The Daily Briefing Friday, July 15, 2022

It’s deadline day for contracts to beat the franchise tag – and Josh Alper ofProFootballTalk.com doesn’t see anything happening:

Friday is the final day that players who have received franchise tags are able to sign long-term extensions with their teams, but there’s not much optimism that any of the four players in that position will come to such agreements.

The last few days have brought pessimistic reports about where things stand for Bengals safety Jessie Bates, Chiefs tackle Orlando Brown, Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki, and Cowboys tight end Dalton Schultz.

Bates and Brown have not signed their tags, so the lack of a deal would make it unlikely that either player reports for the start of training camp. A report this week indicated that Brown could stay away from the team into the regular season and that could also be on the table for Bates in Cincinnati.

Brown would have a $16.66 million salary for 2022 under the tag while Bates would be in line to make $12.91 million. Gesicki and Schultz, who have signed their tags, would have salaries of $10.9 million.

Orlando Brown is not happening, but it almost did.

As July 15th began, there was little optimism that any of the remaining franchisee-tagged players would reach a long-term deal with their respective clubs.

But that didn’t stop the Chiefs from making a final run at left tackle Orlando Brown.

Unfortunately for Kansas City, it didn’t work.

According to NFL Media, Kansas City offered Brown the highest signing bonus and average money per year on a six-year deal for a left tackle — exceeding the marks set by San Francisco’s Trent Williams. And the Chiefs were willing to fully guarantee money through the 2023 season. But Brown and his team decided that they wanted more security over the life of the contract and rejected the offer.

“We got really close,” Brown’s agent Michael Portner told NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero. “We enjoyed dealing with the Chiefs and we understand their position as well. I’m not gonna let these athletes sign a flashy contract without the substance or security there.”

Brown has not yet signed his $16.7 million franchise tender, which means he is technically not under contract and would not be subject to fines for missing training camp. Portner noted it’s up to Brown whether or not he shows up and those decisions are still being weighed.

The Chiefs acquired Brown last year from the Ravens with the intention of making him their long-term left tackle. Brown was selected to his third consecutive Pro Bowl last season, starting 16 regular-season games for Kansas City and all three postseason contests. He was on the field for every offensive snap for each game he played.

– – –

Bryan D’Ardo of CBSSports.com looks at 10 NFL season records and identifies the top current candidates to break them.  Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com:

To the surprise of many, a lot of the NFL’s long-standing records managed to withstand the first 17-game season. Eric Dickerson’s fabled rushing record made it through another fall. Peyton Manning’s records for passing yards and touchdown passes were also unscathed, while Michael Strahan saw Steelers’ pass rusher T.J Watt match — but not pass — his record for sacks in a season.

While they made it through the 2021 season, Dickerson, Manning and company may not be as lucky in 2022. There are several records that are poised to fall in 2022, the second 17-game regular season in league history. Let’s take a look at which single-season records could fall and the players who could break them.

Most receiving yards

Current record holder: Calvin Johnson (1,964 yards in 2012)

Cooper Kupp was incredibly close to breaking Johnson’s record last season. The reigning Super Bowl MVP finished the 2021 season with 1,947 yards while also leading the NFL with 145 receptions. If he and quarterback Matthew Stafford are able to stay healthy, Kupp may very well become the NFL’s first 2,000-yard receiver this fall.

Most receptions

Current record holder: Michael Thomas (149 in 2019)

Kupp was just four receptions from matching Thomas’ record last season. Along with his quick chemistry with Stafford, Kupp’s remarkable hands were a big reason for last year’s prolific numbers. He caught at least 80% of his targets in all but two games last season.

Most sacks

Current record holder: Michael Strahan (22.5 in 2001)/T.J. Watt (22.5 in 2021)

Watt matched Strahan’s record despite missing two games due to injury. Along with tying the all-time sack record, Watt led the NFL in tackles for loss for a second straight year. He also forced five fumbles en route to winning his first Defensive Player of the Year award. Watt should once again be in position to break the record this season given the added depth the Steelers have at linebacker as well as on the defensive line.

Most rushing yards

Current record holder: Eric Dickerson (2,105 in 1984)

Dickerson’s record may have been broken last year had Derrick Henry not sustained an injury after rumbling for 937 yards in the season’s first eight games. Henry is the frontrunner to break this record in 2021, but don’t sleep on Jonathan Taylor, the Colts’ third-year back who won the league’s rushing title last fall.

