NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

Matt Johnson of Sportsnaut contemplates where the WFT might stand vis a vis drafting or otherwise acquiring a quarterback:

The Washington Football Team made two key commitments to its quarterback room this offseason, re-signing Taylor Heinicke and handing out a Ryan Fitzpatrick contract that suggests he will be the starter in 2021. But it seems the organization might not be done at quarterback.

We’ve already seen two blockbuster trades before the 2021 NFL Draft. The San Francisco 49ers jumped up to the No. 3 overall pick for a quarterback. Meanwhile, the Carolina Panthers could be plotting an aggressive move to climb up for an upgrade over Teddy Bridgewater.

Given what the 49ers gave up to jump up nine spots, it would cost Washington a significant amount of draft capital to land a top-10 pick. Furthermore, Fitzpatrick said he signed with the WFT because they offered him an opportunity to become the starter. With that said, it might be too early to close the door on a big addition.

According to ESPN’s John Keim, Washington will strongly consider drafting a quarterback if a talent they specifically like becomes available on the night of the NFL Draft.

This comes after the team’s pursuit of a Sam Darnold trade and the additions already made to the depth chart. Fitzpatrick does offer some reliability as a short-term starter and Heinicke showed flashes in limited snaps, but Washington needs to think about its future.

Of course, acquiring a quality quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft won’t be easy

Given what San Francisco just paid Miami, three first-round picks and a third-round pick, that almost certainly takes Washington out of the running for a blockbuster trade on draft night. Furthermore, there’s a strong belief four quarterbacks are taken with the top-5 picks.

There are five established first-round talents at the quarterback position in the 2021 NFL Draft class. Trevor Lawrence will be the No. 1 overall pick, Zach Wilson is expected to land with the New York, San Francisco will take a quarterback and the Atlanta Falcons may draft the heir to Matt Ryan. This doesn’t even include the Panthers, who are sitting at No 8 overall.

Realistically, all five quarterbacks will be gone within the top-10 picks. After that, there is a significant drop-off.

Florida QB Kyle Trask: Broke out in 2020 with 4,283 passing yards and 43/8 TD/INT ratio. He Trask doesn’t have much athleticism, lacks great physical tools. Likely a third-round pick.

Georgia QB Jamie Newman: Opted out of 2020 season after transferring to Georgia. Star at Wake Forest with tons of upside thanks to dual-threat ability, but needs multiple years to develop. Likely a Day 3 pick.

Texas A&M QB Kellen Mond: Showed flashes of talent with the Aggies, but inaccuracy and struggles vs. pressure are red flags. The physical upside is there, but likely a mid-round pick.

Read More: Washington Football Team draft picks: Top 2021 selections, prospects to target

If Washington really wants to get aggressive, it could package the No. 19 overall pick and future first-round selections to trade up with a team like the Detroit Lions. That would then put the WFT in a position to potentially draft Lance or Fields.

If the front office isn’t willing to make that kind of move, even spending a top-75 pick on the remaining quarterbacks would be a reach. At that point, trading for Darnold or waiting until the 2022 NFL Draft might be the better decision.

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

QB JAMEIS WINSTON is majoring in management in 2021.  Adam Maya of NFL.com:

For years, Jameis Winston has been known as a gunslinger. It wasn’t a problem when he was winning a Heisman Trophy and national championship in college or was drafted No. 1 overall and then made the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

But as he prepares for a second season with the Saints — and an open quarterback battle with Taysom Hill — Winston is ready for a rebrand. The first player in NFL history to throw 30 touchdowns and 30 interceptions in the same season is trying to become a game manager.

No, really.

“I never wanted to be deemed a game manager,” Winston admitted to NFL Network’s Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter in an upcoming episode of the Huddle & Flow podcast. “… But really, that game manager is not a bad piece. That’s something that I think just comes with being a professional quarterback. Being able to not just only do the things that you can do, but being able to do the things that you should not do — like what not to do versus what can I do.”

Winston said his moment of clarity arrived after spending the past year reviewing his turnover tape from his five seasons as the Buccaneers’ starter. He’d always been a bit turnover prone dating back to his time at Florida State, throwing INTs at about a 3% rate in college and through four years in the NFL. That figure jumped to an alarming 4.8% during a dubious 2019 campaign under Bruce Arians, whose development of QBs and “no risk it, no biscuit” approach are intertwined.

After dissecting the film “over and over and over,” Winston believes his 30-30 season was an “anomaly.”

“It may have been because of a new offense, it was maybe because I was trying to go out there and prove it, it’s maybe because I was playing for a lot,” he said. “It still puzzles me to this day. All I’m trying to do is focus on eliminating that. And what I came up with is — in the course of being an NFL quarterback, there are a lot of plays where when you have talent, you say I can do this, I can do that — but really learning how to manage the game.”

He’s in an ideal environment for such a transformation. Winston just got a first-hand look at future Hall of Famer Drew Brees, a case study in mastering the finer points of the position to perform at a high level amid diminishing physical ability. Winston, of course, still has the arm talent to stretch the field. But his game is similarly predicated on winning from inside the pocket.

He just needs to make better decisions.

Signing and re-signing with the Saints would appear to be two. Though Winston was relegated to third string last season — the extent of his action was basically one half against the 49ers — he learned from one of the league’s best offensive minds in Sean Payton. That experience could manifest into much more this season with New Orleans.

One day after Brees made his retirement official, Winston agreed to another one-year deal. With the starting job there for the taking, the 27-year-old speaks as if he’s competing with himself as much as against another QB.

