HappyDays

It is a paycut. Players do it all the time if they know the alternative is a release and the risk of having to accept an even worse salary. And typically I am against the paycuts Beane gives out, historically they have still ended up being a waste of money. But in this case it was the only realistic means of saving money on Knox's contract without tying up more future money.

I was told a couple weeks ago Knox was approached about a paycut. I'm not sure what leverage we used considering his dead money hit would have been higher than his normal cap hit, but I'm glad to see he accepted the paycut. Perhaps we threatened a release with a post-6/1 designation? Glad to see Beane being especially ruthless this offseason. It is a necessary change.

Man this really screws the 49ers. They lose one of their better players, and owe a $26.1M dead cap hit this year and a $14.8M dead cap hit next year.

Yeah I had the same thought. 49ers are supposed to have a $26.1M dead cap hit if they release him (only $2.2M in cap savings). Did he agree to give some of that money back in order to facilitate this?

I just don't agree with this. White in his prime changed the way McDermott could call his defense. Having a CB that could singlehandedly take away an entire half of the field on his own made it so much easier to call plays without sacrificing the integrity of the defense. White also had game changing INTs many times, IIRC he had the most 4th quarter INTs in the league over like a 3 year time frame. Very good chance we edge past the Chiefs in one of our two divisional round matchups if White in his prime was on the field IMO.

Sneed singlehandedly stopped the Ravens comeback attempt in its tracks in the AFCCG. That is the definition of a game breaker. A game where the Chiefs offense scored ZERO points in the 2nd half and still won, I think you have to admit that their secondary was the primary reason they won that game.

Sneed gave up 0 TDs all season long until Shakir's TD in the divisional round. He was definitely an elite game changing CB this past season. Although I suspect the team that inevitably trades for him will be disappointed, much as great Patriots players used to leave for a different team and see their level of play diminish. The Chiefs elite coaching staff shouldn't be discounted in this discussion. They have a way of getting players to their ceiling at an astonishing rate.

It's hard to rank the Chiefs players in this discussion because in the realm of "elite" talent, Mahomes and Kelce and Jones are on an even higher level. But that doesn't mean Sneed, McDuffie, and a couple others on their team aren't elite players. They just aren't in the conversation for some of the greatest to ever do it. This was always my argument when people would say "Mahomes has Kelce, Allen has Diggs" as if that is an equal share of talent. No one would mistake Diggs as arguably the greatest of all time at this position. Even at his best he was closer to that Sneed/McDuffie tier of elite talent. Allen has never had a teammate that could say they were in the same tier as him. And that dichotomy between us and the Chiefs has only gotten worse. We didn't even have any players in that Sneed/McDuffie level by the end of this past season. It was Josh Allen sitting lonely in the highest tier, and then a big drop off from him to everyone else. Kincaid I think has a good chance to reach that 2nd tier of elite players this year or next. Other than him I'm not confident saying anybody else on the roster is going to hit that level. Maybe Rousseau, he's still very young and has battled injuries the past two seasons. I'd like to say Oliver but I need to see him make a true game changing play in a playoff game before he can be part of the discussion.

OTC shows they can restructure his contract in 2025 and 2026 to save $20.7M and $22.5M respectively. So, more likely his cap hits over the next 3 years will be $7.3M, $14.1M, and $18.6M. They won't feel any real pain on the contract until 2027 at the earliest.

Love Joe, but his mock offseason would depress me. It has a very "running it back" kind of feel. Jones back after a major injury, Epenesa paid way above his true value, bringing back players like Jackson and Lewis and Johnson that can be found on day 3 of the draft or in late stage FA. Not a single difference maker brought in, just a lot of rotational players. Offseasons like this is why we haven't gotten over the hump. Similarly I don't like his draft. McConkey in the 1st round would be a mistake IMO, he has no special traits and projects as maybe a faster Cole Beasley. He's a 2nd round talent. Braden Fiske is probably a late 3rd round talent. He is a 3-tech only so he would be a rotational player for us. His weakness in scouting reports is hand usage, which is a good predictor of a player not translating to the NFL. Honestly reminds me of Boogie Basham, a 24 year old prospect who may have already maxed out his abilities and has poor hand usage. His offseason is overall just way too safe for my liking. We need to take some swings.

Figured it was time to get this started. A flurry of re-signings are starting to get reported.

No longer an option for us:

You have to really squint your eyes to find preferential treatment here. By shifting the reward from the team that hires the black coach to the team that loses them, the NFL has avoided this problem entirely. Quite brilliantly IMO - as evidenced by the fact that some people still grumble about the policy, but no one is shouting from the rooftops. They have protected their own legal interests, and have given minority employees some measure of deference, and have managed to piss off the least amount of people, all while navigating the most contentious political topic this side of abortion. In business terms they have scored a perfect 10.

I think it does help. I don't believe the problem was that NFL owners' racism was preventing them from hiring the best candidates. I think it was just classic nepotism which gave certain coaches an opportunity to get their foot in the door ahead of others. AKA the Buddy Ryan effect. The new policy actively encourages franchises to get their minority coaches a foot in the door at other organizations. Terry Pegula and Brandon Beane now have an incentive to campaign for Terrance Gray to get GM interviews. I've always thought if you could solve that foot in the door problem, the entire problem would go away. Most importantly for the NFL's interests, now if another Brian Flores tries his hand in court the NFL can point to this policy as a clear example of promoting non-discriminatory hiring.

Someone would have to show a measurable negative impact on the hiring of white coaches to prove legal discrimination. I highly doubt any negative impact exists. I think the NFL came up with the most elegant solution they could. It is a fact that a league dominated by black players, and heavily biased towards former players as coaches, was somehow heavily imbalanced in favor of white coaches. The math didn't make sense. Still the NFL couldn't outright reward teams for hiring black coaches and GMs because the optics would have been terrible. So they have begun rewarding teams for developing and supporting their minority coaches for career advancement. To me two 3rd round comp picks is too rich of a reward but the concept makes sense and does not constitute discrimination. The NFL in fact was faced with the prospect of a real discrimination lawsuit if they didn't institute a policy like this.

To be fair most of what the NFL does wouldn't withstand legal scrutiny. As an example the draft and the salary cap are laughably blatant violations of collusion laws. The league structure itself arguably represents an illegal monopoly. No one is stupid enough to slap the golden goose though, not as long as hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake and there is no measurable harm to the public.

Everyone seems to think at least one of Coleman, Franklin, and Legette will still be there before pick 40.

Using the Drafttek trade value chart, the most obvious candidate to get us our 3rd round pick back is Washington. Trade back from #28 to #36. In return we get #99 from them (last pick in the 3rd round), and a late round pick swap, something like we get #138 for #188. Washington would get two 1st round picks to support their new franchise QB and they have another 2nd round pick at #40 so the trade makes as much sense for them as it does for us.

I am over WRs like McConkey and Pearsall. We have dipped into that "smooth route runner" well many times. What we have been lacking is size and/or speed outside. This draft features an amazing opportunity to finally grab a WR with traits at our original 1st round pick. Blowing that opportunity on a guy that projects as maybe a faster Cole Beasley would be a big mistake IMO.

Sounds like Cleveland is taking his entire cap hit on, so this wouldn't have been feasible for us. Stay the course. Sign one of the 2nd or 3rd tier WRs and draft two more by the end of R4.