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[LightninBoy]

Uhhh that's one selection and while it should play a part in the ranking, it can't be enough to drop the whole class a whole grade.

If that's the case, why is NO graded 5 spots higher and they have one guy that that barely played and the rest are way worse then our guys? It's BS. I didn't care very much for Quinn. But even he isn't that bad. He AND FMP? Yeah, that's turible

Its not just one selection; its a blown top 5 pick. Of course it should knock the score down *at least* one grade. You can't miss on those. IMO if you blow the #3 overall pick you start with an F and need to work up from there. Again, the fact that they still managed a C- even after that terrible outcome shows that they took the above average contributions of the lower round picks into account. You may be right about the relative team rankings being off, but the given grade is generous if anything.

[froot loops]

I'd pump the brakes on the Okuda is a bust train. He may we'll be a bust over his career, but hamstring injuries make corners look like dogshit. A couple years ago Diggs was playing with a bad hamstring and looked like dogshit to the point where people were celebrating a trade that netted them a 5th round pick. He was a Pro Bowl player this year.

[CGVT]

I'd pump the brakes on the Okuda is a bust train. He may we'll be a bust over his career, but hamstring injuries make corners look like dogshit. A couple years ago Diggs was playing with a bad hamstring and looked like dogshit to the point where people were celebrating a trade that netted them a 5th round pick. He was a Pro Bowl player this year.

Okudah is going to be a star.

[LightninBoy]

I'd pump the brakes on the Okuda is a bust train. He may we'll be a bust over his career, but hamstring injuries make corners look like dogshit. A couple years ago Diggs was playing with a bad hamstring and looked like dogshit to the point where people were celebrating a trade that netted them a 5th round pick. He was a Pro Bowl player this year.

Who said he was a bust? The grade was based on rookie season performances and that is the scope of all my comments.

[Futureshock]

IF you get that many starters and contributors then yeah. I totally disagree. IF Okudah plays to par that is a A to A- draft. If I agreed with you to drop it a whole grade for that 1 pick you're still at a B-.

It's relative in this case and you can't ignore the other team's grades either. Read those and explain them. Because it makes no sense. NO was given a better grade and they had 1 contributor that may start this year.

IDK what you expect, but ANY draft you can get 4 immediate starters is a good draft. Add the 3-4 others that may play pivotal roles in their sophomore season and it's even better.

And like Froot, alludes to he had injuries, no pre-season and a tough position to jump right into. It also didn't help that his coach is an idiot and put him out there to fail with his terrible system. He turned pro bowlers into trade fodder or retirees.

[Futureshock]

Report: Carson Wentz, Doug Pederson weren’t talking “for weeks”

Posted by Mike Florio on February 19, 2021, 10:26 AM EST

Getty Images

The Carson Wentz trade capped a year of extreme dysfunction for the Eagles. Appearing Friday on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, Adam Schefter of ESPN provided a glimpse into how dysfunctional it was.

Schefter said that coach Doug Pederson and quarterback Carson Wentz didn’t talk “for weeks on end.” Schefter estimated that they didn’t communicated for “eight, nine, ten weeks.”

That’s an amazing fact, if true. How can a team function at the most important position on the field if the quarterback isn’t speaking to the coach?

Wentz started through Week 13 before being benched for Jalen Hurts; thus, if Wentz and Pederson weren’t speaking for eight weeks or longer, some of that period of radio silence would have happened during Wentz’s time as the starter. Surely, however, it doesn’t mean that there was no communication of any kind between coach and quarterback. The photo attached to this item, for example, comes from the November 30 game between the Eagles and the Seahawks. While it’s possible they decided to stand silently next to each other, chances are that they were talking at the time the photo was taken.

Regardless of where, when, and how they weren’t talking, both parties deserve blame for the outcome. Adults who are behaving like adults don’t behave that way. Regardless of who started it, someone needed to finish it — short of Pederson being fired and Wentz being traded.

The problem apparently started when the Eagles drafted Jalen Hurts. Wentz apparently never got over that. Still, something more had to happen for Pederson to become the focal point of the acrimony.

