2022 Player movement rumors (Free agency / Trades)

[BullsandBroncos]

If you're Watson, you'd think Carolina would be the place to go. Good receivers, good running back whenever he isn't made of glass. 
 

saints are in question and falcons are a mess. I'm not counting Cleveland as an option here

Edited March 16, 2022 by BullsandBroncos

[jrry32]

14 minutes ago, Geezy said:

I don’t, he’s a short QB that can’t always win In the pocket and is not mobile enough to consistently win outside of it. That’s my .02

It takes time for pocket passers. Dude has two good seasons out of four in the NFL. 

[FalconFan13]

10 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

 

Falcons could pull it off quite easily as well i have a laid out plan of what it would take for us to get Watson and still be able to build a team over the next 2 years.  I just did it on the Falcons forum but it was a pretty solid plan i think and it's not as bleak as it looks not at all.

[FalconFan13]

Just now, BullsandBroncos said:

If you're Watson, you'd think Carolina would be the place to go. Good receivers, good running back whenever he isn't made of glass. 
 

saints are in question and falcons are a mess. I'm not counting Cleveland as an option here

I feel if Carolina gets him then 2 players like Mcaffery and Burns are going back to the Texans in the trade maybe.  Atleast 1 of those 2 for sure would be going back to them and 1 other player.  It seem the Texans want atleast 3 1's  a 2nd and 2 good players from what all reports are being sent around.

[ravishingone]

1 minute ago, FalconFan13 said:

Falcons could pull it off quite easily as well i have a laid out plan of what it would take for us to get Watson and still be able to build a team over the next 2 years.  I just did it on the Falcons forum but it was a pretty solid plan i think and it's not as bleak as it looks not at all.

Where do you think Ryan ends up?

[FalconFan13]

Just now, ravishingone said:

Where do you think Ryan ends up?

I would think maybe the Colts without them having a 1st this year  im guessing maybe a trade like this   2022 2nd + 2023 1st for Ryan  No where near as much as most of these high priced QB's are getting but something solid QB worthy price coming back for a proven good QB.

[adamq]

1 minute ago, ravishingone said:

Where do you think Ryan ends up?

I can see him and Pete Carroll getting the blue plate special with a cup of joe at the local diner every morning

[squire12]

1 minute ago, FalconFan13 said:

I would think maybe the Colts without them having a 1st this year  im guessing maybe a trade like this   2022 2nd + 2023 1st for Ryan  No where near as much as most of these high priced QB's are getting but something solid QB worthy price coming back for a proven good QB.

to get watson, ATL would need to move Ryan.   That would drive down the compensation and IND has the cap space to absorb more of the cap if there is a way to wiggle less dead cap in a trade for ATL.  

fascinating events for sure.

 

*************

I think a key thing that will develop with these player trades and contracts are teams trying to move from larger signing bonus to more guaranteed roster bonus to allow more flexibility.  I think there has been a good shift in that direction over the last few years.  

[FalconFan13]

1 minute ago, squire12 said:

to get watson, ATL would need to move Ryan.   That would drive down the compensation and IND has the cap space to absorb more of the cap if there is a way to wiggle less dead cap in a trade for ATL.  

fascinating events for sure.

 

*************

I think a key thing that will develop with these player trades and contracts are teams trying to move from larger signing bonus to more guaranteed roster bonus to allow more flexibility.  I think there has been a good shift in that direction over the last few years.  

In my scenario the Falcons eat the majority of the cap they have to. Which allows the Colts to sign more players with more cap space.   Falcons have a ton of cap space next year like 80 to 100 million even with the Watson trade so we would prefer the extra picks over the extra cap i would think.  Im sorta interested in putting my whole scenario broken down to see if people think it's a solid plan or not or even feasible.

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

42 minutes ago, DawgX said:

I feel for you guys. I have some good friends who are Browns fans and we have fun talking trash. I like to drag on Baker but he seems like a nice guy. Guy will always be the one who pulled them out of the 1-31 darkness. 
 

this is a wild offseason already. I can’t stop refreshing my feeds.

if Atlanta gets Watson, surely it’s a 3 way trade, no? They’d need to move Matt Ryan and could use the picks they get from doing that to send to Houston. if Houston gets Ryan, all the sudden a semi promising rookie from last year in Dink Mills is available, OR the team that gets Ryan is shipping their picks to Houston? 
 

heck, I don’t know.

Edited March 16, 2022 by ThatJaxxenGuy

[FalconFan13]

1 minute ago, ThatJaxxenGuy said:

I feel for you guys. I have some good friends who are Browns fans and we have fun talking trash. I like to drag on Baker but he seems like a nice guy. Guy will always be the one who pulled them out of the 1-31 darkness. 
 

this is a wild offseason already. I can’t stop refreshing my feeds.

if Atlanta gets Watson, surely it’s a 3 way trade, no? They’d need to move Matt Ryan and could use the picks they get from doing that to send to Houston. if Houston gets Ryan, all the sudden a semi promising rookie from last year in Dink Mills is available, OR the team that gets Ryan is shipping their picks to Houston? 
 

heck, I don’t know.

