FootballZombie

I don't see anybody willing to pay Smith 23 M. We wont be doing that ourselves. We all know that Smith will not be back in Wash... at least at his current price. The only way Smith is tradable is if he agrees to re-work his deal and take a massive pay cut. Why would he do that when he knows he can sit on his hands, wait for the team to cut him, then choose his own destination in FA. He does not owe us anything, there is little reason for him to do us a solid like that. Even with the reworked deal, i could really only imagine getting a little more than a pick swap in return

Getting a set in stone Cap number would help speed things up. That would accelerate the player cuts these teams are making and give more organizations a much clearer look into their own financial situation, letting them know what kind of dead cap they could potentially eat or how much money they have available to facilitate a move at a big money position like QB. Nobody wants to cut someone they don't have too, so all the cuts up to now have been the "obvious choices". Once teams have a full understanding of their cap situation, they will have to make tougher choices, or will be in a situation where they are much more motivated to trade an asset like a Mariota.

I don’t think any team has ever gone over the cap to my knowledge, but the NFL employs several ways to punish teams that do cap trickery... like we were punished a few years back I know they can fine teams millions of dollars. They can take draft picks too. They can impose cap constrictions on future monies as well. I think the most important thing is that they can void contracts, especially new ones. Any team that tries to sign or trade a player, FA or Rookie, has to go through the NFL for approval. If a specific team does not have the cap space at the time to facilitate the transfer, they will have their transaction voided. That means that at the very least any team that would be over the cap come the start of the league year would be unable to sign anyone. No Rookies, No FAs, nothing. On top of being fined to oblivion and having their assets taken. I would seriously doubt there is an existing pathway for any team to just F-it and take the penalties instead of just getting under the cap.

Pretty sure NFL runs a hard cap, meaning no team can exceed the set cap. Teams like the NO and PHI have to get under the cap... and more. I believe teams will have to be under the Cap by the start of the league year, but it will require even further cap space to bring in the incoming rookie draft class. We will very likely see a strong wave of additional veteran cuts after the draft when cap strapped teams have to make even more space for incoming rookies. Since these players would have passed the first round of cuts, it could create an incredible secondary free agency pool of players teams really did not want to let go of.

There is nothing but correlation. Top FA WRs and stable QB situation go hand and hand. What big fish WR (the WR who signed the biggest contract in the FA period) went to a team without a settled QB in the last several years? 2020 Randall Cobb had the biggest contract last year, and he went to Hou (Watson) Emmanuel Sanders got the biggest AAV and he went to NO (Brees) 2019 Tyrell Williams got the most money and AAV to go to OAK (Carr) Antonio Brown got the 2nd most AAV to go to OAK as well. 2018 Sammy Watkins went to KC for the most Money and AAV to a team that was clearly committed to Mahomie, after shipping out Alex before FA A Rob went to CHI for the second most AAV to a team that was committed to Trubisky P Richardson got the third most money, but that was with the promise of playing with Alex Smith, who was acquired well before FA The common thread here is that almost every FA big fish goes to a situation that at least has an established, committed to QB. Big fish FA WR will not willing walk into a QB camp battle, as their output is so directly tied to the QB. You cant expect to land a big fish WR on FA when you cant offer a commitment to a QB. No WR wants to come to a team where you cant even tell them who they are catching balls from. While the idea that you have to have an elite QB is false, you do need a clear QB1 to be in the game

That would be the cliffnotes version of it. Goodell does not have the authority to remove an owner, but he can convene a committee consisting of owners that can put the removal of an owner up for a vote. I believe a majority vote is all that is needed for removal. Don't hold your breath on that happening with what we currently know however, and the odds of getting enough votes are twice as long as getting a vote in the first place. I would like to think Amazon Prime members would get ES for free. Also it would be impossible to have Amazon stadium and not have our worse nightmares of a moat realized. Gotta incorporate the Amazon river. EDIT: Conspiracy - Now I see why SOME people within the org have been pushing for a moat in the first place

Is that sorted by drafted by, played most years for... Several players could be HOFs for multiple teams

WR Jeffrey getting cut by Philly. I have no interest in signing a 31 y/o WR, but it is good for us as it adds another fish into the pond.

