Amusing. Fitzgerald is the face of his franchise and has put up huge numbers with bad QBs throwing him the ball. I think it’s safe to say he has earned his contract. Wallace, on the other hand, good receiver but how much of it is playing with a competent QB? And how much would the presence of Mike Wallace earn back in jersey sales, etc? Seems like a fantastic request from Wallace (i.e. it is fantasy that someone would pay him that much with his current body of work behind him).
Mea culpa.
I’m sure he’s not definitely better than any of those players.
No link but a report over the radio has Michael Bush going to the Bears, 4 years 14 million, 7 guarantied. I’m sure glad the Brown’s aren’t putting themselves in cap hell signing overpriced veteran talent. And it’s not like we need to replace Peyton Hillis or anything.
[Needs some sort of choking on my own vomit smiley]
Thrilled about this.
What the fuck? Tolbert for 2.5m/year, Michael Bush for $ 3.5m/year, and the Browns have fucking Chris Ogbanayayayaya as their #1 back? What the fuck is up with the RB market? Garcon can get $42m, but Michael Bush gets $14m?
I guess this means the Browns are drafting Trent Richardson because what the fuck else are they going to do?
Even if the Browns are drafting Richardson, how the fuck do you not offer 3m/year for Tolbert as your backup or 4m for Bush? Of course this isn’t just the Browns - the rest of the league let that happen too. I just have a hard time believing these players aren’t worth shit on the open market. Does anyone know what the deal is there?
I find it hard to believe nobody wanted Bush as a starter.
It’s a fucking mystery to me too. I know that RBs have been a difficult position to evaluate and they are potentially the most commoditized position on the field, but these prices are insanely cheap. I feel like last year’s AP, DeAngelo and CJ2K deals constituted a speculative bubble and that sucker has flat out burst.
It will be extremely interesting to see what this does to Matt Forte’s value. Are the Bears going to extend him like everyone under the sun expects, or will they play hardball with him now and force him to play out the year under the franchise tag? Will Forte adjust his expectations and stop asking for $50M and settle for a more sane Jamal Charles sized deal at $30M+ and $15 guaranteed.
As for the Browns, this either makes drafting Richardson an automatic or it means that the RB position is devalued to the point that Richardson will slip into the teens in the coming draft. The Browns should probably be considering calling the Jaguars and seeing what the going rate for Stewart is.
Jaguars?
Ronde Barber re-upped for another season with the Buccaneers. He’s made 199 straight starts; that’s more than any defensive back in history.
Wow, even more than Darrell Green?
Darrell Green appeared in 295 games, 11th most, but they were not consecutive.
Overcompensation for the meme that “RB’s are fungible” is my guess. I’m sure the Texans would happily send the Browns Ben Tate for the 2nd 1’st rounder y’all have. He’s on the books for 500k this year and around 600 next year.
I was wondering how they were able to get Arian Foster for so ‘cheap’ in light of the CJ and AP deals, and I guess this year’s market is why.
I like Mike Wallace a great deal, but that Fitzthulu deal was silly. (>$20M cap number for 2012?!) As was the Megatron deal. (At least for 2014 and later). Wallace might get something like that when the cap gets raised in 2014, but I’d be very surprised if someone paid that now, plus the 1st rounder they’d have to ship to Pittsburgh.
It could just be an unusual confluence of circumstances (e.g., teams that need RBs don’t have much cap space, or don’t like the available FAs, or this year’s FAs are more highly regarded in the public’s consciousness than in NFL front offices).
My guess, though, is that it’s just a correction in the RB market. Teams might feel (perhaps correctly) that, if a RB isn’t one of the best in the league – Top 10? – it’s impossible for him to create a lot of marginal value. This isn’t just because the RB position is so fungible, which has been true for years, but also because almost everyone now is in a pass-first offense.
Eh, on second thought, I shouldn’t sell short the idea that this is just a really unimpressive RB free agency class. Tolbert and Bush have figured prominently in recent fantasy football seasons, but IRL, if you take a step back, their career trajectories look really boring and ordinary. (Bush’s 2011 almost looks cool given those receiving yards, but then look at that un-sexy 3.8 YPC average when McFadden put up a 5.4 on the same offense.)
Really, look at those free agents. Other than *maybe *Peyton Hillis, is there anyone on that list that you would give two fucks about if it weren’t for fantasy football?
Fitzgerald’s cap number for 2012 is supposedly $14.5m - though that is according to the team’s site itself. http://blog.azcardinals.com/2012/02/07/putting-a-cap-on-it/ Maybe you have better info.
$14.5m is still a lot of money, obviously.
Forte tweet:
“There’s only so many times a man that has done everything he’s been asked to do can be disrespected! Guess the GOOD GUYS do finish last…”
Indeed, playing professional football and getting 40 million dollars instead of 50 would definitely put you in “good guys finish last” territory in life.
Considering he played every offensive down last year, I think it is quite a slap in the face that the Bears signed Bush. What would they need another running back for?
I was basing it off this link, which after being burned on several Texans’ players, I think deserves inclusion within Twain’s observation about lies and damned lies.
There’s no reason why the NFL can’t make this stuff public, or at least, a lot more public than they do. It might help fans realize why a GM does “X” or cuts player “Y”. Then again, IIRC, they haven’t seen fit to make the rule book public, so I’m probably shouting into the wind on this one.
We haven’t had a Mock Draft to poke fun at in a while, here’s one from PFT.
The head scratcher starts right at the top.
Um…okay. I guess if you’re trying to generate page views that would do it.
I can buy this, but I’m not sure I saw the Jets as having WR as this big a need, ditto the Bengals.
That’s a new one on me, and probably pretty defensible after the Marshall trade. However this is the guy I’d rather they picked here in this mock…
No way he lasts this long, but there’s an outside chance he lasts until 19.
Um, for the same reason they needed Marion Barber last year.