“I don’t know how they’re going to do the reps,” Winston said. “I just know I’m ready to play. And I know it’s going to push us both to an elite level. … When we talk about the competitiveness part, this is just ball. That’s how my mentality is. I’m just focused on ball and how I’m going to get this offense, how I’m going to master this offense, and how are we going to win games. That is it.”

That sounds managerial.

NFC WEST

SAN FRANCISCO

GM John Lynch doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t know about the top of the draft.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

The 49ers pulled off a blockbuster trade to move up to the third overall pick in this year’s draft without knowing which players would go first and second. But they have a good feeling that a good quarterback will be there at No. 3.

San Francisco General Manager John Lynch acknowledged today that he doesn’t know what the Jaguars will do with the first overall pick or what the Jets will do with the second overall pick, but he thinks (like everyone does) that the Jaguars will take Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence first, and that whoever the Jets take at No. 2 will leave a franchise quarterback available for the 49ers at No. 3.

“We don’t have intel on what’s going on,” Lynch said. “I think those two teams have been pretty forthright. Urban Meyer’s been on record, they were there watching Trevor at Clemson. Who knows what’s happening with the Jets? Ultimately, the decision we made is we were very comfortable with this group of players at the top of the draft.”

Lawrence appears to be a lock at No. 1, and just about everyone thinks the Jets will take BYU’s Zach Wilson at No. 2. That leaves the 49ers picking among Alabama’s Mac Jones, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance. Lynch thinks there’s a franchise quarterback in that group.

While, even after giving up two ones for a QB, Coach Kyle Shanahan professes confidence in QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

49ers General Manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan met the media on Monday for the first time since they agreed to trade the No. 12 pick in 2021, a 2021 third-round pick, and their next two first-round picks to the Dolphins for the third overall pick in this year’s draft.

That press conference opened up with a lot of questions about what this means for Jimmy Garoppolo‘s future with the team. Lynch said that the team’s message to Garoppolo was that he “was very much still in our plans” for the coming season while saying that the team is comfortable with having him on the same depth chart with a rookie.

Shanahan said it will be hard to find a quarterback better for the team than Garoppolo in the draft while echoing Lynch’s assessment of the situation and sharing a glimpse into how the older quarterback responded to the trade.

“Jimmy wasn’t totally excited about it but he handled it great like he always does,” Shanahan said. “We still plan on him leading us and getting as far as we can with him.”

Lynch and Shanahan both said they wanted to improve the overall quarterback depth chart with Shanahan adding that they felt they were going to “get left at the altar sitting there at No. 12.” That led them to shake up the top of the draft order and create some intrigue about who will be their quarterback to kick off the 2021 season.

Of course, last year Green Bay traded up to snatch QB JORDAN LOVE and he was never active for a single game as the incumbent QB remained entrenched.  But the move up wasn’t as far or as early and the GB incumbent AARON RODGERS has a lot more cache than Garoppolo.  Although Garoppolo could say he’s played in as many Super Bowls as Rodgers.

SEATTLE

Brady Henderson of ESPN.com praises how GM John Schneider has built the pass rush with a series of late deals:

As some Seattle Seahawks fans fretted over their team’s inactivity at the outset of free agency, general manager John Schneider did what he typically does, letting other teams spend big money while waiting for the right deals to come to him.

That patient approach has delivered mixed results over the years, but there’s no disputing how well it just worked for the Seahawks in putting together one of their deepest collections of edge rushers in recent memory.

That group went from the Seahawks’ biggest remaining need after the first week of free agency to potentially the strength of their defense after Seattle doubled up with Benson Mayowa and Kerry Hyder Jr. on team-friendly deals, then tripled down by bringing Carlos Dunlap back for less than what he would have made had they not released him earlier this month.

That deal came together Thursday, 10 days after the start of the negotiating window.

Between those three, safety Jamal Adams and a handful of promising young ends, coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. have to like their options off the edge — even though some of the young players are unproven and they had to release defensive tackle Jarran Reed to make those additions possible.

Still, it might be as deep and strong of a group as the 2013 group that helped Seattle win Super Bowl XLVIII.

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND

Former coach Hue Jackson went 1-23 and still got a secret contract extension and he wants us to think the Browns did him dirty.  The AP:

Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson said owner Jimmy Haslam gave him a contract extension midway through a winless 2017 season and that he was lied to from the start about the team’s rebuilding plans.

During a wide-ranging radio interview Monday with ESPN 850, Jackson said the Browns’ efforts to improve while he was with them were flawed by philosophical differences.

Jackson said he was never told by either Haslam or then-general manager Sashi Brown that the Browns were in a roster teardown or else he wouldn’t have accepted the job. He was Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator before being hired in Cleveland, where he went 0-16 in his second season and 3-36-1 over two-plus seasons before being fired.

“There is no doubt I was lied to by ownership and the executive team,” Jackson said, adding there was a divide between the coaching staff and management.

“They were going to be football plus analytics, but they intentionally made it football versus analytics,” he said. “They were going to take two years and they were going to find a way to use us as an experiment to make sure that they got the data that they needed for it to get better — at the expense of whoever — and that’s not right.

“That’s not the way it should be.”

A team spokesperson said the Browns would not comment on Jackson’s claims.

Jackson said he signed a contract extension midway through the 2017 season — he was 1-23 at the time with Cleveland — and wanted to make it public, but the team refused.

“I think we can all understand and think why it was not made public,” he said. “Because it would’ve really set the tempo for what exactly was going on there.”

Jackson, 55, said he’s writing a book about his time with the Browns. The team went 1-15 in his first season, winless the second — joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams to go 0-16 — and he was dismissed after a 2-5-1 start in 2018.

But, as far as he’s concerned, there’s plenty of blame to share.

