NFC EAST

PHILADELPHIA

New coach Nick Sirianni says he is willing to go to war in 2021 with QBs CARSON WENTZ and JALEN HURTS.  Curtis Crabtree of ProFootballTalk.com:

 New Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has yet to meet with the local media at-large about his hiring and the situation he’s stepping into with his new team. However, he spoke with the team’s website ahead of his first press conference about the quarterback quandary he’s inheriting with Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts.

While the situation could be viewed as a mess given the regression of Wentz and the seemingly worthy challenge put forth by Hurts last season, Sirianni says he feels great about the position and the two players he’s going to be able to work with.

“I feel great. You look at a lot of rosters and they don’t have any quarterbacks that they feel really good about. We have two,” Sirianni said, via Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94 WIP. “That is unbelievable to be able to have two quarterbacks that have played and have played well.”

Because of his time spent working with head coach Frank Reich in Indianapolis, Sirianni said he was quite familiar with Wentz from tape.  Reich was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator when they won Super Bowl LII and Wentz and Eagles Offense was a regular point of discussion between the two.

“I couldn’t have watched more tape on Carson Wentz in 2018 when Frank and I got back together and we were installing our offense with the Indianapolis Colts,” Sirianni said. “We watched a lot of Chargers tape and we watched a lot of Philadelphia Eagles tape from 2017. And man, what an impressive player. He has so much talent. And from what I have heard from everyone, a great person. Good talent, good person it takes your game to really high levels

But Sirianni said Hurts made an impression too in his run as starter at the end of the season.

“So excited Jalen got his snaps last year and was able to play last year and he played good football in meaningful games,” Sirianni said. “So not a lot of people have that luxury of having two quarterbacks tight have experience. So super excited to be able to work with them, because obviously we all know important that is to a football team.”

WASHINGTON

Good news for Coach Ron Rivera.  Nicki Jhabvala in the Washington Post:

Nearly three weeks after the Washington Football Team’s season ended, Coach Ron Rivera earned his biggest personal win with Thursday’s revelation that he is cancer free.

Rivera had said he would undergo a PET scan — his “big scan,” as he called it — at the end of this month to determine whether the proton therapy and chemotherapy he received in-season were effective in treating squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer in his neck.

Rivera learned Thursday the treatments had eliminated the cancer, news he confirmed shortly after his family announced on Twitter that he is “officially cancer free.” Thursday night, Rivera himself tweeted the news.

“Thank you everyone for your prayers, letters, texts & notes of encouragement & support,” Rivera wrote. “It truly made a difference in my treatment & recovery!”

NFC SOUTH

ATLANTA

And underrated part of Atlanta’s moves so far is the return of DC DEAN PEES from retirement to play the role of Wade Phillips to Arthur Smith’s Sean McVay.  Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com:

Longtime NFL assistant coach Dean Pees retired after the 2019 season.

He’d spent the last two years as the Titans’ defensive coordinator. Before that, Pees held the same position with the Ravens from 2012-2017.

But Pees apparently didn’t love his time away from the game all that much, because now he’s Arthur Smith’s defensive coordinator in Atlanta.

“I came out of retirement because I really missed it. And I think the world of Arthur Smith. I loved working with him,” Pees said Friday, via Jason Butt of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I had the itch but I wasn’t going to go out and search for a job. I came here because of the Atlanta Falcons and Arthur Smith.”

Smith and Pees were on the Titans staff together from 2018-2019. Smith was Tennessee’s tight ends coach at first, but the two became fellow coordinators in 2019 when Matt LaFleur exited the OC role to become Green Bay’s head coach.

The Titans promoted another tight ends coach to offensive coordinator to replace Smith, this time placing Todd Downey in the position.

TAMPA BAY

As happy as QB TOM BRADY might now be in Tampa Bay, he has good things to say about two magical decades in Massachusetts.  Chris Mason of MassLive.com:

Tom Brady knows what it’s like to watch a franchise icon play elsewhere.

Growing up a 49ers fan, Brady saw Joe Montana leave San Francisco and end his career in a Kansas City Chiefs uniform. In his Thursday afternoon press conference, the quarterback was asked to put himself in a Patriots fan’s shoes. How would Brady feel watching his own success with the Buccaneers?

Brady deflected the question, gushing about his time in Foxborough instead.

“I had an incredible 20 years, really just an incredible 20 years,” Brady said. “And I wouldn’t trade anything over the course of 20 years that were magical. And all the relationships that I developed, those shaped me into who I am as a person, as a player. My kids were born in Boston. I have great affection for the city, everything that Boston has meant to me and my family. And all of New England. Not just Boston.”

Then he shared an amusing story from back in 2000.

