NFL 2020: Offseason

So the QB musical chairs:

Moved:
Brady: Bucs
Rivers: Colts
Bridgewater: Panthers
Foles: Bears
Mariota: Raiders (backup)
Driskel: Broncos (backup)
Keenum: Browns (backup / potential 1A if Baker goes down the Trubisky path)

Retained:
Brees: Saints
Tannehill: Titans
Prescott: Cowboys
Hill: Saints (now top backup / shot at future starter)
Henne: Chiefs (backup)

Teams remaining:
Patriots
Chargers
Bengals
Dolphins
Washington (1A or high backup)
Packers (high backup / future starter)
Steelers (backup / future starter if they don't think Rudolph is it)
Giants (backup)
Titans (backup)
Rams (backup)
Lions (low backup)
Jaguars (low backup)
Seahawks (low backup)

QBs available:
Newton
Winston
Dalton
Flacco
Bortles
Brissett (trade)
Burrow (draft)
Tagovailoa (draft)
Herbert (draft)
Love (draft)
Plenty of lower round draft prospects

Probably some other veteran backups and teams that could want to change their backups that could go on the list, but the picture gets murkier going any deeper.

FYI: The NFL just announced that NFL Game Pass is free until May 31.

Dalton seems like the safest bet left for the Patriots? I mean, I guess I could imagine Cam. That being said, just having a camera affixed permanently to Belichick's face while he watches Patriots Starting Quarterback Blink Borkles stumbling around the field would definitely get me watching again.

Maybe Brissett comes back or there's a trade-up in the draft, but none of the current options are particularly appealing and it's not like the Patriots have ever had any success with a late-round QB HA HA I AM FUNNY.

Winston on the Chargers just seems kind of inevitable? So disappointed he didn't go to the Raiders, would have loved to watch Gruden's face as much as Belichick's.

Here's the hard part for the Patriots: they have no cap space to speak of. Oddly, there's a lot of disagreement between Spotrac and OverTheCap on where NE's cap sits, but it's somewhere between $3m and $12m. Lot of incentives in those Patriots contracts that aren't always clear if/when they're met.

Pushing money out into dummy years means they have $13.5m of dead money from Tom Brady on 2020's cap. They also inexplicably have Joe Thuney franchised for $14.78m, which is a number he won't stay at, but they'll still be pretty tight even after doing whatever they're going to do with him.

My gut guess is that the Pats send one of their two compensatory 3rd round picks to the Colts for Brissett, possibly with the Colts converting some salary to bonus in order to retain that portion of Brissett's money (same thing the Dolphins did in order to move Tannehill last year). Getting a 3rd for Brissett is as good as they could hope for in a crowded QB market, and they have the crazy amount of cap room that would let them easily eat a few million dollars in order to come away with a good draft pick.

Or possibly there's a new Garoppolo out there that Belichick likes in the draft and will go get. The team isn't in a good position to trade up for one of the top 3 QBs. Some drafts have them taking Jordan Love at #23, not sure I see it. They don't have a 2nd round pick, but with three 3rds (their own plus those two compensatories), they could move up into round 2 and target a second-tier prospect like they did Jimmy G.

They should offer the Texans a packet of ready salted crisps for Watson, they would snap that up.

Ian Rapoport says the Chargers are not going to try and pursue a veteran QB now that Brady is off the market. Quote, "they are moving forward with Tyrod Taylor for 2020".

Let's translate that into reality talk: they are absolutely going to draft someone, who may or may not sit behind Taylor to start the year. With nobody that's in easy trade-up striking distance that could leapfrog them, they should at least be able to get Justin Herbert at #6, assuming Burrow #1 and Tua #5.

My gut says Chargers move up for Tua.

garion333 wrote:

My gut says Chargers move up for Tua.

Could happen, but Miami would have to let it happen.

Any team that gets a trade offer from the Chargers should give Miami the opportunity to beat it, and Miami not only has the higher 1st round pick, but own about a third of the draft picks for the next two drafts. Chargers can't compete in a bidding war.

The teams holding picks 2-4 are all NFC so they won't care about which AFC team they deal with.

So, uh, Niners trade Buckner to the Colts. Guess there's not enough money to extend all those 1st rounders on the DL.

Eagles will likely be getting Darius Slay from the Lions. That clearly fills a huge void for the Eagles.

Gurley cut. Curious who scoops him up on the cheap.

garion333 wrote:

Gurley cut. Curious who scoops him up on the cheap.

The Bucs need an RB that can pass block; Ronald Jones is so bad at it actual turnstiles give him the side-eye.

garion333 wrote:

Gurley cut.

$20.15 million in dead cap. They lose $2.9m of cap space in 2020 from making this move, and they only had about $12m of cap room in 2020 left even after the departures of Brockers, Fowler, Littleton, and declining Robey-Coleman's option.

