NFL - NEWS & NOTES

I think he is full of shit.

 

lol, rhetorical, right?

 

I agree with this assessment.

 

rectumal is what you were looking for.

 

I think he's full of shit too.

No one enjoys change either. Heck, I have to get a new cellphone because the one I have now can be left unplugged for about 15 minutes before it loses its entire charge. I'll get over the change despite having the same phone for 3 years. Ask a sociopath to do something though, and you get Brown's hissy fit.

 

Antonio Brown says he will rejoin Raiders after losing helmet grievance

Antonio Brown will not be able to wear the helmet he so desperately wanted to wear this season, but that does not mean he is planning to abandon his Oakland Raiders teammates.

Brown had filed a grievance against the NFL seeking to wear a helmet that no longer meets the league’s safety standards; and the expected outcome came to fruition on Monday when an arbitrator ruled against him. Shortly after the news broke, Brown took to Instagram and said he disagrees with the decision but is looking forward to rejoining the team.

Brown had supposedly threatened to retire if he could not get his way with the helmet, but his remarks on Instagram indicate he does not plan to sit out.

Between the foot blisters he has been battling, the helmet grievance and the lack of commitment he has reportedly shown in meetings, Brown sounds as if he has frustrated the Raiders in his first offseason with the team. Now that Brown has officially lost the helmet battle, perhaps he is willing to move forward and focus on the upcoming year.

(YardBarker)

 

Washington refuses to trade Trent Williams

Bruce Allen continues to do Bruce Allen things.

With the relationship between Washington and left tackle Trent Williams fractured, the Washington team president continues to believe that the passage of time will somehow unfracture the relationship, resulting in Williams walking through the door, reporting for duty, and playing for the team.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Washington has told multiple teams that Williams will not be traded. Teams repeatedly have inquired, per Schefter, and teams repeatedly have been rebuffed.

Washington reportedly believes that training-camp fines in the amount of $40,000 per day will result in Williams eventually caving. But Williams isn’t flinching, either; with no intention to ever return to the team (and no game checks from which to withhold the fine amounts), he believes the team will have no way to recover the $40,000 per day.

Signed through 2020, the two remaining years of Williams’ contract will toll if he doesn’t report in time to get credit for 2019. Based on the Joey Galloway arbitration outcome from nearly 20 years ago, Williams needs to be on the 53-man roster for at least eight games to safely qualify.

Two years ago, Texans tackle Duane Brown showed up in time for 2017 contract-year credit, and he was dealt to Seattle before the trade deadline. Whether Williams follows that same path remains to be seen; however, the fact that Williams reportedly believes the team bungled the handling of the benign tumor on his head makes this situation different. Williams hasn’t wavered in his desire to never play for Washington again.

He’s due to make $10.85 million this year, and not playing would expose him to a bonus forfeiture of $1.62 million. And Washington presumably would go after it; when Allen was the G.M. of the Buccaneers, he traded for quarterback Jake Plummer. Plummer retired in lieu of playing for the Bucs, and Allen pursued recovery of signing bonus money that the Bucs hadn’t even paid to Plummer.

(PFT)

 

Brown must have had peripheral vision surgery yesterday.

 

America's Team... lol. All that is getting Dallas is media love and bias that wanted Dallas to be good and pumped up Dak Prescott as better than he actually is. Now the Cowboys are literally paying for it. If Dak was on any other team he doesn't get this love and wouldn't get more than $30M.

He's all right but he isn't elite. Also the team is one of the lowest in passing yards. An investment they are forced to make if they don't want to search for another QB but not a great one.

 

Looking at it right now, I would give him around $34-35mil on a 5 year deal that has the guaranteed cash on the front end and the ability for the team to cut ties without a huge cap hit in years 4 and 5.

That gives you 3 years to assess whether or not he is actually going to be worth the market reset that will come within 4 years of his signing this deal. If not, then the time has come to deal him out, sign a vet and prepare to draft for the position again.

 

One, "media bias" has nothing to do with "wanting" Dallas to be good - they've won 32 games the last three years, behind only New England, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh, and they've won the NFC East twice. They ARE good.

Second, you're going to have to show me all these outlets pumping Dak up to be some elite QB. Pretty much every site I've seen acknowledges he's no Brady/Brees/Rodgers.

Third, not sure I agree he wouldn't get $30 mil elsewhere (see: Cousins, Kirk; Garappolo, Jimmy).

