by I’ve been working all day Monday (more to come soon!), so this week’s MAQB is actually a TMQB…
Alexander: Jeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports; Watson: Ron Schwane/AP; Belichick—Paul Connors/AP
• packers CB Jaire Alexander’s four-year, $84 million contract extension is well deserved: He’s been one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL for a couple of years and won’t turn 26 until next February, and it’s also interesting to see how far is Green Bay. he was willing to go cash to keep an elite player, because he can inform the Davante Adams discussion. Here’s the cash flow from the Alexander deal…
Until 2022: $31.076 million (including $30 million signing bonus)
Until 2023: $45,076 million
Until 2024: $61,076 million
Adams, by comparison, gets $23.35 million in Year 1 at Las Vegas, $50.02 million over two years and $67.51 million over three years. So the two deals are in the same general ballpark for the most relevant period, which says that yes, the Packers had the wherewithal to sign Adams, if he hadn’t focused on meeting Derek Carr in Las Vegas. But he will also set up an interesting test of team building in the future.
Both the Packers and bosses they have top franchise quarterbacks losing to No. 1 receivers. They both have young players at premium positions, who aren’t paying receivers now (Alexander for the Packers, Orlando Brown for the Chiefs), with more possible in the near future (Rashan Gary for the Packers, L’Jarius Sneed for the Chiefs), and some already on the payroll (David Bakhtiari, Preston Smith for the Packers, Frank Clark for the Chiefs).
The same goes for a true franchise quarterback. need The type of number 1 wide receiver who can open things up for everyone else? Or is it better to sink a little less in skill points, shoot to be more balanced there, and maintain the ability to win different types of games?
Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes are about to give us a litmus test on that.
• The patriots‘ staffing situation leads watching. Bill Belichick’s coaches held conference calls with the media Monday and confirmed some of what has been said: Matt Patricia is working with the offensive line and Joe Judge is with the quarterbacks, without clarifying much of what they haven’t. is, like who will call offensive plays or whether or not there will be a full-time defensive coordinator in 2022.
As it stands, the Patriots don’t have an offensive or defensive coordinator, which is similar to the situation they found themselves in during the 2010 season. And it’s worth noting that they went 14-2 that year.
Now, as for the difference, in 2010, they had a quarterbacks coach (Bill O’Brien) and a linebackers coach (Patricia) who were clearly in coordinator roles. Everyone knew the outcome of that, and Belichick was just making them win the titles, which they did in time to get them into the 2011 season.
In this age? Even internally, there are questions about who will call the offensive plays (Patricia? Judge? Nick Caley? Belichick?), and even how other jobs will play out, given that neither Patricia nor Judge have much experience working exclusively on the offensive end. . off the ball And if Belichick has to spend more time on offense, what does that mean for the defense, where Steve Belichick has called plays and Jerod Mayo has run games?
And yes, Belichick forgets more football in the blink of an eye than I’ll ever know. But this is a critical year for their young quarterback, and really his entire schedule is based on how resilient the AFC looks and the state of the powerhouse (Buffalo) in his own division. Given all of that, it’s hard not to remember the time Andy Reid tried something similar in Philadelphia, making highly respected offensive line coach Juan Castillo his defensive coordinator for the 2011 Dream Team, and how it led to his demise as Eagles coach. .
I’m not saying that’s how this will turn out. But I think Belichick’s bet here is similar to the one Reid made. And Reid paid a heavy price in that case.
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• Deshaun Watson’s meeting with the NFL this week in Texas is one where we can read the tea leaves. Generally, the league wraps up these kinds of investigations by interviewing the player, which presumably means they’ve already talked to as many of their 22 accusers as they’re willing to talk. And they were waiting to talk to the women for the criminal process to conclude (which happened in March).
That said, this might not mean the league is ruling.
Why? Well, if the 22 lawsuits aren’t settled by July 1, the parties and the court have essentially agreed to pause until the NFL season is over. And if there isn’t a shutdown there, there will be those in the NFL front office who will argue to wait before issuing any kind of suspension. The league has shown in recent years, really since the Ezekiel Elliott case, that it wants to get out of the business of playing judge, jury and executioner, and as such, won’t make decisions ahead of what might happen in court. .
