NFL - NEWS & NOTES

If a 2nd string linebacker were to ask for an opt out….the GM of that team would politely tell him to go screw himself.

The better the player…the more they can negotiate. That’s the point I’m trying to make.

Players of a lesser skill level pretty much have to accept what’s thrown in front of them in a lot of instances. Or risk trying to find a contract elsewhere they might not be able to find.

Trying to compare the average NFL contract to that of a Tom Brady contract isn’t fair at all.

 

Well in the context of the conversation (owners cutting players prior to the expiration of their contract) I disagree completely.

In order to be eligible for an extension you typically have to be a starter - or a starter in waiting. This means the team has an interest in signing you to a long term deal which instantly gives the player some leverage i.e. if the team current team sees value in his long term services, so too would other teams. If your argument is career backups have no leverage, I agree completely. But then they really don't fall into the category that was being discussed. Those guys live on year-to-year contracts after their rookie deal is up.

Well I'd be a fool to argue against that. It's obviously true. But I think that's overly simplistic. Tom Brady signed the contract with the void year in 2019. He was coming off his 6th Super Bowl win and had as much leverage as anyone in history. And he agreed to what was basically a one year 23M dollar deal with a void year in 2020. This was at the same time Jared Goff got 57M in guarantees. Pretty sure Brady could have gotten a helluva lot more than 23M. But he wanted something different. He wanted the void year.

Point being, Brady didn't get that option because he's a great player. He got it because he was willing to sacrifice guaranteed money and play for peanuts.

Guys who live from one year to one year deal? Yes I agree. But those aren't the guys who sign extensions 4-5 year extensions. Those are the guys we are talking about. Those guys have leverage and they could negotiate the ability to reach free agency again into their deal. And many do just not in the same mold as Brady. They instead sign shorter deals. That has become more popular in the last few year and it's an example of players exercising their leverage.

It actually is. Because Brady has historically signed shorter deals with lower guarantees and annual APY. Numerous players could take that route if that's what they wanted and some have recently.

 

Steelers release All-pro guard David Decastro. This frees up 8.75 million in cap space but creates a hole on the oline.

 

That’s a lot of words to essentially say nothing and skirt completely around the point I was making. Well done.

Wow. Cool. I’m done here.

 

65 percent of NFL players have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot

A report earlier this week indicated that the Steelers are the third team to have over 85 percent of their players fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and word on Friday is that rates around the league continue to tick upward.

NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills said, via Adam Schefter of ESPN, that 65 percent of the league’s players have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Schefter notes that that rate is in line with the country as a whole and a higher than the vaccination rates of people who are between 18 and 39-years-old.

A report earlier this month put the number of players with at least one dose at over 50 percent and that 16 teams had more than 50 of their players vaccinated.

The restrictions put in place for what unvaccinated players will be able to do during the preseason and training camp as opposed to those that have been fully vaccinated have likely helped push some players to get their shots. Those restrictions include not being able to eat with teammates, not being able to leave the team hotel on the road and mask-wearing requirements that will not be in place for vaccinated teammates.

PFT

 

Morgan Moses signing a one-year deal with Jets



Right tackle Morgan Moses has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Jets, Sam Fortier of The Washington Post reports.

Moses visited the Jets last month, and a report last week indicated the sides were negotiating on a deal.

Moses is expected to start opposite left tackle Mekhi Becton, replacing George Fant as the presumed starter at right tackle.

Moses, 30, also visited the Bears after Washington cut him. Washington released Moses on May 20 to save $7.735 million against its salary cap.

He started 97 games over seven seasons in Washington.

UPDATE 5:56 P.M. ET: The deal has a $3.6 million base salary, and Moses can get a maximum of $5.3 million with 80 percent or more of playing time incentives, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.

PFT

 

Jeremy Reaves believes Jamin Davis has a chance to make a big impact right away



Jamin Davis hasn’t even played a preseason game yet, but the Washington Football Team is high on the linebacker after seeing him in the offseason program. As the 19th overall choice, Davis is expected to be a “high-impact guy” on an already really good defense.

“He’s got a chance to be special,” safety Jeremy Reaves said on 106.7 The Fan’s Grant & Danny Show this week, via NBCSportsWashington.com. “He’s very instinctual, very smart. He understands the game. He understands leverages, passing concepts. The kid’s got it all honestly.”

Davis started only one season at Kentucky, but he led the Wildcats with 102 tackles last season while also totaling 1.5 sacks, three interceptions and a touchdown in 10 games.

“He’s a very well-rounded football player, and he’s got that confidence and swagger that you like at linebacker,” Reaves said. “I know me personally I’m going to knock somebody’s face off, but I know he’s going to knock somebody’s face off, too. It makes our job easier when you’ve got a guy like that, and he can freaking run, too. So it’s very convenient for the guys in the back.”

PFT

 

Bears dropped the ball on this one.

 

Bears dropped the ball on this one.


They tried to sign him but he was not interested in playing LT

 

Saints DE Cam Jordan feeling 'more rejuvenated than ever' ahead of Year 11

Cameron Jordan is entering his 11th NFL season in a unique position.

With the retirement of Drew Brees and departure of Thomas Morstead this offseason, Jordan is now the longest-tenured member on the Saints' roster. Already a team captain for most of his career, the dominant defensive end will also be a key figure for the club as it moves on from the Brees era.

Jordan, who turns 32 in July, is treating his next chapter as a warm-up rather than a cool-down.

"Year [11] is really Year 1 starting back up again," he said last week, per ESPN. "Ten years behind me, ten years ahead of me. … I'm more rejuvenated than ever before."