The legend of Brady’s draft day story is well known at this point. The quarterback had to wait, and wait, and wait, until his name was finally called with pick No. 199 in the sixth round. (According to Jason Licht, Bill Belichick actually started talking about him in the third round).

But even after that call finally came, Brady wasn’t sure where he was heading.

“I didn’t even know where New England was when I got picked by New England,” Brady said. “They called me and said, “Oh, you’ve picked by New England.” I was like, “That’s amazing. Where’s New England?” Landed in Providence which really screwed me up because that’s not even in Massachusetts.”

Whatever things were like at midseason, Tom Brady is good with Coach Bruce Arians now:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady spoke glowingly of coach Bruce Arians on Thursday as the Bucs prepare to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in next week’s Super Bowl, saying “I think everyone wants to win for him.”

At 68, Arians will be the second-oldest head coach in a Super Bowl. He won two as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“He’s a great man. A great leader. A great person. A great friend,” Brady said of Arians, whom he got to know when Arians retired briefly and worked in broadcasting in 2018. “He’s very loyal. He’s just got a great way about communicating effectively with everybody around here.”

Brady developed a fondness for Arians after watching his “A Football Life” documentary. It highlighted Arians’ climb to become a first-time head coach at the age of 60 with the Arizona Cardinals, his hard coaching style, his disdain for playing politics and his desire to keep things real.

“Everybody has a great affection for him, for the person he is,” Brady said of Arians. “There’s nobody that would ever say anything bad about BA. He’s just so endearing to everybody. And I think everyone wants to win for him.”

Some had questioned how Brady was handling Arians’ style, with a vastly different demeanor from Bill Belichick that includes, at times, calling players out publicly. Brett Favre and Rob Ninkovich, close friends of Brady’s, even criticized Arians publicly for it, with Ninkovich calling for his job.

But Arians has always said, “It’s just honesty,” and Brady has said that he can handle hard coaching.

“He puts a lot into it, expects a lot out of it,” Brady said. “He has high expectations for us every day at practice. Just really excited for him to be recognized the way that he is. I know he’s two-time [AP] Coach of the Year, but he’s really done an amazing job this year with the team in really adverse situations. I just love playing for him.”

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

Andy Reid speaks on two coaches he knows well – his current OC Eric Bieniemy and his past assistant head coach David Culley:

Chiefs coach Andy Reid expressed disappointment that offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was passed over for an NFL head coach opening for the third straight year.

“I’m glad I have him [for at least another season], but I’m not so glad I have him,” Reid said Thursday after the Chiefs began practice for Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I was really hoping he would have an opportunity to take one of these jobs. You guys know what I think of him. I think he’s great. I think he would be great for any number of teams that opened up and help them win football games and also develop men into men. I just think he’s a great person.”

Bieniemy, in his third season as the Chiefs’ coordinator, interviewed for six head coach openings this year. He also interviewed for multiple openings in each of the previous two years.

Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hill is confident Bieniemy’s time is coming.

“I’m not a GM or anything, but I will say coach Bieniemy has helped me out a lot (as) a man, player, just everything I’ve become for the Chiefs’ organization,” Hill said. “It’s very shocking that he didn’t get a job. I know deep down inside he’s going to look at himself in the mirror and say, ‘What do I have to do better next year or whenever the case may be?’ He’s that kind of dude. He wants to get better and he wants to become a head coach. His time will come.”

One of Reid’s former assistants, David Culley, did land a head-coaching job with the Houston Texans. Culley coached for Reid for 18 seasons, including from 2013 through 2016 with the Chiefs as wide receivers coach.

“David will do a good job,” Reid said. “He’s a people person. He’ll bring energy to the building. One of the most loyal guys I’ve ever been around. He’s a great person. We were together 18 years. We had a few cheeseburgers together.”

LAS VEGAS

Vic Tafur of The Athletic on the current state of the Raiders:

Linebacker Nicholas Morrow, the day after the 8-8 season finished, said, “we lacked the accountability. The players, coaches, we all have to be more accountable to our jobs because we’re all connected together.”

Gruden, that same day, was asked about Morrow’s comments.

“Yeah, we have a lot of young players that, they have to be available, not only on Sunday or gameday, but they have to be available on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,” he said. “Some of the details, they have to show up on tape. We have to be a much more detailed football team, especially in some areas on defense. It’ll be a critical area that we try to improve here.”

On Wednesday, general manager Mike Mayock echoed Morrow’s comments.

“The whole team needs to be accountable and self-aware,” Mayock told the team website. “And that starts with me. I have to do a better job. We drafted some guys last year that were position changes and maybe that wasn’t fair in a COVID-19 year.”

