Interesting. If Cleveland put forth a proposal to allow trades up to five years in advance, that suggests that they wanted to make such trades. It apparently had no support, and was then withdrawn, but they could do the next best thing. They could trade a player for a third-round pick in 2029 (for example), hold that pick for two years, then trade it for a second-round pick in 2031. They’d have to make two deals instead of one, but they get the payoff in five years just like they seemed to want.
There’s also another factor - teams like Cleveland, who suggested the change, are less likely to finish in playoff contention. Or rather, they’ve been more likely to finish the season with a pick in the top half of the round than not and their early round picks are generally more valuable than those of perennial contenders. Or even those of the perennially mediocre teams.
Out of the last 10 seasons, they’ve had 7 picks in the top 13, 2 or 3 of which they had actually traded away so they didn’t get to use them (and got DeShaun Watson for their trouble 
) - this is a real theme with bad teams. They often don’t have a full complement of early round picks because they do stupid “win now” stuff when they were more than 1 or 2 pieces away.
And of those 7 prize first round picks, 4 were in the top 10, with 2 #1 picks. Those #1 picks? Pretty good ones, actually. Though Baker Mayfield has had better success away from Cleveland and everybody knew Garrett re-upped for the money rather than any actual chance Cleveland would contend.
In 5 years, maybe they have a smarter owner. Or maybe just get lucky. And those picks wouldn’t be worth as much as their normal bottom feeder picks are. Over the next season or two? Never say never, but there’s not a high probability they earn a pick out of the teens and a rather decent chance of another top 10 pick or two.
I think what they wanted was the ability to have many more draft picks available to trade away.
Cleveland is the NFL equivalent of the guy who is always up to his ears in debt, spending money on bad investments and crazy financial schemes doomed to failure, who figures the best solution is to raise his credit limit so he can borrow even more money.
Yeah, pretty much that.
The average NFL career is about 4 seasons. No NFL team is the same after 5 seasons. The better teams have a few valuable franchise players but for the rest of the roster, know how to pick and, more importantly, develop and support new talent year after year.
That ain’t Cleveland. Not by a long shot.
but Haslam was at least smart enough to avoid jail for his Flying-J mischief (I think?)
At least not dumb enough to go cheap on lawyers. As a rich person in the US, you’ve got to be the dumbest person on the planet to get jail time for anything short of murder. And even for that, you’ve got a good shot at avoiding it.
Kirk Cousins to the Raiders, likely to serve as a mentor to presumptive #1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, and possibly to begin the season as the starter.
Seems like a perfect fit for him, really (aside from the fact that the Raiders are the Raiders, of course).
Raider money spends the same as any other team.
I do think it makes sense, considering they moved on from Geno Smith already.
I had read something a few days ago, indicating that the Packers were interested in Cousins, as they just lost their only experienced backup QB, Malik Willis, to the Dolphins in free agency. But, the article I read said that Cousins wasn’t interested, as Jordan Love is the entrenched starter in Green Bay, and he wanted to sign somewhere where there’d be the possibility of starting.
Cousins also had some very solid years in Minnesota with Kubiak as the QB coach/OC, so a reunion there makes sense.
Good point; he might have wanted to work with Kubiak again, and Kubiak might feel like he knows Cousins well enough to be able to create a gameplan around his skills. All this while getting Fernando ready for the NFL eventually.
Former Bears defensive tackle Steve McMichael, who was diagnosed with ALS and passed away last year, also had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
McMichael had directed that he wanted to have his brain studied after his passing. Researchers believe that there is a link between CTE and ALS; former NFL players are four times more likely to develop ALS than other men. Other former NFL players who developed ALS include Steve Gleason, Dwight Clark, Wally Hilgenberg, Tim Green, and O.J. Brigance.
As a Niner’s fan, I know we’re already known as the SF Whiners, but did Kyle REALLY have to add to our reputation by complaining about Australia game, implying (?) that Goodell is picking on us? I mean, you didn’t hear McVay complain did you? Rams are traveling the same length of time
…and losing a home game in the process.
We well deserve the title, and I not only understand other fanbases’ opinions of us, I’m a fan and I can’t stand our fan base–just admit for once we lost to better team without the injury/refs/whatever excuses! Thanks, Ellis, for pointing that out–McVay has always been classy
West coast teams always have the most travel, and the 49ers will likely set a new record for miles this season. In addition to the Melbourne game, they’re giving hippo one of their own home games for Mexico City.
I think Shanahan’s biggest grief is that Goodell is acting like the travel is nothing, when it absolutely is a burden.
And the Rams absolutely targeted the Niners to make a division rival travel as much as them, and to keep our fans from taking over their stadium again.
Edit to add: I’m personally stoked to see my team play in an AFL stadium. I love Aussie rules footy.
As a Seahawks fan I loathe the Niners, and even I think their complaints on this issue are understandable.
Things are pretty quiet in the offseason at the moment, so the big news swirling around the Patriots is a potentially scandalous story involving coach Mike Vrabel “hanging out” in Palm Springs with Athletic reporter Dianna Russini, after the New York Post printed some paparazzi-style long-lens photos of the two of them lounging in a hot tub and holding hands. Both Vrabel and Russini are married to other people.
Vrabel’s comment on it was: "These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.”
Russini’s initial statement was: "The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day. Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”
The Athletic initially supported Russini strongly, saying: "These were public interactions in front of many people. Dianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we’re proud to have her at The Athletic.” But they started an investigation anyway. She resigned a couple of days later, saying that "unfortunately, commentators in various media have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts” and “I have no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has already caused far more damage than I am willing to accept.”
Vrabel hasn’t commented further and the Patriots are keeping mum, presumably hoping it will all go away, but there’s blood in the water and the media sharks are definitely circling. It will be interesting to see if there is any blowback to Vrabel.
You aren’t wrong, and that reminds me… Are we going to start a new thread for the draft? I don’t remember if we typically do that.