When Jordan arrived in 2011, the first-rounder joined a team two seasons removed from winning Super Bowl XLIV. His breakout third season in which he earned 12.5 sacks and his first of multiple Pro Bowl selections positioned him as a defensive pillar. That role would increase in importance during the offseason after the club parted ways with key veterans such as Jonathan Vilma, Roman Harper and Malcolm Jenkins.

Over the next seven seasons, Jordan compiled 73 sacks, 144 QB hits and 369 tackles, becoming one of the NFL's best pass rushers in the process. The outspoken defender believes that experience was necessary to his growth as a professional.

"This has been my same role the last seven years since we had that big excavation back in '14," Jordan said. "Guys were looking up to me, and then I didn't know how to truly handle it. I was just young enough where I was trying to figure out my own way as well.


"But then the last seven years, it's been the young bucks coming in … and they're looking to learn and take everything from you in terms of the knowledge that you have to give. You have to be able to disperse that knowledge and you have to be able to push them."

The 2021 offseason saw the Saints undergo another phase of notable change. Aside from saying bye to Brees, the team moved on from Sheldon Rankins, 2020 sacks leader Trey Hendrickson and Malcom Brown, who were all instrumental to New Orleans' smothering defense of the last few years alongside Jordan.

Young guns David Onyemata, 2018 first-rounder Marcus Davenport and Shy Tuttle , an undrafted prospect in 2019, will be asked to pick up the slack. In addition to the increased attention he'll receive as both a mentor and leader, Jordan will look to bounce back from recording his fewest sacks in a season (7.5) since 2016.

Now one of the elder statesmen in the locker room, Jordan cited the careers of Calais Campbell and Brandon Graham, as well as Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Michael Strahan, as examples of players he studied that continued to dominate the sport after turning 30.

Only time will tell if Jordan, a player who's only missed game came during his rookie season, will follow in their footsteps.

NFL.com

 

Ex-Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas announces retirement from NFL

One of the top wide receivers of the past decade officially called it quits Monday.

Demaryius Thomas, a former first-round pick of the Denver Broncos, announced his retirement.

"It was a tough decision, a real tough decision," Thomas told the Broncos' official team website. "... Always as a kid or always when I did something, it was always [giving] my best to go and go and go. And football was my go. Every year I tried to get better and better, and I knew I was aging, of course. It was something tough, but I'm grateful I did 10, 11 years. I'm so grateful for that and now I can move on. I'm happy, I'm healthy. And now I can try to find my next itch."

The first receiver taken in the 2010 NFL Draft -- three spots ahead of where Denver selected Tim Tebow -- Thomas grew into an athletic mismatch and yards after catch demon. Injuries derailed much of the first two years of his career, but when Peyton Manning joined the Broncos in 2012, Thomas' production shot through the roof.

In Manning's offense, Thomas emerged as the Broncos' No. 1 receiver and would earn five straight Pro Bowl selections. He was the centerpiece of one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history, helped Manning break records and aided the Broncos in getting to two Super Bowls, winning the second.

"I wouldn't say took off for me, I would say took off for us as a whole group," Thomas said. "We learned as a group because I had games where I had over [100] yards before he got there. ... And then having the group learning together as a whole, as one, thinking like one, that's when the best came out of all of us."

After eight and a half seasons in Denver, Thomas was traded to Houston midway through the 2018 season. He played seven games for the Texans before an Achilles injury ended his campaign.


Thomas signed with the New England Patriots in 2019 but was cut before the season. He re-signed in New England and was subsequently traded to the New York Jets. He appeared in 11 games -- 10 starts -- for Gang Green in 2019, catching 36 passes for 433 yards and one TD. He did not play in 2020.

The 33-year-old retires after compiling 724 receptions for 9,763 yards and 63 TDs. Thomas ranks 53rd all time in receiving yards. He's a near lock to one day become a member of the Broncos Ring of Fame.

NFL.com

 

Let me dumb it down for you...

Your example is poor. 2nd string LBs aren't worried about signing long term deals. They're worried about making the team every August.

 

That wasn't the primary issue dumbass.

He's going to NY so he can start at RT and play himself into a long deal. He was never going to be more than a one year starter here to tutor Jenkins.

Stick to eating urinal cakes.

 

He never gets more than a year here. Borom will be the starter at RT so Moses doesn't fit any plan.

NY needs that RT for a couple seasons. It was a luxury signing for us that we didn't get.

 

Yeah. If they had him in the building then it was prob about the money. They must've hoped a lowball offer would work and it didn't.

Well done for paying basically the same money to the steaming pile that is Germain Ifedi tho Pace. More fine work.

 

Borom is a 5th round pick with a lot of struggles that ultimately projected to play inside. Jenkins is a career RT that is being moved to LT as a rookie despite valid concerns about his pass pro.

No, the Bears needed an actual NFL OT on the roster. They've whiffed on several opportunities. This is another one of them. Counting on Borom to start this year or next is not a smart bet, as a rule to roster building.

 

You nailed the dumb.

 

Right now Ifredi projects to starter at RT. Borom is probably a swing tackle at best.

 

If you read my posts back to back I’m talking about Borom starting in 2022 when Ifedi is done but I didn’t say that so I should have.

Ifedi is gone in 2022 and Borom will be the one to take the RT. He could even get good reps this year towards the end.

There was no way for Moses to get more years here with more money but he can get both from NY better than anywhere else.

 

Are you reading that Borom is expected to come in and play at tackle, or is this your opinion of what the Bears will do?