wane.

What's especially funny is, like you pointed out, some people scream "worst contract ever" all the time. Yet we have not seen a team in legitimate cap crisis in well over a decade. It's a situation that has essentially ceased to exist. The reality of the situation is that teams are going into seasons sitting on an average of $10m of unused cap space. For all the overpaying teams are supposedly doing every free agency cycle, everyone still has leftover money. There are very few "cap casualties" who are players a team actually really wanted to keep.

Here's an article listing 2015's "worst" free agent contracts. Three of the four guys indeed did not end up lasting with those teams. The outcomes of those deals:

- Byron Maxwell: played one season for the Eagles, traded to Miami, Philly ate $4.8 mil dead money
- DeMarco Murray: played one season for the Eagles, traded to Tennessee, Philly ate $4 mil dead money
- Rodney Hudson: still in Oakland, now only ranked 7th among center salaries
- Julius Thomas: played two seasons for the Jags, traded to Miami, Jacksonville ate $3.6 mil dead money

Those are the consequences of terminating the worst free agent deals of 2015. $4.8m, $4m, and $3.6m dead money. BIG FRIGGIN DEAL.

Spotrac seems to think they know mostly what's in the deal and check this:

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It's basically a one year deal. After this season he'll only cost $6 mil in dead cap in 2019.

That's not a terrible contract, that's pretty much the best contract in the league. Dude is massive dead weight this year, but the Browns have all the money in the world to spend atm and no one wants to come to Cleveland. Might as well lock in Landry for a while and if he doesn't perform, dump him for next to no issue.

Meanwhile, Joe Flacco still carries $16 mil in dead cap next year. f*cking hell.

They must have just updated that page, because I pulled up that page as I was typing my post, and it was still the placeholder with blanked out info for the years.

That's a good example of how teams are pumping up "guaranteed" numbers by guaranteeing year 1's salary. There was no way they were going to sign Landry and then cut him before the season, so guaranteeing that salary is pretty much a "free" way of making the contract look better.

This is becoming a pretty standard contract, especially for teams surfing a tide of rollover money.

As for Flacco... yeah that 2016 extension was a head scratcher. One of the old style signing bonus heavy deals in an era where teams are moving away from that in a hurry.

*Legion* wrote:

They must have just updated that page, because I pulled up that page as I was typing my post, and it was still the placeholder with blanked out info for the years.

That's a good example of how teams are pumping up "guaranteed" numbers by guaranteeing year 1's salary. There was no way they were going to sign Landry and then cut him before the season, so guaranteeing that salary is pretty much a "free" way of making the contract look better.

This is becoming a pretty standard contract, especially for teams surfing a tide of rollover money.

As for Flacco... yeah that 2016 extension was a head scratcher. One of the old style signing bonus heavy deals in an era where teams are moving away from that in a hurry.

To be fair, with the way he's played in recent years, Joe Flacco at the veteran minimum would be a pretty lousy contract.

*Legion* wrote:

They must have just updated that page, because I pulled up that page as I was typing my post, and it was still the placeholder with blanked out info for the years.

If you do a search for "Jarvis Landry contract" and the Spotrac page had the numbers.

If I go to Spotrac and find him through the Browns page, his page doesn't have the numbers.

My guess is it's a cache issue.

It's been a few years, time for new Jaguars jerseys again!

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Wait, simple teal uniforms? No weird swooshes or different-color-sleeves nonsense? It's almost too good to be true.

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OK, I can live with this... I don't like teal with black pants, hated it with the old jerseys, but it appear to be an alternate...

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No more half spray painted helmet, just the original black helmet style with the newer Jag logo...

Wait, there has to be something stupid! This doesn't make sense.

All black jerseys are the primary home uniform, teal is alternate

AND THERE IT IS. JAGS GOTTA JAG.

Of course, I can't talk about Jags jerseys without pointing out that the expansion era jerseys were perfect and needed no drastic changes.

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Uni watch flashback: Jacksonville Jaguars struck gold with first uniforms

USA Today has been polling sports agents for their opinions of the league and teams, leading to this article

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Why does a team need 5 different uniforms for 16 games a year? I am really tired of making new uniforms just for merchandising reasons.

And that is an interesting chart Legion, thanks for posting it. I wonder what percent of players are represented by those 25 agents that responded. Biggest surprise for me is seeing John Elway with the known-bads like Mike Brown and Tannenbaum.

Yesterday: Brandon Marshall on the idea of the Giants adding Dez Bryant: "sorry baby bro no room"

Today: Giants cut Brandon Marshall, citing failed physical.

Clearly it's the new thing to get out of bad contracts.

garion333 wrote:

Clearly it's the new thing to get out of bad contracts.

That kind of trailblazing is what put Ozzie #1 on the agents' Respect list.