Nature of the business; nature of the market. Look at the Eagles - they had to spend $32 mil/season for a guy who's never even played in a playoff game and can't stay healthy.[/QUOTE]

 

Dak wants the most money possible now. Elliott is threatening to hold out at a position he justly has a reason to do so considering the lifespan and the fact that once they "earn" a contract at the end of their previous one teams think they are on the decline and don't want to pay them. And Amari Cooper is waiting on Julio Jones because he wants to one-up him. Dallas needs to be careful and their front office needs to be smart with who they bring in over the next few seasons. Their window is now and likely narrower than the team expected. They have the talent but holes at some positions and depth can hurt if they don't do some good work on them.

 

True dat. And this doesn't even factor in Byron Jones and Jaylon Smith, who also could be in line for big deals.

I will say that EVERY team has holes and issues at depth somewhere.

 

Yes but it isn't a situation they were expecting to be this dire. Leafs in the NHL are in a situation like that now. Might pull through out of it but damn it was tough and there is still the actual product in action to go on with.

 

I think that's why you front load Dak's deal, space out Elliott's and defer the greater portion of Cooper's. The odds favor Amari being able to produce later in his deal and so long as the offensive line remains a solid unit you can figure on Ezekiel being a solid contributor over the majority of his contract (health withstanding and contract outs for off-field behavior).

I would take the same approach with Jones' contract that I would with Cooper's and Smith's should be similar to Elliott's in structure.

I'm more comfortable with receivers and corners getting deals that have higher cap hits later in their contracts because of the shelf life for the position.

 

Also if you front load those guys with a high shelf life that you surely want to keep all you are gonna do is have them hold out halfway through and suddenly instead of say $20M over 5 years, you'll be paying $30M. In that case, when it isn't a market setting price, you backload it.

 

Zeke is probably forcing their hand a little early, but overall I'd be hard-pressed to believe that they didn't envision a scenario close to this. It's why they drafted Connor Williams in 2018 and Connor McGovern in 2019 to fill in the inevitable void for when La'el Collins leaves after this year. It's why Antwaun Woods and Trystan Hill are in the fold - Tyrone Crawford is on the books for $9 mil next year, and they could very well move on from him.

 

With Cooper, Prescott and Zeke all demanding raises, they may have orchestrated a rather powerful and united front against the Cowboys and the 3 of them probably realize this. Seems like Jerry Jones and the Boys are in a position of having their backs to the wall and their bill-folds out front.

 

Jerry Jones preaches patience with Cowboys contracts

As the start of the regular season nears, Cowboys fans are getting antsier by the day about the Triplets' outstanding contract extensions.

But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is preaching patience to Dallas' supporters, using a colorful albeit rather violent parable on Tuesday evening to get his point across. Indulge him:

"Picture if you were the driver of a car, and you had a wreck and your hand was almost severed off, but you didn't understand your anatomy. You look down, you're spurting blood, you open the door and run to the woods and either die of bleeding to death or shock. The educated man looks down, knows his anatomy, squeezes and knows his best chance is to wait for help. That's because he's been there a lot and done that. And so I'm squeezing and waiting for help. That's my lesson for today."

What Jones is trying to say here, if you can parse sense from Jones' slasher horror of an exemplum, is that it's best for all parties to stay calm and level-headed during Dallas' concurrent negotiations with Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper. Be the educated man with the severed hand, or something like that.

To refresh: All three offensive stars are in negotiations with the Cowboys for new deals. Prescott and Cooper, whose contracts are up after 2019, are in camp; Elliott, whose deal isn't done until after 2020, is holding out in Cabo San Lucas.

Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones have taken turns daily in front of and behind the media trying to sway the conversation. For example, on Monday, NFL Network's Jane Slater reported Prescott turned down a $30 million per year deal and is instead seeking a $40 million per year extension. Jerry Jones had little to offer Tuesday night on the reported step in the negotiation.

"You don't have any way of knowing where you are financially until a financial deal is done," he said. "And so you have no idea. It takes two, and both of us haven't said yes at the same time."

Further brewing speculation around Cowboys camp, Jones suggested that Dallas was actually closer to striking a extension with a player the press has not been discussing.

"Would it be better if we can get one of the players done (before the season) than to not have any done of the ones you're talking about? The answer is yes," Jones said. "What may surprise you is we may come up with one that you haven't been asking about."

The Cowboys are also looking to extend eventually cornerback Byron Jones, linebacker Jaylon Smith, tackle La'el Collins and defensive tackle Maliek Collins, all of whose contracts expire following the 2019 season, same as Cooper and Prescott.

Paying that many stars in one calendar year could bleed the Cowboys dry. But they're willing to apply a tourniquet and wait for help to arrive. What that aid will be (a player caving on guarantees?) or when it will come (before Week 1?), Jones has yet to so colorfully illustrate.

(NFL.com)

 

Got some game action tonight. Some decent , interesting matchups too.