Is it surprising that QB TOM BRADY is a strong advocate for less off-season work?  Peter King:

Ben Volin of the Boston Globe obtained a recording of the Zoom call the NFLPA had with players Friday, with strident words from Tom Brady urging players to boycott offseason workouts and non-mandatory camps at team facilities. “We shouldn’t have overly competitive drills in May and June,” said Brady, according to Volin’s reporting. “There’s no [expletive] pro baseball player that’s throwing 95 miles per hour in the middle of December . . . Just because we’ve had offseasons the way we’ve had for 20-plus years doesn’t mean that’s the best thing for the health and well-being of the players. The point is there’s a better way to do it, and they’re not open to that . . . There needs to be a negotiation for everyone — not just what only works for the coaches, or what only works for the owners.”

Some players have lucrative offseason-workout bonuses built into their contracts; the union won’t urge those players to stay away. But for the majority of players, a per diem of $235 is paid each day they are on the premises. As one club official told me the other day: “How about the guy making the minimum who has to work out anyway? If he lives in the city he plays in, he goes to the team facility with state-of-the-art equipment. He probably gets breakfast and lunch, and a healthy breakfast and lunch. He can watch tape, meet with his coaches. And he gets a thousand bucks a week. Some guys need that money in the offseason. There’s a lot more of those guys, and rookies who want to get started, than there are guys making $7, $10, $15 million a year.”

I’m not sure the union sees it this way, but I see it as a great conundrum. In March 2020, when many high-profile players knocked the new CBA players were voting on because it contained a 17th regular-season game for players, NFLPA leadership talked about how this agreement would be highly beneficial for the minimum and lower-salaried players. And I’m assuming those end-of-the-roster and practice-squad players came out in droves to vote, and the CBA proposal passed 1,019 votes to 959—a narrow approval margin, on average, of two players per team. So now the union is asking those same players, living on the edge of a roster, to stay away from teams until mandatory June camp and training camp in late July. Many of the same rank-and-file players want to be at team facilities this month to gain whatever edge they can to try to make a team. And many are.

Still, when a player like Brady talks as passionately as he did, you can be sure some players are going to listen, and are going to stay away. This is a conflict that should have been addressed in CBA talks in 2019 and early 2020. In his talk to the players, Brady says there’s a better way to do it. What’s the better way? Players, coaches and owners should discuss. I don’t believe closing off team facilities to players and making low-salaried players pay to work out at Planet Fitness is a better way. There’s got to be a path to a new one.

– – –

NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith must have a big-city school teacher in his family – or a big-city school teacher union head:

@Tom Pelissaro

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said on a call today with rookie players and their agents that the union again will negotiate the right for players to opt out of the 2021 season, per source.

Dozens of players took the opt-out in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Which led Peter King, a noted Covid alarmist, to respond:

I mean, I respect the job De Smith does, but this takes things way too far.

When you’ve lost Peter King, you’ve lost just about everyone.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

Bears RB TARIK COHEN has lost his twin.  Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com:

Tyrell Antar Cohen, the twin brother of Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen, was found dead Sunday in Wake County, North Carolina. He was 25 years old.

Per Wake County sheriff’s office spokesperson Eric Curry, Cohen died from electrocution while trying to climb power equipment at an electrical substation. Cohen was reported missing by his brother over the weekend, with Tarik sending out a tweet asking if anyone had seen him in the Raleigh/Durham area — explaining he’s “possibly injured.” Cohen has since deleted the tweet.

The Bears released a statement late Sunday night, confirming the death of Tyrell Antar Cohen.

“We are heartbroken to learn of the death of Tarik Cohen’s twin brother, Tyrell. Our immediate thoughts and prayers go out to Tarik, his mother, Tilwanda, and the rest of their family and loved ones. On behalf of the entire Bears family, we extend our most heartfelt sympathies to all who mourn his loss.”

Raleigh Police Department officers were searching for Cohen after he fled the scene of a car accident around 2 a.m. Saturday morning, per the News and Observer. When Cohen wasn’t found, the search was called off until the family filed a missing person’s report. His body was discovered Sunday around 9 a.m. Police say foul play is not under consideration.

Officials have said they believe the cause of death was electrocution.

GREEN BAY

Peter King found this Tweet:

@CDCarter13

Packers quarterbacks refusing to return to the team and the emergence of cicadas are both on seventeen year cycles

This from Peter King:

I think there are quite a few reasons why Brian Gutekunst will not be fired by the Green Bay Packers, but this happens to be my favorite one. In regular-season and postseason games played since Gutekunst was named GM of the franchise, the Packers are 34-17-1. In that same period, New England is 33-19.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com on where things might be headed:

Eleven days ago, the status of Aaron Rodgers became the biggest story in the NFL. It still is, even if the story has reached the no-news-is-no-news stage. Which returns the entire saga to the category of “beautiful mystery.”

But there will be news, eventually. Rodgers will show up for OTAs, or he won’t. That will be news.

