Yeah I can kind of see it with the Ravens, because Hollywood is not elite but will likely want elite money, and they have LJax's extension staring them in the face.Jigga94 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 4:55 amThe fact that the Ravens basically netted #25 for Brown and the Titans only got 18 for their Brown, I think Philly easily won that deal. But it does come down to contracts. Baltimore couldn't pay everyone (similar to KC). Lamar may not like losing his buddy but it doesn't sound like he was going to take the Brady deal that would've kept them together so... I think TEN was in a similar spot as SEA. Do these teams want to rebuild around a 25M WR? I know TEN is still a pretty good team but that window is closing quickly so they are smart to look ahead.FantasyFreak wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 3:07 amI mean, it basically came out of Andy Reid's mouth. He referenced Mahomes contract as the reason they couldn't pay Hill specifically, when asked. Hollywood isn't Tyreek, not even close. Also, AJB isn't either, though better. The Titans move wasn't a good one, IMO. Teams have to make a decision on it, but Tyreek is definitely an elite WR, while the other 2 aren't in that tier, though AJB is closer than Hollywood.abloom wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 3:00 am
I think, while the Mahommes contract has something to do with it, it's not just because of the Mahommes contract. Look at what the Titans and ravens just did. They sent a wr coming up on a big payday just for a first. Sure Baltimore also has to consider what it will cost to keep Jackson, but what about the Titans. I think that there are a group of teams that now believe that we contracts have gotten too high and it's not worth paying the alpha 25M a year.
It's a risk to move a proven player for a pick, but when you consider both teams moved their WR for better picks than their original draft spot, I'd say they did fine. Titans reset their rookie WR deal and the Ravens filled another need. I really didn't want them paying Hollywood anywhere near what Kirk got.
TEN makes less sense to be because AJB is actually really good, and it's not like they have a roster full of studs with huge pay days to worry about. I don't really see the point in drafting guys just to trade them away before their first contract is up if they're good, because then you have to pay them. Like what are they hoping for out of Burks? Jefferson/Chase not withstanding it's pretty unusual to get elite production out of a rookie WR, so you're writing off year 1. Then you're hoping in maybe a best case scenario that he has a year 2 breakout and you get 2 good years out of him before you ship him off as well because now he wants money too?
It would be one thing if the NFL draft was some kind of guarantee where you draft a WR and he becomes a great player. But what, maybe 10% of WRs drafted in the 1st round end up being as good as AJB? So you're betting on you hitting that perfectly (with the 5th best WR in a relatively weak overall draft class) just to get another 2 good cheap years out of a WR? How long can they keep repeating that process? The odds say 90% chance it's 0 more times, and it almost certainly won't be more than once.
This gets doubly confusing to me how some teams panic because they have one expensive player so they've got to get rid of him, while other teams seemingly operate like the cap doesn't even exist. Remember the Rams were only going to be able to sign 2, maybe 3 of their big 5 players (Donald, Goff, Gurley, Kupp, Woods) and in the end they signed all 5 of them, and then just for kicks traded for Stafford and Ramsey and gave them record contracts on top of it all. So the beat writers said they could afford 2 big contracts and they ended up paying out 7 huge contracts instead.
Goff's contract was untradeable until they traded him. Gurley's contract was uncuttable until they cut him. Why don't these teams just hire whomever is running the books in LA and stop giving away draft picks (which are supposed to be a premium asset) for slight cap relief?