“I want to make sure everybody knows and understands exactly what went on in Cleveland,” Jackson said. “The truth needs to come out. I am tired of being the brunt of jokes and memes and things that people say when they don’t know.”

Jackson, who is out of the NFL, said his chances to win in Cleveland were undermined by the team’s overreliance on statistical data and dismal drafting. He said the team “also lied to try and paint the picture that I was against analytics.”

“People need to go back and look at those drafts and see where those players are today,” he said. “That should tell you all you need to know. They’re not on this team. They haven’t been. Some of them aren’t even in the league, but we were expected to win.

“You can’t win that way.”

Jackson understands that the team’s win-loss record goes next to his name in the record books. But he feels others, including Paul DePodesta, the Browns’ chief strategy officer, and current GM Andrew Berry, who was in player personnel with the club when he was there, also are culpable.

“I’ll take responsibility for my role in it, but why isn’t everybody else taking their responsibility for it?” he said. “There’s people that are leading the organization today in Cleveland that was just as big a part of that as I was. And those guys are getting paid for doing that. So obviously they were paid for losing. Is that what we’re saying?

“I’m vilified about losing. This is a joke to me.”

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

Jenny Vrentas of SI.com tracked down a therapist who spent time with QB DESHAUN WATSON but is not, at this time, part of Tony Buzbee’s lawsuit.  It’s not pretty and you can read it here.

The short version is “Mary” saw him once (upon a recommendation from another therapist) in 2019.  He insisted on a towel instead of a blanket, but that didn’t really matter after awhile because he took it off (it was “gritty”) and lay nude on his back while she worked on him.  Eventually, he became stimulated, without Mary touching anything other than legitimately massageable parts of the body, to the point that he climaxed  Then he left, and she refused to see him when he requested other sessions.

Mary makes clear that Watson did not touch her, nor did he force her into conducting any sexual acts. But she says he did engage in behavior that was both inappropriate and unlike any other interaction she’s had with any of her more than 1,000 clients—including other professional athletes—in her several years working as a massage therapist.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

Monday was a high (water) mark day in Bills history as the teams gets high marks for their selection as the new stadium title sponsor.  Adam Schefter with the tweet:

@AdamSchefter

Buffalo Bills announced today that Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York will be the new naming rights partner for Bills Stadium. Effective immediately, the home of the Bills will now be named Highmark Stadium.

MIAMI

Cameron Wolfe on GM Curtis Greer who believes in collecting numerous good players over a small handful of great ones:

Laremy Tunsil walked into Chris Grier’s office on a late August 2019 afternoon to get final words from the Miami Dolphins general manager who had just traded him to the Houston Texans. The Dolphins’ 2016 first-round pick was surprised and upset with the move.

Then Tunsil looked up at Grier’s board that detailed what Miami’s haul would be in return for Tunsil’s move to the Houston Texans: a 2020 first-round pick and 2021 first- and second-round picks.

“I would trade me for that,” Grier recalled Tunsil saying that day.

The comment provided a little levity in a tough situation, but a year-and-a half later, those words couldn’t ring more true. A trade that was mocked and questioned by many then is now seen as the supreme chess move that expedited this Dolphins rebuild. Grier’s willingness to make the bold deal, most notably shipping away a franchise left tackle in Tunsil, has changed the direction of the franchise.

Following Friday’s blockbuster trades, the Dolphins have turned that Tunsil haul into an additional 2022 third-round pick and 2023 first-round pick via the San Francisco 49ers, along with essentially swapping their 2022 first-round pick for the Niners’ pick. The Dolphins turned that 2020 first-round pick via Houston into cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and guard Solomon Kindley after a trade back. In this year’s NFL draft, Miami will have the No. 6 and No. 36 picks to use via the Tunsil haul, with more of the Dolphins’ selections coming after that.

Miami got great value drafting Tunsil with the No. 13 pick in 2016 after his stock plummeted when a video of him smoking out of a gas mask was leaked hours before the draft. The Dolphins got even better value three years later by trading him away.

Grier has said multiple times he prefers three good players over one great player — a principle he has stuck to in his wheeling-and-dealing tenure leading the Dolphins’ front office. Miami has made the second most trades (26) of any NFL team since the start of 2019, per ESPN Stats & Information; only New England has more with 29.

With the Dolphins now picking at No. 6, the draft appears set to start with quarterbacks going off the board at Nos. 1-3 (Jacksonville, N.Y. Jets and San Francisco) and possibly with Atlanta at No. 4, which means Miami will have an excellent chance at selecting one of the elite non-QB offensive players who they were considering drafting at No. 3.

A Dolphins team that improved from 5-11 to 10-6 over the past two seasons has made it even more clear they are committed to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in 2021 while using their war chest of draft assets to build around him. The next hurdle for Miami is overthrowing the Buffalo Bills atop the AFC East in what should be an exciting rivalry between teams for years to come.

Looking at Friday’s two deals separately, the Dolphins’ trade back with the 49ers to No. 12 amounted to excellent value, receiving two additional future first-round picks and a future third-round pick to move back just nine spots. It was a ransom deal that could have set Miami up to have multiple first-round picks for four consecutive seasons.

The Dolphins clearly weren’t comfortable being outside of the top 10 where they likely would have missed out on one of the draft’s elite playmakers, including LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase, Alabama’s DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle and Florida’s Kyle Pitts. Miami overpaid, at least the way I see it, by giving up a 2022 first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles to move back up six spots to No. 6.

Analytics back that viewpoint, too. The expected cumulative value of the picks the Dolphins received from the 49ers were worth more than double the value of the No. 3 overall pick. The picks the Eagles received from the Dolphins were worth 50% more than what they sent to Miami, assuming no discount for future picks and assuming the No. 17 overall pick for future firsts, according to ESPN’s draft pick valuations based on approximate value (AV).

