NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Welcome to Cleveland.

 

I won't have to smoke any weed to sleep tonight, that's for sure.

 

So the Rowe trade isn't even official even though the teams spoke like it was already done. And Kline isn't even involved anymore. It should be finalized tomorrow but it's confusing.

 

well in the Eagles case, i am happy Kelly's boys are gone bc they all sucked. i did like Rowe but since he couldn't cover anyone steadily i don't care he's gone too.

i do know Cleveland is loving that Eagles pick now with Bradford gone and a rookie at the helm. 3-13 looks promising for the Birds and cries of joy for the Browns.

 

Drew Brees, Saints agree on contract extension

Armed with an exceptional dose of leverage, Drew Brees imposed a negotiating deadline that succeeded in spurring action for a lucrative new contract.

The New Orleans Saints have agreed in principle with Brees on a one-year contract extension, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, via a source informed of the deal. He'll receive $44.25 million fully guaranteed over the next two years, Rapoport added.

Content to earn $19.75 million in the final season of a five-year, $100 million contract, Brees warned that he would cease negotiations once the season kicks off this weekend. He held inordinate leverage with knowledge that the 2017 franchise tag would carry a prohibitive cap charge of $43.2 million.

If the Saints were unwilling to meet that number, Brees could have threatened to leave for the highest bidder next March. In other words, this was set up as a tricky contract conundrum all offseason. (NFL.com)

 

Brees doesn't get cheated. That's for damn sure. Of course he's never going to win another Super Bowl either but he doesn't seem to care.

 

What do you want from him? He took a pay cut for this season, is going to be paid less than Andrew Luck, committed to the organization for the next 5 years, and doesn't create off field issues... like your QB does.

 

How do you figure that?

He's 37 yrs old. Of course his market is less than Luck''s

No he didnt. The contract voids in two years.

 

Sanders agrees to $33M extension with Broncos through 2019

The Denver Broncos used the months after Super Bowl 50 to refashion a massive new contract for pass rusher Von Miller and lock down linebacker Brandon Marshall with a four-year, $32 million deal.

One day before kicking off their title defense against the Carolina Panthers, the defending champs on Wednesday handled one final bit of housecleaning: paying Emmanuel Sanders.


Broncos general manager John Elway tweeted that the veteran receiver agreed to a three-year extension, writing: "He plays with intensity and we love the way he competes."

NFL Network's James Palmer reported that the three-year pact is worth $33 million and runs through 2019. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport adds that Sanders will receive $27 million in guarantees.

Prior to the extension, Sanders was set to make $5.6 million this season as part of the three-year, $15 million deal he signed in 2014. Fellow Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas also inked a five-year, $70 million contract last offseason, ensuring that new starting quarterback Trevor Siemian -- and, ultimately, rookie Paxton Lynch -- will have both players on the field for years to come. (NFL.com)

 

Why are you trying to paint this as a bad thing? Brees missed 1.5 games last year because his lineman got him crushed, and he still outproduced most QB's WITH an injury to his throwing shoulder. He didn't take 4 weeks to "heal" like most pussies would, and his strength was compromised due to the injury.

But I'm sure you follow all that pretty closely in stealville.

 

Not sure why your panties are in such a bunch but all I did was make a comment about Brees extracting every penny he could out of New Orleans and in turn extracting every penny he could out of the Saints player pool. For a guy that has already made 170+ million just in NFL salary I'll never understand why the ability to surround himself with the best players around him doesn't factor into his own contract.

Twice you've mentioned my allegiance to the Steelers which has absolutely no bearing in the conversation but since you mentioned it you can ask any Steelers fan in here and I'm sure they will tell you leading up to Roethlisberger's new contract I had the same criticisms of him. I talked about the loyalty the Rooney's showed him when he acted like a butthead in Milledgeville and how I thought he should go the Tom Brady route and consider his teammates.

To his credit, he did take less than he could have gotten and he got it done in March when it could most help the team heading into free agency. And to be fair, Roethlisberger was much younger and this was only Ben's 2nd extension compared to Brady and Brees' 3rd. He hadn't made the kind of money the other two had so all in all I think he did make the team a priority in his negotiations.

Brees... not at all. He had them over the barrel and he rode it all the way to the last week just like the last time. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings but I believe it's a fair criticism and I believe he has hurt his team's ability to compete with his contract demands over the last 5 years.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/p...o-win-the-super-bowl-seriously-182022100.html

Vegas pick of the Browns to win Super Bowl! Wow.

 

p.s. And you didn't address his "taking less this year" or his "5 year contract".

 

Twice you've mentioned my allegiance to the Steelers which has absolutely no bearing in the conversation but since you mentioned it you can ask any Steelers fan in here and I'm sure they will tell you leading up to Roethlisberger's new contract I had the same criticisms of him. I talked about the loyalty the Rooney's showed him when he acted like a butthead in Milledgeville and how I thought he should go the Tom Brady route and consider his teammates.

I'll vouch for this. Beach has consistently criticized Ben's contract both before and after it was signed.