Most completions

Current record holder: Tom Brady (485 in 2021)

Brady broke Drew Brees’ five-year-old record last season, and he may break his own record in 2022. He completed at least 20 passes in all but one game last season. Brady completed 41 passes in the Buccaneers’ regular season loss to the Rams, a team Brady and the Bucs will host on Nov. 6.

Most passing yards

Current record holder: Peyton Manning (5,477 in 2013)

Brady was relatively close to breaking his former rival’s record last season, when he threw for a career-high 5,316 yards. Brady finished the year with more than 300 more passing yards than the league’s second-leading passer, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.

Most attempts

Current record holder: Matthew Stafford (727 in 2012)

Brady came to within eight completions of matching Stafford’s record last season. Brady attempted at least 30 passes in each of Tampa’s 17 regular season games. He attempted a season-high 54 passes (the fourth game during which he threw at least 50 passes) in the Buccaneers’ thrilling divisional round playoff loss to the Rams.

Most interceptions

Current record holder: Night Train Lane (14 in 1952)

The closest anyone has come to catching Night Train’s record was former Raiders shutdown cornerback Lester Hayes, who picked off 13 passes in 1980. Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs made a run for it last year with 11 interceptions. New Chargers cornerback J.C. Jackson, who picked off eight passes during his final year with the Patriots, should also be considered among the favorites to possibly break Night Train’s long-standing record.

Longest FG

Current record holder: Justin Tucker (66 yards in 2021)

The Ravens’ All-Pro kicker hit a 66-yarder last year, so there’s no reason to doubt that Tucker would try a 67-yarder if the opportunity presents itself this season. Tucker, a rookie when the Ravens won the 2012 Super Bowl, is coming off arguably his best season to date. He made nearly 95% of his field goals last year, included making each of his six kicks that were at least 50 yards.

Most total touchdowns

Current record holder: LaDainian Tomlinson (31 in 2006)

This record is going to be tough to break, even with the extra game. That being said, there are a few players who are capable of breaking Tomlinson’s record if they stay healthy. That list of players includes Taylor, Kupp, Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, and 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

Did you know that DARNELL MOONEY was a “#1” wide receiver in the NFL?  If you didn’t, he vows you will.  Dan Pompei of The Athletic with a really good look (edited for space below) that will have you rooting for him:

It’s a little past midnight at the Bears’ indoor practice facility.

Most of the lights are off in the Walter Payton Center, and the shadows set a mood.

A Marshmallow speaker sits on the sideline. Coming from it, some Mariah the Scientist, Blxst or Alicia Keys. The sounds echo through the cavernous building.

One man, without company, practices releases and runs routes. He does his drills over and over, breathing hard, sweating, contemplating what he calls the “geometry of routes” — the degrees of his cuts, the angles of defenders, the alignments of coverages.

What is Darnell Mooney doing here? Why isn’t he sleeping or gaming or hanging with the fellas?

Well, he isn’t interested in much other than playing wide receiver. His idea of a diversion is stepping around a cornerback on a pass route.

Mooney didn’t take a vacation between January and July. In his two years with the Bears, he has gone out at night in Chicago just once. He went to a club only because his quarterback, Justin Fields, set it up.

Mooney has trained himself to do many things well. Being still is not one of them.

“I get very uncomfortable not doing anything,” he says. “The first week we were off, I was told to just sit there and get treatment. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m losing my mind just sitting in this house. I cannot do this.’”

And so he drives to work in the dark of night. When he gets to the guard shack, he doesn’t need to slow down and roll down the window because the overnight security man knows his car. The door to the Payton Center unlocks with his fingerprint.

Others, even teammates, might not understand this.

But there are reasons.

The football arcs high and long over the roof of the house Mooney rents.

It was sent airborne from a Jugs machine. The ball lands in his hands, as always, softly.

On the other side of the house, Mooney’s chiropractor, Michael Risher, works the machine. Risher comes to Mooney’s home in north suburban Chicago about three days a week. A typical agenda includes soft tissue work, needling, cupping, balance and stability exercises, and loading the Jugs machine for 200 to 300 passes.

With his first check from the Bears, his signing bonus, Mooney did not buy jewelry, Jordans or a Jaguar — he still drives the 2016 Dodge Challenger he had in high school. He purchased that Jugs machine for $1,700. In the cold months, he keeps the Jugs machine inside, where he has extra motivation to catch every ball, as he doesn’t want to damage the walls.

About a year and a half ago, Mooney bought a second Jugs machine. It’s at his alma mater, Gadsden City High School in Alabama. The kids use it, and Mooney works on it whenever he goes home.