He mentioned moving Amik Robertson from outside corner to nickel, since-traded quarterback/receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. to running back and safety Tanner Muse to linebacker.

But forget those guys. To me, and I don’t want to beat a dead horse, the biggest reason the Raiders fell short of the playoffs is because they missed so badly in free agency. While Gruden and Mayock will say they don’t want to use COVID-19 and injuries as an excuse and then kind of do, the bigger problem was that the new players — besides Agholor — didn’t do much when they were on the field.

The Raiders gave $46 million in salary to defensive linemen Carl Nassib and Maliek Collins, linebackers Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski, backup quarterback Marcus Mariota and just-retired tight end Jason Witten. Not a difference-maker in the bunch.

“You can look at our track record and say we’ve made some bad decisions potentially,” Mayock told the team website. “We’ve also made some pretty good ones. … The entire building has to be accountable. Me, the coaching side and the players.”

Mayock, to his credit, didn’t drink the 8-8 Kool-Aid and called this past season “frustrating and disappointing.”

And while the Raiders did beat some good teams in the Chiefs, Saints and Browns, they also lost to some really bad ones. While their defense blew three wins, the Raiders were also gifted wins thanks to the late-game incompetence of the Jets and Broncos.

The highly touted 2019 rookie class took a step backward, and the 2020 class never really got off the ground. Receiver Henry Ruggs III made a handful of big plays, and that was enough to be the best of the Raiders’ bunch.

“I was disappointed in the productivity of our rookies, I will be the first one to admit that,” Mayock said. “You can make excuses … Henry Ruggs, I think, is who he is — I’m not disappointed in Henry. Henry’s got to get better. We knew how fast he is, but he’s got to get stronger and he has to get in and out of his breaks better. You’ve gotta feel him coming out of his breaks more for him to get to the next level. And I think he will.”

– – –

Gruden fired his friend, Paul Guenther, as defensive coordinator and hired another, Gus Bradley, to take his place. Bradley, who worked for Gruden in Tampa Bay, has his work cut out for him, as do Gruden and Mayock, who in my opinion need to add two players through free agency and the draft who become the best two players on this defense. And one has to be a pass rusher.

“Last year, we did not have a dynamic (defensive) playmaker on any level,” Mayock told the team website. “And that’s hard, when you go into a game every Sunday and teams don’t have to specifically game-plan for any one player.”

That has to change, obviously, if the Raiders are going to make the playoffs next season. Which they kind of have to if fans are going to have any faith in this process.

Offensively, quarterback Derek Carr and Pro Bowlers Darren Waller and Josh Jacobs have improved under Gruden and offensive coordinator Greg Olson, and there’s no reason that shouldn’t continue. If the Raiders are unable to re-sign Agholor (I’m skeptical) they will have to bring in another veteran receiver.

The Raiders were 10th in the NFL with 27.1 points per game and that’s without getting much from their highest-paid player (right tackle Trent Brown) or their rookie class. Red-zone weapon Foster Moreau will be back in the mix now that Witten is gone after making $4 million for averaging 5.3 yards on his 13 catches while providing quality storytelling. (I like Witten a lot but that signing never made any sense.)

So, there are some reasons for optimism. But there is also a lot of pressure building on Mayock because he doesn’t have the 10-year contract or final say that Gruden does.

And Mayock is fine with that. He knows 8-8 is not good enough. Not in Gruden’s third season. Not in the new Las Vegas market. Not when teams like the Browns and Dolphins have quickly rebuilt and passed the Raiders by.

Not when players are questioning the accountability throughout the Raiders’ brand-new facility.

AFC NORTH

PITTSBURGH

QB BEN ROETHLISBERGER wants to play one more season – and he will help the Steelers with their cap problems to do so. Mike Tomlin’s contract situation also comes up in this from Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com:

Ben Roethlisberger said he’s “pretty sure” he wants to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2021 season and is willing to do “everything” he can to help the team despite his massive salary-cap hit for 2021.

With the salary cap decreasing because of a drop in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roethlisberger’s $41.2 million cap hit for next season is untenable, a matter Roethlisberger and team president and CEO Art Rooney II seem to agree on.

“I want to do everything I can and made that very clear to them from the very beginning that it was my idea to basically help the team however I can this year,” Roethlisberger told The Athletic.

He added: “I am pretty sure I want to go one more year (because) I think I can do it and give us a real chance and winning.”

Speaking earlier Thursday during his season wrap-up Zoom call, Rooney said the Steelers have left the door open for a Big Ben return contingent on adjustments to his contract being made.

“I think we’ve been up front with Ben in letting him know that we couldn’t have him back under the current contract,” Rooney said. “I think he understands we have some work to do there. We’ll have more conversations internally, and we’ll have more conversations with Ben, and we’ll have to know what the cap number is to finalize some of those decisions.”

