NFL - NEWS & NOTES

He is definitely going to be suspended now. He is giving the league a black eye.

 

Most states charge you for weapons offense if you have illegal drugs in your possession.

 

That is why I really believe we need a national legalization of weed. Some states still lock. You up for weed other states you aren't getting in any trouble at all.

 

I call bullshit on this
No way do you go after a QB in the draft and keep him on the bench. Especially when your team sucks.

 

Unless said QB sucks worse than your team does...

I as a Browns fan have seen this happen many, many times...

 

Crappy teams never have stuff go as planned. It's PR. If the team sucks enough then Mitch is in.

 

As for Elliott it's tough because many think he is only getting a couple games while the new Ray Rice rules say a first offense should be like 6 games. The issue is Elliott wasn't in the league yet at the time. Usually they still punish but not as much.

 

They've been saying Glennon well be the man for awhile, now. Nothing has changed. No team ever plans on changing QB's - what asinine approach is that? But planning on Glennon being the man all year long isn't the same as him being the man all year long. If/when he proves he can't do it, or once the team feels Trubisky is ready for the workload, or any number of the factors that may enter in, that plan will change. But if all goes according to plan, Glennon is great, Trubisky doesn't play this season, and the Bears are awesome. Anyone think that's gonna happen? What do you expect a team to say?

As for Elliott... What has the NFL or Goodell handled well? At all? Ever? Why should anyone be surprised that this situation is what it is? I'd really love for the NFL's complete incompetence to be recognized, and for people to start expecting it, rather than being surprised by or rationalizing it. Even the NCAA is taken aback, sometimes, by how terrible the NFL is.

 

Panthers fire general manager Dave Gettleman

A quiet Monday in the NFL has been rocked by a surprise firing in Carolina.

Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced that general manager Dave Gettleman has been relieved of his duties.

Richardson explained in a statement that "much thought and a long evaluation of our football operations" led to his decision, adding: "I want to thank Dave for the role he played in our success over the past four seasons. While the timing of this decision is not ideal, a change is needed."

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Gettleman was in a "shaky" place with ownership, pointing to?"rumblings that all was not well" between Gettleman and Richardson after the general manager allowed Pro Bowl cornerback Josh Norman to walk last offseason.

Make no mistake: This is a stunning turn of events, especially the timing. The Panthers are days away from launching training camp and now veer into the guts of the season without a clear-cut general manager. Before dumping Gettleman, the team also saw president Danny Morrison resign in February before assistant general manager Brandon Beane bolted for a job with the Bills.

The Panthers enjoyed remarkable success during Gettleman's run with the club, which began in 2013. Despite finishing 6-10 last season, Carolina was a playoff entry in each of his first three campaigns, a streak that peaked with an appearance in Super Bowl 50. The 66-year-old Gettleman capably steered the franchise out of salary-cap hell upon his arrival and worked well with coach Ron Rivera, lacing the roster with affordable, productive free agents and plug-and-play college prospects.

Richardson's eleventh-hour decision points to a level of unrest behind closed doors that few would have fretted over a day ago. One of the most consistent franchises in the NFC is suddenly packed with questions heading into the regular season. (NFL.com)

 

Kirk Cousins is my favorite player in football. I'm a Mich St fan, and I loved him there. I thought he was a top 3-5 QB in the draft. I love that he battled through the naysayers and the simultaneous first round draft pick. I love that he exploded when he had his chance. But most of all, I love that he's taking full advantage of and exposing the NFL.

The dude refuses to take anything other than the most amount of money he possibly can, even if it means he's on a one year deal. He turned down big offers to play on a one year contract, because he knew he was going to make exponentially more after it. And, given that the QB price goes up every year, he's happy to keep doing it.

Most players wouldn't do it, for health or personal reasons. But he knows that QB's are so well protected and so highly valued, that he runs virtually zero risk of not making more money each year. And while the Redskins might be complete morons, someone's going to pay him. And then the next QB is going to get that kind of money, and then the next one, and then the next one...

Eventually, the NFL will either collapse in on itself, or figure its shit out. Either way, they're going to lose money and put out an even worse product. Why? Because guys like Cousins are exposing it for the short-sighted, poorly run, selfish shit show that it is. And in its current form, it's not sustainable. Thanks to Cousins, we'll likely find out sooner, rather than later.

Get 'em, Kirk. Make your money. Kick some ass.

 

Pertaining to the Panthers' situation:
Is there ever a good time to fire a GM? And, which is the worst? You could make a case for this time of year being either. There's no doubt the CB situation was poorly handled, but I would think there's more to it than that, to fire a GM.

