Kap to the Jets seems too perfect

I think Hightower is just gone. He isn't being tagged and I don't see the McCourty situation happening again because teams are too flush with cash. Someone will pay him far more than NE is willing to.

BB historically been much better at finding LB's than DB's so letting him go and paying Butler makes sense. Especially since you can get Butler slightly below market since he is a RFA.

As far as Jimmy, I think he's gone and it is just posturing. I think they expect Brady to play 3 more years with Scarnecchia back and how the OL performed this year.

Brady's cap hit for 2018 is currently $22m with a dead cap hit of $14m. I don't see how they pay Jimmy market value on a deal to be the backup in the beginning of the contract, when other teams with more cap room would be paying him to be the starter immediately.

& I understand your argument on BB, I just don't think a) he is planning on riding off & b) I don't think he would operate that way even if he was.

Correct.

That's probably close to the over/under, so not that hot of a take.

I guess I don't really know what you're not sure about. They already announced they weren't tagging him. He's also only 26 (turns 27 in 11 days). I know we went back & forth in the Pats thread about whether they should or not.

Having the cap room, & wanting to allocate that much of the cap room to Hightower are two different things.

I've already seen reports today that Chris Long is leaving & people want to pay Mingo a lot of $$$ for some reason. I think they're going to keep doing their buy low thing on guys who don't impact the compensatory pick calculation, letting guys go who don't take slightly below market or who they don't consider to be integral parts of the team, & keep playing the long term game.

I mostly agree with everything here, except I think there's some chance Hightower comes back depending on his priorities and the Patriots interest. Also agree they should/will pay Butler. & I mostly agree they will trade him, but there is some chance they won't, & if they don't, it's because they really want him to take over for Brady in 2018 I think, or think it's a very good possibility.

Rams tagged Trumaine Johnson again costing $16m
Tavon Austin around $14m
Mark Barron around $11m

That is apparently 25% of the cap gone on those 3 players. Good God.

It's actually even slightly worse than that...

CB Trumaine Johnson $16.74m (10.01% cap)
WR Tavon Austin $14.98m (8.95%)
LB Mark Barron $11m (6.57%)
DT Michael Brockers $11m (6.57%)

That's 32.1% on those 4 guys...

Tavon contract is kind of interesting, though, because the hit over the next 4 years is never higher than $9.56m.

Barron's goes to $10m next year, then $9m the 2 years after that. Brockers is $10.75m the next 2 years.

There's also not a lot of dead $$$ on those contracts after this year (they could cut all 3 for a total of $4.5m dead $$$ after this year).

It looks like they planned these contracts to hit this year & give them more long term financial flexibility when they might need to make a splash next year when they go to new stadium.

I could see the dolphins divebombing him with cash, they actually need a player like him. They'll draft a bust instead though.

Assuming your over/under is therefore 48 games or something close, I'd have to sit down for safety's sake as all the blood in my body rushed to the rampaging erection I'd have the minute I snap took the under

Does Brady take a snap in 2019 would probably be the way to bet that. Not some O/U on games.

Yes or No

lol at just casually throwing that out there

I think Hightower is a bit of a FA trap due to specific skill set/scheme player. Given it's the NFL, someone will pay him then blame him if he doesn't work out there.

Rams paying tavon austin and mark barron, jeez. Gonna lol so hard if later on they can't afford aaron donald.

Alshon Jeffrey gonna get QB $ probably.

This is off my head but I feel like LB performance in general is scheme/skill set utilization driven outside of the elite guys and that it is the biggest bust/underperformance position for FA's that get "paid" (say top 10 salary at their position)

No evidence to back that up though

so the combine news today is the NFL is in love with yet another USC QB goldenboy for next year.

well yeah anyone would take the under on 48

48 as in 3 straight seasons without missing a game? I'd want 20 to 1 probably

44 as in 3 seasons while missing some games? 5 to 1 seems fair idk

real over/under is probably closer to 30. suffering a career-ending injury in a season opener of 2019 still counts as a season

BB has said in interviews that he doesn't plan on coaching into his 70's, and he doesn't want to "be the next Marv Levy."

It was also recently reported that the Kraft's and BB already know the date BB is leaving. Jonathon Kraft was asked if that was true, and he said he was aware of an agreement, but part of the agreement was not to talk about it.

My guess is 3 to 4 more years for BB.

I just don't see how they can pay Garapollo with the way contracts are going. Even if you got as creative as possible, the $ someone else would give him would still dwarf your deal.

Unless Brady retires after 2018 or the Pats cut him, but that just seems like a longshot.

well I mean he's never missed a game because of injury with the exception of the 2008 ACL (which ****ed my fantasy season)

and those odds are pretty bad. Everybody would take 20 to 1 on Brady playing 16 for the next 3 seasons and most people would take 5 to 1 on 44, although that is a little more realistic.

I'd take both of those, even though I think his play will fall off a cliff before the end of 2018

The Mets have more QBs in their camp than the 49ers.

Yeah but OTOH Sam Darnold took over a 1-3 team and ran up a winning streak to take them to the #3 AP final ranking while also putting up big numbers as a redshirt freshman

I think the hype is probably justified in that case

Leonard Fournette weighs in at 240lbs. Might worry me in terms of the longevity of his burst/quickness etc if I was a GM but my word he is a big dude. Everybody will look at his 40, but his shuttle times will be interesting

debatable

Jamal Lewis was steady at 245 and ran over all the browns 10x both games one season. Bigger backs are definitely better in the run game if they're fast enough with the trend of smaller defenders.

9ers have no QB right now

draft articles "would be foolish to take one @ #2 overall"

so uh, what the hell is the plan then? Yet another season to the lol rebuild so far?

Polian on Insiders this morning saying next year is a far stronger QB class. Always dangerous to look ahead like that but tanking has to be an option for Lynch n Shanny. They have the job security for it.

Polian also came out and said the Browns tanked 2016. Just of course lolBrowns that they get the top pick in a year with only a 2 day old sausage roll and a few dirty napkins at QB

What is Aaron Donald worth?

Depends how much of his rookie contract he's spent. My guess...is that it's mostly gone