NFL News OT: Sources: Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba agrees to record extension

[TheRainMaker]

Any wonder so many teams run into cap problems when every new contract has to one up the previous?

I really wish the NFL would find a way to reign this in?

I enjoy following the NFL, or I wouldn't be here, but there is no term for this ******** other than Decadence. Being an NFL fan gets to be a more guilty pleasure every day.

There needs to be a cap on new contracts or the NFL vetoing deals when mediocre players explode the market. For instance, was Drew Bledsoe getting the highest contract in NFL history warranted? Absolutely not and that contract was pretty controversial. He was on the decline in terms of play the last two years and his teams were on a steady decline since 1997. Michael Vick later becoming the highest paid in the NFL was highly controversial and not warranted as well.

Later on you guys like Tua and the midget in Arizona making more than Patrick Mahomes. Why is Trevor Lawrence the 3rd highest in fully guaranteed money? Why are he and Jordan Love within the top 3 of average annual salary? Somehow, the most accomplished QB in the NFL right now is the 12th highest paid in the league.

This is just one example of what are wrong with NFL contracts. It's an endless cycle that won't stop. So when a team has a good QB on their hands, they will have no choice, but to leapfrog everyone else. If Maye duplicates 2025 1-2 more times, be prepared for him to obliterate the QB market.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

There needs to be a cap on new contracts or the NFL vetoing deals when mediocre players explode the market.

The NBA has max contracts- yet the same thing happens. Jaylen Brown became the highest paid player in the NBA was he was clearly not the NBA’s player.

I never understand why fans care how much a player gets paid - especially here where both sides were eager to get something done. The owners are making piles of money and now the players are. I understand if you don’t like a player’s effort, or skills, or they get paid and stop caring.

JSN had a great year, the Seahawks had a great year. They wanted to keep working together. Both sides knew that JSN was going to reset the market if he got to free agency, and both sides decided to do it now. What is so upsetting?

 

[rabidfireweasel]

The salary cap was designed to build parity and interest. It does that. As most know, teams with a good young first contract QB are in a good position. Teams like NE, Chicago, Denver and Washington have renewed interests while existing Superstars like Mahomes, Stafford, Allen, and Jackson get plenty of eyeballs. It is a machine made for money making and it works.

 

[The Gr8est]

The NBA has max contracts- yet the same thing happens. Jaylen Brown became the highest paid player in the NBA was he was clearly not the NBA’s player.

I never understand why fans care how much a player gets paid - especially here where both sides were eager to get something done. The owners are making piles of money and now the players are. I understand if you don’t like a player’s effort, or skills, or they get paid and stop caring.

JSN had a great year, the Seahawks had a great year. They wanted to keep working together. Both sides knew that JSN was going to reset the market if he got to free agency, and both sides decided to do it now. What is so upsetting?

What is so upsetting?

Look at the Cleveland Browns with Deshawn Jackson and now the Miami Dolphins.

They need to be non-competitive while they unburden themselves from a crippling cap situation.

That certainly isn’t what drew us to watching sports.

 

[lancerman]

There needs to be a cap on new contracts or the NFL vetoing deals when mediocre players explode the market. For instance, was Drew Bledsoe getting the highest contract in NFL history warranted? Absolutely not and that contract was pretty controversial. He was on the decline in terms of play the last two years and his teams were on a steady decline since 1997. Michael Vick later becoming the highest paid in the NFL was highly controversial and not warranted as well.

Later on you guys like Tua and the midget in Arizona making more than Patrick Mahomes. Why is Trevor Lawrence the 3rd highest in fully guaranteed money? Why are he and Jordan Love within the top 3 of average annual salary? Somehow, the most accomplished QB in the NFL right now is the 12th highest paid in the league.

This is just one example of what are wrong with NFL contracts. It's an endless cycle that won't stop. So when a team has a good QB on their hands, they will have no choice, but to leapfrog everyone else. If Maye duplicates 2025 1-2 more times, be prepared for him to obliterate the QB market.

It's never been about the best player getting the highest contract. It's about whoever of the top 10 at a position is up for a contract extension setting the market. And all the other players want them to push for as much as possible.

This is what every team deals with.

Everyone here freaked out when Mahomes took that massive 10 year deal, but they did that on purpose to not have a QB resetting the market every 3 years

 

[RobertWeathers]

The salary cap was designed to build parity and interest.

It was mainly put in place to control labor costs so NFL teams had a chance at enjoying decent profits and their valuations increased with revenues

 

[Huckleberry1]

Eh, they've got Darnold locked in at a reasonable number. It's not that stupid.