But most folks will see the final result of getting two additional future picks to likely select the same player at No. 6 that you would have at No. 3 as a win. Between the two trades, Miami increased its expected AV by more than 50% relative to the No. 3 pick — the equivalent of about a mid-first-round pick.

It’s clear Grier isn’t afraid to gamble and deal for value or flexibility. So, get used to hearing the Miami Dolphins are on the clock, the Miami Dolphins are a team to watch and the Miami Dolphins are competing for the AFC East title.

The future is bright, and Tunsil deserves some thanks for it.

Dolphins’ Draft Picks For Three Years

2021 draft

No. 6 overall pick (via PHI)

No. 18 overall pick (own)

No. 36 overall pick (via HOU)

No. 50 overall pick (own)

No. 81 overall pick (own)

2022 draft

SF’s 2022 first-round pick

Own 2022 second-round pick

Own 2022 third-round pick

SF’s 2022 third-round pick (Robert Saleh hire compensatory pick)

2023 draft

SF’s 2023 first-round pick

Own 2023 first-round pick

Own 2023 second-round pick

Own 2023 third-round pick

THIS AND THAT

THE 17-GAME SCHEDULE

It turns out everyone will get a second bye when the 2021 schedule is played (if this week’s proposal passes as expected).  It’s just that all 32 teams will not have a game in what would have been Week 4 of the preseason. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

NFL owners will vote on approving a 17-game regular season schedule for the 2021 season at this week’s league meetings and there’s little suspense over which way that vote will go.

Ever since the league secured the right to expand the regular season, it has been a matter of when rather than if the league would choose to add another week of games to the slate. The league’s new TV deals were negotiated to include a Week 18 doubleheader on ESPN, which joins Steelers president Art Rooney II’s comments from last week as evidence of where the league is going.

The size of the preseason was less certain. A reduction from four games was coming because the Collective Bargaining Agreement only allows for 20 games between the regular season and playoffs. There was question if the league would go to two or three preseason games, but it has now been answered.

Rooney said last week that they’d be playing three games and Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the resolution that owners will vote on includes a provision for three preseason contests.

Albert Breer of SI.com reports those games will be scheduled so that there are no games in the week before final cuts and Labor Day, which is a departure from past years when teams have wrapped up the exhibition season a couple of days before making cuts.

So 20 games in 22 weeks.  Three weeks of preseason starting on the same date in August as normal.  Then everyone is off as college football kicks off over Labor Day.  Then 17 games in 18 weeks pushing the season one week later into January and the Super Bowl one week further into February.

Not that anyone really played in that Preseason Week 4 game anyway.

At ESPN.com, Seth Wickerham and Don Van Natta Jr. tell us how the NFL got the 17^thgame into the CBA, a move that has made DeMaurice Smith thought of as a sell-out by some in his ranks:

Smith and his executive team already knew that adding another regular-season game was an epic and unpopular move. On Aug. 19, 2019, after negotiations with owners, union executive committee members in a confidential Slack channel discussed management’s latest proposal, which included a 17th game and the option for an 18th game down the road, in exchange for a 1% increase in total revenue: “Basic message: without more games, no changes in economic structure.” The proposal received severe pushback from some players; others wanted to know what concessions were in play. Negotiations had been suspended that fall, and it took a secret meeting in November between Smith and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the New York City apartment of Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin to jump-start talks. During a Dec. 23 conference call between union executives and executive committee members, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman asked point-blank if the union had been negotiating with the league based on 17 games as a foregone conclusion.

“Yes,” Smith said.

Players wondered how the hell one possibility that Smith had cast in skeptical terms a few months earlier had suddenly become nonnegotiable. Few player reps knew that in the 2006 CBA negotiated by Raiders Hall of Famer and legendary union leader Gene Upshaw, owners had won the authority to unilaterally expand the regular season to 18 games. Then, after management opted out of that agreement in 2008, Smith had negotiated language that an expansion could occur “only with NFLPA approval.” It proved to be a powerful bargaining chip. Now Smith had extracted a handful of concessions from owners for an added game, including more time off for players and an immediate 20% increase in a player’s minimum salary, to $610,000 a year.

In Miami, few player reps seemed to care that Smith had pulled off this nifty piece of negotiating, forcing management to pay for something that was once theirs. Smith warned the room that if the union rejected 17 games, players should be prepared for a lockout.

“It might last two to three years,” he said.

Many player reps felt the choice presented to them was hurried and binary, with little or no transparency. The distrust and anger that had built up over months between Smith and the players began to spill over as the afternoon wore on. Aaron Rodgers would soon publicly accuse Smith of “fear-mongering.” Smith believed he was only presenting the facts of a proposal and the likely consequences if the players said no. The meeting devolved, as many sessions had over the past year, into a shouting match between player representatives and their embattled leader — who seemed, to many, more aligned with management than with his own union.

