NFL 2022 Offseason, Draft, Free Agency

[stevew]

Pre-injury Justyn Ross looked like the first receiver off the board last year, maybe. Hope the kid had some insurance.

[albionmoonlight]

It looks like no team has even invited him to camp. The fact that 32 teams' medical staffs didn't clear him makes me think that Clemson probably shouldn't have had him on the field either.

It's a horrible situation. I can't even imagine being a few years away from a dream as big as the NFL and losing it all for something completely out of your control. All by age 20.

[QuikSand]

Great account to follow rookie signings... and the viz is fun, too

Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) | Twitter

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

In addition to Justyn Ross going undrafted, I was also somewhat surprised that teams didn't take a flyer on Carson Strong. He seemed like the consensus #6 QB on most lists. I get he had some injury concerns and doesn't have the mobility that team's want these days but he seems like a decent enough passer to be a serviceable backup, and is supposed to be fairly intelligent as well.

Apparently he got a $240K signing bonus as a UDFA from Philly, so he may have come out better than had he been drafted in the twilight phases.

[stevew]

the eagles giving out large guarantees for UDFA's is a new wrinkle that probably infuriates other teams. Strong got 320K total guaranteed from what I read. And there's several other guys that got more than 200k. I assume this amount is approximately what they would make on the practice squad most likely.

[QuikSand]

I had thought there was a league-wide cap applying equally to each team on total UDFA signing bonuses... cannot find where I read that. So, I came away with the impression that shipping one guy a big amount like that just limited your ability to spend $20K and $40K variously on ten other guys, or whatnot.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I had thought there was a league-wide cap applying equally to each team on total UDFA signing bonuses... cannot find where I read that. So, I came away with the impression that shipping one guy a big amount like that just limited your ability to spend $20K and $40K variously on ten other guys, or whatnot.

IIRC the limit is on signing bonus for UDFA but there's no limit on guaranteed money they can offer them on the contract they sign. So the limit is really just on upfront money.

[miami_fan]

What is the price of free-agent contracts in the NFL?

The NFL permits each team a reserve of money to be spent on a rookie draft class, both drafted and undrafted players. That amount is set based on the salary cap and is not commonly revealed to the public.

Since drafting players' contracts and signing bonuses are part of a slotted process, teams will have an overall thought as to how much money they have remaining in the rookie compensation pool to spend on undrafted free agents (UDFA) contracts and signing bonuses.

UDFAs base salary is the league minimum, and teams will use bonuses to persuade a player to join their roster. If teams are competing for a player, their signing bonus offers may elevate in line with the market for their services.

Also, since funds for signing bonuses are in short supply, and the competition for players is huge, teams have recently started to present portions of their salary as guaranteed money as a means to get players to sign a deal.

[Atocep]

Here's a look at what teams were doing from 2019 and 2020.

UDFA Spending Trends by Team | Over the Cap

[QuikSand]

got it, so some of these "bonus" numbers being tossed around are presumably unrestricted guaranteed base salary instead... makes sense

[QuikSand]

So, this afternoon the switch flips for free agent signings counting against the compensatory calculations for next year. Expect some reinvigorated interest from savvy teams to target veterans at this point.

The Ravens always actively play this game - whisper to specific guys "we want you but not until after the May date." Ravens look like they really need an edge and a receiver from the veteran universe - would not be shocked if they added two familiar names by tomorrow. Justin Houston coming back seems logical, I keep hearing Julio Jones but I'm not sold on him as the right fit.

[QuikSand]

Saints signing S Mathieu, apparently, effective tomorrow

[stevew]

Ross signed with the Chiefs. Probably won't amount to anything after the injuries but I'm sure they can stash him on IR all year and maybe they'll have something next year.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

LB Leo Chenal is a guy I picked in a ton of mock drafts, as a legit true off-ball LB without a lot of fluff... now he's looming as among the clear BPAs and I feel invested

Lions?

Dolphins?

Rams?

I was really hoping the Lions would draft Chenal. They have a terrible linebacking corps. Just awful. Their only addition to that group was a 6th round pick - Malcolm Rodriguez. He sounds like a fun player, but he's a converted safety who is small and has short arms. Not what you need in today's linebacker.

I like what the Lions did overall in this draft, but I do wonder whether drafting Josh Paschall (DE) and Kerby Joseph (S) instead of Jaquan Brisker (S) and Leo Chenal (LB), who were each taken a few picks later, respectively, will end up being a mistake.

[albionmoonlight]

On the Athletic football show podcast, they were talking about how the conventional wisdom about “teams want to draft a quarterback in the first round so they can get the fifth your option“ is not really in play anymore. They pointed to the baker Mayfield and the Sam Darnold situation as showing how those are not always team friendly. This kind of makes sense. If you draft a guy and he hits, you are probably extending him before you get to that 5th year option. But if you are not sure about him, that option put you in an awkward position as a team. It is almost easier to just have a four year contract and the option to extend or franchise.