Watson was always going to cost an arm and a leg. You should be going in knowing it will run 2-3 1sts, at least 1 2nd, 1 rookie deal player and probably a sweetener on top. Just like with any trade the buyer will start lower and a seller will start higher. Granted they started their asking price way too high, but we all heard about Philly putting an asking price of 2 1sts on Wentz. You start high if you are the seller, that is how this works. I am not getting cold feet just cause King thinks it will be pricey. The market will determine that and we just saw it correct itself w/ Wentz. Furthermore Watson's no trade clause is the big factor here. He could single handedly depth charge the returns needed to bring him in, just by saying he wont go to destination X or Y, or mandates that he goes to one of 3 teams.

Didn't Bezos recently change his position at Amazon. Opens up a lot of free time. Gotta do something now. Man could write a check and buy any team he wanted. Nobody is turning down 30 bazillion dollars. Dude seems committed to doing things in the most economical fashion tho. Guess that's why he is so stupid rich.

There... now as long as I do that every 2 hours, I can live in a world where I don't have to see outlets link us to Sam Darnold

You can find a guy to support anything. You can find predraft articles about Burrow being not as good as Tua. You can find predraft articles about Trev being worse than Wilson You can find predraft articles about Chase not being as good as K'lavon https://sportsnaut.com/chase-young-draft-not-best-player-nfl-scout/ The comparisons will ALWAYS be made. Does not matter how bad the take is.

Trev L is going #1. Forget the marker, you can get a chisel and put it in stone. Your going to get some debate at the top of the draft, its the nature of the beast. You got people saying you should take RG3 over Luck. There were people saying you should take Tua over Burrow. There were even people that liked K'Lavon Chaisson at edge over C Young you will always find someone willing to take the other guy. These talks happen, as they should as you are looking at cornerstone franchise pieces, but don't expect people to change their mind just b/c these talks are occurring. Outside of botched surgery, Trev is more of a lock than Burrow was last year.

I think it gets done right before FA, or during the initial phases of it. From a Hou perspective, they would want to do it before the draft. That would allow the team to trade for actual slotted draft picks, rather than just a package of unknown future picks. That allows you to have a much clearer idea of what you are receiving, and leaves a lot less to chance. Waiting to deal him until after the draft would be beyond incompetence, as you eliminate your chances to both improve your roster this year via extra draft picks and risk not getting a known asset. Especially in Hou case where they are already missing the top end of their draft and have no money. With Bill gone I have a hard time seeing Hou screwing the pooch that badly. That would be a move that is even worse than the issues that have brought them to this point. From a Watson angle, waiting until just before the draft does not work out in his best interest. I’m sure he is well aware that any team that acquires him will be dishing out high end picks to get him. That means the best way for a team to improve, post Watson acquisition, will be FA. FA is before the draft, and if Watson isn’t traded until then, a lot of impact FAs will be well off the market. I think the closer we get to FA, the more internal pressure Watson will put on his own organization to deal him. Ditto the outside pressure from other organizations who want to build their offseason around Watson before FA begins. So far Watson has been pretty quiet on the whole situation, not doing a ton to fan the flames. That can change quickly.

Kaep has been out of the NFL too long We already have one guy who was pulled off the streets at QB. If you have two on a roster your probably doing something wrong. There are only a handful of people on the planet capable of being a decent QB. Shouldnt be digging around the out of the NFL pile if you want to be successful. I do like Kaep, but it would be a big fat no as a pure QB. I'd think he would still probably kill it in a Taysom Hill kinda role tho (Gadget guy not starter), where he can just come in, give you numbers and smash-mouth. I don't think he is interested in being that however, and we can already do it with Logan.