Roethlisberger also told The Athletic that he doesn’t “care bout my pay at all this year!”

After the wild-card loss to the Cleveland Browns, Roethlisberger, 38, said he would talk with his family before making a concrete decision to return for 2021 but said he hoped the Steelers would want him back if that’s what he decided to do. But will Rooney and the team give him the opportunity to write his own end to a storied career?

“With Ben, we owe it to him to have a conversation about how he wants to end his career, and we intend to do that.”

To achieve cap relief and give Roethlisberger at least one more season to end on his own terms, the Steelers could ask the quarterback to take a pay cut in the final year of his contract. The Steelers have already prorated $22,250,000 of his contract, leaving $19 million — $4 million in base salary and a $15 million roster bonus — to work with in a pay cut or restructure. The likelier option is an extension and restructure that spreads some of the cap hit into the 2022 season.

“I think that those are discussions we’ll have with Ben and his representative,” Rooney said of possibilities to massage Roethlisberger’s contract. “It takes two to figure that out, and whether we can agree with what he wants, we’ll just have to see.”

As it stands now, the Steelers have three quarterbacks on the roster for the 2021 season: Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph and newly signed Dwayne Haskins. But Rooney acknowledged that they need to add another signal-caller, potentially putting them in the sweepstakes for one of the available big-name quarterbacks if they can configure the cap to be accommodating.

“I think when you look at our room, we’ll have to add somebody to the room this offseason,” Rooney said. “We’ll look at all the opportunities we have to do that.”

Determining Roethlisberger’s future is just the first step of many difficult decisions and discussions for the Steelers this offseason.

General manager Kevin Colbert’s year-to-year contract will be up after the draft, and while Rooney said the two have had many discussions about Colbert’s future, nothing is official.

“I feel like Kevin is going to come back, but who knows,” Rooney said.

Coach Mike Tomlin’s contract runs through at least the 2021 season with an option for the 2022 season, and in evaluating his head coach, Rooney said he believes Tomlin will lead the team in the future.

“We’ll address Mike’s contract with him as time goes on this offseason,” he said. “I’ll just say I feel comfortable in saying he’ll be our coach into the future. … In terms of the job he did, we didn’t finish the way we’d like. The playoff game, it’s hard to analyze … just turning the ball over that way, you’re not going to win many games. I don’t see how you attribute that to coaching preparation. I think the team went into that game prepared.”

Rooney also said that if it were all up to him, he would go into the 2021 season with the same roster the team had in 2020.

“If I had my druthers, I’d say if I could have the same roster back over in the next year, I’d do it,” he said. “Obviously, that’s not the case.”

With the team’s salary-cap situation — the Steelers are estimated to be over by nearly $30 million with 48 players signed, according to ESPN’s Roster Management System — re-signing free agents such as Bud Dupree and JuJu Smith-Schuster will be difficult, if not impossible.

“It’s fair to say this will be the most difficult salary-cap challenge that we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever,” Rooney said.

But the first step to figuring out the rest of the roster is to determine Roethlisberger’s future.

Asked bluntly whether he wants Roethlisberger to return, Rooney paused, then said he wanted him back but offered no guarantees about the quarterback’s future.

“I think we’d like to see Ben back for another year if that can work,” he said. “But as we said, there’s a lot of work to be done if that can happen; there may need to be decisions on both ends for that to happen.”

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

David Culley adds a veteran coach to handle the quarterback, whoever he might be.  Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle:

There was word earlier this week that the Texans are talking to Josh McCown about a job on David Culley’s staff and many people speculated that he could wind up as the team’s quarterbacks coach.

McCown may wind up on the staff, but a report on Thursday indicates the Texans are looking elsewhere for a quarterbacks coach. Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team is expected to hire Pep Hamilton for that job.

Hamilton spent the 2020 season with the Chargers and his work with rookie Justin Herbert drew high marks. Hamilton’s name was in the mix for offensive coordinator openings around the league, but nothing has materialized on that front.

The big question for any quarterbacks coach is who they will be working with this year. Deshaun Watson has requested a trade and it’s unknown what the Texans will do at this point. Hamilton’s work with Herbert would serve him well if the team brings in a first-round pick at the position, but there are still a lot of ways that things could play out in Houston.

THIS AND THAT

BEST MOVES OF 2020

Yesterday, we had a similar list, the Best Contracts of 2020, from Joel Corry.  Here is Dan Graziano of ESPN.com with a similar list:

But there are other 2020 offseason moves worth revisiting — good ones, bad ones and sneaky-bargain ones. Here are five of each, starting with the obvious:

Most successful moves of the 2020 offseason

1. Buccaneers sign QB Tom Brady.

Honestly, what more could they have asked from this? The Bucs weren’t on many people’s lists of obvious Brady destinations when the offseason started, but they pitched him on the idea that they were a team on the cusp — ready to win if they could get someone like him to bring calm, reliability and a championship mindset into the building.

