NFL 2020 Off-Season

[MRP]

NFL News ...


- The Baltimore Ravens days ago sent Earl Thomas (safety) home after a fight he had with Chuck Clark. On Sunday they released him as they felt this was the final straw as its said there was issues last year. Thomas is now a free agent again and last time wanted to play for Dallas. He may get his wish as its reported the Cowboys are interested.

A lot of people are assuming Dallas is interested. According to Todd Archer, the Cowboys beat reporter at ESPN, the interest is tepid at best and wholly contingent on Thomas being willing to sign a team-friendly deal, which would be a lot less than the $10 million he is losing after being cut for conduct detrimental to the team by Baltimore. Also, most of the coaching staff at Dallas that wanted him and he wanted to play for is gone, particularly Kris Richard, and McCarthy's comments don't seem to indicate he is particularly interested in having Thomas in his locker room. And despite his reputation, Jerry has been reluctant to give big deals to older veterans in recent years, so there's a lot of factors working against Thomas to the Cowboys. I would be surprised if he does sign there, and if he does, if it is anything but a one year deal with little guaranteed money, which I am not sure Thomas' ego could accept. But I've been wrong before.

-M

[SUPERECWFAN1]

NFL News....


- After months of saying they would not trade Yannick Ngakoue (DE) the Jacksonville Jaguars traded the young DE to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2nd rd pick in 2021 and a 5th rd pick in 2022. Ngakoue also took less money to make the trade as he was guaranteed $17+ million as part of Jaguars tag had he signed. With the Vikings he will earn $12+ million. As a condition on his side of the deal that is 1 year , Ngakoue has a deal where the Vikings can not franchise tag him next year. That is a condition of his contract.


- DB Logan Ryan has a new agent and will be signing with a team soon according to a report. Ryan has had a number of teams interested and its claimed he had to wait a few days due to new representation.


- Zack Cunningham signed a 4 year , $58+ million dollar extension with Houston Texans yesterday. Cunningham has became a very big star at LB for the Texans as his 2019 season saw him have 142 tackles , 2 sacks and 2 passes broken up.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

NFL News....


- After months of saying they would not trade Yannick Ngakoue (DE) the Jacksonville Jaguars traded the young DE to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2nd rd pick in 2021 and a 5th rd pick in 2022. Ngakoue also took less money to make the trade as he was guaranteed $17+ million as part of Jaguars tag had he signed. With the Vikings he will earn $12+ million. As a condition on his side of the deal that is 1 year , Ngakoue has a deal where the Vikings can not franchise tag him next year. That is a condition of his contract.

Here in Philly, Eagles fans are livid that the team didn't try to trade for Ngakoue, but I'm glad that didn't happen. With G Brandon Brooks (Achilles) and T Andre Dillard (biceps) lost for the season, our greatest area of need is clearly on the offensive line. The return of Jason Peters who's nearly as old as his jersey number (71) is a stopgap at best, given his age and recent injury history, so we need help to protect Carson Wentz.

[Hiromi]

Andy Reid just got extended 6 years, it must feel great for him to have the rest of the career with that Championship monkey off his back

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Andy Reid just got extended 6 years, it must feel great for him to have the rest of the career with that Championship monkey off his back

Good for Andy. He earned that extension, and then some.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Well in a wild move where teams get rid of players that piss the organization off without much off field issues....Jacksonville has released Leonard Fournette (RB) today. Fournette had run ins with management and bad play at times. Yet the RB in 3 seasons had 2,631 yards on the ground and 17 TD's for 4 yards a carry. The Jaguars admitted they tried to trade Fournette for months but didn't even get low round draft picks.

No team was interested in him.


The writing was on the wall for Fournette for months. The team declined his 5th year option back in spring. He was literally told the team wouldn't be bringing him back in 2021. Plus its more wild that the 2017 NFL Draft had Christian McCaffrey go 4 picks later.

[Surf]

So this thing is still gonna rock huh, at least to begin I guess. Colts reversed itself end of the week and instead of the 25% attendance now it's closer to 15% or so. They're gonna try to get 10K fans in the stadium and there seems to be a whole hell of alot to figure out yet.

If you're having trouble keeping track of the NFL teams that will allow fans in their stadiums for games during the 2020 season and those that will not, you are not alone. Bills coach Sean McDermott and Vikings coach Mike Zimmer are just as frustrated.

"I think it's honestly ridiculous that there will be, on the surface, what appears to be a playing field that's like that — inconsistently across the league with the different away stadiums," McDermott told media members on Aug. 24. Said Zimmer a few days prior: "It's going to be very hard because some stadiums they're allowing people in and it looks like we're not going to have any fans in there early, which really stinks because we have unbelievable fans, "

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/...q17yykgepds6zi

[Gray Lensman]

Well in a wild move where teams get rid of players that piss the organization off without much off field issues....Jacksonville has released Leonard Fournette (RB) today. Fournette had run ins with management and bad play at times. Yet the RB in 3 seasons had 2,631 yards on the ground and 17 TD's for 4 yards a carry. The Jaguars admitted they tried to trade Fournette for months but didn't even get low round draft picks.

