NFL News [Old 2020 thread] NFL Free Agency/Trade Rumors:

[TheRainMaker]

What is the value of a player in his last year who doesn't want to complete his contract unless he gets a significant raise?

Have we heard anything about Gilmore holding out? Why trade your best defensive player for a guy who could likely get released? 9ers will actively look to find a replacement in the next two months.

I only get rid of Gilmore if he wants out.

 

[Uptown]

Wonder if DT Jurrell Casey will be available at a decent rate, considering his age/injury last season....? He is exactly what we need in terms of a penetrating 3-tech DT.

 

[DaBruinz]

Andrews is very good C for BB - IQ, glue & lucky charm of this OL - and id be surprised if they dont bring him back at 29 y old unless there are bigger worries about his health. He will be cheap enough id guess. They might bring in some strong G/C rookie in a very good OL draft.

Paying Thuney 12-15M apy and move him to center is not a very sound move and im surprised our roster guru would suggest something like that. They have Mason on 10M already and Wynn's 5th yr option / extension is coming up so even if we assume Cannon's contract is dropped that would be way too much money on one position. Also, there are probably teams that see Thuney as LT and will be happy to pay the projected price.

I'm no "roster guru". I just track what's posted.

Thuney played significantly better at Center the one game than Andrews ever has. I disagree with your downplaying of how important a center is. The Center is the GLUE of the O-line. And Thuney can handle the Big NTs that Andrews can't. Also, Thuney has shown the ability to stop the stunts/late blitz up the center that Andrews fails to catch on a regular basis.

I contend that Center is the 2nd most important position on the O-line behind the Blind-side Tackle. I also contend that with the Cap space they have, signing Thuney to a 12M deal is just the thing they need to do to ensure continuity on the O-line. In fact, Thuney would be an improvement at center. While Onwenu is a slight drop at LG over Thuney now, in the long run, he should be just as good.

The days of paying O-linemen the least amount on the team are gone. And teams succeed based on how lines are built. If they aren't willing to keep an All-Pro Caliber lineman, then they are taking a step backwards on the whole.

 

[skinnydog]

There’s always ways to manipulate the cap. Especially, if a team wants/wants to rid themselves of someone bad enough.

I know and spent a lot of time in another thread arguing just that

 

[DaBruinz]

I thought Green Bay had cap issues, no?

GB will have to do some simple restructures (Salary to Signing Bonus) to clear up enough room to be able to sign their Draft picks since they are 20M over the project 180.5M cap.

 

[Ring 6]

No, I think the Texans are headed for a rebuild with or without Watson. Why not trade him for the draft capital and get a bridge QB in the meantime.

Did Watson screw up by signing a contact with an organization he had doubts about, absolutely, and now he is saying he doesn't wan't to stick around for what the Texans screwed up, the rest of the roster. It's not a good situation.

If you have the QB position in good shape that’s the most important piece. Why would you give away the most important piece? Then you have to built the team AND solve the qb problem.

 

[venecol]

I'm no "roster guru". I just track what's posted.

Thuney played significantly better at Center the one game than Andrews ever has. I disagree with your downplaying of how important a center is. The Center is the GLUE of the O-line. And Thuney can handle the Big NTs that Andrews can't. Also, Thuney has shown the ability to stop the stunts/late blitz up the center that Andrews fails to catch on a regular basis.

I contend that Center is the 2nd most important position on the O-line behind the Blind-side Tackle. I also contend that with the Cap space they have, signing Thuney to a 12M deal is just the thing they need to do to ensure continuity on the O-line. In fact, Thuney would be an improvement at center. While Onwenu is a slight drop at LG over Thuney now, in the long run, he should be just as good.

The days of paying O-linemen the least amount on the team are gone. And teams succeed based on how lines are built. If they aren't willing to keep an All-Pro Caliber lineman, then they are taking a step backwards on the whole.

I agree with what you are saying but do you really think BB will give Thuney the $$ to stay? He's 29, this is his last time to get a big time contract and was tagged ($14.8M) last season. He can get >$14M, why would he stay? I give it a 5% chance of Thuney being re-signed.

Patriots, Joe Thuney Were Never Close To Extension

The Patriots surprised everyone last year when they used the franchise tag on Joe Thuney. Often times, the tag is …

www.profootballrumors.com

 

[The Brandon Five]

I agree with what you are saying but do you really think BB will give Thuney the $$ to stay? He's 29, this is his last time to get a big time contract and was tagged ($14.8M) last season. He can get >$14M, why would he stay? I give it a 5% chance of Thuney being re-signed.

Patriots, Joe Thuney Were Never Close To Extension

The Patriots surprised everyone last year when they used the franchise tag on Joe Thuney. Often times, the tag is …

www.profootballrumors.com

A lot of free agents are going to be disappointed during a year when the cap is contracting by about 20%.

 

[skinnydog]

GB will have to do some simple restructures (Salary to Signing Bonus) to clear up enough room to be able to sign their Draft picks since they are 20M over the project 180.5M cap.

Can’t be, I was assured in another thread that even though the Pats were 25 million under the cap last year they were in cap hell and had no way to bring Brady back and add a weapon or 2 for him to throw to.