If he skips OTAs, he’ll show up for the mandatory minicamp, or he won’t. If he doesn’t show up, that definitely will be news.

If he doesn’t show for the mandatory minicamp, the countdown will begin to a potential training-camp holdout. In the interim, the Packers will conduct their annual shareholders meeting. Rodgers, if he has boycotted all of the on-field offseason program, definitely will be the main topic of conversation.

Then comes training camp, at which time the fissure/chasm between player and team will be resolved, or it won’t. The Packers have had more than three months to craft a solution that Rodgers will find acceptable, and it hasn’t happened yet. Some would say that the Packers at this point are willing to dig in and dare Rodgers to risk having his picture attached to dartboards throughout Wisconsin.

The possibility of a post-June 1 trade will hover, but the Packers have shown no inclination to move Rodgers, opting for a play-for-us-or-play-for-no-one posture. The Packers could change their mind at any time, or they could continue to hold firm, daring Rodgers to retire — and to pay back nearly $30 million.

It’s also possible that the Packers and Rodgers will find a middle ground, unlikely as that currently may seem. It would entail, presumably, the kind of contract that would bind the Packers to Rodgers for two or three years, and that in turn would make Jordan Love sufficiently irrelevant to perhaps even trigger a trade.

The fact that it’s currently quiet hardly means that it’s over. In the coming weeks, more information will emerge. At some point in the next four months, it will become clear whether Rodgers will, or won’t, play for the Packers in 2021. For now, no one really knows what will happen.

And why did the Aaron Rodgers story become big news exactly 11 days ago?  Rumormonger Adam Schefter can’t really expound a cogent reason why he had to make the move to publish on Draft Day.  Jimmy Traina at SI.com:

As you know, on the afternoon of Round 1 of the NFL draft last week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Aaron Rodgers wanted out of Green Bay.

Many people found it curious Schefter would drop this bombshell a few hours before the start of the draft.

On his Thursday radio show, Dan Patrick asked Schefter about how the timing of the report came about. Here is Schefter’s answer:

“You know Dan, the funny part about it is, I heard people say, ‘Oh, Aaron Rodgers wanted that out before the draft.’ I can assure you Aaron Rodgers did not want that out before the draft. I’ve had people say, ‘The Green Bay Packers planted that. It was a very pro Packers story.’ I can assure you the Green Bay Packers didn’t plant that.

“When people guess at where stories come from, more often than not, they’re usually wrong. And in this case, they’re wrong. This was an accumulation.

“All during the offseason, of just listening to people talk. And observing. If we go back to the NFC championship game that the Green Bay Packers lost at home, did we not hear Aaron Rodgers after that game talk about his level of unhappiness, if you will? Uncertainty for the future. Just go back and listen to that press conference and it sounds almost like he’s saying goodbye to Green Bay.

“And so, your antenna’s up. And I’m just telling you throughout the course of the offseason, there was rarely a week that went by without where I didn’t hear something about Aaron Rodgers. And on draft day, there’s a report that morning by Paul Allen out in Minneapolis that the 49ers made a draft offer, which they didn’t make a draft offer; they never made an offer. And other people saying that the 49ers called and I said, ‘How long till it gets out that Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay? Is it next week? Is it when he doesn’t show up to the OTAs?’ … It’s gonna come out. What does it matter if it comes out now or next week or next month?”

So, Schefter told Patrick his report was based on an “accumulation” of information. It was based on one tip or leak he got last Thursday afternoon.

Schefter made that clear again to Patrick, saying, “There was nothing that morning that came in. No one said to me, ‘Yeah, he wants out; you should report this.’ It’s like, it was going on all offseason. You just keep hearing and there’s more and more talk, and now there’s starting to be Aaron Rodgers talk and I said, ‘You know what? This isn’t gonna wait much longer.’ And it just happened to be draft day.”

Now I can understand why some people think Schefter’s actions were shady.

But here’s the reality: Schefter did nothing wrong. Fans can be angry with Schefter. Fans, and even people around the NFL, can think Schefter lost some credibility. But his report was accurate. Rodgers confirmed this at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday when he told NBC’s Mike Tirico he was upset his rift with the Packers came out publicly.

You may not like the timing of Schefter’s report, but he did not make it up. He didn’t just throw it out there and hope it would stick. He had information and that information was correct.

And if you think it sucked he decided to drop that report hours before the draft, that doesn’t really matter to Schefter because you can certainly bet ESPN was beyond thrilled with what he did on draft day.

MINNESOTA

Peter King on how WR WHOP PHILYOR became Whop:

The Minnesota Vikings signed an undrafted free-agent wide receiver from Indiana named Whop Philyor.

I hereby nominate Whop Philyor for the Name of the Year in the NFL.

His real name is Mister Elias De’Angelo Philyor. He got the name “Whop” because, growing up in Tampa, his father would take him to Burger King, and young Mister Elian De’Angelo Philyor would always order a Whopper, and his dad told him if he kept eating them he might turn into one. And so he did.

