MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

There’s a rumor circulating that Texans ownership has basically cut off communications with Watson and has informed interested teams that he will not be traded.

Could be that Watson either wears a Houston jersey or none at all in 2021.

 

As much as I feel for the players occasionally, I sort of hope this is true.

In some ways I think they have too much power now. A right to protest and exercise freedom of speech in pursuit of causes? Absolutely! I’m all for it.

But a right to sign a multi year contract (for more money than my life is worth), then get frustrated soon after with whatever company directive and get to make immediate demands? I struggle to identify with that.

Let the players run the plays. Let the front office/ownership build the roster. You don’t like it; exercise your right to move on via free agency when the contract you signed is expired.

 

Art Rooney II: Steelers still confident we can win with Ben Roethlisberger



The Steelers have made clear that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not be back on his current contract, but owner Art Rooney II insists that’s a reflection only of the salary cap, and not of how Roethlisberger is playing.

Rooney said the Steelers still believe that Roethlisberger is a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback.

“We think Ben played at a high level last year,” Rooney told Steelers.com. “We won our division and set a franchise record for most consecutive wins to open a season, so there was a lot of good stuff. Ben was as disappointed as anybody the way it ended. That last game is just hard to swallow, and I think in part Ben wants to come back and leave on a high note. We’re still confident he has the ability to do that. His arm, I would say, is as strong or almost as strong as ever, so I think he’s certainly capable of getting the job done. Part of the concern is putting a [competitive] team around him, and we had a good discussion about that. We know there are still a lot of pieces to the puzzle that still have to fall into place this season, and we’re hard at work trying to make that happen.”

Both Roethlisberger and Rooney have expressed confidence that they can come to terms on a new contract. Still, Rooney acknowledged that the Steelers will not go into the 2021 league year with Roethlisberger on his current contract. That means if a deal can’t get done before the league year starts, Roethlisberger would be released.

“Hopefully we’ll work something out before that,” said Rooney, “but certainly if you want to say there’s a hard deadline, March 17 would be it.”

At this point, all parties are indicating a deal will get done. But that March 17 deadline looms.

NBC

 

Then make them guaranteed contracts. Why should the player be beholden to a contract that ownership absolutely isn't? And ownership can ship him off whenever / wherever they want, but he can't request a trade? If we're gonna hold the players to one standard, let's do the same for owners.

 

Watson asked them to interview the OC for KC and they refused . I think they stepped on Watson too much. They couldn’t interview the guy? Fuck the Texans. You at least honor the players request and do the interview. If you don’t like the coach you just explain that to Watson after you interview him. And then to add injury to insult they hire someone who is obviously less qualified. It’s like they basically told Watson you have no business getting involved in this when they could have just interviewed Bienemy and Watson probably would have been happy.

 

Because the player signed the contract. He also has the right to not play under the contract... and ownership has every right to not trade him.

No player is forced to sign the contract as written. Any of them at any time can direct their agent to have certain language or not agree to it. That’s what Kirk Cousins did and he got the contract he was willing to sign... and now you understand why owners won’t allow that kind of contract.

 

"Owners allow" - that's the point. Players are held to an entirely different standard than owners by fans, and it's baffling. Cousins had to take a huge risk to get the guaranteed deal, and one injury would've derailed it and his career. Other sports do fully guaranteed contracts, why is it so hard for fans to get their heads around the idea in the NFL? Either embrace the fact that players are using their leverage to try and get some control over their career, or give them fully guaranteed contracts and then tear them a new a**hole when they don't honor it.

 

The salary cap doesn’t allow for teams to be able to pay fully guaranteed contracts when a player has say a career ending injury. They would be crippled by the cap

 

The cap, and these contracts, are constructs of the ownership. Every league with guaranteed contracts also has a league-wide salary cap.

And you just absolutely proved my point. Why should a player get screwed by an injury while under contract, but the owners get to walk away without issue? That's why these players fight so hard for guaranteed money and draw out contract negotiations in the first place.

Always amazes me to see people bootlicking the NFL. Just baffling.

 

If that’s what they want I guess they will have to argue for more rights in the next collective bargaining agreement. As it stands now if you signed the contract you’re property of the team, for millions of dollars. I know that’s a bit of low hanging fruit, but it’s true. Do you know what happens if I tell my boss I don’t like how they’re running things and threaten not to show up to work...nothing good.