[stevew]

It's pretty wild how roughly 25% of first round picks are not deemed worthy of a guaranteed 5th year. Like you'd expect that number to be 1-3 guys a year. Not 7-11 at least.

[stevew]

Hopkins out for first 6 games due to juicing.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by stevew

Hopkins out for first 6 games due to juicing.

Guess we know why they really traded for Brown now. Very disappointing

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I was really hoping the Lions would draft Chenal. They have a terrible linebacking corps. Just awful. Their only addition to that group was a 6th round pick - Malcolm Rodriguez. He sounds like a fun player, but he's a converted safety who is small and has short arms. Not what you need in today's linebacker.

I like what the Lions did overall in this draft, but I do wonder whether drafting Josh Paschall (DE) and Kerby Joseph (S) instead of Jaquan Brisker (S) and Leo Chenal (LB), who were each taken a few picks later, respectively, will end up being a mistake.

Agree. Seemed like we were triple-dipping at the DE spot (Hutch, already have Okwara, Harris, the other Okwara, and Bryant). How many DE's can we play? Considering we spent 2nd and 3rd last year on DL, this seems excessive. I hope it works out but might have felt better with Brisker and someone like Ruckert or Chenal.

[Swaggs]

I came across this on the Athletic, but thought it was cool. It is a chart showing a +/- for which picks were taken as to where they were on a consensus of multiple draft lists. It doesn't look like I can link the image, but worth a visit.

https://github.com/mrcaseb/nfl-data/...nsus_board.pdf

More green = higher value, More purple = more of a reach

It looks like they, unsurprisingly, have Malik Willis and Nakobe Dean as the two of the best values in the early rounds. New England with big reaches on their first picks and Baltimore absolutely killing it on their first five picks.

[Coffee Warlord]

Bears going full Island of Misfit Toys - presently 36 UDFA's on the roster.

[21C]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I came across this on the Athletic, but thought it was cool. It is a chart showing a +/- for which picks were taken as to where they were on a consensus of multiple draft lists. It doesn't look like I can link the image, but worth a visit.

https://github.com/mrcaseb/nfl-data/...nsus_board.pdf

Thanks for sharing this. I love this sort of visual representation. It would be interesting to have a similar sort of chart after a couple of seasons to show expected vs actual performance.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Bears going full Island of Misfit Toys - presently 36 UDFA's on the roster.

This is what happens when football-stupid ownership retains GMs way past their expiration date.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I was really hoping the Lions would draft Chenal. They have a terrible linebacking corps. Just awful. Their only addition to that group was a 6th round pick - Malcolm Rodriguez. He sounds like a fun player, but he's a converted safety who is small and has short arms. Not what you need in today's linebacker.

I like what the Lions did overall in this draft, but I do wonder whether drafting Josh Paschall (DE) and Kerby Joseph (S) instead of Jaquan Brisker (S) and Leo Chenal (LB), who were each taken a few picks later, respectively, will end up being a mistake.

A weakness is a weakness. But off-ball linebacker might be the least valuable position in football in 2022. I can see the logic in simply not investing a lot of draft capital there.

If y'all get to camp and realize that the situation is dire, you can probably trade a 4th round pick for a pretty decent guy on some other team that has a surplus.

[QuikSand]

the Raiders front office seems to be in full reign-of-terror mode... yesterday their HR director out, today the team president

heads in baskets, man

get em, Mark

[QuikSand]

Raiders abruptly announce departure of President Dan Ventrelle, without explanation. https://t.co/jg2ztPjmPI

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 6, 2022

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

the Raiders front office seems to be in full reign-of-terror mode... yesterday their HR director out, today the team president

heads in baskets, man

get em, Mark

Did he fire his barber?

[21C]

Another one of these.

[albionmoonlight]

��NEWS: Tom Brady's contract to call games for Fox Sports is for 10 years and $375 million, The Post has learned. https://t.co/WDcPjMYhYE

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 10, 2022

Was the market for Tom Brady as announcer so competitive that Fox had to offer this?

This seems kind of insane for a guy who you're not even sure will be good at the job.

[albionmoonlight]

dola:

I just looked it up. Romo gets paid $18,000,000/year. Which is currently the highest.

So assume that you could get a good color guy for $10,000,000/yr.

Even if Tom Brady is the best announcer in football, will your network make over $27,000,000/year extra by having him announce instead of an average announcer?

How many viewers does an announcer really bring in?

[bk1020]

I don't think the market was competitive at all. That's probably about the amount you need to give Tom Brady to get out of bed and commit to something long-term.