And they still need to extend Jalen Ramsey, who definitely is going to want to leapfrog Slay and Byron Jones by a healthy margin.

Twitter tells me that Sean Payton tested positive for the Rona.

I mean, I hate that guy's guts, but not Rona badly.

Rams cut Clay Matthews too.

Between him, Fowler, and Littleton, 23.5 sacks from their edge rushers last year have left their defensive depth chart.

Now instead they have some of their old rotational players, plus Leonard Floyd, who we've already discussed.

But you know Wade Phillips will still bring some heat OH RIGHT they fired him too and hired... *checks notes* ... Brandon Staley, last year's linebackers coach in Denver.

Hang on, I'm recalling something about Denver and the linebackers last year... oh it was how Von Miller and Bradley Chubb took weeks before they got a single sack, then after Chubb got hurt, Miller continued on with his worst season as a pro. Nice coaching work.

Todd Gurly is a Dirty Bird.

Clay Matthews jokes that he should have been a Raven

Emmanuel Sanders to the Saints. No word if the Saints are to trade Michael Thomas for a box of Crackerjack a la Nuk.

Niners letting Sanders go at a price they might have managed has me wondering if they really are looking at an OBJ trade.

The alternative is drafting a WR at #13, but with no guarantee that whatever receiver they like will be on the board.

I bet they don't pick at 13 at all. They desperately need more picks and can roll the dice on multiple WRs later if they drop down.

That said, OL or (more likely) DB with 13th pick.

Nelson Agholor signs with Raiders for a year.

I don't feel as strongly positive about this as I did with Vaitai leaving. Agholor can be good, but boy was 2019 not a good year (then again, that describes the majority of the Eagles players this past season as it is).

We'll see what happens, I suppose.

garion333 wrote:

I bet they don't pick at 13 at all. They desperately need more picks and can roll the dice on multiple WRs later if they drop down.

That said, OL or (more likely) DB with 13th pick.

I don't think they will use both of their 1st round picks, but I don't have an opinion on whether it is #13 or #31 that they use in a trade-down. The latter is often easier because teams are using it to jump back in the 1st round and draft a guy with the 5th year option available to them, which they won't get at the top of the 2nd.

#13 will be harder to move unless there is a QB still on the board, or there is a player that someone is really in love with, and both seem less common once you get outside the top 10.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I bet they don't pick at 13 at all. They desperately need more picks and can roll the dice on multiple WRs later if they drop down.

That said, OL or (more likely) DB with 13th pick.

I don't think they will use both of their 1st round picks, but I don't have an opinion on whether it is #13 or #31 that they use in a trade-down. The latter is often easier because teams are using it to jump back in the 1st round and draft a guy with the 5th year option available to them, which they won't get at the top of the 2nd.

#13 will be harder to move unless there is a QB still on the board, or there is a player that someone is really in love with, and both seem less common once you get outside the top 10.

Dwayne Haskins was available then.

Poor guy.

Also, more trades happen outside the top 10 than inside.

Alright that may take a bite out of the top 10 comment, but it does confirm that #31 is far more likely to be tradable than #13.

Gruden: "Alright after we got rid of Amari, Carr's completion percentage shot up without all those drops. Makes us look bad when we blame him for everything. How do we get those drops back?"

Mayock: "I've got Agholor on the phone."

*Legion* wrote:

Teams remaining:
Patriots

If anyone had "Brian Hoyer" on their QB bingo card, stamp that spot.

Hoyer signed by Patriots and will get "chance to start".

*Legion* wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Teams remaining:
Patriots

If anyone had "Brian Hoyer" on their QB bingo card, stamp that spot.

Hoyer signed by Patriots and will get "chance to start".

IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/jIpdfWCmoZmyQTI9qnBRLc1eoKWkPHV9uhfbj6c1O_zUyNRritFSzV7SDXNPsLP9lYyUjj3Bo0cjxDB-9F_P8o9zdvijEDo8)

Speaking of "what year is it", Browns Bears sign Barkevious Mingo.

Dreams of being a dominant edge rusher are long gone (10 sacks in 110 career games, 5 of those came in his first 15 games). Mingo has mostly been used of late as a special teams player and off-ball LB.

*Legion* wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Teams remaining:
Patriots

If anyone had "Brian Hoyer" on their QB bingo card, stamp that spot.

Hoyer signed by Patriots and will get "chance to start".

Hahaha

So the Panthers are signing a QB allegedly named PJ Walker, formerly of the XFL (and who played for Matt Rhule at Temple) and sent Kyle "Not Josh" Allen to DC for a fifth-rounder.

Meanwhile, they gave permission (in air quotes) for Cam Newton to seek a trade, and Cam's still on the roster.

Assuming there's a 2020 NFL season, I might need a new team temporarily. I definitely don't want a Panthers Franchise Fan tag.