I thought maybe my stance wouldn’t be overly popular, but I just feel like there’s so many players whining about so much crap right now. It’s like free agency 8.0, we didn’t win 10 games last year I want out. I hate how you’re not perfect at building my O-line I want out.
One of the things I like most about the NFL is that it isn’t like the NBA, where players can just chat about getting together and all the sudden demand to end up on the same team. I hate the idea of a league where half of every roster rolls over every season, and that’s part of the reason I just don’t like this trend.

I’ll cheat and add two names. Barry Sanders. Larry Fitzgerald. Never whined, never asked for a break. Just came to work and were all class. Hall of famers. I want the face of my franchise to act like that.

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick wants a chance to compete for a starting job



Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has played for 25 percent of the NFL’s teams. He’ll likely be joining a ninth team in 2021.

Via Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, Fitzpatrick “believes he’s played well enough the past couple of years to get a chance to at least compete for a starting job with some team.”

That won’t happen in Miami, where Fitzpatrick at most would be the relief pitcher for Tua Tagovailoa. So where will Fitzpatrick go?

Woody Paige of the Denver Gazette recently tweeted that he believes that Drew Lock will return to Denver, but that a veteran like Tyrod Taylor or Fitzpatrick will be added. Paige claims that the Broncos already have spoken to Fitzpatrick.

Obviously, that would be tampering. The more pertinent question (given the league’s usual tolerance of tampering) becomes whether Fitzpatrick and the Broncos would be interested in doing business. Given Lock’s injuries and uneven performances, Fitzpatrick eventually would get a chance to play.

Other possibilities could exist for Fitzpatrick in Chicago, Houston (if the Texans trade Deshaun Watson), Jacksonville (if the Jaguars don’t want to throw Trevor Lawrence immediately into the fray), Washington, Philadelphia (as a competitor for Jalen Hurts), or Seattle (if the Seahawks trade Russell Wilson).

And while Fitzpatrick continues to make memorable moments, there’s a switch that often flips from FitzMagic to FitzTragic. The transformation often happens when it’s least expected, and it quite often is spectacular.

So that’s the question: Can a team rely on Fitzpatrick as a full-season starter, or is he better suited to periodic appearances that get the most out of his skills and abilities without extending his stay on the field for so long that the magic turns tragic?

Regardless, he’s still good enough to be on a roster in 2021, and he’s still good enough to have a role. The challenge becomes finding the best possible roster and the best possible role.

NBC

 

Yeah, and you can go work for any of numerous employers in your field, without the numerous restrictions that NFL players are subject to. You are not one of the 32 best people in your field in the entire world (presuming). Comparing your situation to an NFL QB's is inherently incorrect for a number of reasons.

Yeeeaaaahhhh, we both know that the Texans, for example, are a lot bigger dumpster fire than that. Pretending like the issue is that simple is just false / gaslighting. Let's all give each other more credit than that.

And the NFL doesn't have to be the NBA. NHL and MLB are two other leagues with guaranteed contracts, and all three of those leagues vary widely from one another in how they're run. The NFL is the only major sports league in the US without guaranteed contracts. Guaranteed deals doesn't = NBA, that's due to a ton of other league decisions that are separate and entirely within the NFL's control to regulate differently.

Dope.

 

Jerk off.



Am I doing this right?

 

Well OK, but I guess not Deshaun, because in theory per your perspective he should’ve known that as he signed the contract.

And you’re saying it’s tough to compare my situation to an NFL QB and that that is unfair. At the same time I make a ridiculous amount less than an NFL QB. So for them to compare their situation to mine also is not fair.
I’m saying for the kind of money he makes you’d be amazed what I would put up with. So again my point is it’s just tough to empathize with these guys. They sign a contract for four years, not their whole life, or whole career, just four years, with a team they know more about than I do. And then a year and a half later they want out. I can’t possibly feel bad for them. Even if there is a double standard at play, for that sort of money, deal with it or move onto a different career. But probably don’t look to the fans for sympathy.

 

No. I wasn't calling someone a dope, I was saying a synonym for "cool", because preference of player isn't substantive to the point of players using their leverage in an inherently disadvantageous situation.

 

Dope-ishly cool, duderino.

 

There's just nothing substantive behind that opinion. You're imposing expectations on the players because they make more money than you, while sharing none of those expectations with the owners who make even more money than them. It's nonsensical.

 

Neato, jerk-off.

 

Good deal, puddle humper.

 

The problem is even though each team is separately owned the NFL is more like a big corporation with 32 departments. So the owners have the say in everything and they don’t want to share the power with the players unless they are lifting multiple Lombardis