For this, there are reasons.

Mooney spent much of his childhood there in competition with his fraternal twin, Denzel, who was bigger and more extroverted. In all they did, they were compared.

“He was always saying he was better than me,” Darnell says. “I’d say, ‘OK, you say you’re better. Now show me.’ It was a good thing to have somebody in the household you’re competing with all the time.”

To this day, a game of pitching coins can become so competitive that Darnell takes off his hoodie so he can move more freely.

The twins lived with their sister and mother. During the summers, they visited their father, Larry Mooney, a computer technician in Chicago. In 2012, Larry was diagnosed with leukemia. A couple of years later, a shunt filter failed him and Larry died. Darnell was 16.

A pendant hangs on a gold chain around Darnell’s neck. On it is a photograph of Larry and Darnell, father and son. But they were more than that. Darnell says he was his best friend.

Losing him was like losing sunlight.

In the wake of Larry’s death, Darnell repressed his feelings and poured himself into sports. Ahmad DeRamus, his quarterback at Gadsden and close friend, says Mooney’s drive turned up “literally times 100” after his father’s death.

Mooney’s teams benefited; his emotional and mental health not so much.

“I wasn’t over the situation, but I knew I had to step up to take care of the family,” he says. “It was the standard of — you’re a man, get through it, don’t dwell on it, or do something about it.”

It wasn’t until he went to college that Mooney figured out what depression was. And then he learned to deal with it on his knees.

“I was in church heavily, praying often, giving my mind and my thought processes, living through God,” he says. “Whatever positive thing I did, I gave Him the glory of it.”

While Darnell still misses his father and thinks of him often, the sadness has dissipated. The drive that was borne of it has not.

In the spring of 2020, then-Bears wide receivers coach Mike Furrey studied a strong draft class of receivers. He slowed down when researching Mooney, whose mindset reminded him of his former Rams teammate Isaac Bruce, now a Hall of Famer. Furrey pushed for the Bears to draft him.

Says Furrey, “His desire and passion are rare.”

On a wooded, hilly path in Noccalula Falls, Ala., not far from where he grew up, Mooney runs, then walks, runs, then walks. When he reaches the end of the 2.4-mile trail, he sprints back the entire way, light as a dandelion puff in the breeze.

He has reasons.

Conditioning has been an emphasis for Mooney this offseason in part because he didn’t always have the stamina he wanted last season. Mooney, who refuses to take a snap off, played 986 snaps in 2021 — more than all but five receivers in the NFL.

“Last year, I think I struggled with just being there at all times when my number was called,” he says. “I knew I was fatigued a little bit, but my mindset was not coming out of the game.”

New Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy is asking Mooney to explode off the ball on every play, pass or run, so defenders don’t get a read on play intention. Doing so will require more vigor.

Mooney is now the focal point of the Bears’ passing game. The team’s new regime believes in him so much that veteran Allen Robinson was allowed to sign with the Rams. The Bears did not acquire another receiver who has started more than nine games in a season, and they didn’t draft one with their first two picks.

In one sense, Mooney regretted seeing Robinson go. He loved playing with him, and they lifted one another both with encouragement and criticism. They still talk often. But in another sense, Mooney is ready to be the man.

“There were days when A-Rob didn’t practice and I took that as an opportunity to let whoever was watching know,” he says. “Like A-Rob’s our dude, but if anything happens to A-Rob, we’re going to be fine because I’m gonna ball out.”

Not everyone sees it that way. ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky recently tweeted that Mooney is not a No. 1 receiver — or even a No. 2.

Mooney is used to it.

As a 150-pound wide receiver/cornerback/return man in high school, he was a two-star recruit, per 247Sports. When college coaches came to town to meet the players, Mooney’s coach advised him to wear two pairs of sweatpants and two hoodies to appear thicker.

He didn’t have a single scholarship offer until Tulane, with its last remaining slot, asked him if he wanted a ride just before signing day. It didn’t help that his ACT score was late to qualify.

Tulane was a good fit, though. By his junior season, Mooney was voted second-team all-conference with a 20.6 yards-per-catch average, which was sixth best in the country. That was when the geometry of football began to make sense to Mooney, when he started to see the field as if it were graph paper and he could create plays with a protractor and compass. The left side of the brain hums in Mooney, who graduated from Tulane in four years with a degree in applied computing.

After college, he caught the attention of NFL teams because of his big-play potential. With a 4.38 40-yard dash, he was the fifth-fastest player at the 2020 NFL combine. And he’s not just track fast. He can be smooth like a hang glider or sudden like a cottontail. The way he moves is special.