“THE FOLKS ON the other side of the table are killers,” DeMaurice Smith says from his Washington, D.C., office on a mid-October day. It’s a blunt assessment from a man who looks exhausted from the last battle while gearing up for the next one. Smith and the union had spent years preparing for the most recent round of CBA negotiations. He had traveled the country. He had waged loud, public wars with commissioner Roger Goodell while holding private lunches with him. Quietly, often without some of his player reps’ knowledge, he had met one-on-one with influential owners such as Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, and endured months of union infighting. At the end, the CBA passed last March by a slim margin of only 60 votes, boosted by votes from practice-team members, the lowest-paid union members with the most to gain from the new deal’s terms. The CBA should have been a moment that defined the power not only of Smith but of the labor force of America’s most popular sport, a once-in-a-decade chance to elevate NFL players into NBA players’ realm of compensation and influence.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, after fashioning himself as the league’s foremost antagonist, Smith is now viewed by some in his own ranks and by some owners as an asset to management, according to interviews with team owners; current and former union, league and team executives; lawyers and agents; current and former players; and reviews of thousands of public and confidential documents. Smith’s opponents say he secured the new CBA while trampling dissenters within his own ranks, presiding over a union that commissioned a law firm to investigate a player rep who questioned his honesty. He benefited from a ratified constitutional change that made it more difficult for an outsider to even run against him, let alone unseat him. On top of it all, the NFLPA caved on the league’s two most vital issues: more games and another CBA that stretches forward a decade, a length of time rarely granted by labor unions. In what will likely be his last CBA, Smith delivered what football fans desperately want — more games and labor peace — but at a cost to the players that will reveal itself over time. “If we could,” says a longtime NFL owner, “every owner would build a statue to De outside their stadiums. That’s how good he’s been for our business.”

It’s a long piece, the whole thing is here.

Here is more:

Goodell’s oft-stated goal is $25 billion in annual revenues by 2027, a goal within reach when considering the upcoming gigantic increase in TV contracts and multiple new revenue streams from the nationwide push for legalized sports wagering. Smith knew the easiest way to unleash an avalanche of fresh cash was an expanded regular season and playoffs. Behind the scenes, he floated his own plan: shorten the regular season from 16 games to 14 and add four wild-card teams. “A Super Playoff System,” Smith called it. He had privately pitched the idea to Kraft and Jones, among others, but the owners were never going to contract the regular season.

Problem was, once the union decided to hear out the league on a nonnegotiable expanded regular season, the owners had the upper hand. Smith countered the league’s 17-game proposal by seeking a larger share of total revenue, up from 47% to 50% — a longtime goal of the players. The league replied with an increase of the union’s percentage to 48% — but with more work.

“That 48% was tied to a 17th game,” Smith told players.

There were two catches, Smith explained. One was that each player wouldn’t be compensated a regular game check for the extra work; an estimated $250 million would be split among 32 clubs. “That 250,” Smith said during his autumn 2019 locker room tour, narrowing a gap between his hands, “gets small. So the question is: Does all that extra work, all-inclusive, make sense for the economic payoff?”

The other was that a 17th game was only the beginning. “But, oh, there is more!” union executive Don Davis told players at one point, describing the league’s proposal. “We’re gonna give you 1% more, we’re gonna have you play an additional game, but we also want the right to play an 18th game whenever we so choose.”

None of these outcomes appealed to many players. Smith was back to facing the same issue he had in 2011. The league wanted unilateral rights to expand the season, leaving Smith to characterize, and perhaps redefine, what a win would be for the union.

BY LATE WINTER of 2019, an offensive tackle named Russell Okung had grown dismayed with the process of planning for CBA negotiations — and with Smith. As a Los Angeles Charger, he had run for the executive committee in March 2018 on a platform of “transparency and communication.” But Okung quickly became disenchanted by the union’s leadership on a host of issues, ranging from Smith’s tepid support for Colin Kaepernick’s collusion lawsuit against the NFL to the goals and tenor of CBA negotiations to procedural practices. Article V, Section 5.14 of the union constitution required adherence to the parliamentary procedures known as Robert’s Rules of Order, including a longtime union practice of keeping the minutes of meetings. But executives didn’t enforce the rules, citing a need for confidentiality. “It felt deliberate” to keep people in the dark, Okung says.

A year of tension came to a breaking point in early 2019, when union leadership and various players met in Key Biscayne, Florida. On March 11, former Chiefs linebacker Andy Studebaker hosted a two-hour breakout session for 33 players, including Okung. Studebaker, one of the union’s player directors, stood near a 2-by-3-foot flip chart and wrote union negotiation CBA priorities as the room suggested them. Okung offered what he felt were creative ideas to pursue in the next CBA, including 50% guaranteed contracts, lifetime benefits and shortening rookie contracts from four years to two years. But he had a premonition that the priorities listed in the meeting ultimately wouldn’t be passed up the chain to Smith.

Okung took out his phone and pressed an app that recorded audio.

Two months later, on May 14, Studebaker held a meeting at the Chargers’ facility in Costa Mesa, Calif., with most of the team in attendance. Studebaker listed union priorities. Okung was furious. None of the ideas he had raised were included. He asked Studebaker where the ideas had come from.

The breakout meeting, Studebaker replied.

Studebaker tried to continue, but Okung cut him off. “Where the f— are the things on the list?”

Studebaker replied that he had presented the same priorities to other teams. Nobody had objected.

“That’s not the complete list!” Okung said, holding up his phone. “Guys, I have the complete list. … I have the list because I recorded the meeting.” Most people in the room were stunned. At 12:36 p.m. that day, Davis texted Smith and other union executives: “RO just told the LAC that he recorded the breakout meeting!”

Union leadership was fed up with Okung. The union commissioned an investigation into Okung by Winston & Strawn’s David Greenspan, a respected lawyer who had served on Kaepernick’s legal team. Greenspan’s report was issued on June 27, under a banner that read “Privileged & Confidential.” The report called Okung’s recording not only a “breach of confidentiality” but also an expression of “defiance” and concluded that Okung had violated the union constitution. Greenspan cited a membership vote that prohibited secret recordings and superseded Robert’s Rules of Order, hinting that by failing to disclose to the room that he was recording the meeting, Okung also had “potentially” broken Florida’s Security of Communication Act, a third-degree felony. Okung considered the investigation a blatant attempt to silence him. Echoing a charge Smith often levels against the NFL, Okung questioned the inquiry’s fairness and independence, owing to the fact that the union had paid Winston & Strawn $3,120,395 in fees in 2018 — among the highest amounts sports unions paid to one law firm in a single year. Most of all, Okung felt he had been threatened with criminal prosecution and union sanctions for upholding his fiduciary duties — a topic on which he declined to comment.