In either case, Carolina is about to find themselves at the foot of two different paths: one getting back to winning football by expanding the roster at hand, the other taking the nosedive into obscurity through hubris and mismanagement.

Does this portend anything for this season, specifically?

 

Carolina made this move to prevent this. But the question we are all asking is "is the management that got rid of him the cause and just made it worse?"

 

LOL there are 32 very rich guys who would beg to differ. Revenue and franchise values have soared over the last 15 years. Put any industry under a microscope and you'll find flaws. A lot of organizations wish they were run as well as the NFL has for the last 15 years.

 

Redskins gave a laughable offer to Cousins. 5 year $110 extension past this tag year. Only the 1st of it guaranteed. Here is why it's a joke. He was to make $29M in 2018. After that they could cut him no problem. Why would Cousins do that after this hold out? The transition tag, never mind the franchise tag, is about that much for him next year, fully guaranteed. He pretty much is telling Washington to either tag him again and renegotiate then or let him go.

How could Washington think this offer would fly at all? The money drops in the later years, it's likely below market value and the guaranteed money just isn't there.

I think they did it on purpose.

 

I think that's selling it a bit short. The offer to Cousins included 53M fully guaranteed. Andrew Luck's contract only included 47M fully guaranteed. Yes, there was reportedly no guaranteed money in Year 3 but Luck only had 3M guaraneed in Year 3. So the Colts could have also cut Luck after two years and they would have paid 6M less than the Redskins paid Cousins.

And all that is pretty much nonsense anyway because the contract structure would have functionally guaranteed more year. The signing bonus wasn't announced but I think it's pretty safe to assume it would have been in sthe 30M range (Luck 32M) which means it would carry an 18M dead money charge in year 3 before you even figure in the 2nd year bonus (assuming the entire '18 salary wasn't all base salary - which would be unusual).

Again using Luck as an example had the Colts released Andrew after the 2017 season they would have incurred a dead money charge of 22.4M. That's a functional guarantee that few people talk about in this business. Plus Luck had trigger dates in that 3rd year. If the Colts really wanted to release him they would have had to do it before the 5th day of the league year because if Luck were still on the roster Day 6 another 25M became guaranteed. There's no doubt Cousins would have similar language in his deal so that if they Redskins really did want to get rid of him they would have to do in a way that sets up Kirk for '19 free agency.

The offer was more than fair and Cousins is completely justified to play on the tag if he chooses. It's his future. But to say it laughable seems misplaced to me because Cousins is guaranteed nothing in 2018 in his current scenario. A really down year or a Bridgewater-like injury could cost him millions.

 

Not fair when the franchise tag is in play. It's not about ability but market. It's $53M guaranteed but $24 of it was already guaranteed with the tag slapped on him and the other $29M guaranteed is the transition tag next year. Then they are getting 4 years at about $20M each completely unguaranteed. After this contract voyage Cousins has been on there was no way that was flying.

 

Cowboys' Elliott appealing conviction for speeding 100 mph on tollway in Frisco

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is dealing with even more off the field troubles, this time in Collin County.
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The 21-year-old is appealing a misdemeanor conviction for speeding after a state trooper clocked his 2016 Dodge Charger traveling 100 mph on the Dallas North Tollway near Lebanon Road in Frisco earlier this year.
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The appeal bond was posted Friday, and the case was forwarded to the county court at law Monday, according to court documents. That court has yet to assign the case to a judge.

Elliott was stopped on the tollway?just after 3 p.m. April 4. The posted speed limit was 70 mph. Traffic was light. The weather was clear/cloudy, according to the citation, which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News.?

The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper also gave Elliott a warning for not having a front license plate, according to the citation.

Elliott's attorney, Jonathan Winocour, filed a letter with the court on June 28 waiving a jury trial and entering a plea of no contest. The court accepted that plea on July 5.

On July 14, Justice of the Peace?W. M. "Mike" Yarbrough signed paperwork stating that Elliott's conviction for the misdemeanor had been entered into the record.???

Winocour declined to comment on the case.?The Collin County District Attorney's Office also declined to comment on the pending case.?

The conviction comes as Elliott awaits a decision from the NFL on whether he violated the league's personal conduct policy.
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Zeke better cool his jets and grow up some. He has a golden opportunity in the NFL, but seems like he wants to blow it. I understand he's only 21 and rich, but hell, have some flippin' common sense!