No team was interested in him.


The writing was on the wall for Fournette for months. The team declined his 5th year option back in spring. He was literally told the team wouldn't be bringing him back in 2021. Plus its more wild that the 2017 NFL Draft had Christian McCaffrey go 4 picks later.

The price tag has a little something to do with it - why pay that much, plus give away draft picks?

I read elsewhere that this is another price of not moving on from Bortles soon enough.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The price tag has a little something to do with it - why pay that much, plus give away draft picks?

I read elsewhere that this is another price of not moving on from Bortles soon enough.

Fournette's price was $8.6 million for the season. I'm sure a team could have done a Vikings and reworked his contract to be a lower figure. In terms of highest paid RB's in the league he would have ranked around the 7th or 8th listing with that cap number in 2020.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/rankings.../running-back/

Teams were more warned off due to his attitude with management. Because he would have been a decent cheap option on a reworked deal to lower some of his salary. The guy is considered a bruising RB type who while not a solid pass catching RB , can grind out yards with a right team.

[worstblogever]

Well in a wild move where teams get rid of players that piss the organization off without much off field issues....Jacksonville has released Leonard Fournette (RB) today. Fournette had run ins with management and bad play at times. Yet the RB in 3 seasons had 2,631 yards on the ground and 17 TD's for 4 yards a carry. The Jaguars admitted they tried to trade Fournette for months but didn't even get low round draft picks.

No team was interested in him.


The writing was on the wall for Fournette for months. The team declined his 5th year option back in spring. He was literally told the team wouldn't be bringing him back in 2021. Plus its more wild that the 2017 NFL Draft had Christian McCaffrey go 4 picks later.

I'm wondering if the Saints, who are now having issues with Alvin Kamara, don't try to bring the home-town kid in on a one-year deal.


Here's two fun stats about Jacksonville right now:

- There are only two Top 5 Draft picks from the past 5 NFL drafts who are not currently on the team that drafted them out of 25 guys... Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Fournette. They didn't even play out their rookie deals there. In fact, the Jags previous Top 5 draft picks before that from 2012-2015? Dante Fowler, Jr., Blake Bortles, Luke Joeckel, and Justin Blackmon. Just... holy s***, this team has no good first round picks in its history other than Tony Boselli (who left town) and Byron Leftwich.
- It was about 30 months ago that the Jaguars had a 10 point lead against the Patriots in the 4th Quarter of the AFC Championship Game. Of the 53 man roster they had on that Sunday... only 7 players total are left. From just two seasons ago.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'm wondering if the Saints, who are now having issues with Alvin Kamara, don't try to bring the home-town kid in on a one-year deal.


Here's two fun stats about Jacksonville right now:

- There are only two Top 5 Draft picks from the past 5 NFL drafts who are not currently on the team that drafted them out of 25 guys... Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Fournette. They didn't even play out their rookie deals there. In fact, the Jags previous Top 5 draft picks before that from 2012-2015? Dante Fowler, Jr., Blake Bortles, Luke Joeckel, and Justin Blackmon. Just... holy s***, this team has no good first round picks in its history other than Tony Boselli (who left town) and Byron Leftwich.
- It was about 30 months ago that the Jaguars had a 10 point lead against the Patriots in the 4th Quarter of the AFC Championship Game. Of the 53 man roster they had on that Sunday... only 7 players total are left. From just two seasons ago.

In regards to Boselli he got hurt as we remember near the end of his career. The team let him go in the expansion draft in 2002 but his injuries made him unable to play for the Houston Texans that final year. But here is draft picks in the 1st rd beyond Boselli...


-1995 : James Stewart : The other #1 pick was James Stewart who had a slow start to his career. Started 34 games in 5 seasons for the team. Actually had a better 3 season career with Detroit and had his career ended due to bounty gate led by Gregg Williams after 2002 due to injury he suffered.

- 1996 - Kevin Hardy : Hardy was a great impact LB and played great for 4 seasons. He suffered what could have been a career ending injury as the surgery then was risky for player to return from. He would play 3 more seasons for Cowboys and Bengals.

- 1996 : Tony Brackens : While not a 1st rd pick , Brackens was a Pro Bowl DE and played solid til his final season in Jacksonville. Leg injuries and surgeries hurt him and rule changes made him decide to retire after 8 seasons.


-1997 : Renaldo Wynn : As a DT/DE in the Jaguars career he did nothing noteworthy and was gone after 4-5 seasons. He had one year of career highs with 5.5 sacks before he left. Would become a journey man player the next decade.

- 1998 : Fred Taylor : Perhaps the greatest player drafted by the Jaguars in their history. Ran for over 1,000+ yards 7 times with Jaguars. In his career with team in 11 seasons had over 11,000+ yards on ground and 2,300+ yards receiving. Played 2 final injury plagued seasons in New England and only appeared in 13 games due to that before retiring.

- 1998 : Donovan Darius : The other 1st rd pick that year was a solid player for 9 seasons with 14 Ints and 2 sacks. In fact his Jaguars career would end due to a broken leg. The team would let him go that off-season and he would never play again.