That opens up the possibility of Watson playing the full year in 2022, and then perhaps dealing with whatever fallout the league assesses in 2023. And like I said, I wouldn’t speak in absolute terms about that. But I do believe that the possibility of such a scenario is real.
Jessie Bates celebrates her interception at Super Bowl LVI.
Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
• Today’s News, from Tyler Dragon of USA TodayThat Jessie Bates doesn’t plan to sign his tender now, or play in it in 2022, isn’t surprising. And I would offer two thoughts on that…
- Long-term deals for franchised players rarely happen before we’re much closer to the July 15 deadline to do them.
- It’s easy to talk about walking away from $12.91 million now. But for a guy who made “only” $6.85 million, doing so won’t be easy for Bates.
So for now, I don’t think there should be much panic. Once we get to the middle of July, we’ll see if it’s time to reassess that.
• While we’re there, yesterday morning we covered Cincinnati going back to the field, and I think it’s worth remembering a theme from last season: There were a couple of times, if you remember, where Joe Burrow was in my column saying the old Bengals they were gone. And in that moment, he seemed really focused on where the team was at that moment and overcoming any kind of difficulty. Here we go again ideas that could sneak into people’s heads if there were obstacles in the way.
But really, I think the message was just as focused now as it was then, with the team coming off a conference title and looking to clear the bar that was set last year.
While it’s good to be an underdog at the moment, those Bengalis he never really embraced being one, and Burrow expressed this to me repeatedly. And that was because they wanted what they were doing to become the expectation, not the exception. So now that Zac Taylor is getting the team back together, it’ll be easier to continue that, and from the way Taylor spoke in my column this morning, you can tell that’s the main idea. Trust that the team will take care of business and that the standard set will be maintained.
• It is interesting to see Alec Pierce drawing attention in foals minicamp, and there is a lesson for all of us in the pre-draft process. On the morning of April 15, Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard led a contingent from the team on the 90-minute drive up I-65 to Cincinnati, supposedly to train Bearcats star quarterback Desmond Ridder. .
Pierce, perhaps less noticeably to the rest of us, was one of the skill players who participated in that workout, and that workout became one of the final pieces in Indy’s evaluation of a wide receiver who the Team leaders already liked him very much. And it turned out the Colts took Pierce with the 53rd pick, with Ridder still on the board. Of course, Ballard, Frank Reich and company are happy to see Pierce adjust quickly. But they are not surprised.
• You can tell by talking to the people there that panthers Rookie QB Matt Corral showed real physical ability at the team’s rookie minicamp. Do I think that means he will end up beating Sam Darnold? I think based on the relatively simple, RPO-heavy offense that he comes from, it’s too early to think about that yet.
• I heard this story from a coach Monday at his team’s rookie minicamp, and he said he looked around at practice at his team’s players and “they were all dying.” He then talked to the coach about it, and the coach replied, “You have to remember, this is the first practice these guys have had since their bowl game.”
So you can give guys who have been training for a track career some slack if they’re not in great shape for football.
That said, it’s worth looking at the case of Tennessee rookie wide receiver Treylon Burks. He had to leave practice twice the other day and had trouble keeping his weight down during the pre-draft process. Teams heard that he played in the 240 points at Arkansas last year. He checked in at 225 at the combine, but went back to 230 for some of his private workouts. And that, plus his 40th time at Indy (4.55) contributed to his falling out of the top receiver bracket in the minds of a group of teams.
• The jaguars have officially hired 49ers executive Ethan Waugh as their assistant general manager, and it appears, at least on the surface, that Jacksonville is doubling down on Trent Baalke. Waugh worked with Baalke for 12 seasons in San Francisco and was one of his top lieutenants in his seven seasons as Niners general manager. He basically, he replaces another Niners executive, Tom Gamble, in San Francisco, so it’s not like the Jaguars didn’t have an opening.
Still, allowing Baalke to fill it with a close confidant is a very good sign that owner Shad Khan’s plan (and plans may change) is to go ahead with Baalke leading the exploration.
• Congratulations to Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith for organizing to support the families of the Buffalo shooting victims. The ’90s Bills have a really great connection to that community, and it’s great to see those guys use that connection to try to do great things in a really horrible circumstance.