“You see some guys who may have the quickness, and others may have the long speed,” Robinson says. “He has both.”

But his size — officially 5-foot-10, 176 pounds at the combine — raised concerns. ESPN analyst Todd McShay ranked him 46th among wide receivers going into the draft. When a call came in telling him the Bears were taking him — he was working out at the time — 24 wide receivers already had been selected.

– – –

Yet, everywhere he goes, he hears, “You aren’t very big.” Or, “Aren’t you too small to play football?”

At the combine, Mooney sat on a training table in the middle of a room filled with medical people from various teams. One physician read all of Mooney’s previous injuries to the others.

“Broken wrist from 10 years ago. Minor clavicle injury currently.”

Then silence. The other medical people looked at the physician, waiting for him to continue.

“That’s it,” he finally said.

“That’s it?” another asked.

“That’s it,” the physician said.

Hardly any football player has such a short medical dossier. Especially someone Mooney’s size.

In 15 years of playing football, Mooney has missed one game because of an injury, sitting out the Bears’ playoff game against the Saints his rookie season with a sprained ankle.

– – –

His goal isn’t to lead the league in receiving or make so many touchdown catches.

It’s to be the most aggressive player on the field.

During special teams meetings, Mooney is free to do whatever he wants. He can shoot pool in the players’ lounge, grab a snack or watch TikTok videos on his phone. Instead, he slides into the quarterback meetings.

Reasons? He has them.

Mooney sees an opportunity to learn more about the offense and the language his quarterbacks speak.

And he asks questions. He’s always asking questions — in the team meetings, in the walk-throughs, in one-on-ones with Tolbert and during practice. But the questions he asks in the quarterback room might be most important.

Mooney and Fields spent much time together in the offseason, running routes, lifting weights, conditioning and studying. They hooked up in Atlanta to work out during downtime. Mooney says he’s never worked with a quarterback as much as he has with Fields.

Chemistry clearly is there, and it’s evident from receptions to repartee.

“We’re just similar guys,” Mooney says. “We’re not forcing anything. It’s just natural. He got drafted here for a reason. I got drafted here for a reason.”

– – –

In Mooney, Tolbert sees a player who has everything except size.

“I can catch the jump ball,” Mooney says. “I can catch the 50-50 ball. I can catch a slant and take it to the house. I can catch a screen and take it to the house. Anything you say a receiver can do, put me in all those categories. There’s not one you could say I can’t do. I can block very well. The only thing you can say is I don’t look like a big receiver.”

As a prisoner in a dysfunctional offense in 2021, Mooney was sixth in the NFL in receptions over 15 yards downfield with 20 and sixth in separation rate against single coverage, per Pro Football Focus. His 1,055 receiving yards were 19th most in the NFL.

So there are reasons to be bullish about what he can do this year.

ESPN fantasy football expert Field Yates chose Mooney as his “breakout player” for the 2022 season.

“I have high expectations for him, but he has higher expectations for himself,” Robinson says. “I think that’s what makes great players — the expectations they have for themselves exceed anyone else’s expectations.”

Mooney has been working for, waiting for this season since 2014 when his father, his best friend, left him.

At 24, he can envision all of it coming together.

“I want to be the best player in the league,” he says. “You know how Aaron Donald stands out? I want to be that type of guy who stands out.”

He wants to be the best player in the league, and he wants to stand out like Aaron Donald.

And so he works while others sleep.

MINNESOTA

DT NDAMUKONG SUH is on the market.  The Vikings are among those interested. Jordy McElroy of USA Today:

One team is reportedly out of the Ndamukong Suh sweepstakes, but that team isn’t the Minnesota Vikings.

Per Cleveland Browns reporter Brad Stainbrook, the Browns have remained “out of the picture” to land the former five-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, but both the Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders are still holding conversations in an effort to secure his services.

According to the report, the hope is that Suh will ultimately make a decision before the start of training camp.

“Browns remain out of the picture for DT Ndamukong Suh,” Stainbrook posted on Twitter. “The Raiders and Vikings have held conversations, and Suh will look to hopefully sign somewhere before camp opens up.”

Landing another disruptive defensive playmaker this late in the game would be significant for the Vikings. Even at age 35, Suh has shown he still has the tendency of finding his way into the offensive backfield and blowing up plays.

He’s coming off his second straight six-sack season with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team he helped win Super Bowl LV with back in 2021. But his greatest asset is his elite run-stopping abilities.

