It is almost time to turn it off for a few weeks. Holidays are upon us.
I’m going to take the next few weeks off, hoping to return from the beach to find a landscape in which the NFL, and other professional sports, are about to relaunch in some way. Things have slowed down in terms of actual NFL news, and it’s either wearing it or messing around, so I’m going to log off for a while with the idea that maybe I can travel to a training camp or two right away. other side of this break.
The end of July can be a period in the history of professional sports in this country like no other. Hopefully, well, probably a lot of luck, we’ll see NFL boot camps opening on their regular schedule, just as MLB completes the first week of its season and the NBA and NHL seasons restart. in a tournament style and golf is getting into its biggest events and MLS is playing and we are getting closer to crowning a Champions League winner. Imagine that.
But I couldn’t leave for the beach without making some bold predictions about what I hope to see when I return to work and write regularly in mid-July. So here it goes:
Dak Prescott still on the franchise tag
Go year by year, in your position, and your price is not a problem. In fact, it allows you to maintain absolute control over leverage and allows you a $ 32M bridge by 2021, when the NFL economy could be drastically altered for the better. Why make the biggest career decision of your life in the midst of a pandemic, with so much uncertainty, and owners in a risk-averse mode and looking to save pennies? He knows he’s going to meet Jerry Jones for another $ 38 million in 2021, and then he could make his decisions as a free agent in 2222 and get a fully guaranteed three-year contract that ruins the $ 86 million Kirk Cousins got. the double. franchise tag path. Why give the best years of your service time now with future shady helmets and teams worried about not having fans and completing a season? Forget about giving Dallas the fifth year; I wouldn’t give up the fourth year. Of course, there is a risk of serious injury, but how often have we seen this with QB? Dak had the strength to walk away from about $ 30 million a year before the start of the 2019 season, and he crushed it. He has the power now. That tag is rarely a weapon for a player, but it is for him. You should use it as such.
Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned
It’s great to hear all of these coaches, general managers, and owners talking hypothetically about the QB that has been systematically eliminated from NFL free agency for three years as an option for them. It is progress, I suppose. But talking is cheap, and through all my reports, I still haven’t heard of a team coming up to schedule a workout or take any action to give this guy a chance. And I still maintain that while it is not impossible for me to return, it may be unlikely. And if it happens, it will be due to an injury in an initial QB. And it’s highly unlikely to happen in the next three weeks without football being played, except, apparently, in Tampa, where Tom Brady is in mid-season form. I think if Kaepernick has a chance, it will be in season (or at camp). But I don’t hear anything that makes me think something is close to imminent, as much as it now seems right for NFL decision makers to reflect on the matter in public.
The NFL preseason will be cut in half or dropped
There is little appetite for these exhibitions in the best of times. They were already on the pit before. If you think the only game being sacrificed is the Hall of Fame, I have some Brock Osweiler Rookie Cards that I want to sell you for $ 500 each. My conversations with NFL team executives this week left me with the clear impression that these games will prove to be more troublesome than they are worth. “What is the risk reward for playing these games?” as one of AFC’s top executives put it. “The main guys barely play, the risk of traveling with so many people to play a game that nobody wants to see just doesn’t make sense. What’s the point? Why take the risk?” I suspect that common sense prevails on this matter. Getting through this 20 week season will be quite difficult; adding four weeks of travel for games that don’t count is an unnecessary exercise.
The lists will already be reduced from 90 to at least 70
In conversation with Troy Vincent, the league’s vice president of football operations, I had the distinct impression that bringing 90 bodies to camp might not make any more sense. “It’s a numbers game,” as he told me, and these teams only have plenty of room to work on their premises. Coaches don’t love this idea … but John Harbaugh and Sean McVay have also indicated how “impossible” it can be to follow protocols as they are. Something has to give in here, and it will take great efforts for some of these buildings to meet space and testing restrictions, even with the 53-person roster. “We’re getting ready already,” an NFC staff member told me. “I get it. Most teams could go down to 70 or 75 pretty quickly, and without four preseason games you don’t need those numbers anyway.” An AFC executive said, “It would actually be a good thing for rookies. Think about it: Are you going to cut your sixth or seventh round pick without having a chance to watch it?”
The NFL will secure a site for a free-agent in-season practice center
The XFL has a smart model where potential free agents worked in a facility with coaching supervision and training to prepare as injury replacements. The executives I spoke to believe there is much merit for the NFL to embrace this, given the pandemic. Instead of flying in five players from across the country on a Tuesday, as usual, if you already have a stable group of players under a practice squad-type contract, they all stay in shape and are quarantined more or less in one place, then teams could have what amounts to a seasonal harvester. Physicals would be done, tests would be done regularly, and many of the hundreds of players who would be released in a purge from the pre-camp roster would have a place to go. All metrics (40-yard dash time, etc.) would be available to teams in real time, and I could zoom in from that location so teams only bring one layer to sign at a time, instead of doing all these on-site workouts Look at the baseball model to minimize how many people are in the stadium and for how long each day. I hope that the NFL meetings are greatly expanded and I was also able to see that certain days of practice at the facility are only offensive or defensive. Why are there extra bodies around, most of which won’t be signed anyway? It would require an investment from the owners, but would have unanimous support from the soccer players.
Jamal Adams is still a jet
Trying to get off a list, getting into an exchange to secure a record contract on the other side is a difficult proposition for security under ideal circumstances. Trying to organize such a move amidst a pandemic with the NFL unsure of how it will play out this season, with projections for a cap at best and perhaps $ 5B in lost revenue, is frankly absurd. The general manager doesn’t want to change him, no one will give him multiple first-round picks and then pay him, oh $ 16 million a year. Squeeze every penny you can get from New York and make sure. When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet from your first contract fight until your last big payday. The best bet to get coins, with so much time remaining in your agreement, plus a possible franchise tag for 2022, in a CBA that makes holding on useless, is to get what you can in this pandemic or try to renew this process in 2021 when beech is, hopefully, a vaccine. But complaining about the city these days is not going to work.
