I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret. NFL teams would love nothing more than Patrick Mahomes’ contract to become a template for the next wave of mega-deals from the recently negotiated collective bargaining agreement.
But they will not be so lucky. If anything, I would suggest that history will analyze this pact between the best player in the NFL and the reigning Super Bowl champions as a team-friendly anomaly that few top players will consider, let alone sign. It will look like Adrian Peterson’s final contract with the Vikings has come to be seen; an exception that does not serve as a springboard for other offers. In this case, no one will want to be like Pat.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of money and security. But giving 12 years of control to a team at any time is more than extreme, especially in the most critical position in all professional sports, and doing it at this juncture (half the pandemic, before the new television and games of chance) and others the sponsorships are restarted and at a time with no fans in the stands) it has baffled many contract negotiators and some within the NFLPA ranks.
Mahomes is delighted with the treatment. It will make untold fortunes off the field as well. It will be fine … but it will not be a fashion pioneer. The deal has been universally accepted in the agent community among everyone I’ve spoken to, and to tell you another secret, the QB contract that NFL headquarters fears this summer isn’t from Mahomes, it’s from Dak Prescott.
Prescott’s patience will be rewarded in solid ways that we rarely see in this league. He is poised to become the rarest entity in this country’s richest league – a top QB, at his best, capable of negotiating with the 32 teams as an unrestricted free agent. And, in a position where timing is everything (ask Joe Flacco, Sam Bradford, Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff), Prescott is probably looking for a reestablishment of the market in early 2022. At the time, supply and Demand in the QB position He’ll almost certainly be back with the players, with this bizarre 2020 offseason, when there were more proven pins available than teams in need, long ago.
Trust me, Prescott is holding on to his guns, the Cowboys almost certainly tagged him again in 2021 (in the amount of $ 38M) and then hitting the streets 12 months later is a much scarier sight for owners and GMs than the gross figures. of the $ 477 million that Mahomes can earn, because it will take him a whole career to earn it and that certainty of cost is worth gold in this sport.
What would keep Steve Bisciotti awake at night is not the specter of Lamar Jackson asking for every penny Mahomes got next January. It would be Jackson playing his fourth season in 2021 and then waiting to see what Prescott gets on the open market. That will be amazing.
Consider that Mahomes will earn $ 63 million in the first three years of his deal, while Prescott will earn $ 70 million in the next two. And if Prescott chooses to follow Cousins’ path after successive franchise labels in 2022 (and we assume the soccer business will be booming like never before the pandemic with a widely available vaccine), then what could to make Cousins with three years and $ 86 fully guaranteed? Do I try to match in those terms? With the lid going back up?
Three years, $ 140 million? Plus?
And what could that say about the value of Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray or Joe Burrow (he might be looking for a new deal after the 2022 season) by then? At some point, a player would follow Cousins’ example. Prescott is now more than half the way to do it. And once you get past that second label, making any kind of long-term deal would backfire.
The real leverage in this league comes from proximity to be able to reach the open market. Particularly in key positions where the Next Man Up mantra does not hold. Prescott seems to accept that. Mahomes forgave him. Both will experience wealth and generational prosperity and tranquility. However, only one has a chance to be a pioneer when it comes to changing the NFL’s spending paradigms at least a little more in favor of their peers.
Washington hits on Donaldson, needs the right team president
Congratulations to the Washington football team for hiring Julie Donaldson to oversee its content and broadcast. In light of the toxic culture of the sexual harassment franchise that is highlighted, again, by a recent Washington Post exposition, this is a decidedly progressive and forward-thinking decision for a team that is rarely praised for it.
Donaldson is a veteran of the DC media scene, an accomplished host and reporter, and a breath of fresh air for the way things have been done with internal media there. She is already well connected in the organization and is highly respected inside and out. Few teams, if any, have put women in executive positions like this, which also makes them essentially the face of the franchise in terms of messaging and branding – and it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Regardless of the findings in the investigation that owner Dan Snyder has paid an “outside” advisor to carry out, this team would be wise to spend even more time and resources to discover a team president who is really trying to correct the culture there. . Someone who brings morale, extensive experience and leadership, perhaps even a bit of seriousness to the club. Years ago there were unfounded rumors about Condoleeza Rice as a candidate to coach the Browns … but given her experience and love of soccer and her unique and unprecedented overall qualifications, such a position in a city she knows so well would be an absolute Grand Slam for Snyder.
For 100 years, this league has yet to have an African American team president. Somehow. Rice could be transformative in many ways. I have no idea if she would be interested, but would exhaust all the options to find out. He would also be in close contact with former player Shawn Springs, a football player who lives in the region and played for the team and was a star in college and professional ranks and who has earned commercial and technological accolades throughout the world. work of your company, Windpact. It may not be the best time for him, but he’s been a sponge with guys like Paul Allen and industry leaders, understands locker rooms and coaching rooms (he grew up at Tom Landry’s feet with his father a stalwart in the Cowboys ) and even helped raise the team’s QB, Dwayne Haskins.
Bottom line: if this franchise really wants to change course and find an innovative manager, options abound. And the change is clearly, very necessary, once again.
NFLPA negotiating
The NFLPA has been very effective in its practices and negotiations in recent days, both through social media and behind the scenes. Sure, the NFL was always going to budge on not playing preseason games, as I’ve been pointing out in this space for weeks, but the Palestinian Authority did it sooner rather than later. The daily tests were always the only thing that made sense, and that is also a reality now, at least during the first weeks of camp.
And we’ve been telling you for a long time that there was no way in hell that the 90-man roster could hold … and they are not. It is a good year to be a recruited rookie, because a lot of them will form teams that have very little chance of identifying who belongs and who does not; they will get the benefit of the doubt.
The big key now is to discover all the financial components that still need to be resolved. Given the recent tenor of the talks, things are heading in a good direction. Nothing is final until it is final, but I like the way things are.
