NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Am I missing something here? I thought Mack came out of the Jeremy Maclin trade, not the Julio trade.

 

Seeing those helmets come back from time to time oddly enough makes me think of the McRib. Mainly because the Falcons were wearing those helmets back when the McRib was first introduced, and McD's did a promo with the Falcons where you got a souvenir glass with three Falcons players on it if you bought the McRib. Or maybe it's just because I have the munchies right now...

 

We traded down from like #6 to #24 with Atlanta.

Falcons moved up for Julio, and we wound up taking Alex Mack.

Probably two of the best picks of that draft.

Falcons make blockbuster deal with Browns, move up for Jones

 

Those helmets remind me of William Andrews, Steve Barkowski and Jeff Van Note.

 

Agreed.

I also think of Jerry Glanville's "Gritz Blitz"....Talk about bringing everybody. That defense was fun to watch. Makes Gregg Williams look passive. lol!

Also Billy "white shoes" Johnson.

 

Different draft / different trade. Eagles traded up two spots to take Jeremy Maclin and the Browns took Mack after moving down. Cleveland got a sixth rounder out of that deal, which they used to select Clemson running back James Davis.

The Julio trade is a far more complex web with the series of subsequent trades that Cleveland made using some of those picks. The short version is that Cleveland ended up taking Phil Taylor in the first round. They also selected Greg Little (2nd round) and Owen Marecic (4th round) in 2011 and Brandon Weeden (1st round) in 2012 with some of the extra picks from Atlanta. Sadly, the long version gets even worse...

 

And Fulton Kuykendall !

 

Ahhh, good catch. My memory isn't what it used to be. That was the era of 1st round trade downs for the Cleveland Browns, and I confused a couple. The trade with Atlanta was 2011, and you are correct, the Browns wound up taking Phil Taylor from Baylor (not good). We did a very similar trade down in 2009 when the Jets moved up to take Mark Sanchez, but we had much better results as that was the year we took Mack...

 

Micah Parsons on DeMarcus Lawrence's sack comments: 'Sorry to tell him, he's never getting that back'

The Dallas Cowboys have healthy competition within their locker room heading into the 2022 NFL season.

Defensive end Demarcus Lawrence declared he wanted to take back the designation of Cowboys sack leader from linebacker Micah Parsons saying he "let a rookie show me up last year."

No longer a rookie, Parsons offered his rebuttal: Come get it.

"It makes me want to compete," Parsons said of Lawrence's comments, per Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. "It's healthy for the locker room. I want D-Law to step up. I want D-Law to be who he is. I'm not taking that away from him. But sorry to tell him, he's never getting that back. I want him to get all the enjoyment that he possibly can, feed his head so he can be a 10-sack guy, great. But if 10's the number, I'm going for 20. You've just got to go out there and compete. It's just going to be a race to the quarterback, like it or not. I'm excited."

Lawrence generated three sacks while playing just seven games in 2021 due to injury. Parsons netted 13 as a rookie playing multiple spots in the Cowboys formation. In eight seasons in Dallas, Lawrence has netted more than eight sacks just twice, with a career-high of 14.5 in 2017.

As the Cowboys attempt to repeat as NFC East division champs, having two of their best defensive players compete to see who can get to the quarterback first will only aid Dan Quinn's D, which is looking to improve upon the impressive turnaround it saw in 2021.

NFL.com

 

Yes, that all started with the Sanchez trade. I should have named him instead of Maclin because that was the original Cleveland pick. AND... there was another trade with Tampa in between.

Cleveland got Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, Brett Ratliff and a 2nd round pick (#52) from the Jets for moving from #5 down to #17.

Tampa then gave Cleveland a 6th rounder (#191) to move up two spots so they could take Josh Freeman. The Eagles then gave Cleveland another 6th rounder (#195) so they could move up two spots to take Jeremy Maclin. Cleveland then took Alex Mack at #21.

So the #5 pick became Mack, Coleman, Elam, Ratliff, a second rounder and two sixth rounders.


I'd say the trading down part worked great. Where Cleveland went horribly wrong in those years was the scouting and drafting. (Ditto for Atlanta, though the media still gave Dimitroff rave reviews in those days as the Falcons were winning. But outside of Matt Ryan and Michael Turner, the core of that Falcons team was inherited from Rich McKay.)

 

Understatement.

 

Lol. Yeah. For both of our teams.

 

Chris Olave: It doesn’t get any better than working with Jarvis Landry



Chris Olave got drafted into a pretty decent situation as a rookie receiver.

He’s playing alongside one of the best dual-threat running backs in the league in Alvin Kamara. He has one of the best receivers in the league returning from injury this season in Michael Thomas. And now the Saints have signed receiver Jarvis Landry to help round out the offense.


Having gotten in some on-field work with Landry this week, Olave had plenty of positive things to say about New Orleans’ newest pass-catcher.

“I feel like working with him, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Olave said, via John DeShazier of the team’s website. “Just learning from him every day, what he brings to the table, watching him work every day. I feel like it’s helping me, making me get better.

“He was one of the best in the league [in Cleveland]. I always liked his style of play, how he used his strengths to work against defenders. I always watched him, when he was in Miami, too. I like his game.”

Landry caught 52 passes for 570 yards with a pair of touchdowns last year for Cleveland in 12 games, missing several weeks due to a knee injury.