A little more on Philyor from an article by Zach Osterman in the Indy Star in 2017:

Whop is how everyone knows him.

“That’s the name everybody calls him,” IU coach Tom Allen said matter-of-factly on Signing Day last winter.

Allen would know better than most at Indiana. His son, Thomas, played high school football with Philyor at Florida powerhouse Tampa Plant.

The Hoosiers signed three Plant products — Philyor, Allen and Juwan Burgess — in last year’s senior class. Philyor has been the quickest to the field.

 “Whop came in, right off the bat, he knew what to do, how to do it and when to do it,” redshirt junior wide receiver Simmie Cobbs said.

Allen has had Philyor on his mind since the beginning of the preseason, when he mentioned the freshman wideout as one of the first-year players catching his eye.

In truth, Allen has watched Philyor far longer, thanks to those Tampa Plant connections. Philyor played both ways as a senior for the Panthers.  He finished last season with 1,329 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns, plus 38 tackles, two interceptions and 18 pass break-ups.

His offer list looked respectable enough: IU, Iowa State, Virginia Tech, South Florida, Syracuse, Arizona and Louisville were all on it, per 247Sports.

But Robert Weiner, Philyor’s high school coach, saw much more potential in him than that.

“I think he was the best player in the state of Florida last year,” Weiner said. “I think down the stretch, the good thing is, Tom was able to be at a lot of our games and see him. Having seen him play and seen his impact on the game, they were able to recognize, here’s a guy that all these other schools were missing out on.”

Philyor committed last January, less than a month from Signing Day.

‘I wanted to play baseball’

He might not have played football at all, but for his father.

Daniel Philyor was the one who coined “Whop.” He used to make those Burger King runs with his son. He eventually started calling himself “Big Whop,” and his son, “Little Whop,” and it just happened organically from there.

Whop Philyor wanted to play baseball. Still loves it. Cheered for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Football, however, was the family sport.

“He’s the reason why I’m playing football, actually,” Whop Philyor said of his father. “I wanted to play baseball, but he wanted me to play football.”

Whop says that with a smile. He says most everything with a smile. Football is just what the Philyors do.

And Daniel raised Whop in the sport from an early age. He helped his son work out, coached him at the youth level and lifted weights with him in a home gym.

Herschel Walker, a distant cousin, won a Heisman Trophy and a national title at Georgia. Carlton Walker, one of Daniel’s uncles, played at Wisconsin. It was a lineage Daniel Philyor wanted to hand down.

“What I did was start grooming my son,” Daniel Philyor said, “let him know who his family is.”

Whop Philyor started at running back. Even when young, he was shifty and explosive. But he wasn’t blessed with much size. Receiver was an obvious switch.

“As he got older, I could see he’s not gonna be that thick, stocky player, so I put him at slot receiver,” Daniel Philyor said. “Once he gets the ball, he turns into a running back.”

NFC EAST

PHILADELPHIA

RB KERRYON JOHNSON’s career will carry on with the Eagles.  ESPN.com:

The Philadelphia Eagles have claimed former Detroit Lions running back Kerryon Johnson off waivers, the team announced Friday.

The Lions waived Johnson on Thursday, officially cutting ties with their 2018 second-round pick out of Auburn.

Johnson joins a suddenly crowded Eagles backfield that includes Miles Sanders, rookie Kenny Gainwell, Jordan Howard and Boston Scott. Sanders is expected to be the lead back, with the rest of the group competing for a spot in the rotation.

Philadelphia selected Gainwell, a dual-threat back out of Memphis, in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL draft.

Johnson became expendable after the Lions drafted D’Andre Swift No. 35 overall in 2020, signed free-agent running back Jamaal Williams in March and then drafted Oregon State’s Jermar Jefferson in the seventh round this year.

NFC SOUTH

ATLANTA

Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com looks at landing spots for WR JULIO JONES, should the Falcons trade him:

It’s a move no one would really want to make. Parting with franchise stars, players who could end up in the Hall of Fame, is never an easy thing. Teams do it every year, the multibillion-dollar business side of a game.

But every career sees changes, and in the National Football League moving on is a harsh part of life. Which is where the Falcons might sit at the moment with star receiver Julio Jones.

The draft over, the Falcons now must turn their attention to the rest of their roster — and what it might look like in the fall. The draft class still needs to be signed. Cap space remains incredibly tight, which is how Atlanta ended up in a conversation about possibly trading Jones.

“The answer to that is just pointing to the cap and pointing to the fact that we’ll answer calls on any players,” new Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said last month. “When teams ask about players, we have to answer those calls and we have to listen because we do have to, we knew when we stepped into this we were going to have to make some tough decisions because it is just the reality of it.

“That’s where we are with the salary cap, so we have to make some difficult decisions.”

Trading Jones isn’t a performance thing. It’s simply the reality of a shrunken salary cap due to COVID-19 and a cap-flow problem the previous regime left Atlanta in.

