Dak gonna make $75 million this year. Goddamn that’s a lot of money not to win a playoff game.
Dak contract shows QBs should never settle. Basically everything that could go wrong for him did - serious injury, reduced cap space - and yet he still got a bigger deal than he turned down last year.
The fact that teams are trading multiple 1sts for mediocre QBs shows that an top tier QB that ever hit the market would absolutely rake in the money. I wonder if we’re going to see more QBs take the Dak approach than the Watson approach of singing an extension as soon as you can.
Kirk Cousins got some massive paydays for mediocrity. Some of it is just luck in timing the market. If you’re a starting grade NFL QB you’re getting paid, and likely big money when your contract is up. If getting the most money possible is your goal, then testing FA unless your extension offer was top money is almost always the right play. But I get the feeling that most NFL QB’s are willing to take a few million less per year to have some control over their destiny, rather than just going with the highest bidder.
Yeah, but almost all QB sign an extension with the team that drafted them. Cousins is basically the only exception. I’m thinking we might see more QBs do that - or at least follow the Dak route and hold out a bit longer.
Otherwise they could be stuck like Watson on a team they don’t like and on a discounted deal.
Calling Watson’s 4 year/156 million dollar deal discounted is quite a take. Yeah it sucks that the team shit the bed after they signed him, but he’s the 3rd highest paid QB in the NFL right now and could sign another deal as early as 2024. There are still some questions as to where he ranks among the QB’s. If his play falls off, he fleeced Houston. If he plays at a high level, he signs another top contract in 3 or 4 years.
I think it’s safe to say that if Watson hit the open market, he would have gotten a much bigger deal. The Texans reportedly could get at least three first round picks for Watson on his current deal. Assuming that each first round pick is worth at least $5 million (and that is very conservative), he’s worth at least $15 million more than his current deal.
My point is that pretty much every QB that signs an extension before at least forcing the team to franchise them once is taking a significant discount.
It’s a bit of a hedge. Watson’s deal was far from a “team friendly” deal. He got paid top dollar at the time. Because salaries are almost always going up, you’re always giving up some money by signing your extension, even if it is at or slightly above market value, a year before hitting the open market. But in a sport where you are one shot away from getting Alex Smithed, or just having a down year because your coach shipped away your star WR for unknown reasons, the contract offer now may be higher EV than the one you might get in a year. Plus if you asked the average person would you rather have $100 million right now, or a 90% chance at $150 million next year, I think I know what most people would do, and for good reason.
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We should also not forget that QBs make money with sponsorships and endorsements. Playing for less money for a play-off team might still be worth more total income than playing for a bottom tier team; or playing for a great offense that let’s the QB put up impressive stats on a team that still goes 8-8 due to a terrible defense.
Saints franchise tagged someone so now they’re nearly 60 million over the cap
and I don’t know when day 1 of the league is but oh boy at getting under that number by the deadline.
Pretty sure teams have to be under the cap by Wednesday. Wow.
there’s like 3 teams this is insane they haven’t tried before now wow
That doesn’t sound right. They don’t even have an official cap number yet, and the league year doesn’t start until next Wednesday.
I am pretty sure they have to be under the cap at the start of the league year on the 17th. That’s what I could ascertain from 1 minute of googling. I guess there’s a 51 man rule where only the top 51 salaries count for now until the cutdown to 53 happens.
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Ah, if you meant next Wednesday, then yeah, that’s probably right. I thought you meant tomorrow.
Anyway, the Saints still have a lot of moves they could make to get under the cap. I can think of four candidates for release who would save about $35 million in total, plus some restructures of their recent extensions, and extending Ramczyk and probably Lattimore as well (so the first year of their deal counts for less than the fifth-year option that is their current cap hit).
Perhaps, but Kirk earned it imo. It’s no joke to play on consecutive, 1 year, prove-it type contracts, knowing that he’s an Alex Smithing away from losing tens of millions of dollars.
like saying sam bradford earned it, not really but it happened anyway
Sam got paid (50 million guaranteed) before he took a single NFL snap.
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and got paid a lot afterwards too
It’s not really like that since Bradford got a bunch of big contracts based on potential or the flashes he showed while he was on the field (which was rarely because he was always hurt). Cousins, who I’m not a particular fan of, actually did consistently play pretty well and stayed healthy.
He also took a lot of risk not signing long-term deals and it paid off. Good for him.
still do not understand how anyone saw washington games and thought he was anything above mediocre. I guess sample size but I remember bad game after bad game. He always drove me nuts.