[stevew]

There's only one of him. He's worth every penny and I'm sure he said something to the effect of "I'll need at least twice what Romo is making in order to do this"

[bk1020]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

dola:

I just looked it up. Romo gets paid $18,000,000/year. Which is currently the highest.

So assume that you could get a good color guy for $10,000,000/yr.

Even if Tom Brady is the best announcer in football, will your network make over $27,000,000/year extra by having him announce instead of an average announcer?

How many viewers does an announcer really bring in?

You have to consider here that Fox is paying $2.2 Billion per year for the NFL rights in the first place. And Tom Brady obviously knows that.

Also, aren't the top50 broadcasts in the US every year almost all football games? NFL Football may be the only thing left that ensures solid TV ratings.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

dola:
How many viewers does an announcer really bring in?

Yeah I can't imagine anyone tunes into a football game to listen to Joe Buck.

[cuervo72]

I don't know that any but a few announcers (Madden, Michaels) ever bring anybody in. Some can put people off, but I don't know about the opposite. (Bringing in names certainly didn't work for MNF for a while.)

I'd imagine this is just competing against...well, I'm not sure really. ESPN has Aikman, CBS has Romo. (Thank goodness there are no other decent Dallas QB available.) Not sure where else other than Fox he'd go if NBC is set with Collinsworth.

[molson]

I don't think it's really about viewers, it's just having him a part of the team and all that entails with sponsor relationships and the whole Fox empire.

[Kodos]

Yeah, for me, the broadcasters generally don't lure me into watching a game, but they can make me not watch a game for sure. For example, MNF has been dead to me through several announcing crew iterations. Now I watch the Peyton & Eli show on Mondays. I am sad that my favorite team of Michaels and Collinsworth got broken apart, but I think Michaels/Herbstreit will be good, and Tirico/Collinsworth will be pretty good. Nantz/Romo is good.

Aikman is fine, although I wouldn't exactly miss him if he left. Buck is annoying yet somehow getting fabulously rich. I don't know anyone who enjoys him...

That $37.5 per year Brady is getting seems totally absurd. We don't even know if he's good at the job yet. Look at Dan Marino: He could sling the ball great, but he was worthless as an analyst.

[QuikSand]

How to increase winnability throughout the 2022 season pic.twitter.com/qVZWWE4Pfy

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) May 13, 2022

[Honolulu_Blue]

This is the best thing the Lions organization has done since… drafting Barry Sanders?

Fantastic.

[QuikSand]

OMG even better...

Should we REALLY make our schedule release video an anime?

yes yes yesyes
yesyes yes yes yes
yes yes yes yes yes
yes yesyes yes yes
yes yesye yes yes
yes yes yesyes pic.twitter.com/A0TvmYJUOQ

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) May 13, 2022

[sabotai]

That was incredible.

[JPhillips]

It's really weird that the Jets open with four games against the AFC North.

[stevew]

The Steelers play every game this year in the Eastern Time zone.

[Ksyrup]

The NFL is so popular that not only don't they have to care about criticism they get, but they troll everyone with the opening game on the schedule? You think the Bills got screwed by the OT rules? OK, they can open the season against the Rams. There's your Super Bowl that never was!

[Atocep]

I read today that Jared Goff is 3-17-1 with a qbr of 33 without McVay.

[Ksyrup]

Haskins was legally drunk when he died.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Haskins was legally drunk when he died.

Golly, what a shock.

Also worth noting

Haskins' toxicology report also notes that ketamine was detected in his urine at the time of death, though no drugs were detected in his blood.

Ketamine can be used as a sedative or treatment for depression, but it is also known as a "club drug" that can produce "dissociative sensations and hallucinations, "

[molson]

I saw this overhead photo of the highways he tried to cross, he would have been coming from the top of the photo down

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

[RainMaker]

I don't know if it's banned by the NFL (guessing it is), but some athletes would use ketamine with a stimulant for workouts. It's done in low doses, but supposedly puts you into a trance and you feel little to no pain. So you can lift an absurd amount of weights and not feel it or care.

Ketamine and booze seems like a really bad mix.

[albionmoonlight]

NFL Owners close ranks to protect each other.

But I am wondering if the end is at least in sight for Dan Snyder.

His incompetence is starting to cost the league money, which is the one unforgivable sin. Between stuff like this and the allegations that he improperly withheld revenue sharing payment to the other teams, they are not going to put up with him for much longer, IMO.

Statement from Virginia State Senator Chap Petersen on why he’s pulling his vote for stadium funding, includes some very strong language: “I don’t have confidence in The Washington Commanders as a viable NFL franchise.” pic.twitter.com/Q8qSJTTqFc

— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) May 26, 2022