And this isn’t to say the Falcons are definitely trading Jones after June 1. If the return value isn’t there, whether that’s draft picks, good players on cheap contracts or a combination of both, it would be surprising to see Atlanta trade him.

With that in mind, here’s a few ways to look at the Falcons’ situation.

Keeping Jones

If Atlanta keeps Jones – which from an on-field perspective is logical – the Falcons have to find a way to free up money. That could come from releasing other players, and to speculate on names would not be prudent because there’s too many potential scenarios Fontenot could try.

There’s also the possibility of trading other players who wouldn’t get the return Jones would either in capital or cap relief.

The other option would be to restructure Jones, much like the team did with Matt Ryan, Jake Matthews and Deion Jones. There aren’t many players they could ask for pay cuts from, like the team did with Dante Fowler Jr., but that’s another option.

But restructuring Jones -– or, perhaps Grady Jarrett –- could provide the short-term relief it needs while continuing to create potential cap problems in the future. Say the Falcons restructured $7.5 million of Jones’ contract. It would give Atlanta almost $6 million in cap room for this year, according to Over The Cap, but it would give Jones a cap hit of almost $22 million in 2022 and 2023. Which is, again, pushing the potential problem down the road. It’s an option, but maybe not the best long-term one.

Fontenot also acknowledged he doesn’t want to keep restructuring deals because it doesn’t help long-term.

“This is not going to be an overnight fix with the cap. It’s going to take time,” Fontenot said. “But we want to have a healthy cap at some point so we can’t just restructure every contract because it’s just hurting us in future years.”

Jones and Jarrett, though, are the only two players on the roster where a restructure would offer the kind of 2021 fiscal relief that would truly help.

Another option could be extending Jarrett, but to speculate on what a contract like that would look like could go in too many directions for how it could free up money for Atlanta.

Trading Jones

As Fontenot takes potential calls, there are some things to consider. First is Fontenot didn’t “want to put a number on it” of what it would take to make a deal happen, so it’s not quite clear what the demarcation line is for Atlanta between keeping or trading.

Due to Jones’ age – he’s 32 – some teams may not be interested. Others have their own cap conundrums, so taking on Jones’ contract would not be a palatable plan for those teams. Others may feel good about their receiver corps.

And if you are a team interested in trading for Jones, you either would be one of two things: A team believing it’s a star receiver away from a Super Bowl, or one trying to find a top option for a young quarterback to help him build.

But there would be clubs where a move like this could make sense.

New England: With around $16.5 million in cap space, the Patriots would have the room to make a deal. Bill Belichick has shown no concerns going after top players this offseason in free agency, and he has made trades to acquire players – particularly wide receivers. Remember, this is a franchise that traded for Randy Moss and Wes Welker in 2007 and Brandin Cooks in 2017. Plus, Belichick made a move for Corey Dillon in 2004. So the Patriots have made moves for playmakers in the past. While New England did sign Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne in free agency, Jones is another class of receiver and would give veteran Cam Newton and rookie Mac Jones a high-level target every down.

San Francisco: Reuniting Kyle Shanahan with Jones would be intriguing and with cap room of $17.5 million, there is space to figure out a deal. Compensation would have to come in something other than a first-round pick, though, since San Francisco doesn’t have any in 2022 or 2023 because of the Trey Lance deal. But the Niners could use a receiver, especially since neither Deebo Samuel nor Brandon Aiyuk was incredibly healthy last year. There’s also the Jimmy Garoppolo contract question as well that would seemingly play into any high-money move San Francisco would make. But Jones would fit into the scheme and end up on a contender.

Indianapolis: The Colts have the cap room (just over $21.5 million) and a quarterback in Carson Wentz who could use a high-level receiver. Other than T.Y. Hilton, the Colts’ receivers are long on potential and lacking in true production. Hilton’s production has waned, too, including just 56 catches for 762 yards and five touchdowns last year. Not bad numbers, but the addition of Jones to Hilton would be a win for Wentz and a team seemingly in a win-now mode after making the playoffs in two of the last three years. Plus, general manager Chris Ballard has been bold in his trades before – between the Wentz deal this year and trading for DeForest Buckner a year ago.

Las Vegas: The Raiders don’t have the cap room some other teams do (just over $5.279 million), but Jon Gruden has never shied away from trying to land impact playmakers. And Jones is that. There’s also a lot of youth in that receiving corps, including potential standouts Bryan Edwards and Henry Ruggs III, and a player like Jones could add a No. 1 option, a mentor and a key piece to an offense that already has Darren Waller and Josh Jacobs. It’d be a fit for a team that has been improving under Gruden.

– – –

Having not drafted a QB and with QB MATT SCHAUB retired, the Falcons turn to well-traveled QB A.J. McCARRON.  More Rothstein:

The Atlanta Falcons have found their backup for Matt Ryan at quarterback, agreeing to terms with AJ McCarron on a one-year deal Friday.