 

[skinnydog]

Have we heard anything about Gilmore holding out? Why trade your best defensive player for a guy who could likely get released? 9ers will actively look to find a replacement in the next two months.

I only get rid of Gilmore if he wants out.

If the Pays are using cap space to bring in talent, they should hold onto Gilmore, probably extend him.

 

[venecol]

A lot of free agents are going to be disappointed during a year when the cap is contracting by about 20%.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean that there won't be competition for elite players. Where there's competition, ultimately you find someone to over pay. We see it every season.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Maybe, but that doesn't mean that there won't be competition for elite players. Where there's competition, ultimately you find someone to over pay. We see it every season.

The thing is the pool of money that is available for free agents isn't going down by 20%. That pool is usually a portion of each team's total cap...the portion that is not already allocated to players they intend to keep, dead money, etc. $14.8 million is more than the total available cap for half the teams in the league. Not sure how much of a bidding war there will be unless teams compete against themselves.

NFL 2021 Salary Cap Tracker

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

And no compensatory pick, since he was released.

BB is probably already kicking the tires with his agent. A guy like this, if he can stay healthy, is the biggest need on D, IMO.

Guys that live in the trenches and are injured at age 30 and 31 rarely recover to have great years at 32 and 33.

 

[DaBruinz]

I agree with what you are saying but do you really think BB will give Thuney the $$ to stay? He's 29, this is his last time to get a big time contract and was tagged ($14.8M) last season. He can get >$14M, why would he stay? I give it a 5% chance of Thuney being re-signed.

Patriots, Joe Thuney Were Never Close To Extension

The Patriots surprised everyone last year when they used the franchise tag on Joe Thuney. Often times, the tag is …

www.profootballrumors.com

I think that he and the Pats could get a 3-4 year deal done that would keep their best O-linemen in Red, White, and Blue. He is arguably the best O-linemen they've had since Bruce Armstrong. Yes, even better than Mankins.

 

[DaBruinz]

Can’t be, I was assured in another thread that even though the Pats were 25 million under the cap last year they were in cap hell and had no way to bring Brady back and add a weapon or 2 for him to throw to.

I showed a way that the Pats could have kept Brady last year. However, it would have required a 3 year deal and, as it turned out, BB wasn't willing to do that. Brady is going to be the exception to BB's rule of letting a player go a year early vs. years late.

 

[TheRainMaker]

I agree with what you are saying but do you really think BB will give Thuney the $$ to stay? He's 29, this is his last time to get a big time contract and was tagged ($14.8M) last season. He can get >$14M, why would he stay? I give it a 5% chance of Thuney being re-signed.

Patriots, Joe Thuney Were Never Close To Extension

The Patriots surprised everyone last year when they used the franchise tag on Joe Thuney. Often times, the tag is …

www.profootballrumors.com

Them not being close last offseason is why he won't be back. Unless he's tagged again, BB will make him an offer and Thuney will just ignore it and go out to the open market.

 

[The Brandon Five]

The thing is the pool of money that is available for free agents isn't going down by 20%. That pool is usually a portion of each team's total cap...the portion that is not already allocated to players they intend to keep, dead money, etc. $14.8 million is more than the total available cap for half the teams in the league. Not sure how much of a bidding war there will be unless teams compete against themselves.

NFL 2021 Salary Cap Tracker

What I mean is that the free agent pool.will be more than 20% lower (on average) because most of the cap is already committed.
For example:

Team A has $120 million committed. If cap is $220 million they have $100 million to play with. If it’s $176 million the only have $56 million for a shopping spree.

 

[Deus Irae]

What I mean is that the free agent pool.will be more than 20% lower (on average) because most of the cap is already committed.
For example:

Team A has $120 million committed. If cap is $220 million they have $100 million to play with. If it’s $176 million the only have $56 million for a shopping spree.

That pool is not only likely to be lower, but it's likely to be more well stocked with higher end talent than usual, as teams ditch the likes of JJ Watt, Von Miller, et al. in order to meet the lower Cap number. In other words, teams with actual cap space (Patriots, Bucs, Colts, etc...) should (and should is not a guarantee, since all it will take is a couple of teams to be willing to buy up the market for things to change a bit) be able to get talent for less than would normally be possible. And that talent should involve both random free agents and free agents from their own team.

NFL 2021 Salary Cap Tracker

The Patriots are 4th, the Bucs are 10th, and more than 10 teams are currently listed as underwater with a $185m cap.

 

[RIpats88]

Players will come here even if we don't know who the QB will be yet as long as we pay them.

This idea that players only go places to win and not chase money is flawed. Otherwise superbowl winners wouldn't lose so many players every year

 

[farn]

Players will come here even if we don't know who the QB will be yet as long as we pay them.

This idea that players only go places to win and not chase money is flawed. Otherwise superbowl winners wouldn't lose so many players every year

Several things here : players' motivations vary greatly. One reason championship teams don't often keep all their FAs is that they just won - the goal was achieved and the player wants $. But you are discounting all the players who've already made their cash and are looking for the ring.

Players chase many things : rings, money, family comfort, an adult eveing with a random chick and your brother... it varies. BB needs to find a way for NE to offer what a few key FAs want and pounce.