He actually did, he just didn't seem to really understand the contract. Cap hit was reduced, but that doesn't equal a pay cut, which is what Iowa seems to be thinking.

 

Let me back it up to this, your opinion and speculation.

The owners, cities of NFL teams, along with many other businesses who make licensed products for sale all make a HUGE amount of money on marquee players. Why is it such a crime for a player to ask to make a great deal of money too? Seriously, why?

Second, if he weren't worth it, it wouldn't happen. They've tried bringing in replacements and guess what, nobody (who is available) is as good, and few are as good, period. He could have been a real jerk and stuck with the current contract which would have kept $10mil of negotiating power away from the team, and then possibly taken a huge franchise tender next season, left for a team who would pay him (and there would be several offers, we both know that), or come up with a similar contract as what he has now.

So to say he "doesn't seem to care" seem absurd to me. That's why my man panties were in a bunch. When you are one of the best, you deserve every damn penny you can get. By making this deal now instead of next offseason, he actually helped the team.

My reason for bringing up your team was simply a point of relevance. Whether that worked or not isn't really the point to me.

Doesn't care... laughable.

 

I assume you understood my point which it appears you didn't. My angst has nothing to do with what any player puts in his pocket. It only has to do with how that impacts the team. If we were talking about a 4th year RB with a extremely low shelf life and he used his leverage to squeeze every penny out of the Saints or the Steelers I would probably applaud him.

But we're talking about a guy who just signed his 4th contract as an NFL player and this off season he has represented 20% of a salary cap that has to pay 62 other players. And he occupied that space during the entire off season when the front office was trying to assemble a group to win football games.

I don't want to get into a huge discussion about team profit but like most fans you don't seem to have a true grasp on what these teams make. The Packers are publicly held so they have to release their profits every year. 2015 was a great year and the Packers (39.4M) made just 8 million more than Brees made yesterday (31.25M).

p.s. Brees was due 20M, he didn't take a paycut.

Several things here:
1. What the hell does 10M due for the team in September? What talent are they going to acquire at this point? This deal could have easily been done in March.
2. He's been a real jerk, every time he was up for a new deal always putting his personal [del]needs[/del] wants ahead of the team.
3. Believe it or not, the Saints might actually be a better team without Brees and his bloated contract. If I could find a post of mine from last year I could show you how few teams win a SB with a QB occupying more than 10% of the salary cap. It's only happened 4 times in the last 20 years if my memory is correct. Usually it's a team with a QB who is on his rookie deal or who is in the first couple years of his 2nd contract, when his cap number is significantly lower.

How about this? He doesn't care as much as Tom Brady. Sound better?

And you don't seem to understand how important it is to have cap dollars in place before September. The time to "help" his team was March, not September.

 

Correct and I've read that the contract automatically voids after two years which means a dead money charge of 15M in 2018 if they don't again get raked over the coals for a new deal and finally choose to move on. I think Mickey Loomis went to the Ozzie Newsome School of Cap Management for QBs.

 

post of the week right there. hahahhaa

 

You're going to dig your heels in pretty hard there, and that's fine.

Go look at all the salaries of all the key QB's and other players who have been in the recent Superbowls and you'll see the money is pretty much within a few million dollars of each other, so cash strapping the team argument doesn't sit with me.

I won't disagree with the March vs. September argument. You'll have to pick up your magic phone and see who's fault that was, the GM, Agent, Brees... you don't know, and neither do I.

To pile on to that thought, the Saints GM is FAR more guilty than any player in regards to the cap situation. We're still paying $12mil to Junior Gallette for God's sake! Pretty sure Brees didn't have anything to do with that. I'm not sure who else we're paying dead money to, I think maybe Browner, and I know there are a few others, to the point of about $21million or more.

So, perhaps you could point your "doesn't care" finger to Mickey Loomis and I'd probably climb on board with you, but to point it a Brees... you're not going to get my support there. I think it's just not right.

 

I'm a little obsessive about NFL contracts.. I don't expect everyone else to invest the time I have to it but I can tell you there is a whole lot more to it than annually salary. It's probably the least important part comparing contracts. And timing is everything. We've probably discussed this as much as we need to so I'll make this my final point and you can dispute it all you like.

The fact that Brees squeezed every penny he could out of the Saints is probably second to the manner in which he went about it. And the Saints certainly can shoulder some of the blame. They knew the franchise tag was going to muddy the negotiation process but the only way to avoid it was to just meet whatever his demands were and we'll never know what he really wanted.

Either way, he's put himself ahead of the team an extreme way that only could be compared to one other QB - Joe Flacco. All the other guys you would like to compare him to might have taken similar salaries but they have never held the team hostage multiple times like Flacco and Brees did.

If you really spent some time I think you would find that the precursor to all those really bad deals was a lack of cap space, partly created by a really prohibitive QB contract. Yes, the window shopping could have been curbed and Loomis could have just accepted that he was now paying a ton of money to his franchise QB and not signed some of those really back-loaded deals. He has to share some of the blame but at least you can say he was trying to put the best roster he could on the field during Brees' prime years. You can't say the same for Drew. He was worried about #1.