The Vikings’ defensive front was a doormat for opponents last season with the unit allowing 130.7 rushing yards per game on average. It was just too easy to move the ball up and down the field against them.

But the addition of Suh, along with Harrison Phillips and Dalvin Tomlinson, could finally change things for the better. It could bring an end to the doormat reference by reinserting some respect—and perhaps even a little fear—back into the Vikings defense.

– – –

TE KYLE RUDOLPH could be returning to the Vikings per this tweet from ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler:

@JFowlerESPN

Free agent tight end Kyle Rudolph has interest from multiple teams ahead of training camp. The #Bucs have been involved, I’m told, and a reunion with the #Vikings is not off the table. This situation should crystallize some time before camps open.

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

Subpeonas are usually used to compel testimony from witnesses who won’t appear before a court voluntarily.  Daniel Snyder has volunteered to testify, but that’s not good enough for House Democrats.  John Keim of ESPN.com:

Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder’s attorney rejected the House Oversight committee’s reasoning for wanting him to testify under a subpoena later this month, reiterating that he would do so voluntarily.

In a letter, attorney Karen Patton Seymour called the committee’s concerns that her client would withhold information if not testifying under a subpoena “baseless.”

On Tuesday, Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) accepted Snyder’s offer to testify July 28 via videoconference, but said in a letter to Seymour that the committee would issue a subpoena and wanted a response from Snyder by noon today.

Though the subpoena was issued, it was not served to Snyder, who is still overseas, multiple sources said. U.S. marshals serve subpoenas on behalf of the committee in the United States but, according a spokesperson, the Marshals Service “has no authority to serve a Congressional subpoena internationally.”

Seymour could accept the subpoena on Snyder’s behalf but has not done so.

NFC SOUTH

CAROLINA

A Browns fan of the DB’s acquaintance suggested a “Moving Out” series of Progressive Insurance commercials for QB BAKER MAYFIELD.  So did Mayfield.  Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing:

As Stephen A. Smith noted earlier this year, Baker Mayfield made more Progressive commercials than he had wins for the Cleveland Browns last season. But he won’t be able to add one more to his final tally.

Cleveland traded Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers last week. While football fans can certainly live without him quarterbacking the Browns, were they also prepared to lose his Progressive commercials, which were filmed at the Browns’ stadium of Progressive Field? The new Panthers quarterback confirmed Tuesday that the At Home With Baker Mayfield series of Progressive commercials is over.

Throughout his tenure in Cleveland, Mayfield’s Progressive commercials were a staple of the football season, with the series portraying him as living in the Browns’ stadium while amusingly completing household chores for the team. The commercials featured Mayfield watering plants, mowing the lawn, washing dishes, and deicing the stadium stairs.

Adding to the crushing reality of unforeseen ramifications to Mayfield being dealt to Carolina is the fact that he wanted to do one last commercial, but Progressive didn’t accept the offer. Mayfield pitched a moving out installment for the series, and called Progressive’s reluctance a “missed opportunity.” Watching Mayfield pack up a U-Haul and relocate to Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium seemed like an obvious win for Progressive, but perhaps the Ohio-based insurance company wasn’t ready to see him move.

They’ll have to move on eventually, just as Mayfield seems to already have. During his introductory press conference, Mayfield made sure to mention his excitement about being able to try Charlotte’s fast food staple Bojangles, hinting that he’s ready for some new endorsement deals.

TAMPA BAY

The Buccaneers are having no problem selling tickets.  Greg Auman of The Athletic:

The “Tom Brady effect” can be seen everywhere — on the scoreboard, in the standings, in every part of the NFL economy, globally.

And as Brady, who turns 45 next month, enters his 23rd and perhaps final NFL season, the Bucs are leveraging the strong demand for fans to see him play to help their attendance beyond stadium limits and even to next year, with or without him on the field.

“We have experienced an unprecedented amount of interest in season passes in recent years, and our goal is always to ensure that Buccaneers fans have the ability to see our games at Raymond James Stadium,” Brian Ford, the team’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Three years ago, the Bucs ranked 30th of 32 teams in NFL attendance with an announced average of 51,898, a figure that had dropped every year since 2015. But Brady’s arrival in 2020 after two decades with the Patriots changed everything. He led the Bucs to a Super Bowl championship despite limited crowds due to COVID-19 protocols.