- 1999 : Fernaldo Bryant : Was a decent ok player but not like Darius. He would be allowed to leave in free agency in 2004.

- 2000 : R.Jay Soward : Think Blackmon was a wreck at WR with off the field issues in 2010's ? Read this one...Soward in 4 seasons only had 14 receptions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Jay_Soward


- 2001 : Marcus Stroud : Would start 100+ games for the Jaguars as DT. Had 22 sacks and 250+ tackles in that span. Went to 3 straight Pro Bowls. In 2007 due to NFL 4 game ban on substance abuse was traded to Buffalo where he played the final 3 seasons of his career. Would sign and retire with Jacksonville in 2011.


- 2002 : John Henderson : Paired with Stroud , the 2 were dominating DT's for a few seasons together. Henderson however would be released after 8 seasons. He would sign a 2 year deal with Oakland and only play in 22 games in that span.


2003 : Byron Leftwich : Perhaps the 1st biggest QB bust the Jagaurs had. An outright bust , Leftwich lost his starting QB job in 2007 and was cut. Would travel around the league after it.

- 2003 : Rashean Mathis : Another 2nd rd pick , he would play 10 seasons for the team at CB and considered one of the best defensive players drafted by them as he had 30 Ints in that span. Played a final 2 seasons in Detroit.


- 2004 : Reggie Williams : In a shock it was another WR bust in 1st rd. Williams in 5 seasons had 189 receptions for 2,322 yards and 18 TD's. Would never play another regular season game after 2008.


- 2005 : Matt Jones : Think that Detroit drafts back to back WR busts ? Jacksonville itself did this in 2000's. Jones however wasn't a WR. In fact he was a college QB the team drafted to be a WR. His career would end due to Jacksonville releasing him after substance abuse issues 4 seasons in.


- 2006 : Mercedes Lewis : Lewis doesn't get much press but is still in the league right now. A TE he played 12 seasons for Jaguars where his numbers aren't huge , just steady for his play. Over 12 seasons he had over 370+ receptions for 4,000+ yards with 33 TD's. This with a revolving door at QB.

- 2006 : Maurice Jones-Drew : Again another 2nd rd pick but stepped right in as the heir to Fred Taylor. While he didn't fully have career Taylor had , Jones-Drew in 8 seasons rushed for 8,000+ yards and had over 2,800+ yards receiving. Would play a final season with Raiders.

- 2007 : Reggie Nelson : A strong safety would replace Donovan Darius in that role. But within 3 seasons was traded for other players and would play the next 9 seasons for the Bengals and Raiders.


- 2008 : Derrick Harvey : An outright bust at DE , Harvey only had 1 record as a Jaguars player. The longest hold out that stretched into training came at 38 days. In 3 seasons before he was released Harvey had ...8 sacks total.


- 2009 : Eugene Monroe : A tackle Monroe would start 62 games out of 65 and missed only 3 due to injuries. He was traded to Baltimore where he signed a big deal the next season and played 2 more years before injuries ended his career.


-2010 : Tyson Alualu : Alualu was never a big star at DE. But he was steady and played 7 seasons racking up 17.5 sacks in that span.


I stopped at 2010. But the Jaguars seem to have a decent HIT record on drafting. The players that sadly were hurt by injuries and let go was a big number oddly. I mean here are the guys hurt by injuries...


Tony Boselli
Kevin Hardy
Tony Brackens
Donovan Darius

You had guys naturally play out their careers as age set in and they needed replaced ...

Fred Taylor
Maurice Jones-Drew
Mercedes Lewis
Rashean Mathis

Then you had the outright busts.

R. Jay Soward
Reggie Williams
Byron Leftwich
Matt Jones
Derrick Harvey

One thing is for certain in reading , Jacksonville seemed to know when to let go of former players. To let them go. Darius , Taylor and a couple others limped through 2-3 final seasons

[SUPERECWFAN1]

NFL News


- New England has named Cam Newton the new starting QB heading into 2020 season opener. Newton took more and more snaps as Stidham suffered a hip issue during camp and never really could get the job fully. Bill Belichick raved about how competitive Newton is and now the team can work on the system and using Newton well.


- Philadelphia has pulled contract talks for now with Zach Ertz. The TE has became Philly's #1 target but the deal Kansas City struck with Travis Kelce weeks ago has them looking at it. KC back logged the contract to not overload the cap and likely will try to model Ertz deal the same way.


- Houston has said they will get a deal done for an extension for Deshawn Watson. The team wants a deal like the contract Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson has around the $35 million a season mark. They also don't want as many years tied in as we saw with Pat Mahomes who will earn $450+ million in 10 seasons.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Got an alert a few minutes ago that Washington FC cut Adrian Peterson.

[BeastieRunner]

Got an alert a few minutes ago that Washington FC cut Adrian Peterson.

Thought I was in the club futbol thread for a minute.

[worstblogever]

Leonard Fournette ended up in Tampa Bay. He's the backup... for now.