Now, it does hamstring them in terms of bringing another quarterback in, but that's a problem for future Seahawks.

Whether they can handle it or not 40 million per is a bad deal. The only players I would give that much to are top 5 quarterbacks.

 

[Huckleberry1]

There needs to be a cap on new contracts or the NFL vetoing deals when mediocre players explode the market. For instance, was Drew Bledsoe getting the highest contract in NFL history warranted? Absolutely not and that contract was pretty controversial. He was on the decline in terms of play the last two years and his teams were on a steady decline since 1997. Michael Vick later becoming the highest paid in the NFL was highly controversial and not warranted as well.

Later on you guys like Tua and the midget in Arizona making more than Patrick Mahomes. Why is Trevor Lawrence the 3rd highest in fully guaranteed money? Why are he and Jordan Love within the top 3 of average annual salary? Somehow, the most accomplished QB in the NFL right now is the 12th highest paid in the league.

This is just one example of what are wrong with NFL contracts. It's an endless cycle that won't stop. So when a team has a good QB on their hands, they will have no choice, but to leapfrog everyone else. If Maye duplicates 2025 1-2 more times, be prepared for him to obliterate the QB market.

The owners already got a salary cap, and then a rookie cap, as bad a deal as I think this is these billionaire idiots shouldn't get any more protection from themselves.

 

[Ross12]

IMO, the fact that the Patriots did not shop too heavily this spring, and also did not restructure any of the very easy to restructure contracts to create cap space this year to push some of the money into future years, tells me they are planning for the Gonzo extension. These sorts of extensions for rookies are typically done in the late spring around/after minicamps; JSN's is coming earlier than you would normally see.

I do have to wonder, though, how much they are looking at the 5th year option + franchise tag x2 vs a market-setting extension. Franchise tag numbers for CBs are only around $21M-23M right now, and his 5th year option is about $18M. That's quite a bit less than the AAV he is most likely seeking which I suspect is closer to $32-35M. I have to guess that is a part of contract negotiation.

 

[XLIX]

What is so upsetting?

Look at the Cleveland Browns with Deshawn Jackson and now the Miami Dolphins.

They need to be non-competitive while they unburden themselves from a crippling cap situation.

That certainly isn’t what drew us to watching sports.

This just in: poorly run teams with stupid management struggle to consistently win games. Groundbreaking!

There ain’t no salary cap or max value rule the NFL can implement which will save poorly run teams from losing lots of games.

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

The NBA has max contracts- yet the same thing happens. Jaylen Brown became the highest paid player in the NBA was he was clearly not the NBA’s player.

I never understand why fans care how much a player gets paid - especially here where both sides were eager to get something done. The owners are making piles of money and now the players are. I understand if you don’t like a player’s effort, or skills, or they get paid and stop caring.

JSN had a great year, the Seahawks had a great year. They wanted to keep working together. Both sides knew that JSN was going to reset the market if he got to free agency, and both sides decided to do it now. What is so upsetting?

It doesn't matter how much money the owners make, the cap is the cap. And when you have players taking up a much higher percentage of the cap than before, that causes issues.

Dak Prescott will have a cap hit of $75 million in 2027. They'll have to restructure that to bring it down, which will raise his cap hits in future years. His cap hit for 2028 is already $86 million. At some point it will catch up to them.

Derek Carr has a higher cap hit for the Saints this season than any player on the Patriots roster.

When Drake Maye signs his mega deal, (and Christian Gonzalez to a lesser extent) he'll eventually be a burden on team building. That is an unavoidable fact.

 

[TheRainMaker]

The NBA has max contracts- yet the same thing happens. Jaylen Brown became the highest paid player in the NBA was he was clearly not the NBA’s player.

There's a difference though. Brown's contract doesn't affect other teams as they all have the same amount of slots of Max, Super Max, Mid Level, etc. They also have to meet a certain criteria in order to get paid. They can't just pay any player a max contract just because. This is what the NFL is doing for say Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray, Tua, Trevor Lawernce, Jordan Love etc. The other difference is that NBA contracts are guaranteed - so once they pay the player, they are stuck with him. Another advantage NBA teams have is that they encourage players to stay with their drafted teams as they generally can't make more with another team.

I never understand why fans care how much a player gets paid - especially here where both sides were eager to get something done.

Because the more they get paid, the less interest these players have. Ty Law said it best on one of the radio shows a few years ago that these players aren't afraid of HC's anymore. The other observation I've seen is that players don't really about winning as the did previously. When you are making that much money, they've all become friends.