The addition comes a day after the Falcons decided to pass on two of the five quarterbacks taken in the first round of the draft to select tight end Kyle Pitts out of Florida. After the first round of the draft, general manager Terry Fontenot said the team would still be looking to acquire a quarterback. He just didn’t indicate how.

But the Falcons needed one because, prior to McCarron, the only quarterback on the roster had been Ryan.

CAROLINA

Rookie CB JAYCEE HORN turns to another sport as an inspiration for his uniform number.  Jelani Scott of NFL.com:

Jaycee Horn is embracing the Mamba Mentality entering his first NFL season.

The Carolina Panthers rookie cornerback announced over the weekend that he will wear No. 8 in honor of the late, great Kobe Bryant.

Horn, who was selected eighth overall by Carolina, wore No. 7 during his freshman season at South Carolina in 2018 before donning No. 1 his sophomore and junior seasons.

The 21-year-old first-round pick is the first Panthers player to embrace the adjusted restrictions associated with who can wear which jersey numbers. The NFL approved the proposal on April 21.

TAMPA BAY

TE ROB GRONKOWSKI has not forgotten those he left behind in Massachusetts per Peter King:

Gronk’s just a good dude. On Friday, he delivered a $1.2-million check to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, to renovate and refurbish the Charlesbank Playground on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston. In my 2.5 years of Boston living a decade ago, I used to run by that area, and I can tell you how many young families and kids will be helped by this Gronkian generosity.

– – –

The Glazers loved the idea of being the owners of Manchester United, but do they love the reality of it 2021?  Peter King:

I think, seeing that the Glazer ownership just lost a $240-million jersey sponsorship deal for their Manchester United soccer team because of the backlash against the hated owners, it’d be surprising if they don’t seriously consider selling. It’s not going to get better. I’ve read too many things about how the fans and locals badly want the Glazers to sell, and considering the passion of the fan base (one game already was postponed because fans stormed the field), the sensible thing is to sell.

NFC WEST

SEATTLE

Peter King looks at the awesome price the Seahawks paid for S JAMAL ADAMS, and still thinks it was a good deal:

I’ve got no problem with the impact of the Jamal Adams trade meaning Seattle passed on a good lineman this year (Christian Darrisaw, Liam Eichenberg) and will lack their first and second-rounders next year as a remnant of the Adams trade. Adams is a defensive cornerstone, a leader, and, if healthy (always a big if with a crushing hitter like him), will impact a playoff team more than the three picks John Schneider paid for him.

– – –

WR DK METCALF wanted to find out how fast he was so he entered a high-level track meet.  The answer is pretty darn fast, but not Olympic fast.  Michael David Smith atProFootballTalk.com:

DK Metcalf won’t be quitting his day job any time soon. But he put in an impressive performance in his foray into track and field today.

Metcalf ran a 10.37-second 100-meter dash today at the USATF Golden Games. That’s an outstanding time for someone who isn’t actually a competitive sprinter, but he finished last in a field of elite runners.

“I’m just happy to be here, excited to have the opportunity, thank God for the opportunity to run against world-class athletes like this,” Metcalf said. “Just to test my speed against world-class athletes like this. . . . They do this for a living. This is very different from football speed.”

Ato Boldon, the former Olympic sprinter who was calling the race for NBC Sports, was impressed with Metcalf’s performance and said he believes that some of the fastest players in the NFL could have solid track careers with the right training.

“This should encourage every fast NFL guy,” Boldon said. “Tyreek Hill, are you listening? This should encourage every fast NFL guy, you’re not that far off, you get the right training, maybe you get to the Olympic trials.”

Anyone who has seen Metcalf on the football field knew he was fast, but seeing him on the track was a unique experience, and one that showed both what an impressive athlete he is, and how amazingly fast the truly elite sprinters are.

AFC EAST

MIAMI

Peter King on the Dolphins and their willingness to trade:

This was March 25, a Thursday night around 10, exactly five weeks before round one of the NFL draft. Miami GM Chris Grier sat in his rental Chrysler outside the Residence Inn in Ann Arbor, Mich. Grier would attend the Michigan Pro Day in the morning, but now, here he was, finishing up one of two deals that would re-cast the 2021 NFL Draft.

Miami’s tradeapalooza actually began March 3, when San Francisco GM John Lynch called to gauge the Dolphins’ interest in trading the third overall pick. “We’re open,” Grier said. “We’ll listen.” In less than a month, that listening turned into Miami trading from third to 12th in the first round and picking up two additional first-round picks and a third-rounder. Then, with coach Brian Flores wanting to ensure getting an offensive weapon as the spur to move back up, with the driver’s seat of the rental car as his office, Grier phoned Eagles GM Howie Roseman from Ann Arbor, to work out final details on the deal they’d been discussing: Miami trading the 12th pick plus a first in 2022 to move up to six in this year’s first round.

Grier called owner Steven Ross—who has to sign off on deals of this magnitude—late on this Thursday night.

“Steve was very excited,” Grier recalled. “He likes trades.”