There were hiccups along the way and times when it looked as if they weren’t good enough to get here. But underestimating Brady has been a bad bet for a couple of decades now. Tampa Bay sure is happy it didn’t underestimate (a) the impact he would have on its team, or (b) its ability to get him.

2. Bills trade a first-round pick to Vikings for WR Stefon Diggs.

This is a deal that turned out to be a win for both sides, since the Vikings used that pick to draft electric wide receiver Justin Jefferson and the Bills used Diggs to unlock the full potential of Josh Allen and their offense. Diggs led the NFL in catches (127) and receiving yards (1,535) in his first season in Buffalo, and the Bills made it to the AFC Championship Game before losing to the defending champion Chiefs.

Buffalo’s roster was strong already. But adding Diggs on the premise that he was a No. 1 receiver, and then having him perform like one, elevated them to the upper echelon of NFL title contenders.

3. Browns sign OT Jack Conklin, draft OT Jedrick Wills Jr.

Cleveland had two main goals for the 2020 offseason: hire the right coach this time and shore up the offensive line to give Baker Mayfield a chance. Early returns indicate that Kevin Stefanski fulfilled the first goal, and signing Conklin and drafting Wills in the first round fulfilled the second.

These moves weren’t cheap. Conklin signed a three-year, $42 million contract with $30 million fully guaranteed, and Wills was the No. 10 pick. But they were necessary and their affect on Mayfield and Cleveland’s offense was undeniable. The Browns won 11 games for the first time since 1994 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

4. Colts trade a first-round pick to the 49ers for DT DeForest Buckner.

As was the case with Diggs and Buffalo, if you’re going to trade a first-round pick, the return had better have an immediate and significant impact. The Colts signed Buckner to a four-year, $84 million extension with more than $39 million guaranteed right after the trade, so they were all-in on the player. But think of it this way: Javon Kinlaw, the player the 49ers took with that No. 14 overall pick, got a fully guaranteed $15.488 million contract, so the Colts were going to spend that much on a rookie anyway if they had kept the pick. Apply that money to Buckner’s deal and it looks a lot better.

The Colts’ defense was one of the best in the league for a good portion of this season and Buckner shoring up things on the defensive line was a big reason why.

5. Giants sign CB James Bradberry.

Yes, the Giants went 6-10. But everything’s relative. That was their highest win total since 2016 and the season offered plenty of indications that the franchise might finally be headed in the right direction. Part of that was a defense that ranked eighth in defensive efficiency and a big part of that was the work the Giants did in free agency.

Bradberry signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract with $29.8 million guaranteed, which made him a bargain compared to top-of-the-market CB Byron Jones, who signed with Miami. Bradberry played like a shutdown corner and, along with fellow free-agent signee LB Blake Martinez, helped fuel a defense that played hard every week and performed better than we’ve seen a Giants defense perform since Ben McAdoo’s first year in 2016.

Most disappointing moves of the 2020 offseason

1. Texans trade WR DeAndre Hopkins to Cardinals for RB David Johnson and a second-round pick.

Everybody hated this move for Houston at the time. And while the Texans tried to mitigate the loss of Hopkins — who was shipped out because he and coach/GM Bill O’Brien didn’t see eye-to-eye on his contract situation — by trading for Brandin Cooks and signing Randall Cobb, the fallout has backed up the initial reviews. O’Brien was fired before midseason, the team just found a coach to replace him, and quarterback Deshaun Watson is so fed up with the organization that he doesn’t want to play for them anymore.

The Hopkins trade wasn’t the sole reason for all of this, of course, but it looks as bad in retrospect as it did at the time.

2. Titans sign pass-rushers Vic Beasley and Jadeveon Clowney.

Tennessee hoped Beasley, the former Falcons first-round pick, would be a steal for its pass rush on a one-year, $9.5 million contract. He showed up 10 days late for training camp, incurring $500,000 in fines, and failed to register a sack in five games with the team before it released him in November. On Clowney, they waited out the market and got him for one year and $11.5 million guaranteed, but he played eight games and didn’t register a sack before a knee injury ended his season early.

As a team, the Titans had one of the worst pass rushes in the league, finishing the season with just 19 total sacks. And four of them came in their final game.

3. Bears sign DE Robert Quinn.

Coming off an 11.5-sack season in Dallas, Quinn signed a five-year, $70 million contract with Chicago that included $30 million fully guaranteed in the first two years. The Bears signed him to replace disappointing former first-round pick Leonard Floyd, who left as a free agent and signed with the Rams.