Smith didn’t want disciplinary action taken against Okung. But a clear message was sent to the membership that dissenters would be targeted. Okung would try to defend himself in March 2020, days after it was announced he had been traded to the Carolina Panthers. Twice, he filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board. He singled out Smith, accusing him of “subverting” the NFLPA constitution and citing a litany of alleged protocol violations, from excluding Okung and other executive committee members from negotiations to “threatening and chilling Mr. Okung and his right to speak.” And twice, the NLRB rejected Okung’s charges.

But by then, it was all but too late. Smith had secured the votes to pass the CBA — barely.

A CHAOTIC CBA vote followed another chaotic CBA negotiation. Owners deployed various tactics. John Mara of the Giants pleaded with the players to understand that owners weren’t making nearly as much money as the players had suspected. (Teams’ books are private, except for the publicly owned Green Bay Packers, whose books show 2019 revenue of $506.9 million and $400 million in the bank.) Kraft reminded the union that both sides benefited from long-term labor harmony. On Feb. 20 of last year — after details of a proposed 10-year agreement, including a 17th game and an expanded playoff format, had been leaked to the media, which quoted league and union executives calling it “transformative” — owners approved the new deal.

The idea of more football was catnip to fans. Smith knew this, often telling friends with a laugh, “A football fan is like a crack addict who will never quit his habit.” And some players and agents opposed to the CBA viewed the avalanche of positive media coverage about an expanded season as a flagrant attempt to jam them. Surprisingly, though, it wasn’t only management backing them into a corner. It was also, some players and agents suspected, De Smith. Some team reps and star players were furious that the 17th game had become the starting point for negotiations. They also felt that the owners had not given them nearly enough in exchange for the extra workload and that the public momentum quickly pushing a unionwide vote in March benefited the owners far more than them.

The day after the owners’ near-unanimous approval, the union’s executive committee rejected the deal by a 6-5 vote, primarily because of opposition to the 17th game. Union officials were surprised that it was rejected, though they say the vote was advisory and symbolic. Later that day, the NFLPA board of representatives — 32 team representatives — postponed a vote. Owners were stunned. “We had been working off 17 games since August,” one owner says. “They agreed to the 17th game.” On Feb. 25, executive committee member Lorenzo Alexander changed his support from a “yes” to a “no,” upping the total of executive committee members against the deal to seven. On Twitter, a flood of superstars — Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, J.J. Watt, Todd Gurley — voiced strong opposition, arguing against the expanded season and the 10-year length of the new deal. It was a disaster for Smith.

An owner who is close to Smith says now that “De didn’t do anything to communicate” with the players. But on his desk, Smith has a binder as thick as an offensive playbook filled with every Slack conversation with player reps and others during the monthslong negotiations, though he declined to share its contents. Every player had had a copy of the league’s proposal, including the 17th game, since August 2019. The added game was part of Smith’s fall speech to teams, though in those stump speeches, some players ended up recalling their leader’s tough talk more than the fine-print details. “I know what the facts are,” Smith says.

As if in concert, league and union executives seemed to clash with the game’s superstars, emphasizing through favored media channels the ways they said most players would benefit from the proposal. “This is upper-class players holding out to the detriment of the rank-and-file,” one owner said at the time. The owners’ strategy of pitting players against one another proved successful, as lower-paid players far outnumber the high-earners. “Management is trying to drive a rift between us,” Okung told his fellow player reps.

By then, some owners were saying they were over the union and Smith. And not every owner felt the CBA was as good for them as it might have been. “Some feel like we’re giving up too much for certainty,” one owner said then. The players’ board of representatives voted 17-14 in favor of the deal, with one representative abstaining — four votes shy of the two-thirds majority required by the union constitution to send an amended CBA to a full player vote. A deal suddenly seemed dead. Owners made it clear that this would be their last, best offer. Union leadership pushed to move the CBA to a full vote of all union members despite lacking the support of the executive committee or a two-thirds majority of player reps. After consulting outside labor counsel, Smith concluded that despite some lawyers’ reading of the vaguely worded constitution, all players could still vote on the full CBA despite the board’s failing to pass it by a two-thirds majority because it was considered by the union to be a new CBA. Okung disagreed with that conclusion and immediately filed an unsuccessful Unfair Labor Practices charge with the NLRB.

Then, just as all NFL players began a weeklong voting process, the world stopped. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Lockdowns ensued, and the sports world halted. But during the NFL offseason, business continued. Free agency loomed. Management and union officials reminded players that a recession might be on the horizon, which could impact the upcoming broadcast rights negotiations. On March 15, with practice-squad players casting their votes, the new CBA was passed, 1,019 to 959 — a razor-thin, 60-vote difference. “Can’t believe we agreed to that lol,” then-Colts tight end Eric Ebron tweeted. “We can only play this game for so long and y’all didn’t want everything we could get out of it? …. 2030 y’all do better.” Nearly 500 union members didn’t even bother to vote. And among those who did vote, some players had instant buyers’ remorse and asked if their vote could be changed. The union said no. Smith had won — and his victory would hold up against legal challenges from Okung and Panthers safety Eric Reid, who was cut shortly after that and did not play during the 2020 season.