As does Grier. Since taking over as general manager with full personnel power in Miami 28 months ago, Grier has made 28 trades. If that seems like a lot of deals, it is. Trade-happy Baltimore GM Eric DeCosta has made 14 deals in that same 28-month span. Many Miami deals have been done on the clock during drafts. But Grier’s 25th and 26th trades left major imprints on three teams in this draft, and the impact of the deals will be felt for years. San Francisco went all-in to get its quarterback of the future (Trey Lance) at 3; Miami got the receiver/returner it craved (Jaylen Waddle) at 6; and Philadelphia got the third top receiver in this draft (Devonta Smith) at 10. And the Dolphins and Eagles got future high draft picks out of the two trades.

We all talk about how much the game has changed over the years. But if the passing game has revolutionized the game on the field, the trading game has been transformative too. A cadre of young, aggressive general managers, who learn from peers in all sports, don’t treat high picks like immovable objects anymore. In his 28 months as exclusive steward of the Miami roster, Grier has traded away seven first and second-round picks, and acquired 12 of them.

“I think we’re in a different age,” said Grier, an unassuming 51-year-old football lifer, sitting at a long table on the morning of day three of the draft, with Flores at the other end. “Football has evolved. A lot of general managers are willing to trade now—you’ve seen that over the past few years. Some of it probably goes back to the ‘Moneyball’ craze, when people started looking at how it’s done in other sports. You can never say, ‘No, we’d never do this.’ We just always talk about: How can we make our roster better?”

A modern general manager in sports, not just football, should have four things going for him:

• He must know how to use leverage.

• He should have one eye on today and the other on tomorrow.

• He can’t be afraid.

• It’s optimal to work with a coach who understands when it’s smart to play for today and when it’s smart to stock up for tomorrow.

Grier is four for four. With Flores as his partner since February 2019—Flores worked in the Patriots’ scouting department for four years before becoming a coach—Grier is paired with a head coach who doesn’t just live for today. When I said that in our meeting, Flores said: “You mentioned that philosophically, coaches are about today and not about the future. I guess I’m more in tune with the future. When I get into my coaching short-term thought process, Chris pulls me out of that . . . We listen to one another and have good collaboration on everything, especially the roster. We have a similar vision for what we want the team to look like.”

Flores and Grier weren’t altogether open with me in how they viewed this draft, but we can infer a few things from it. And this is where the leverage part comes in. The Dolphins sat at three in March but didn’t necessarily need to be at three. They weren’t going to take a quarterback, and, as it turned out, they were keen on a receiver, Waddle, who was not the consensus top receiver available. (Ja’Marr Chase was.) Still, if they went down to 12 with San Francisco, they knew that to get an offensive threat like Waddle, they’d have to move back to the eighth pick, at the lowest, and they definitely wanted to be higher than that.

On March 4, Lynch offered San Francisco’s first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 to move from 12 to three. A very strong offer, two ones to move up nine spots in the draft. Now the Dolphins knew San Francisco wanted to get up that high to take a quarterback. That offer marinated for a couple of weeks. “We weren’t going to officially do the deal with that,” Grier said, “because we knew the importance of that third pick.” And with so many teams coveting quarterbacks in this draft, that’s where the leverage came in. Grier could wait for a more aggressive offer. And knowing he had a good offer in hand, Grier could ask around between four and eight—would any team want to go back to 12?

The Dolphins saw the top of the draft this way: Picks 1, 2, 3, quarterbacks. Pick 4 (Atlanta), a quarterback or tight end Kyle Pitts. Pick 5 (Cincinnati), likely Chase, or possibly tackle Penei Sewell.

“One player we knew, we felt very strongly, would be there at six,” said Flores. The intimation, to me, was that player was Waddle. I got the feeling Grier and Flores were all-in on Waddle, though they never said that specifically.

Grier probably wouldn’t move back to 12 unless he could move back up to get Waddle, or one of the offensive impact players. So when the initial 49er offer came in, Flores was clear what he wanted. “Right away,” said Grier, meaning right after the 49er offer, “Brian was like, ‘If we do this, go down to 12, we need to figure out a way to get back into the top 10.’ “

“We knew that [Alabama receiver] DeVonta Smith, if he was the other guy, who is a very good player, was not going to be there at 12,” Grier said. “We knew the players that we wanted would not be there at 12. We had very good intel, we’d done our work. We were 100 percent sure we were not going to get a targeted player, especially Jaylen, staying at 12. We felt we had to get to, eight was about where we said, but we wanted to get up higher. We weren’t real comfortable at eight . . . We felt six was the spot for us to get Waddle.”

The Eagles, at six, were the perfect target. GM Howie Roseman loved trading, and he had a reason to want to collect draft capital: If Jalen Hurts didn’t put a solid grip on the starting quarterback job this fall, Philly might need draft picks to target one of the top quarterbacks in next year’s draft—or maybe even Deshaun Watson. It was a heavy price, but Roseman wanted a 2022 first-round pick from the Dolphins.