Last season, the Bucs ranked 21st in the NFL, averaging an announced 65,372. That’s the biggest two-year growth of any NFL team still playing in the same stadium. The Bucs increased their average by 13,474 from 2019 to ’21, and the only other NFL team playing in the same stadium with more than 5,000 more was the Bengals (+13,146).

Tampa Bay was able to sell out every home game last year without selling single-game tickets, relying solely on season tickets, something they’re expected to do again in 2022, with limited season passes still available. In past years, with thousands of single-game tickets available at face value, the Bucs had a strong presence of fans from visiting teams — to be seen and heard — even in the lower level, a source of frustration for the home fans, players and coaches.

But now the demand for season tickets after Brady’s return is so strong that the Bucs are temporarily expanding their capacity, announcing last month that they’ll add 3,600 bleacher seats in an area called “The Krewe’s Nest” in the south end zone. That will push Raymond James Stadium’s capacity above 70,000, something done previously only when hosting Super Bowls and college football national championship games. First priority is going to current season-ticket holders, who are allowed to have up to six total seats between their previous commitment and the new end-zone tickets.

At a cost of $300 per game, if the new sections sell out as expected, it will bring $9.72 million in new revenue to the Bucs, plus whatever those fans spend at the stadium, with minimal expense involved. If Brady isn’t playing in 2023, the new seats can be removed to bring the stadium back to its normal capacity.

The high interest in seeing Brady and the Bucs play, combined with a star-studded home schedule, has sent the price of single-game tickets soaring on the secondary market. The cheapest seats are at least $200 each for all five 2022 non-division home games: Packers at $380, Chiefs $340, Bengals $276, Rams $266 and Ravens $210, per Ticketmaster, not including fees. Divisional games, with opponents in Tampa every year, are predictably less: $166 for the Falcons, $160 for Saints and $140 for the Panthers.

The cheapest seats to see the Bucs play are actually on the road, where the lowest secondary price is above $200 for just one game, the season opener at the Cowboys ($273 each). Tickets can be had for under $120 in five of the eight road games: Cardinals ($119), Panthers ($113), Browns ($104), Saints ($90) and Falcons ($86).

The interest in Brady and the Bucs is literally global. The team’s “home” game in Munich on Nov. 13 against the Seahawks is the NFL’s first-ever game in Germany, and the market has been strong. The NFL said it had more than a half-million ticket requests for a stadium with about 75,000 seats, and the league kept the face value of those seats reasonable, with no regular seats costing more than 155 euros, or about $155 U.S.

A small number of tickets were made available Wednesday to the Bucs and their season-ticket members, but those were gone in mere hours. One secondary ticket site, viagogo.com, has about 500 tickets available but all asking for at least $570, with the best 50-yard line sections drawing more than $2,600 each.

Back home, the demand for 2022 home tickets in Tampa is great enough that the Bucs have leveraged it to improve their 2023 attendance. When Brady briefly retired in February, enough fans didn’t renew that season tickets were briefly available, but when Brady came out of retirement 40 days later in March, the Bucs required that all new season-ticket holders would need to make a two-year commitment to their seats, citing “overwhelming demand and limited inventory.”

And to help limit the presence of opposing fans in the stands — from fans buying season passes but selling some tickets on the secondary market — the Bucs also opted to sell new lower-level season tickets only to fans with valid Florida driver’s licenses.

Now Bucs fans this summer saw another change to the season ticket policy. The team announced that fans would need to commit to their 2023 season tickets by Aug. 15, and would begin paying for them with monthly payments throughout the year before the actual games.

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

After missing 2022, T MITCHELL SCHWARTZ has opted not to attempt a comeback:

Offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz, a four-time All-Pro selection, announced his retirement from the NFL on Thursday after nine seasons.

Schwartz, 33, didn’t play last season after he was released by the Kansas City Chiefs last March. He had surgery last February for a back injury that prematurely ended his season in 2020 and snapped a streak of 134 consecutive starts.

In his statement posted to social media on Thursday, Schwartz wrote that he has been doing rehab ever since that surgery.

“I’m currently feeling as good as I have since then, but it’s clear my body won’t ever be the same. The nerve pain down my legs is no longer a daily occurrence, but it might never fully go away,” he said in the statement.

Schwartz spent his first four NFL seasons with the Cleveland Browns, who selected him in the second round of the 2012 draft out of Cal. He signed with the Chiefs in 2016 as a free agent and was an All-Pro each season from 2016 through 2019, including being selected to the first team in 2018.

