The long sweaty days of the offseason roll on. The NFL is nothing if not the master of media attention. Somehow they pack more energy into their down time than any of the other major sports. Baseball has a “Winter Meeting.” That’s their big action. Gridiron owners meet in the spring between the Scouting Combine and the Draft. The Combine may be a bit of a snooze. But, it still attracts eyeballs. The Draft is now a supernova of an event with ~600,000 attendees and an audience of 7.5 million viewers. Just to keep interest the teams have “Organized Team Activities” sprinkled over several months. These are “No Contact” affairs. The biggest story lines are always about three things; Holdouts, Injuries, and glowing reports about rookies. Keep it all in perspective. The only real news of substance is the injuries. Otherwise, it’s just men in shorts running drills.
Drama Sells
Imagine that you’re the NFL Commissioner for just a few moments. What’s happening in June? Father’s Day, the US Open Golf tournament, Ice Hockey Finals (Yes, in JUNE), NBA Finals, Family Beach Vacations…all of them are out there. None of them move the rock of selling football, however. What does draw attention is drama. “What will happen if Player X doesn’t come to Training Camp?” This used to be news buried below the box scores in the daily papers this time of year. But, now, there are these mini-camp/OTA things. Player X can skip those things. There are so many more opportunities to clutch the pearls.
The first of the OTAs is “Voluntary.” It gets treated as anything but by pundits and many fans. Skipping that gets the raised eyebrows as suspicions are aired that Player X isn’t committed to the team. Any NFL Head Coach who can’t answer the question about the holdout’s commitment to the team is simply in over his head. This is quotidian during the voluntary sessions.
Things change when the “Mandatory” three-day camps start. Now the player is going to forfeit money. (It turns out to be not a lot, relatively speaking.) And, the gift to the beat writers is that they have story lines. Not to be outdone, many of the punditry get to concoct trade scenarios to get the “disgruntled” player out of town. Nearly all of it is complete silliness.
This year’s crop of Player Xs is headlined by Cincinnati’s star Defensive End Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals have an uncanny knack of alienating their top talent during summer contract disputes. They then tend to sign them to extraordinarily large contracts. Even without an extension their top-4 players, including Hendrickson consume ~40% of the salary cap. If the Bengals give the player the raise he wants, (~30 Million/year) then that number climbs to ~45%. That’s untenable. There are 49 other players to split the remaining 55%. The exclamation point came this week when the team parted with Linebacker Germaine Pratt who lead the team in tackles with 143 last year. A team with a weak Defense just cut one of the few really good defenders it had. And, he’s under 30-years old. Process that.
It’s a “Thing”
Hendrickson is not the only star looking for a raise. TJ Watt in Pittsburgh is also a no-show. Miles Garrett signed the largest Average-Per-Year contract for a non-QB in history this off-season. Watt is making about $8 Million a year less. He’s in his walk year. And, he’s coming up on his 31st birthday. This is his last big contract coming. Next year he could possibly reap a big bonanza contract. Or, the Steelers could Franchise Tag him for two years. He’d lose a lot of money that way. But Franchise Tags are “Straight Money.” There’s no cap deferral strategies available. All $22 Million or so go right off the top of the salary cap. That’s the same cap hit as Miles Garrett. But, Garrett is making somewhere near $18-Million more a year.
Yinzers are upset about this. “The “Stillers” don’t do business this way” is an often heard refrain on the call-in shows. It doesn’t help that when Watt was hurt last year the team couldn’t win. The projected mindset from that fanbase is that the players should work for McDonald’s wages just to wear the Black-and-Gold. Sorry. The cap and the dynamics of it affect every single team including your WFT. Holdouts are a thing. And, the NFL Commissioner doesn’t mind it one little bit as it moves the media needle.
Enter one Terry McLaurin.
Scary Terry
Substitute DK Metcalf for Miles Garrett, and Terry McLaurin for TJ Watt and you have the basic situation for the WFT star. Terry is at the end of his 3-year deal worth about $22 Million/year. Metcalf just signed in Pittsburgh for an average of $33-Million. Adam Peters and crew can play the same hardball game outlined above: Come play this year, get franchised the next two, then “See-ya.” But, they won’t. A contract will get done. Best guess is somewhere around 3-years for $100-Million.