Now Grier knew he could move back into range for Waddle, or a strong offensive threat. One afternoon in late March, Lynch was at his daughter’s school tennis match and his phone rang. It was Grier, telling him they were close to being ready to do the deal—if the 49ers added a third-round pick. That was tough for the Niners, who already were denuding the top of their next two drafts to get a quarterback. Lynch had to think about it. He knew, internally, that it would be a tough pill to swallow. But he had a third-round Compensatory Pick (likely to be about the 104th overall pick, very low in the third round) coming in 2022 from Robert Saleh’s hire by the New York Jets. “A total bonus,” coach Kyle Shanahan called it. So the Niners, after some thought, agreed to add the third-round/Saleh pick as the sweetener to push it over the top.

Lynch wasn’t angry about the late ask for the third-rounder. He’d done almost exactly the same thing in his first 49er draft in 2017, asking Chicago GM Ryan Pace for an extra third-round-pick to get a deal done for Chicago to move from three to two in the first round. Pace did it—and infamously picked Mitchell Trubisky. “I love dealing with Chris,” Lynch said Saturday. “He’s not emotional about it, and his word is everything. Chris is a rock.”

“To me,” Grier said, “It’s never about winning a trade. It’s about being open, honest and working toward getting a deal both sides feel good about.”

There was one other piece to this puzzle. In the first two years Grier and Flores worked together, so much of the draft prep and trading was about the future. This draft was more about the future is now. “The guys we got in ’19, the guys we got in ’20, the guys we got in ’21, that we get in this draft, that’s the team,” Flores said. “You know what I mean? That’s the team moving forward. As we move forward, that’s going to be the crux or the big chunk of our team. They’ll be the reason why we make noise or don’t make noise.” So in 2019, the Dolphins might have moved from three to 12 and kept all their future ones instead of trading a one to move back up to six.

If they’ve picked right, Miami could have six starters on offense from the last two drafts: Waddle, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, and four of the five starters up front: 2020 picks Austin Jackson (left tackle), Robert Hunt (right tackle), Solomon Kindley (right guard) and highly regarded 2021 second-rounder Liam Eichenberg from Notre Dame, who probably will get a shot at left guard. On defense, they’ll need more help from free agents in the last two crops. Byron Jones must play better at corner, pass-rusher Emmanuel Ogbah will have a bookend helper now in the 18th pick in this draft, Jaelan Phillips, and just-signed ex-Pat Jason McCourty comes off a very good 2020 season to buttress the corner.

On Friday, I asked one of NFL’s biggest wheeler-dealers of recent times, Jimmy Johnson, what he thought of the team Grier has produced. “I like his trades, I like his picks,” Johnson said. “I like his approach. I used to say, ‘Do you want to play it safe and be good, or do you want to take chances and try to be great?’

“But you gotta win. Time will tell.”

Flores won’t argue. He said: “Trades are great, picks are great. But we don’t want to be known as a great trading team. We’re here to win.”

The biggest variable for Miami now, of course, is Tagovailoa, the fifth pick in the 2020 draft, coming off a so-so rookie year in which he was benched twice in shaky second halfs. Miami picked him one slot ahead of Justin Herbert last April. Herbert finished his first season as a Charger with the Offensive Rookie of the Year. Tagovailoa finished his first season with questions surrounding his ability to be Miami’s long-term starter. That’s probably not fair. Most often, quarterbacks don’t play great as rookies; Herbert and 2020 top pick Joe Burrow, playing like vets from the start, spoiled it for Tagovailoa.

But there’s much riding on Tagovailoa for Grier. Miami built a warchest of picks to be able to draft a quarterback, and if Tagovailoa’s not the guy, it’ll set the rebuild back significantly—and force Miami to use more draft capital on a quarterback, likely in 2023.

“I never like to put it on one player,” Flores said. “I think we’ve got a lot of young players, and we’re looking for all of those players as well as really everyone on our team to improve in a variety of ways. If they’re putting all the work in, I expect them to improve, get better, and perform better. Tua is obviously at the top of that list. He’s been working. All signs point to—or I would say based on my experience—he’s doing everything necessary to make some improvements. That’s really all we can ask for. My thing is if you put the work in, the results will take care of themselves.

“Last year’s situation is . . . we’ve talked about this numerous times. If he had started the season, we wouldn’t have pulled him. We put him in. We’re in a playoff chase. At that point [second half in game 15, at Las Vegas, when Ryan Fitzpatrick entered in relief], it’s hey, we’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do to try to win. But no, my confidence wasn’t shaken in him.”

And this for dessert from King:

“My favorite draft in the league,” one GM told me Friday. Jaylen Waddle never had a 1,000-yard receiving season at Alabama, but he projects to a strong receiver/returner. Jaelan Phillips is the mystery pass-rusher of this draft, but those who love him really love him. Offensive lineman Liam Eichenberg and tight end Hunter Long, in rounds two and three, were two of the most loved picks in this draft. You don’t win games in May, but Miami got good grades from the draft cognoscenti.