The Colts surely believe they won’t end up in the same place with Wentz. As long as things go well, that may be the case. If things go poorly (or if the Colts draft a quarterback in a round higher than, say, four), Wentz could decide to slip into silent-treatment mode, again.

[Futureshock]

What’s next for the Eagles at quarterback?

Posted by Mike Florio on February 19, 2021, 9:45 AM EST

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Carson Wentz has gone. Jalen Hurts remains. So what’s next for the Eagles at quarterback?

They undoubtedly will add someone at quarterback, someone capable of competing with Hurts and potentially winning the job. The Eagles view the backup quarterback spot as a top-15 roster position, and for good reason. They won a Super Bowl by having a more-than-competent backup to Carson Wentz.

So now without Wentz, they need someone to complement, supplement, and/or supplant Hurts as the presumed starter. They could draft that player, they could sign a veteran, or they could trade for someone like, yes, Nick Foles.

Whatever they do, the Eagles will do something more than retain a backup who is expected to embrace that spot and not truly challenge the starter. Although Hurts won the one-on-one against Wentz, Hurts still may not be the starter when Week One rolls around.

So while the Wentz trade becomes the ending of the starting-quarterback search for the Colts, the transaction may be just the beginning for the Eagles.

[Futureshock]

Dee Ford’s injury guarantee may force 49ers to keep him

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 19, 2021, 5:54 AM EST

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San Francisco pass rusher Dee Ford has missed more games than he has played and has primarily been a backup since the 49ers signed him to a five year, $85.5 million contract in 2019. Ordinarily, that would mean he’d get cut.

But Ford’s contract makes that difficult.

The 49ers can’t cut Ford until he can pass a physical, and General Manager John Lynch has acknowledged that Ford may not be healthy for the start of the 2021 season. As noted by Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com, Ford has an injury guarantee that means $11.6 million of his base salary becomes fully guaranteed if he’s still on the 49ers’ roster on April 1.

That may mean the 49ers are stuck with Ford under his current contract, even if they’d rather move on from a player who has struggled to stay healthy and has fallen short of expectations even when he was healthy. Ford’s 2021 cap hit of more than $20 million may have to remain on the 49ers’ cap, whether the team likes it or not.

[Futureshock]

Mike Vrabel confirms discussions about J.J. Watt

Posted by Charean Williams on February 18, 2021, 8:42 PM EST

USA TODAY Sports

The Titans made only 19 sacks last season. Somehow, some way, the team vows to improve its pass rush.

Signing J.J. Watt would be a good start.

Titans coach Mike Vrabel was on the Texans’ defensive staff for four seasons, the first three of those as linebackers coach and then as defensive coordinator in 2017. By all accounts, Watt liked Vrabel and Vrabel liked Watt.

Titans General Manager Jon Robinson confirmed earlier this week the team has had contact with Watt.

Vrabel was asked Thursday night about the risk vs. reward of signing Watt.

“When you go into free agency, there’s a lot of things about player acquisition that go into it: What is best for your football team?” Vrabel said, via Jim Wyatt of the team website. “Cost is also a part of it. The fit is a part of it, and then the need. . . . You mentioned J.J. Watt, and there will be other veteran players that become available that we’ll have discussions on, and we have had discussions on J.J. Watt. . . . There’s a lot of things that go into bringing in free agents, certainly ones that are past 30 or in the back half of their career. Those are all things that you wage and determine.”

Vrabel said the Titans could address edge rushers in free agency and the draft. They should. They need more help than one player would bring, even Watt.

[Futureshock]

Sad


Vincent Jackson likely died days before he was discovered

Posted by Charean Williams on February 18, 2021, 6:49 PM EST

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A preliminary medical examiner’s report indicates Vincent Jackson likely died days before he was found in his Tampa hotel room, according to WFLA news.

The death of the former NFL receiver was reported Monday.

The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department said staff members at the hotel entered Jackson’s room on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14. But they assumed he was sleeping after finding him sitting slouched over on the couch and left.

Hotel staff members became concerned Feb. 15 “when they found [him] in the same position.”

Jackson’s family reported him missing on Feb. 10, and, according to the new report, deputies confirmed Jackson’s well being Feb. 11. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said earlier this week deputies canceled the missing persons report after checking on Jackson at the hotel Feb. 12.