Would have preferred Wentz to CHI to eliminate a NFC QB opening, but INDY isn't bad either as they were probably the most attractive destination in terms of being an already good team. That is a very fair looking trade too.

Panthers out here playing with their poker cards backwards. Considering how they almost landed Stafford, I gotta assume they are not playing the reverse psychology game and are not angling to get a specific QB in the draft. They are straight up going hard for a difference maker at QB. I like how our FO is hiding their cards, not 100% clear who we are going after and we don’t know what we offered until after everything goes down. We have had our fingers in as many pies as any one else but you don’t see reports about our offers or interest to the extent of other teams, like the exact trade details of Indy’s offer to Phi, days before it happen, if it even happens. Its nerve-grating for a fan, but darn if it does not feel professional. No reason to rush anything either. We are a month out from FA and we are under the cap. We don’t “have” to do anything, while most other teams have to get their financials in order before the start of the NFL year. On a side note, if you are starting to get articles where an NFL owner is salivating over another teams under contract player, you are likely inching your way towards tampering territory. If someone in HOU is thinking, you can essentially get a temp gag order on the whole Watson situation by complaining to the NFL.

Not much of a stat if true, most QBs don't cost that much (13%). Last year only 3 QBs even qualified to be more than 13% of their teams roster. (Prescott, Wilson and Goff) That is not a threshold that is commonly hit as most QBs get extensions to push back the big cap hit before they reach it. A lot of QBs are slated for big money this year, but we will see how many of those hold after we have an established Cap and everyone gets their deals reworked to compensate (Ben, Aaron, ect.)

If I was the panthers I'd want to get rid of a massive contract at the most expendable position for a player coming off multiple injuries too. Unless Hou just wants to sell tickets, which they may/may not even be able to do during covid, they would have zero interest in CMC. Your going to have to get off of a player at a more premier position group than RB to get Watson.

Most contracts are back loaded anyway to create void years and cut-able contracts. I don't think the prospect of future money will effect long term contract structures, as they already are designed to take advantage of players being able to be removed. What could happen would be the increase of the two-year deal rather than the one. Current FAs will want to cash in on future FA periods where there is more money. Signing a two year deal will give them a small amount this year, and a modest amount next, giving them the oppo to re-enter the market in 2 years. Teams that may be unable to lure specific FAs due to lack of funds this year, would be able to entice those same players by promising them a hearty % of G money in the following year. That way, teams w/ little to no cap space can still acquire talent in the short term, and it wont hurt too bad in the long term if we see that salary cap boon. Even though the money will not be there for the Mid to low FA market, teams still have to field rosters. I could see a lot of prove-it deal players getting picked up on 2 yr deals instead of the usual 1s.

A lot of these will get done before FA. Teams will want to know what they have to pay at QB before they fill in the blanks at other positions at FA. Teams that are over the cap will also want to know what they are working with money wise. so a team like the Raiders will want to move a guy sooner rather than later. Some of these will linger to the draft, but probably only cases where teams are well below the cap and can afford to wait as a QB does not blow up their whole offseason.

Reminds me of judging a pitcher in baseball by how hot his GF is. Lets you know the guys confidence level in himself. If he is dating a butterface watch out.

It's not about what you are worth, its about what you can get. Dak might not get it this year (tag) but somebody is giving him his 40M soon. Only a matter of time Either way, bad for Dallas.

Gotta replace Kerrigan somehow lol

Always knew they had to clear Watts 17 Mil off the books, but assumed it would be via trade. Good on them to honor JJ's desire to fully pick his next destination. Speaks volumes about the Watson situation. The Texans know what they are right now. This is a signal flare to other NFL teams as well. This move puts Hou under the cap, so they can afford to wait it out beyond the start of FA from a financial standpoint now, but this should light a fire in the Watson steam engine Oh.... and no more hot takes about Watson bailing on his team