THIS AND THAT

SCHEDULE NEWS

Peter King loves the NFL schedule almost as much as the DB, and here is what he hears from his sources in the NFL Office with two days to go until all is revealed:

A few things to keep in mind with the schedule release coming Wednesday evening:

• The opener. Tampa Bay gets to open at home on Thursday, Sept. 9, with the 2020 champs beginning 2021 with basically the exact same roster. My prediction: The foe will be either Buffalo or Dallas. Why do I say that? The NFL wants to get off to a very strong start after a shaky offseason, and they want a game that will generate buzz in the weeks before the season begins and will be must-see TV to start the season. To schedule the Saints or Bears or Giants here (all Bucs home foes this year) doesn’t seem smart because any of them could be a game that’s over by halftime. Not so Buffalo or Dallas. The Bills could go to Tampa and win the opener, and the Cowboys, with Dak Prescott leading an explosive offense, would be able to go toe-to-toe with the Arians/Brady offense. We’ll see, but those are the two sexiest home foes for the Bucs, and I think one of them will open the NFL’s 102nd season.

• The Packers. So what to do with the Green Bay games, now that Aaron Rodgers is a wild card, and no one’s sure if he’ll play for the Packers this year? It’s a tough call. I’m sure Howard Katz and the broadcast team have agonized over it. But I doubt the league is going to relegate the Packers to Lions status. My best guess is it’s more likely than not that the Packers will be scheduled for the customary national TV exposures (with NBC/Sunday and ESPN/Monday and FOX/Thursday in prime time, and on FOX doubleheader Sundays), with a couple of provisos. One: FOX will protect the Packers in some doubleheader windows with some strong early-window game so that if, in November, if the Packers are 1-8 with Jordan Love spitting the bit at quarterback, they’ll have a decent backup game to switch to the doubleheader window the week before the game. Two: The league has flex scheduling for NBC in weeks 11 through 17. So wouldn’t it make sense, if the league wanted to maximize Green Bay in prime time, to schedule one or two Packers games between weeks 11 and 17, knowing that if Rodgers isn’t playing and they’re awful that they could move a good game into the Sunday night slot?

• Free-agent games. The NFL goes to 17 games per team this fall. Normally, the NFL with few exceptions dictates network carriage by the visiting team. If the visitor is an AFC team, the game goes to CBS. If the visitor is an NFC team, FOX gets it. But the 16 additional games this year are orphans. So the NFL has been able to schedule the additional 16 games without thinking about plugging them into specific networks.

• Saturday in week 18. As I’ve reported, there will be a week-18 doubleheader (at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET) on Jan. 8, 2022, the final Saturday of the regular season. The NFL will have 16 games scheduled in week 18: two on Saturday, 13 on Sunday during the day, and one on Sunday night. The league will obviously want the most important game to go on Sunday night, but will want two games having some impact on the playoffs to be played on Saturday. The league will not decide the two Saturday games or the Sunday night game until the week before those games, meaning that four teams could be told Monday night, Jan. 3, that they will have to play games with playoff implications on Saturday. I am sure every coach and GM will respond to such scheduling calmly and with great understanding about the common good of maximizing the TV windows of the next Saturday games.

2022 DRAFT

Six picks in the first round have already moved for 2022.  Peter King:

We’re 51 weeks away, and the guts of this draft already are torn asunder. Interesting how many teams have gained and lost huge portions of their 2022 allotment. The key changes involve the movement, already, of up to six first-round picks.

Philadelphia has eight picks in the first five rounds. Philly owns its first-round pick, Miami’s first and the Colts first or second, depending on playtime for Carson Wentz. Eagles also traded for Washington’s fifth.

The New York Jets have extra picks in the first (Seattle’s), second (Carolina) and fourth (Carolina), and owe Seattle their fourth. That’s four picks in the first two rounds.

The New York Giants, after two rare trade-downs for GM Dave Gettleman, have seven picks in the first four rounds. The extras: Chicago’s first and fourth from the Justin Fields tradeup, and Miami’s third.

Miami is without its first and third, but has San Francisco’s first and third-round (Compensatory) picks, plus a fourth from Pittsburgh. That equates to one pick each in the first, second and third rounds, and two in the fourth.

Detroit has the Rams’ first-rounder from the Matthew Stafford deal, and is without its fourth from a mid-draft tradeup with Cleveland.

Clearly, the Eagles will be the power-brokers next spring. I’d bet a cheesesteak GM Howie Roseman isn’t finished trading in the first round.

11. THE 2022 DRAFT*. With an asterisk, that is. As of today, including projected Compensatory Picks, Baltimore has eight picks in the first four rounds: one in the first and second rounds, two in the third, and four in the fourth. For the Ravens, all-time leaders in the Comp Pick system that rewards teams for losing minority coaches or minority front-office officials to head-coaching or GM jobs elsewhere, or for losses of high-priced free agents, the extra picks just keep on coming.