It’s fair to assume the Bears thought Quinn would have more than two sacks in 2020. Meanwhile, Floyd, who signed for one year and $10 million, had 10.5 sacks for L.A.

4. Panthers sign QB Teddy Bridgewater.

It wasn’t a signing that broke the bank, but the Panthers paid Bridgewater $24 million in 2020 and $10 million of his $17 million 2021 salary is fully guaranteed. He finished 17th in Total QBR, 17th in yards, 24th in passing touchdowns and 12th in yards per attempt. Those are numbers to fall asleep to.

Carolina might already be looking to replace him with the No. 8 pick in the draft. And by the way, the signing likely resulted in division rival New Orleans, for whom he’d played the previous two years, receiving a third-round compensatory pick in this year’s draft. The Panthers could have kept Cam Newton for $19.1 million, probably not done a whole lot worse than they did, and also not be on the hook for another $10 million in 2021.

5. Bengals sign CB Trae Waynes and DT D.J. Reader.

Sometimes, the mistakes aren’t a team’s fault. Guys get hurt in football and that’s what happened here. Waynes signed a three-year, $42 million contract of which $20 million was paid in the first year, tore a pectoral muscle in training camp and didn’t play a single game. Reader signed a four-year, $53 million contract that paid him $22.25 million in the first year. He played pretty well for the first five games, but he injured his quadriceps in the fifth and had to miss the rest of the season.

That’s not much return on investment in Year 1 for either of Cincinnati’s big free-agent signings.

Best bargain moves of the 2020 offseason

1. 49ers trade a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick to Washington for OT Trent Williams.

Everyone knew Williams wanted out of Washington, but it was the 49ers who swooped in and got him for a bargain price. On draft weekend, in the wake of the Joe Staley retirement news, San Francisco reunited Williams with former Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Williams performed like his old Pro Bowl self at left tackle before the injury wave that devastated the 49ers’ roster caught up with him toward the end of the season. Williams is a free agent and has set himself up for another payday at age 32.

2. Bills sign OT Daryl Williams.

We talked earlier about Cleveland paying a premium to shore up right tackle with Jack Conklin, but Buffalo did the same thing a lot more economically. It signed Williams to a one-year, $2.25 million contract of which only the $250,000 signing bonus was guaranteed. Williams started all 19 games at right tackle for one of the best offenses in the league and should be in line for a much more lucrative free-agent payday this time around.

The Diggs move is the splashy one that deservedly gets the headlines, but moves like this are where general managers really earn their money. Brandon Beane deserves a pat on the back here.

3. Dolphins sign DE Emmanuel Ogbah.

Miami got Ogbah on a two-year, $15 million contract with $7.5 million guaranteed. He played in 16 games, started 12 and recorded nine sacks. Not only is anything under $1 million per sack a bargain price for a pass-rusher, the fact that it’s a two-year deal is extremely beneficial to the team, which has him for $7.5 million in 2021 if they want him. Had it been a one-year deal, he’d be in position to cash in as a free agent. Had it been a three-year deal, he’d be in a position where his 2022 money would be a lot more likely to come in.

The Dolphins surely could throw him a raise or an extension and they might well do that. But they got a bargain that continues to be a bargain if they want to see him do it again before committing beyond this year.

4. Colts sign CB Xavier Rhodes.

Cut by the Vikings after a disappointing 2019 season, Rhodes signed with Indianapolis for one year, $3 million. He experienced something of a career renaissance in Matt Eberflus’ defense, as he had two interceptions and his completion percentage allowed when targeted was 51.9% — good for 11th best among qualified cornerbacks.

5. Raiders sign WR Nelson Agholor.

Wide receiver has been a thorny problem for the Raiders the past couple of years. Tyrell Williams was a disappointing free-agent signing in 2019. Trading for Antonio Brown was a complete disaster. They drafted Hunter Renfrow in the fifth round in 2019 and Henry Ruggs (Round 1) and Bryan Edwards (Round 3) in 2020. Edwards got hurt. Renfrow and Ruggs have been good.

But Agholor, the former Eagles first-rounder the Raiders signed for a little more than $1 million last offseason, had an eye-opening 2020 season. He had 48 catches and 896 yards to go with eight touchdowns and averaged 18.7 yards per reception.

BROADCAST NEWS

Big ratings for the two championship games.  Bill Shea of The Athletic:

Must-see Mahomes was edged by Tune-in Tom this weekend.

An estimated average of 44.7 million viewers watched Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game on Fox to earn Brady his 10th Super Bowl trip, per Show Buzz Daily.

