When I grade big money signings, I like to do it by comparing it to other recent deals given to players at the same position. The middle linebacker position is an especially interesting one. In today’s NFL, the position is devalued a little as this is a pass friendly league and middle linebackers don’t have [...]
Trade for Patriots: I absolutely love this trade for the Patriots. They desperately need cornerback help. They have a few young cornerbacks, but none of them are playing well. Tom Brady is 35 so their Super Bowl window is closing. They need a short term solution so they don’t have to rely on developmental cornerbacks [...]
Trade for Jaguars: Mike Thomas caught 63 passes for 820 yards and 4 touchdowns as a 23 year old receiver in 2010, but it’s all gone downhill since there and he has just 13 catches for 80 yards this year, buried behind Justin Blackmon, Cecil Shorts, and Laurent Robinson on the depth chart. Given that [...]
If you’re wondering who Barry Church is, don’t feel bad. He’s a 2010 undrafted free agent who has made 4 career starts and is currently on IR after tearing his Achilles week 3. Apparently, the Cowboys felt it was urgent to give him a 4 year extension worth 12.4 million with 3.9 million guaranteed before [...]
Malcom Floyd was in a contract year this year and only making 2 million dollars. When I heard the Chargers had signed him to a 3 year extension, I was worried they overpaid. Yes, he’s the #1 receiver by default right now, but he’s never really proven he can be a consistent top option, even [...]
Lissemore was a 7th round pick in 2010 and had 2 years (including this one) left on his rookie deal. The Cowboys have tacked on an extra 3 years, 6 million onto his deal, with 3.1 million guaranteed. This is the 2nd time in as many seasons that the Cowboys have attempted to get ahead [...]
Washington was Arizona’s leader in tackles last season and graded out as ProFootballFocus’ 10th ranked middle linebacker, grading out above average against the run, in coverage, and as a blitzer, adding 6 sacks, 5 quarterback hits, and 19 quarterback pressures. Heading into his 3rd year in the league, he has a good chance to make his first [...]
James Laurinaitis is a very talented linebacker. A 2009 2nd round pick, he has graded out positively overall over the past 3 years as a starter and ranked 14th overall among middle linebackers in 2010 on ProFootballFocus. He’s managed 100+ tackles in each of his first 3 years in the league, good for a combined 376 tackles, [...]
The Jets and Rams are essentially swapping terrible right tackles in this deal. Smith is the better of the two, but the former 2nd overall pick has only played in 28 games in 3 seasons and only played in more than 7 games once, starting 15 games in 2010. In 2010, he was awful, grading [...]
Trade for Seattle: There was just no room in Seattle for Jackson. Russell Wilson had an impressive offseason to win the starting quarterback job as a 3rd round pick rookie, while Matt Flynn basically won the backup quarterback job by virtue of his fully guaranteed 8 million dollar salary in 2012, 6 million of which [...]
Trade for Colts: Ah, so this was the big trade Jim Irsay was tweeting about. Davis was one of the potential candidates I mentioned when I wrote on the subject a few days ago, along with Denver’s Ryan Clady and Baltimore’s Cary Williams. The Colts are taking a big risk here. If Davis plays like [...]
The Titans are taking a risk giving McCourty this 5 year, 43 million dollar deal with 20 million guaranteed. McCourty was actually thrown on more frequently than any cornerback in the league last year, being thrown on once every 4.6 coverage snaps. However, this was because opposing quarterbacks feared throwing on Cortland Finnegan, the opposite [...]
The Patriots essentially bought out Kyle Love’s exclusive rights year and restricted free agency year by giving him this 2 year, 3.09 million dollar deal. Love, a 2010 undrafted free agent, was set to make $540,000 this season and somewhere between 1-2 million in 2013 under a restricted free agent tender, so the Patriots are [...]
Trade for Colts: Needing cornerback depth having only Jerraud Powers, Justin King, and Cassius Vaughn at cornerback, the Colts sent an undisclosed late round pick to St. Louis for Josh Gordy. Gordy played 12 games, including 9 starts, for an injury plagued Rams secondary last season, but struggled, grading out as ProFootballFocus’ 96th ranked cornerback [...]
Trade for Saints: The Saints obviously felt they needed added depth at linebacker. David Hawthorne and Curtis Lofton have suffered knee and ankle injuries respectively and their statuses for week 1 are up in the air, while Chris Chamberlain tore his ACL and will be put on IR. However, Ruud, once one of the better [...]
After years of being an average left tackle, 2008 1st round pick Duane Brown finally showed why the Texans used that 1st round pick on him last year, making all 18 of the Texans’ starts en route to an eventual loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional round. Brown, impressively, was the only [...]
I don’t normally criticize things the Packers do, but this really seems like the Packers are buying high. Lang only has one year of starting experience and it’s not like he was an elite guard or anything last year. Making 15 starts, including playoffs, he graded out as ProFootballFocus’ 19th ranked guard. He’s better in [...]
Between the Panthers’ 5 year extension to DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, the Panthers have committed a combined 43.5 million guaranteed to two different running backs, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, in the last 2 offseason. Last offseason, Williams got 5 years, 43 million with 21 million guaranteed and Jonathan Stewart now has received 5 [...]
Trade for Indianapolis: The Colts needed middle linebacker depth after losing AJ Edds to a torn ACL earlier this week, so they acquired Greg Lloyd and Moise Fukou from the Eagles. However, neither of these guys ever play and the Colts had to give up Kevin Thomas, which depletes their depth at cornerback even more. Thomas [...]
Chris Long was due 10.31 million in the final year of his rookie deal, after going 2nd overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. This extension adds an extra 4 years, 50 million to the existing deal to essentially make it a 5 year, 60 million dollar contract, with 37 million guaranteed. Long is one of [...]
This Seahawks have extended the only member of their offensive line who wasn’t hurt last season, center Max Unger. Unger will get over 24 million combined over 2013-2016, adding this extension onto the million or so he’ll make this year in the final year of his rookie deal. This deal also guarantees him 12 million [...]
The Steelers made a surprise move today by extending a wide receiver, but not the wide receiver many would have expected. With Mike Wallace still holding out and ownership refusing to negotiate with him until he reports, the Steelers turned their attention to Antonio Brown, who was set to be a restricted free agent, much [...]
Trade for Buccaneers: Brian Price was a 2nd round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, but I still love this trade for them. Price played horribly last season, ranking 83rd at his position out of 89 on ProFootballFocus. The Buccaneers have adequate depth with Amobi Akoye and Gary Gibson, two underrated players, so he won’t [...]
This is a complicated deal. Wilson was owed 14.5 million combined over the next 2 seasons. This deal rips up those two years and replaces them with base salaries of 3 million and 3.5 million in each of the next two seasons. There are also performance incentives over the next 2 years of the deal [...]
Clemons was owed just 4 million dollars this season, 3 million if you count the 1 million that the Seahawks were allowed to reduce his salary by after he skipped mandatory minicamp last month, per his contract. This deal rips up the final year of his old deal and replaces it with a 3 year, [...]