Reviews of Smith’s performance on the new CBA were mixed. Joe Banner, a former executive with the Eagles and Browns who helped negotiate the 2011 deal, felt Smith had done a good job, raising the split of revenue players received from 47% to 48.5% with the 17th game approved. But Andrew Brandt, a former Packers executive and agent, said Smith should have extracted more for the 17th game, considering the enormous boon to the league and its broadcast partners. Brad Sohn, a plaintiffs attorney on the head-injury lawsuit against the league, said the new deal “puts accountability for numerous health and safety issues on life support.”

“I wasn’t real, real happy about the way things went down,” said Aaron Rodgers, who bailed on being the Packers’ player rep in November.

2021 DRAFT

We’re not sure why QB JUSTIN FIELDS has fallen a bit from the top of the Draft in some polls.  His coach, Ryan Day, isn’t sure either.  Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com:

Ohio State coach Ryan Day thinks quarterback Justin Fields “checks all the boxes” as an NFL prospect and will become a franchise player for the team that drafts him next month.

Fields, who started the past two seasons for Day at Ohio State, goes through his pro day workout Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. The 6-foot-3, 228-pound Fields passed for 5,373 yards, 63 touchdowns and nine interceptions as a Buckeye after starting his career at Georgia in 2018.

He is widely projected to be a first-round selection in next month’s draft.

“Whatever they teach in terms of a scheme, he’s going to pick that up very, very quickly,” Day said Monday. “And he’s very, very competitive. So when you combine the talent, the size, the arm strength, his competitiveness, his toughness, his intelligence, it kind of checks all the boxes. If you were trying to design a quarterback, to me, Justin fits that prototype.”

Day noted that Fields didn’t play four years of college football and should have an even higher ceiling in the NFL. Fields is set to become the second Ohio State quarterback drafted in the first round in the past three seasons, after the program had none between Art Schlichter in 1982 and Dwayne Haskins in 2019.

“Whether he’s ready-made to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, that’s up to them, every team has to make their own decision,” Day said of Fields. “But I know this: Everything you invest in that kid, you’re going to get back. It’s just a matter of the fit.

“Someone’s going to take a shot at him here early in the draft and they’re going to have a franchise quarterback for a long time.”

Fields’ departure means Ohio State must select his replacement from a group of talented but inexperienced options: redshirt freshmen C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller, and true freshman Kyle McCord. Ohio State started spring practice last week and will only start installing third-down plays Wednesday.

Daniel Jeremiah has broken down the top five QBs.  The number next to them is where Jeremiah has them on his overall prospects list:

1 – Trevor Lawrence

Clemson · QB · Junior

Lawrence is a tall, long and athletic quarterback. He has a long delivery, but he still gets the ball out quickly and it explodes out of his hand. The Clemson offense features a lot of quick screens and quick hitters. He showed excellent touch and placement on those throws. He can really drive the ball down the field when called upon and he also has the ability to layer the ball (over linebackers/under safeties) in the middle of the field. His overall accuracy is excellent at all three levels. He does need to improve his pocket awareness. He doesn’t always feel back-side pressure and needs to speed up his clock versus front-side pressure. Outside of his final game with the Tigers (College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Ohio State), I was impressed with his decision-making. He is a dangerous runner because of his build-up speed and toughness. Overall, Lawrence is ready to start right away and he has the tools to ultimately emerge as a top-five player at his position.

4 – Zach Wilson

BYU · QB · Junior

Wilson has average height and a lean/narrow frame for the quarterback position. He’s an excellent athlete and generates several wow plays in every game I’ve studied. Wilson has a dynamic throwing motion. He carries the ball low but once his hands separate, the ball comes out in a hurry with a high level of RPMs. He’s extremely accurate from a variety of platforms and arm angles. He makes some incredible throws while fading away with both feet off the ground, and he can drive the ball to the boundary from the far hash. He also uses his quickness and creativity to buy time to let his targets uncover. He’s effective on designed QB runs, but that part of his game will need to be limited at the next level due to his lack of size. My only real concern with Wilson is durability. He’s already been through shoulder surgery (after his freshman season) and he doesn’t have an ideal frame. If he can stay healthy, his upside is enormous.

7 – Trey Lance

North Dakota State · QB · Sophomore (RS)

Lance has a thick/sturdy frame for the quarterback position. He only started 17 games at North Dakota State, but there is plenty to get excited about. He split his time between under center and in the shotgun. He plays with excellent patience and poise, taking what the defense gives him. He rarely puts the ball in jeopardy (he didn’t throw an interception until his final collegiate game). He shows the ability to change ball speed and trajectory underneath, while also displaying the velocity to fit the ball into tight windows on intermediate throws. His deep-ball accuracy needs to improve, though. He has a bad habit of sinking his weight before he throws, which impacts his placement. He is very strong in the pocket, routinely shrugging off rushers and creating plays. He is ultra-competitive on designed QB runs, displaying build-up speed and power. Lance is going to need time to develop, but I’m going to bet on his skill set, competitiveness and decision-making.

8 – Justin Fields

Ohio State · QB · Junior

Fields has good size, excellent arm strength and remarkable athleticism for the quarterback position. He has produced monster numbers both passing and rushing in the Buckeyes’ spread system. He is at his best when he throws on time and in rhythm. The ball jumps out of his hand and he can deliver it accurately at all three levels. When the defense takes that initial target away, he’s had issues quickly aborting that opportunity, which has made him late on throws and also resulted in sacks. He has shown flashes of quickly getting deeper in his progressions (see: 2021 Sugar Bowl vs. Clemson), but that part of his game is still a work in progress. He’s dynamic as a runner. His first step is explosive and he pulls away from defenders with ease. He’s also incredibly tough, as evidenced by his performance after getting drilled in the semifinal game against the Tigers. Overall, I think Fields has a chance to be special, but it’s going to take some time for him to speed up his clock in the passing game.