By contrast, the AFC title game on CBS later Sunday averaged 41.8 million for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs beating the visiting Buffalo Bills for the right to face Tampa (in Tampa) on Feb. 7.

The NFC championship game had a total audience of 45.95 million when Fox’s sibling broadcast and streaming properties, and along with NFL Digital and Verizon Mobile Media are factored in, according to Fox Sports. That made the game the network’s best title game since 2017.

The equivalent broadcast/cable plus streaming number for CBS wasn’t available Tuesday afternoon.

The peak audience average for Bucs-Packers was 53 million from 6 to 6:15 p.m ET. as Green Bay tried to rally before falling 31-26 at Lambeau Field.

Despite live sports audiences being down since the pandemic began, both conference title games improved on their Nielsen audience averages from last season. The Packers-49ers match-up averaged 42.7 million on Fox while the Titans-Chiefs averaged 41.1 million on CBS on Jan. 19, 2020.

SUPER BOWL BETTING TIDBITS

Just about everything you need to make your selection for next Sunday’s game fromESPN.com:

Favorites have covered two straight Super Bowls and three of the last four. Overall, favorites are 27-25-2.

The last two Super Bowls went under the total. There have been 10 overs and 10 unders in the last 20 Super Bowls, and it’s 26-26-1 overall (no total for Super Bowl I).

First look at Chiefs-Bucs: Early Super Bowl picks, big questions and matchups to know

AFC teams have won and covered five of the last six Super Bowls.

The favored team is 35-19 straight up in the 54 Super Bowls.

A total of 57 would be the second-highest closing Super Bowl total ever. Super Bowl LVI closed at 58 and went over in OT.

The Chiefs enter 8-10 ATS on the season, the fifth team to advance to the Super Bowl with a losing ATS record (only the 2012 Ravens went on to win).

Tom Brady is 4-5 ATS and 6-3 outright in his career in the Super Bowl. He has been an underdog once, in his first Super Bowl vs. the Rams. (Only two quarterbacks have won multiple Super Bowls as an underdog: Eli Manning and Jim Plunkett, with two each).

Only two quarterbacks have won multiple Super Bowls as an underdog: Eli Manning and Jim Plunkett (two each).

This will be the first time Brady is an underdog in three straight starts since 2002-03 and the first time in a single season since 2001. It will snap Brady’s 308-game streak without being an underdog in three consecutive starts. The next longest streak in the Super Bowl era is 201 by Aaron Rodgers (active streak).

This will be the eighth straight playoff game Mahomes is favored in. That will break a tie with Kurt Warner for the most consecutive playoff games favored in to begin a career in the Super Bowl era.

Mahomes is 27-13-1 ATS when he is not a double-digit favorite (6-0-1 ATS as underdog, 21-13 ATS as single-digit favorite).

Breakdown by position of first TD:

WR 22

RB 21

TE 5

QB 3

CB 2

Defense 1

Breakdown by score of first TD:

TD 26

FG 25

Safety 3

Coin toss: Heads 25, tails 29

Tampa Bay closed as a 4-point underdog in its only other Super Bowl appearance (2002). It won outright. If the Bucs close as an underdog, they will look to join the Giants (3), Raiders (2), Broncos (2) and Washington (2) as the only teams to win multiple Super Bowls as an underdog.

Mahomes has the fourth-highest cover percentage (61.5%) of any QB in the Super Bowl era; Brady (59.5%) is eighth.

Brady is 41-17-1 ATS in his career as an underdog and 36-23 outright as an underdog, both best in the Super Bowl era

Since 2015, the under is 22-9 in Brady starts with a total in the 50s (16-6 since 2017).

The Chiefs are the fifth team to reach Super Bowl with a losing ATS record (8-10). Only the 2012 Ravens went on to win it all.

Andy Reid is 5-5 ATS with Kansas City with at least 13 days between games. He was 13-4 ATS with Philadelphia in that situation.

Since 2018, Brady has covered all five games with at least 13 days between games, including the Week 14 game this season.

The spread has not come into play in the last 11 Super Bowls. Winners are 46-6-2 ATS. The last team to win but not cover was Pittsburgh in 2008 over Arizona (-7, won by 4).

The Chiefs are the fifth straight preseason favorite (+400) to reach the Super Bowl. Three of the last four won the game.

Kansas City is 5-0 ATS this season when the line is between +3 and -3.

Kansas City is 2-8 ATS in its last 10 games, though it did cover in its last game.

Tampa Bay has covered the last four times it has been an underdog.

The Buccaneers have covered each of the last three meetings, including their Week 12 meeting this season. In that game, Kansas City was a 3.5-point favorite on the road. Now Kansas City is a 3-point favorite in that building, though it is technically a neutral site.