 

You could apply that kind of logic into any QB negotiations. Brees was in the same situation. Franchised in '12 (16.4M) and his '13 tag value was 23.5M. That's 39.9M in '12 and '13 and he signed a 5 year extension with only 40M guaranteed. And he was owed nothing after year one. The Saints could have walked away after one season not owing Brees another dime. But naturally they weren't going to do that and put themselves in cap jail. Brees knew that at the very least he was functionally guaranteed another year at 9.75M just like Cousins would have been.

Sweeping Cousins' tag value in '18 into a '17 contract is not a basis for negotiation. That guarantee doesn't exist right now and is in fact the whole reason you sign a long term deal - to sweep that guaranteed money into the deal and give yourself financial security. Guaranteed dollars after two years (even one in Brees' case) is rare in the NFL...

Derek Carr - $40M guaranteed at signing (signing bonus + 2017 salary + 2017 roster bonus + 2018 roster bonus) - didn't even get his 2nd year base salary guaranteed

Eli Manning - $54M initially guaranteed (signing bonus + 2015 base salary + 2016 base salary) - no 3rd year guarantee

Philip Rivers - $37.5 million initially guaranteed (signing bonus + 2015 base salary) - like Brees, no guarantees after year one

Russell Wilson - $31.7M initially guaranteed (signing bonus + 2015 salary) - another QB with no guarantees after year one

Cam Newton - $41M initially fully guaranteed (signing bonus, 2015 salary, 2015 roster bonus, 2016 option bonus) - another QB who didn't get 2nd year base salary guaranteed

Joe Flacco - $44M guaranteed (signing bonus + 2016 salary) - a guy that had the Ravens over the barrel only got guarantees in year one

I could list them all here but the only QB contract I found that had 3rd year money guaranteed was Luck's 3M in 2018. And his total guarantee was less than Cousins. You're applying a standard (guarantees beyond 2 years) that simply doesn't exist among QB contracts. Instead you get monster signing bonuses and the size of those bonuses gives you leverage beyond the guaranteed portion. And most of the contracts had the trigger dates described before.

Yes, if you're the team you can walk away and eat the dead cap but you have to put a franchise QB on the market prior to free agency - which is pretty much a franchise QB's wet dream. Only wet dreams actually happen, franchise QBs reaching unrestricted free agency simply doesn't happen. The "downside" your describing in the Cousins deal is actually the result a guy like Cousins would take any day of the week. Get 53M in two years and then reach free agency at 30 years old.

Kirk Cousins just doesn't want to be a Redskin. He can say whatever he likes but his actions speak volumes. His agent didn't even make a counter offer. Who does that except a guy who doesn't want to play somewhere?

 

Washington wanted a six-year deal with Cousins, with four of them not guaranteed

A year ago, Washington wasn?t inclined to guarantee at signing the amount that quarterback Kirk Cousins would have gotten under the franchise tag in 2016 and 2017. This year, that attitude changed; the back end of the deal was the problem.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the team?s offer that included more than $53 million guaranteed at signing covered the $23.94 million franchise tag in 2017 and the $28.72 million transition tag in 2018, and then some (by a little). The problem is that the team wanted four more non-guaranteed years after that.

In other words, the team wanted a two-year commitment and then a series of four one-year options. Cousins wasn?t inclined to commit to a deal that committed him (but not the team) from 2019 through 2022.

And that?s a smart move. If we?ve learned one thing in recent years, thanks to the growth in the cap and the decision of arguably the best quarterback in the game to sign from 2013 through 2019 at 2013 dollars (Aaron Rodgers), it?s that long-term deals don?t work for the players, beyond the first couple of years.

Last year, by not guaranteeing Cousins the 2016 and 2017 franchise tags at signing, Washington gambled and lost. This year, Cousins is gambling on the notion that he?ll at least play well enough to get the team to give him at least the transition tag next year. (If they give him the franchise tag again, he will have made $58.41 million over the same two-year window, $5 million more than the team offered.)

But how much of a gamble is it, really? Cousins threw for more than 4,900 yards in 2016. No matter what he does this year, someone will be interested in paying him significant money (remember, Mike Glennon is getting $16 million this year from the Bears) in March, even if Cousins regresses. (Indeed, if he regresses it will be easy to blame it at least in part on the team?s stubborn refusal to give him a real commitment.)

Bottom line: Cousins finally has shown all players the value of going year to year. Since teams essentially want to do that with every deal after the first two or three years of a long-term contract, why shouldn?t players subject to the franchise tag opt for one year at a time? The rules of the tag favor them, and the long-term deals usually don?t. (PFT)