The salary cap was designed to build parity and interest.

It was designed to hold Owners accountable in spending a certain amount of money and not hog the profits.

The owners already got a salary cap, and then a rookie cap, as bad a deal as I think this is these billionaire idiots shouldn't get any more protection from themselves.

While I agree about the Owners, mediocre players signing massive deals make it more difficult for other teams to keep a good young player. Maye was my example. If he continues on his current trajectory, he's going to command $65-$70 per year easy. Another example is Lindenbuam. He's among the best in the league, but he obliterated the C market. There was no need to be at $27M per year. Now the next young C is going to get $30M per year.

It doesn't matter how much money the owners make, the cap is the cap. And when you have players taking up a much higher percentage of the cap than before, that causes issues.

This. You're having players take up more of the the cap then they need to. Mediocre players getting paid ruins it for other teams with a potential star on their hands.

 

[XLIX]

Dak Prescott will have a cap hit of $75 million in 2027. They'll have to restructure that to bring it down, which will raise his cap hits in future years. His cap hit for 2028 is already $86 million. At some point it will catch up to them.

That sounds like a DP, not an MP.

Derek Carr has a higher cap hit for the Saints this season than any player on the Patriots roster.

That sounds like a NOP, not an MP.

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

That sounds like a DP, not an MP.

That sounds like a NOP, not an MP.

When Drake Maye is making $65 million a year, it will be our problem. Unless you know of a magical way to pay him $400 million but somehow have low cap hits each season that doesn't involve adding 5 or 6 void years to spread out the cap hit.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Whether they can handle it or not 40 million per is a bad deal. The only players I would give that much to are top 5 quarterbacks.

But you can’t get a proven top 5 QB for that.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Also want add- a big to the respectful disagreement in the thread. When there are differing points of view- but also reasoned and respectful- I feel like I am in the draft forum. I certainly appreciate disagreement, but the personal attacks and trolling can sometimes make it a slog. None of that here- just good football talk

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Seahawks state they are rewarding a foundational player

 

[XLIX]

When Drake Maye is making $65 million a year, it will be our problem.

I hope he plays well enough that he earns that much. Don't you?

Unless you know of a magical way to pay him $400 million but somehow have low cap hits each season that doesn't involve adding 5 or 6 void years to spread out the cap hit.

I understand how math seems like magic to some people, but if the Patriots give him a long term deal, say something close to what Mahomes got, but maybe not necessarily that long so let's say 8 years, $520 million total (using your $65 million per year number), they could easily spread the cap hits out such that he takes up about 15% of the cap on any given year with a roughly 10% dead cap hit the first year after he is gone.

NOTE: What they probably would do is structure it so the first few years it is less than 15%, and then rises over that number later on, but that's their decision.

Cleveland's problem isn't that they spent $250 million on a QB, it's that they spent $250 million on a QB that sucks royally.

 

[Huckleberry1]

When Drake Maye is making $65 million a year, it will be our problem. Unless you know of a magical way to pay him $400 million but somehow have low cap hits each season that doesn't involve adding 5 or 6 void years to spread out the cap hit.

I don't think Maye is going to push for top dollar. He wants to win.

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

I hope he plays well enough that he earns that much. Don't you?

I understand how math seems like magic to some people, but if the Patriots give him a long term deal, say something close to what Mahomes got, but maybe not necessarily that long so let's say 8 years, $520 million total (using your $65 million per year number), they could easily spread the cap hits out such that he takes up about 15% of the cap on any given year with a roughly 10% dead cap hit the first year after he is gone.

NOTE: What they probably would do is structure it so the first few years it is less than 15%, and then rises over that number later on, but that's their decision.

Cleveland's problem isn't that they spent $250 million on a QB, it's that they spent $250 million on a QB that sucks royally.

If the Pats are the first team to evenly spread the cap hits and never once restructure because they have cap issues, then sure, it can be done. But we've yet to see that happen.

And yes, we all obviously hope Drake Maye plays well enough to earn $65 million annually. But even if his cap hit is "only" $65 million in one of those seasons, that's still a greater difference from his current charge than the total amount of space we had after cutting Diggs. So yes, contracts that large, no matter if it's the greatest player in the history of sports, do have a significant impact on team building.

As for Watson, even if he turned into such a great QB for Cleveland that it made Tom Brady jealous, why would that have stopped them from continuously bumping his cap hit forward because they had no money for anyone else?