David Purdum of ESPN.com with the tail of one gambler who saw the future correctly and acted on it.

Professional bettor Mark DeRosa was on a plane back from Atlantic City after last year’s Super Bowl when he got a clear picture of what would turn out to be one of the biggest scores of his career.

DeRosa believed Tom Brady was going to leave New England in the offseason and that Tampa Bay was one of the most likely landing spots. Sportsbooks, however, disagreed and listed the Buccaneers around 50-1 in their odds on where Brady would play in the 2020 season. Bookmakers made Brady returning to New England a heavy, odds-on favorite.

“The books were pricing it like it was a 75% chance that he returns [to New England],” DeRosa said. “I thought there was a 75% chance that he didn’t return, so the market was really way off.”

While in Atlantic City for the Super Bowl, DeRosa placed two $500 bets with DraftKings on Brady playing with the Buccaneers, at 50-1 and 40-1. Then, on the plane back to Florida, he decided he wanted to get down more on Tampa Bay to win the NFC and Super Bowl the following season. He would need to convince his old college friend and betting partner Zack White that the Bucs were a good bet.

Tampa Bay had just finished a 7-9 campaign in which quarterback Jameis Winston tossed 30 interceptions. It was the Buccaneers’ third consecutive losing season, and they were considered long shots again, with Super Bowl odds in the 65-1 range.

“He had to talk me into it quite a bit,” White, a respected bettor in Las Vegas, recalled. “His reasoning pretty much came down to Brady was going to go there.”

White asked DeRosa what he thought the chances of Brady landing in Tampa Bay were, “because if he doesn’t, then this bet is pretty much awful.”

DeRosa said he had a hunch, a well-reasoned one that was based on several signs indicating Brady was leaving New England. DeRosa remembered a 2018 ESPN story highlighting a rift between Brady, Patriots coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft. In August 2019, DeRosa read that Brady had put his Massachusetts mansion up for sale, and he thought it was meaningful that the six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback had let his contract run out for the first time in his career.

DeRosa believed that Tampa Bay — because of coach Bruce Arians’ displeasure with the turnover-prone Winston, a roster loaded with playmakers, warm weather and lack of state income taxes — was one of only a handful of fits for Brady.

“The worst-case scenario is you’ve got [Tampa Bay] 30-1 to win the NFC and 60-1 for the Super Bowl, and that’s just the market price,” DeRosa reasoned with White last February. “If it happens, they’re going to be like 5-1 and 10-1, and I really think it’s going to happen. I don’t think he’s coming back. I think he’s going somewhere else.”

White was convinced and went to work in Las Vegas, placing several thousand dollars on the Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl at 65-1 and 60-1. Meanwhile, back in Florida, DeRosa had been monitoring the odds at New Jersey sportsbooks and saw that the Borgata opened the Bucs at 35-1 to win the NFC. DeRosa immediately booked a flight back to Atlantic City and placed an $8,000 bet on Tampa Bay to win the conference at 35-1.

When DeRosa and White were done betting, they had around $20,000 invested in the Bucs at odds around 65-1 to win the Super Bowl and 35-1 to win the NFC. They each took smaller positions on a few teams, DeRosa on the Los Angeles Chargers and White on the Saints, but their largest investment was on the Bucs.

On March 20, Brady signed a two-year deal with the Buccaneers, whose Super Bowl odds improved dramatically at sportsbooks. When the season kicked off, Tampa Bay was around 10-1 to win the Super Bowl and 5-1 to win the NFC, just as DeRosa had anticipated.

Midway through the season, things didn’t look great for the Bucs. They lost three of four in November, including a 38-3 blowout loss to the Saints, to fall to 7-5.

“There was a little bit of frustration,” White said with a chuckle about Tampa Bay’s midseason swoon, “but it’s the NFL, man, you don’t count anyone out until the end.

“There was always so much value locked up in those big-money tickets. You could’ve locked up a lot of profit before the season even kicked off with the numbers we had.”

They each hedged a little bit of their risk by taking the Washington Football Team +9.5 in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay won by eight. For the most part, though, they held tight and plan do the same for the Super Bowl. The Buccaneers are 3-point underdogs to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I’m not big on hedging,” DeRosa said.

Both in their late 30s, DeRosa and White attended Appalachian State together and have been betting professionally for over a decade. They have already turned six-figure profits on the Bucs and are in position for the largest scores of their careers on any sport if Tampa Bay wins the Super Bowl.

“We had about $11,000 or so to win $400,000 on the NFC Championship,” DeRosa said. “And then we’ve got like another $8,000 or $9,000 to win the Super Bowl at 60-1.

“So, go Bucs.”