So it is unclear whether deputies made contact with Jackson on Feb. 11 or Feb. 12. Either way, it appears Jackson died at least two days — and maybe more — before he was pronounced dead.

The medical examiner’s office has yet to determine Jackson’s exact cause of death.

Jackson’s family donated his brain for a study on CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma, The New York Times reports.

“Vincent being who he was would have wanted to help as many people as possible,” Allison Gorrell, a spokeswoman for the Jackson family, told The Times. “It’s something his family wanted to do to get answers to some of their questions.”

Jackson was 38.

[Futureshock]

The Jared Goff, Carson Wentz contracts become a cautionary tale

Posted by Mike Florio on February 19, 2021, 1:20 PM EST

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In 2015, the Buccaneers and Titans made quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota the first and second overall picks, respectively, in the NFL draft. Both finished their four-year rookie deals, stayed for a fifth season under the team-held options, and exited as free agents.

In 2016, the Rams and Eagles made quarterbacks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz the first and second overall picks, respectively, in the NFL draft. Both got second contracts at market value after their third NFL seasons. Both will be traded after their fifth NFL seasons.

Goff’s performance (especially in Super Bowl LIII) prompted many to suggest that the Rams should wait. If they had, they wouldn’t have had to throw a first-round pick into the one-and-a-three package for Matthew Stafford to get the Lions to take on Goff’s deal.

Wentz’s problems were less about his play and more about his injury history. After the 2018 season, many suggested that the Eagles should keep quarterback Nick Foles, the Super Bowl LII MVP. The Eagles let Foles go, and then signed Wentz to a massive contract.

The deterioration of Goff and Wentz after getting their second contracts should prompt other teams with first-round quarterbacks on rookie deals to reassess their plans for offering second contracts. Currently, 2018 first-rounders Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson seem poised to extend their stays with the Browns, Bills, and Ravens, respectively. Any of those three teams, if they do long-term deals now, could find themselves regretting it within two years.

The importance of prudence is balanced by the significance of urgency. The sooner a young quarterback gets his second contract, the cheaper it will be to re-sign him. Even if the quarterback market evolves, as it should, away from the next-guy-becomes-the-highest-paid model and toward a tiered system, quarterback dollars keep rising, not falling.

So if Mayfield, Allen, and/or Jackson don’t get second contracts this year and keep playing well, it will become more expensive to sign them in 2022 or 2023. (Indeed, the Cowboys bungled their relationship with quarterback Dak Prescott by not signing him to an extension the moment as he became eligible for a second deal.)

Each team has to make the decision regarding whether to extend now or later. And no one knows their quarterbacks better than their current teams. The Rams and Eagles have learned the hard way that a quarterback who performs well through three seasons isn’t guaranteed to continue to do so. With the benefit of 2019 and 2020, both teams surely wish they’d done what the Buccaneers and Titans did — let the five years play out, and then let the quarterbacks walk away as free agents.

[Futureshock]

IDK. I think a year early is better then late, but the real emphasis should be that there is a true accounting and forecast of the player going forward. And his impact being there or leaving. The Lions seem to get this wrong more often then not.

[Fraquar]

Cautionary tale - that is hindsight 2020. Especially in Goff's case.
Everybody knows Aaron Donald is a beast - but the defense doesn't reflect that in Goff's time there.
16 times (an entire season) in his first 3 years there the Rams gave up 30+.
By comparison? The Lions only did that 13 times......
Rams won TWICE as many game as the Lions did.

[Newbomb Turk]

Cautionary tale - that is hindsight 2020. Especially in Goff's case.
Everybody knows Aaron Donald is a beast - but the defense doesn't reflect that in Goff's time there.
16 times (an entire season) in his first 3 years there the Rams gave up 30+.
By comparison? The Lions only did that 13 times......
Rams won TWICE as many game as the Lions did.

Matt Stafford was unavailable for comment......

[BJK]

This is nuts.

Report: Carson Wentz, Doug Pederson didn’t talk for ‘8,9,10 weeks’ during Eagles’ season:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nfl-carson-wentz-doug-pederson-didnt-talk-for-8-9-10-weeks-during-eagles-season-170044196.html