I don't think so i think it would be a trade pre june 1st for Watson and a trade post june 1st for Ryan.   Main reason being is the cap numbers help us tremendously that way.  Pre june 1st and our cap is screwed with us eating a ton of dead cap this year.  Post june 1st ryan trade and a restructure of Watsons contract which would bring his cap hit from 35 mil this year to 10 mil and pushing some of it over the next few years where we have massive cap.  Plus Watsons cap hit next year is only 20 mil you can add a good portion of what you saved this year then.   But with those moves the Falcons could still have 35 mil in cap space or so plus watson.  Then have around 85 million in cap space next year depending on who we picked up in FA this year and their cap hits next year.

[DawgX]

8 minutes ago, ThatJaxxenGuy said:

I feel for you guys. I have some good friends who are Browns fans and we have fun talking trash. I like to drag on Baker but he seems like a nice guy. Guy will always be the one who pulled them out of the 1-31 darkness. 
 

this is a wild offseason already. I can’t stop refreshing my feeds.

if Atlanta gets Watson, surely it’s a 3 way trade, no? They’d need to move Matt Ryan and could use the picks they get from doing that to send to Houston. if Houston gets Ryan, all the sudden a semi promising rookie from last year in Dink Mills is available, OR the team that gets Ryan is shipping their picks to Houston? 
 

heck, I don’t know.

Ryan's contract makes me think Atlanta isn't a viable option.

Now that I say that, Watson probably somehow ends up in Atlanta.

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

Just now, DawgX said:

Ryan's contract makes me think Atlanta isn't a viable option.

Now that I say that, Watson probably somehow ends up in Atlanta.

I don’t get it either but there’s a lot of smoke for there to be no fire 🤷‍♂️.

On another note, I wouldn’t hate it if Davis Mills leads the Texans to some relevance as a new Matt Schaub type and Watson struggles on a bad Falcons offence. 

[Forge]

3 minutes ago, DawgX said:

Ryan's contract makes me think Atlanta isn't a viable option.

Now that I say that, Watson probably somehow ends up in Atlanta.

So, will just say that apparently Ryan's restructure hasn't been processed through the league office. So they'd still save money if they move him (like 8 million) and he's pretty cheap for any team acquiring him

[FalconFan13]

15 minutes ago, DawgX said:

Ryan's contract makes me think Atlanta isn't a viable option.

Now that I say that, Watson probably somehow ends up in Atlanta.

I'll post here what i did on the Falcons forums.  To give an idea of how this can be done from the Falcons to make it work.

I look at it like this if i were to REALLLLY break it down into what i believe the Falcons could get in a trade for ryan plus how much cap space we would have this year and next compared to what we send out. 

This is all hypothetical but i feel it would be atleast comparable so here we go

Falcons cap space now according to over the Cap

17.4 million

You trade Ryan post 6-1 to Colts  and Grady and Richie pre 6-1 to Texans and that cap goes too

42 million cap

You bring in Deshaun Watson and his cap hit is 35 million this year  but you also have a restructure option to push some of that 35 million this year into his cap hit next few years.   Next years cap hit for Deshaun is only 20 mil so you can eat alot of that restructure then where we will have like 100 million in cap space.   This would put this years cap hit on Deshaun at around 10 instead of 35 million.

This in turn makes our cap space go from 42 million before the trade to 32 million after the Watson and Ryan trade. Ryan trade down below.

So at this point you now have Deshaun Watson as your new QB and 32 million in cap space this year left over to work FA some still.   

You give up a 1st this year   1 2nd this year  1st next year and  1st the year after. Grady Jarret and Richie Grant.

You trade Ryan for 1st and 2nd next year in 2023 from the colts or some team.  Thats a fair value for Ryan or any top vet QB. While allowing the team getting him to keep their picks this year.   So now after all trades  you look like this

Falcons now have Watson as QB
32 mil in cap space
2022 - 2nd round picks, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 2x 6ths
2023 - 1st, 2x 2nd, 3rd, 2x4th, 5th, 7th
2024 - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th

You could still cut Davis and Sheffield to get us to around 37 million in cap in this scenario as well.

Come 2023 FA you have about 80 to 100 million in cap space with all those picks left over and whatever you brought in this year with the 32 to 37 million in cap space.

To me that is probably the avg scenario you could probably expect to happen all the way around maybe a few things changed one way or another but thats not doing us any big favors and not expecting to much in return in trades for ryan either. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by FalconFan13