He had a streak of 7,894 consecutive offensive snaps to begin his career before briefly being knocked out of a midseason game in 2019. He didn’t miss a game that season, however, and also started each of the Chiefs’ three postseason games, including their 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV to earn his first championship ring.

“Winning the Super Bowl was the pinnacle of my career,” he said. “I’ve met so many great people and forged relationships that will last a lifetime. Football was a big part of my life and always will be. I love the game and have a passion for sharing my knowledge. But I never defined myself as a football player.”

Indeed, the affable offensive lineman has built a massive following as much for his cooking demonstrations as his often-searing critique of the NFL. “Mitch in the Kitch” videos are posted on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and his own blog.

“I’ve enjoyed so much my time in the NFL and walk away feeling fulfilled,” said Schwartz, whose brother, Geoff, played six NFL seasons. “I have other interests that I’ll have more time to explore: food/cooking and my ‘Mitch in the Kitch’ series, travel, golf, horology. But most importantly, I’ll have more time with my wife, Brooke, and our two little dogs.”

THIS AND THAT

CFB DESIRABILITY RANKING

Pat Forde of SI.com ranks the 69 current Power 5 schools (including Notre Dame) in “desirability.”

Since the afternoon of June 30, when the college sports landscape abruptly lurched and shifted again beneath our feet, everyone has stewed over what the future will hold. When the realignment tremors subside, how consolidated will the elite level be? How many schools, in how many conferences, will command the highest revenue shares and (at least in theory) the best chance to win national championships?

The only certainty at this point is that the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference are the biggest and richest, pumping up their membership to 16 each in the coming years with the additions of USC and UCLA in the Big Ten and Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC. The question is how serious they are about continuing to get bigger and richer, and which acquisitions might further their power grab. Everyone is weighing options, as the 37 Power 5 schools remaining in the Atlantic Coast, Big 12 and Pac-12 jockey for position.

So this latest existential crisis in college sports seemed like a good inflection point for examining who really brings what to the table among the 69 schools currently in the Power 5, or ticketed to arrive in 2023. If you were to blow up every league and hold a draft to redistribute the balance of power, what does your draft board look like?

Maybe it would look like Sports Illustrated’s Power 5 Desirability Ratings—sure to infuriate, possibly to educate. Regardless, this is an attempt to apply some metrics to the debate. We ranked all 69 schools (see below for full list) against one another in five areas, some of which we know move the needle in terms of adding value to a conference, and some of which get a lot of lip service by leaders.

The categories:

Football ranking: This is a five-year average of the Sagarin ratings from 2017 to ’21, using only the current and future Power 5 schools. Sagarin’s numbers are by no means infallible, but they do rank everyone and have been in popular use for a long time, so they’ll serve the purpose here. The top school: Alabama, to the surprise of no one. The worst: Kansas, also the surprise of no one.

Academic ranking: This is simply the most recent U.S. News & World Report’s national universities rankings, released in 2021. University presidents like to talk about this metric. So do TV execs, when they’re trying to justify moving UCLA into the same league with Michigan and Northwestern. The top academic school among the Power 5: Stanford. The school at the bottom: West Virginia.

All-sports ranking: This is the Learfield Directors’ Cup Division I standings for the 2021–22 academic year, which rates performance in 19 sports, with the mandatory sport counters being baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball. The top overall athletic program: Texas, for the second straight year. The laggard of the Power 5: Cincinnati, which didn’t have much to back up that breakthrough football season.

Football attendance: This was an average of home-game attendance (via NCAA data) from 2017 to ’21, tossing out ’20 since that season was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. How big is your stadium? And how many fans do you bring to it for home games? Size matters. The top draw: Michigan in the Big House. Fewest butts in seats: Duke, which last year averaged a sad 15,424 fans per home game.

Broadcast viewership: This was the total number of football games that drew one million or more viewers: from 2017 to ’21, also tossing out ’20 due to the wide disparity in number of games played across the country. Citing media markets can be misleading; Rutgers being in the New York market doesn’t mean the Scarlet Knights are delivering an audience. The number of games watched by a million or more people better illustrates which teams are actually bringing eyeballs to screens. The program with the most games that reached the one million benchmark: Oklahoma. The programs few have tuned in to watch in recent years: Oregon State, Rutgers and Duke.

The overall top pick in a blow-it-up-and-start-over iteration of big-time college athletics would be Ohio State. The Buckeyes check all boxes: football excellence, quality academics, all-sports success and a massive alumni base/fan following that fills the stadium and watches the broadcasts. They narrowly outscore Big Ten counterpart Michigan.

