The 2020 Free Agency Rumblings Thread

[dll2000]

I have been asking since March what could Covid restrictions do to cap?  I mean isn’t cap a percentage of revenue?  If revenue gets damaged - like mandated empty stadiums or a depression from job loss - doesn’t that mean cap goes down? What if you have signed contracts that are guaranteed that put you over a lower cap?  Do they get grandfathered in?

Talking heads are finally starting to talk about it.  But aren’t giving real answers yet.

 

 

[BEAR FACE DOWN ARROW]

26 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

I have been asking since March what could Covid restrictions do to cap?  I mean isn’t cap a percentage of revenue?  If revenue gets damaged - like mandated empty stadiums or a depression from job loss - doesn’t that mean cap goes down? What if you have signed contracts that are guaranteed that put you over a lower cap?  Do they get grandfathered in?

Talking heads are finally starting to talk about it.  But aren’t giving real answers yet.

 

 

In theory yes, but in practive I imagine NFL owners would make a fund making up the difference until stadiums could be full again.  Not really a practical way to reduce salaries, cut rosters or penalize all 31 teams for being over the cap simultaneously. 

[beardown3231]

 

Like I said, there was always a 0% chance Amukamara was returning

[RaidersAreOne]

20 minutes ago, beardown3231 said:

 

Like I said, there was always a 0% chance Amukamara was returning

I'm happy to add another veteran to our super young secondary. What can you guys tell me about him?

[dll2000]

18 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

I'm happy to add another veteran to our super young secondary. What can you guys tell me about him?

Good leader and teammate.  Likes to play press and is good at it.  Real solid steady pro, but seems to be slowing a bit speed wise in 2019.  May be close to a decline.  

Isn’t really a big turnover guy.  

[Heinz D.]

43 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

I'm happy to add another veteran to our super young secondary. What can you guys tell me about him?

You got a very good player. Likely at a steal of a price. Very nice addition to Raider Nation. He's not going to make the Pro Bowl, but he's most likely going to make you fans happy. 

[topwop1]

1 hour ago, RaidersAreOne said:

I'm happy to add another veteran to our super young secondary. What can you guys tell me about him?

He's a solid player. May have lost a  it of his step in 2019 and isn't flashy nor is he going to force a lot of turnovers, but he's scrappy and gets the job done plus he seems to be a really good teammate. Will help provide some stability  leadership on that young Raiders D.

 

[SLCbear]

10 hours ago, WindyCity said:

I personally have less faith in Juan Castillo then Nagy and Pace.

I think a talent upgrade at RG would go a long way to lifting the entire unit.

what are your thoughts on big Dieter Eiselen ?? You played OL iirc...

He has great size strength and nastiness. I know its Ivy League Football but he looks like he can dominate in closed/grind-it-out spaces. He can look a little slow when asked to pull or motion for something more exotic

He seems like a highly intelligent R Incognito. I know he can more than hold his own defending in a phone booth, but can we get by with his seeming lack of fleet footedness ?

A power road grader style would suit him most imo. Is this even a viable down to down style for NFL OL play ?

[SLCbear]

^

if this is a viable winning OL approach, we really have something in this guy !

rugby player w only 5yrs football exp !

[WindyCity]

2 hours ago, SLCbear said:

what are your thoughts on big Dieter Eiselen ?? You played OL iirc...

He has great size strength and nastiness. I know its Ivy League Football but he looks like he can dominate in closed/grind-it-out spaces. He can look a little slow when asked to pull or motion for something more exotic

He seems like a highly intelligent R Incognito. I know he can more than hold his own defending in a phone booth, but can we get by with his seeming lack of fleet footedness ?

A power road grader style would suit him most imo. Is this even a viable down to down style for NFL OL play ?

He has power and he is nasty. I watched him against Harvard and saw him crushing 6’2” 260lbs DTs.

Hard to know if he can bully the big boys.

His feet are slow and heavy, but he gets after it.

Far more interested in Simmons who has the same power and nasty and isA much better mover.

Edited May 13, 2020 by WindyCity

[dll2000]

On 5/11/2020 at 2:31 AM, AZBearsFan said:

That’s where analysts and draftniks had them, but no team drafted Jones in rounds 1 or 2 despite several also needing OL starters, so it’s not like Pace was all on his own there either. Reality is that given what happened after we passed on Jones (twice) Pace’s decision not to take him in round 2 IMO is pretty validated even if many thought (or think) it was the wrong one. 

An earlier OL add there would have been ideal but it’s not as though Kmet or Johnson were out of nowhere picks or selections where there wasn’t also a glaring need for a long term starter. We realistically had 3 primary immediate needs (CB, TE and RG), and Pace used our top 2 picks to fill two of them. Would I have taken Kmet there? No. But Pace is not looking to win my approval but rather take the player he thinks is most likely to help us win. As far as 2020 goes Kmet should play a more significant role than an OL who would have likely needed a position switch to compete for 2020 reps.

Had Pace taken Jones instead of Kmet he would have also taken the guy a round before anyone in the league would have - we just wouldn’t have known that nobody else valued Jones that highly because the projections had him higher so it would largely have believed it to be a good value selection.