McLaurin skipped mini-camp the last time he entered his walk year. He signed before Training Camp. Missing the mandatory mini-camp resulted in a fine of ~$104k. Missing Training Camp is another step up the attention meter. Every day missed is a fine of $50k. That adds up quickly. Should he skip a game it would cost him ~$1 Million per. Skip 11-games and he can not report to the team. His 2025 contract would then apply to 2026. Getting the picture? The team has the leverage.
He’ll sign.
Other Notes
–Deebo Samuel has one year to make or break his last chance at a big contract. Keyboard warriors attacked when a clip of him, in shorts, suggested that he was overweight. It has been an issue for him in the past. With no games to break down the internet grabs these things and kicks them way past their coverage. The Head Coach spoke of Deebo in glowing terms. There are other reports that he is in outstanding shape. For his sake, he’d better be. We’ll find out the truth in time.
-As of this writing the definitive word on Noah Brown‘s injury is not out there. If gone for the season that would be a substantial loss. Kudos to the WFT organization for keeping things close to the vest. The former regime had “Sources” dialing reporters incessantly to leak everything. Part of why Terry McLaurin isn’t re-signed yet is that the $21 Million the team has left is to sign players out of need or Training Camp cuts from other teams. Terry is under-contract. Keeping some powder dry is a sage strategy.
-The fanbase is buzzing about 7th-Round pick Running Back Jacory Croskey-Merritt. He’s a quick-twitch RB that was badly impacted by an NCAA eligibility ruling last year that kept him out of all but one game. That facilitated his slide in the Draft. The question is not how much of an impact he’ll make. Rather, it’s more an issue of whether he’ll even make the team. Washington has five RBs now, including Jacory. On last year’s Opening Day they had only three on the roster. Chris Rodriguez is the same style runner as Brian Robinson Jr. Rodriguez is reportedly in superior condition. Croskey-Merritt is unlikely to dislodge either of the other two backs. If he’s not on the the Practice Squad on Opening Day, then the rookie will be in on nearly every Special Teams play.
-The team is thrilled with Trey Amos, the Corner taken with Pick#61 of this year’s Draft. Amos had been rated as high as #39 overall by some. But, an issue with his back put the dreaded Red-M for Medical next to his name on many Draft Boards. Adam Peters was delighted to get him late in Round-2. Picking players that have slipped due to the Red-M seems to be a bit of a trend. Last year Peters chose Johnny Newton, again in the 2nd-Round after he slipped due to foot issues. Late in the year, after healing from the surgeries Newton started to emerge. Front Offices refer to a “Competitive Medical Advantage” when a team picks a winner bypassed by others more cautious. It doesn’t always work. But, when it does the team got a pick for well below market value. Whether it’s a Medical or a slide due to NCAA silliness it seems that Peters is always searching out value.
-The mantra from the punditry last year was that Jayden Daniels would get destroyed playing behind Washington’s poor Offensive Line. It didn’t exactly play out. But, the O-Line was pretty poor. Daniels was able to thrive in spite of it. The Sack numbers were not good, however. JD5 was sacked 47-times for a rate of 1-Sack-per-11.2 Drop-backs. For comparison, Josh Allen was sacked only 14-times for a rate of 1-Sack-per-35.4 Drop-backs. So, it should not have been a shock that Adam Peters traded for a stud Left Tackle and then drafted another in the First-Round. And, he signed several Free Agents. Giving Daniels more time should help him avoid the dreaded “Sophomore Slump.” You’ll read about it incessantly before the season. The only things we know for sure about that new Line is who the Center and Left Tackle are. Other than that it is up in the air.
Final Thought
Now the OTAs are over with it’s time to enjoy summer. Next week the Summer Solstice hits. Days will start to get shorter. It’s a long ways to crisp autumn afternoons, turning leaves, and real football. But, it’s coming. For the WFT it will be time to prove to the world that last year was not a fluke. For the fanbase it will be a chance to be nervously excited. Is this team really achieving relevance? We will see.