Including future members, the Big Ten and SEC claim 13 of the top 14 spots. That’s why they’re making the big bucks and on the cusp of making much more. Notre Dame, a football independent and member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in most other sports, is the only school breaking up the Power 2 cartel at the top.

Outside of Notre Dame, Washington is slightly ahead of Clemson for the highest-rated school from outside the Big Ten and SEC. The Huskies have slid recently in football but are respectable across the board. Clemson obviously has had a superior football program but lags in all-sports ranking. (Which, ultimately, is the most disposable of the metrics here.)

The SEC’s additions of No. 4 Texas and No. 8 Oklahoma outshine the Big Ten’s additions of No. 9 USC and No. 18 UCLA, but both leagues made high-impact acquisitions that simultaneously gutted the Big 12 and Pac-12. The most valuable remaining schools in the Big 12 are Oklahoma State at No. 25 and Iowa State at No. 27, while the Pac-12’s new leaders are Washington at No. 15 and Oregon tied for 22nd.

The average school ranking for each Power 5 conference, using future membership: SEC 25.1, Big Ten 25.8, ACC 39.6, Pac-12 41.4, Big 12 49.3.

If the SEC and Big Ten were to expand to 18 apiece and had their choice of all the rest of the Power 5, the Desirability Ratings would suggest the following moves: Notre Dame and Washington to the Big Ten, Clemson and Florida State to the SEC. If they then went to 20, the Big Ten adds Stanford (with Notre Dame’s approval) and Oregon, while the SEC tacks on North Carolina and Miami. (The Hurricanes would face stiff resistance from some in the SEC who are not in love with The U’s current NIL recruiting philosophy.)

There could well be a fierce battle at some point over North Carolina. School and conference administrators and TV execs like the Tar Heels more than these rankings do. Former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany long theorized about bringing his alma mater into that league, and the SEC likely would also covet Carolina. Its academic profile, stature in the 10th-most populous state and appeal as a power in men’s basketball and Olympic sports would be an attractive commodity in realignment.

If schools could be kicked out of swanky leagues for failing to add much to the bottom line, these would be your most endangered members according to the Desirability Ratings: No. 65 Rutgers and No. 59 Illinois in the Big Ten, No. 63 Vanderbilt and No. 53 Missouri in the SEC. Could it ever come to that? Who knows? But nothing is inconceivable in a world where USC, UCLA, Rutgers and Maryland are conference brethren.

The best thing for everyone in the Power 5 would be a continuation of the Power 5. A viable, coast-to-coast college sports landscape would enhance the overall health of football and everything else. So here’s to hoping we see many more years of the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 as vibrant entities.

But if we’ve learned anything the past two summers, it’s this: Everyone is always looking out for their own best move and biggest pile of cash. Stay tuned, and keep the Desirability Ratings handy if the college athletics plates begin to shift again.

Before we look at the rankings, the DB would say that Forde erred in giving academic ranking the same weight as the other three, particularly football ranking and broadcast viewership.  At the end of the day, to cite one example below Michigan gets 47 fewer points than Alabama on “academics”.  Rest assured, if there were a draft of these schools, Alabama would go ahead of Michigan.

As a result, the Big Ten gets a huge advantage in Forde’s ratings due to the perceived inferiority of so many of the SEC schools.

We color coded the boxes by SEC (red), Big Ten (blue), Big 12 (gray), Pac-12 (yellow), ACC (green), schools on the move and Notre Dame in white.  We put the four schools moving into the Big 12 in gray.

Also, as far as viewers go a school benefits by the company it already keeps.  Houston and Cincinnati don’t have as many chances to play attractive teams as say Purdue or Minnesota.  Lots of people watch Ohio State-Minnesota – but not to see the Gophers.

Sports Illustrated’s Power 5 Desirability Ratings

So, we revised Forde’s ratings by increasing the value of Sagarin’s ratings for football by 1.3, revising viewers to.7 importance and academics to .3.

And not as much change as we thought there might be.  Alabama goes from 10 to 6.  Florida and Wisconsin drop a couple of points, Texas A&M and LSU move up slightly.

Further down, where the margins are tighter – risers of 7+ spots – Kentucky, Oklahoma State, UCF, Cincinnati.

Fallers (the academic powerhouses) – UCLA, UNC, Stanford, UVa, Northwestern, Georgia Tech.

We understand that Texas punches above its recent football results for intangible clout reasons.  Still, would you “draft” them ahead of Notre Dame, Georgia, Oklahoma or Alabama.