Plus, let’s not put Nagy and his staff out of the picture here either. They and Pace no doubt collaborated on the draft and on building the offense. Pace acquired Foles but that has obvious Nagy fingerprints. The TE-centric offseason has Nagy fingerprints too. If Nagy felt OL was a bigger need than TE we probably would have drafted OL. We can’t forget that the only way Pace looks good in his job is if Nagy succeeds in his. 

Where a guy is drafted is not who he is or his ultimate value to a team.  At least one team has publicly said they had a first round grade on Jones.  A lot of draft guys, who aren’t ALL morons, had him in first or early second.  

You can name at least 10 players from every draft that should have gone in first two rounds and didn’t and 30+ who should not have.

There is good and not good.  If you went in 7th or 1st or you were an UDFA.  Now first and second rounders will get at least 3 years to fail and 7th rounders sometimes just get a camp and we’ll never know what could have been, but still general point stands.

I don’t want it to sound like Jones is my guy and I am predicting great things.  To me he has a good chance to be a competent starting OT in this league, a chance to be real good and at worst a guard.   For an OT that is worth a 2nd all day long even if it is just a 70% chance.  They are always in demand.

Kmet can’t block at an NFL level as of end of college career and is a moderately good receiver.  What he has, is a ton of upside, intelligence and athletic ability.  But to say that he is obvious pick over Jones, I just don’t agree with that.   This is like Floyd.  You are projecting (and hoping for) great improvements based on traits and those skills may or may not come.   Kmet carries a ton of risk. 

Its all spilt milk anyway.  We didn’t draft him.  We drafted Kmet.  I hope Kmet is a HOFer and Jones is a bust even if I have to eat crow for it.  We’ll see what happens.  

 

 

 

 

 

[AZBearsFan]

1 minute ago, dll2000 said:

Where a guy is drafted is not who he is or his ultimate value to a team.  At least one team has publicly said they had a first round grade on Jones.  A lot of draft guys, who aren’t ALL morons, had him in first or early second.  

11 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

I don’t want it to sound like Jones is my guy and I am predicting great things.  To me he has a good chance to be a competent starting OT in this league, a chance to be real good and at worst a guard.   For an OT that is worth a 2nd all day long even if it is just a 70% chance.  They are always in demand.

Exactly...and yet he lasted to the mid 3rd round meaning he was high on people’s boards, but not high enough to take him despite his playing a premium position? That’s a bit difficult to accept. I like Jones too and had him higher than where he went as well but the league seems to have by and large seen him differently than public perception. My guess on that is the league thinks he’s talented with upside but not elite upside, and also more risky than they’d like at the top of the draft and somewhat of a projection. In that regard he’s not all that much unlike Kmet. For my money I would have taken Jones over Kmet too, but like you said it’s all spilt milk at this point anyway.

Which team was it that publicly said they had a first round grade on him? I can’t find it but since teams almost always avoid commenting on players they did not draft publicly my suspicion is that the comment came from the Cardinals. I did see Keim had a comment along the lines of “ shocked he was there” but all GMs say stuff like that about the guys they picked so that gets a grain of salt from me.

 

[WindyCity]

I really like Jones.

I think there was a health or physical issue that made him fall to round 3. When guys fall that far outside there projection it is usually something that analysts do not have access to.

[dll2000]

7 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

Exactly...and yet he lasted to the mid 3rd round meaning he was high on people’s boards, but not high enough to take him despite his playing a premium position? That’s a bit difficult to accept. I like Jones too and had him higher than where he went as well but the league seems to have by and large seen him differently than public perception. My guess on that is the league thinks he’s talented with upside but not elite upside, and also more risky than they’d like at the top of the draft and somewhat of a projection. In that regard he’s not all that much unlike Kmet. For my money I would have taken Jones over Kmet too, but like you said it’s all spilt milk at this point anyway.

Which team was it that publicly said they had a first round grade on him? I can’t find it but since teams almost always avoid commenting on players they did not draft publicly my suspicion is that the comment came from the Cardinals. I did see Keim had a comment along the lines of “ shocked he was there” but all GMs say stuff like that about the guys they picked so that gets a grain of salt from me.

 

The team that took him said it.  They said they couldn’t believe he was there in 3rd.

And 3rd round is not nothing.  First 3 rounds are all the money rounds.  Any player drafted in 1-3 is a guy teams hope can start and be good.  

Could have been an injury as well or a rumor of bad behavior.  We may never know.  

Why teams didn’t like him that much I don’t know.  They won’t say.  All I know is his tape says he can play.  

I would rate his floor above Kmet’s and say he carries less risk.  I would say Kmet’s upside is probably better, but his floor is much lower.  

[Heinz D.]

8 minutes ago, WindyCity said:

I really like Jones.

I think there was a health or physical issue that made him fall to round 3. When guys fall that far outside there projection it is usually something that analysts do not have access to.

It's gotta something along those lines. I was thinking maybe some off-the-field stuff...