32 – Mac Jones

Alabama · QB · Junior (RS)

Jones has average size and athleticism for the quarterback position. He’s operated out of the shotgun and pistol, showing incredible accuracy, efficiency and poise. He is a high-effort thrower, with slightly above-average arm strength. He’s at his best on touch throws, where he can anticipate and place the ball on the proper shoulder of his target. He shows toughness to hang in versus pressure, although he rarely faced it with an elite offensive line protecting him. He isn’t much of a threat as a runner and he lacks the twitch to consistently escape and buy extra time. Jones should become a starting NFL quarterback, but his lack of twitch and athleticism will limit the playbook with the way the game is trending.

Who are the proper comparisons?  Well, for Jones, Mel Kiper Jr. sees TOM BRADY.  This at foxnews.com:

Alabama quarterback Mac Jones got quite the compliment last month from ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., who compared him to Tom Brady. This week, however, in his latest mock draft, Kiper clarified those remarks.

Back in February Kiper said that Jones, who is one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft, has qualities that resemble the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback.

“I hate to say, but he kind of has a little bit of Brady in him,” he said. “I’m not saying he’s ever going to be Tom Brady. He wouldn’t be close, probably. But he has that competitiveness, and he’s so smart — he picked that offense up [at the Senior Bowl] like it was nothing. Other quarterbacks were struggling with the verbiage and — ‘boom!’ — he was in and out of the huddle quicker than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

The comments stirred up mixed reactions but Kiper clarified his analysis in Tuesday’s mock draft.

“I’ve gotten in trouble before for saying that a few quarterbacks are ‘Tom Brady-like,’ but I’m really talking about accurate, tall pocket passers,” he explained. “I’m not predicting that these guys are going to become Hall of Famers. When I watch Jones, I can see some of the traits that have made Brady so good for so long. Jones is a pinpoint thrower who can manipulate the pocket and find targets down the field. He is a leader in the locker room too. This is a good fit.”

Walter Football offers this on JUSTIN FIELDS:

2021 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Justin Fields

Player Comparison: Deshaun Watson/Dak Prescott. Some team sources say Fields is built like a thicker Deshaun Watson, and others say he has a build like Dak Prescott. Many forget that Watson had some uneven performances in his final year of college. I think Fields could be similar NFL quarterback to Watson, while some team sources comped Fields to Prescott.

We are also seeing some CAM NEWTON comparisons.

Walter Football takes a slighter different direction with TREY LANCE:

Player Comparison: Josh Allen. Lance has a unique style of play and is a tough player to compare. He reminds evaluators of Josh Allen at times, but Lance doesn’t have Allen’s size. Lance is like a shorter version of Allen in that they have similar styles of play and are coming to the NFL from a lower level of collegiate competition. If Lance pans out in the NFL, I could see him being a quarterback similar to Allen.

Albert Breer of SI.com collected this from an anonymous scout on ZACH WILSON:

From a tape standpoint, he wasn’t as good as [Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers] coming out. But that’s easy to say now. Some of the ability to throw from different angles, and with a release that quick is similar to those guys. Rodgers is probably more appropriate. Remember, people weren’t super [excited] with Rodgers’ arm, either, which seems crazy now. So is he as talented as those guys, as an athlete? Maybe. Is he gonna be a great generational quarterback? I don’t know.”

And TREVOR LAWRENCE?

Bucky Brooks of NFL.com says he is JUSTIN HERBERT – plus a little bit more across the board.

This from Tyler Nattuno of JagsWire.com:

On the latest episode of the Pick Six Podcast, CBS NFL writers Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson put Lawrence in an elite class of quarterback prospects, drawing comparisons to several of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

“There have been three, prior to this draft, absolute slam-dunk, can’t-miss … prospects,” Brinson said. “Those are John Elway, Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. And I think the fourth guy on that list is Trevor Lawrence.”

“None of those guys look like Trevor Lawrence or play like Trevor Lawrence. The hyped Clemson product just doesn’t have many, if any, major flaws as a QB prospect. In a lot of ways, the best comparison for Trevor Lawrence is (2020) Justin Herbert. They’re the same size physically — their measurements, they probably both run the same. (And) if Trevor Lawrence plays anything close to Justin Herbert in 2020, that is an absolute slam-dunk home run.”

“Is he gonna struggle next year? Yeah, probably. But at the end of the day, it’s the pick you have to make.”

Lawrence, who weighed in at 6-foot-5 5/8, 213-pounds at his pro day, has to add 25 pounds to catch Herbert, who is listed at 6-foot-6, 237-pounds. That will come down the road as Lawrence probably hasn’t been able to lift weights as much as he was hoping with his left labrum needing surgery. Otherwise, it’s not hard to see how Brinson came up with the comparison.

Expecting Lawrence to have similar careers to Elway, Manning, or even Luck, who had a tremendous start to his career before choosing to end it in his prime, may be a lot to ask of the young quarterback. But at every step of his career, he’s had to shoulder lofty expectations. And at every step, he’s continued to meet (or exceed) them.

The DB went looking for ANDREW LUCK comparisons.  We found a few.

We also saw this at Walter Football:

Player Comparison: Ryan Tannehill. Lawrence is a very unique athlete and physical specimen, so he is difficult to compare, but some team sources have suggested Lawrence could be a better version of Tannehill. Keep in mind that Tannehill is a great athlete and played wide receiver at Texas A&M. Lawrence is a rare prospect and is in a category of his own.

The DB thinks he is somewhere between Luck and Newton, which is not a bad place to be.