PFT

 

D’Ernest Johnson stays with Browns on one-year deal



Browns running back D’Ernest Johnson will stay in Cleveland for another season.

Johnson and the Browns agreed to a one-year deal that pays him the $2.4 million restricted free agent tender salary and guarantees $900,000 of it, his agents told reporters.


The Browns already have two expensive running backs in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, so they weren’t going to break the bank to keep Johnson. But by tendering Johnson with a right-of-first-refusal number they ensured that they could match any offer Johnson got.

Johnson has played well in limited action, with 137 carries for 721 yards in his three years in Cleveland. He’ll spend one more year in Cleveland and then hit unrestricted free agency next year.

 

Saints vs Falcons has some interesting new story lines. Former #1 overall pick vs #2 from that same draft, with both quarterbacks rebuilding their careers away from the teams that drafted them, the GM of a rebuilding team putting his new roster up against the roster of his former mentor, a battle of dual-threat running backs, and now the #1 vs #3 WRs from this year's draft.

It's also a contrast in approaches between the two GMs. Both teams faced cap hell this year. New Orleans kept kicking the can down the road and has now mortgaged their draft future as well. Atlanta went for a fresh start in 2023, but the price is they took on the biggest dead money hit in league history and will be playing this season with a bunch of discount rack rent-a-players.

If Atlanta could somehow pull off the win in the season opener, it would also be a sign that GM Terry Fontenot has succeeded in changing the franchise culture to bring a toughness and more of a drive to compete. Atlanta has lost four straight season openers and for the most part simply didn't look ready for the regular season. Particularly noteworthy: they started 1-7 in 2019 and 1-6 in 2020, leading to owner Arthur Blank finally pulling the trigger and cleaning house.

 

An interesting follow-up...

The Falcons are currently overloaded at WR and TE. And they're not just heavy but SERIOUSLY overloaded, with 20 players in those groups scheduled to appear in minicamp this weekend. And that's not counting Feleipe Franks or Cordarelle Patterson, who are listed at other positions but take snaps at TE (Franks) and WR (Patterson).

In a press session after OTAs, one of the writers for the team's web site asked head coach Arthur Smith about this, and he said that yes, it was intentional. I thought his explanation was fantastic.

We're in the stages of the offseason program where all practice sessions are non-contact. You can't do serious evaluations of linemen yet because they can't actually block or tackle anybody. So now's the best time focus on receivers because you CAN evaluate how well these guys run routes, find holes in zones, make moves to create separation, adjust to slightly off-target throws, etc.

With that in mind, Atlanta is overloading on the eligible receivers now and putting them all through the paces. The coach said they'll make decisions on many of these guys after minicamp and that the team will likely add extra linemen to evaluate going into training camp.

 

Hopefully the cream rises to the top. Its a better situation this way and the comp will be furious.

 

That level of competition at WR is something that was sadly missing throughout virtually the entire Dimitroff era. There were long stretches where he badly neglected the WR group. At times he even PLANNED to have practice squad guys or UDFAs fill out the #4 and #5 spots on the roster.

 

Rams, Aaron Donald work out a massive new deal



Aaron Donald is neither retiring nor holding out.

One of the best defensive players in NFL history has a new contract. The deal replaces the final three years of Donald’s prior arrangement with the team. Other contracts, the salary cap, and Donald’s ongoing stellar play made the existing deal obsolete.


The contract, per a source with knowledge of the terms, has no new years. Instead, the existing deal was torn up, and it was replaced by a new contract.

He’ll get $95 million over the next three years. He’s getting, a literally, a $40 million raise.

The contract includes a pair of voidable years. The void kicks in on the final day of the 2024 league year. Which means that the Rams won’t be able to tag him for 2025. Instead, he’ll become a free agent if he wants to keep playing.

He gets $65 million over the next two years, with no offset on guarantees. It’s structured to let him retire after 2023 with no financial penalty. If decides to play in 2024, he’ll get another $30 million.

Here’s the breakdown of the deal:

1. Signing bonus: $25 million.

2. 2022 base salary: $1.5 million, fully guaranteed.

3. 2022 roster bonus: $5 million, fully guaranteed.

4. 2023 roster bonus: $15 million, fully guaranteed and due on second day of 2023 league year.

5. 2023 base salary: $13.5 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed as of third day of 2023 league year.

6. 2024 roster bonus: $5 million, guaranteed for injury at signing. Fully guaranteed on third day of 2023 league year. With no forfeiture language.

7. 2024 base salary: $30 million, fully guaranteed as of the fifth day of the 2024 league year. It would be paid with $20 million as an option bonus and $10 million as base salary, for cap purposes.

The guarantees have no offset language.

The $95 million in case flow over three years surpasses the $92.3 million paid to Josh Allen and dwarfs the $63 million paid to Patrick Mahomes in the first three years of their respective contracts. It’s the biggest contract ever given to a non-quarterback, and only 11 quarterbacks rank ahead of him in average salary.

He’s the first non-quarterback to pass the $30 million per year threshold.

And it was all done with no new years. And the ability to retire after two years. And the ability, if he so chooses, to sign with any team he wants in 2025.

PFT

 

Wow i thought Aaron Donald hung e'm up and would ride off into the sunset as a SB Champion...boy the money that's some temptation