Did anyone read his latest comments?
Have fun, Raiders fans.
From what I’ve heard, Gruden doesn’t cut much slack for his players.
Yeah, this is going to end well. :rolleyes:
One assumes Gruden was at least consulted before the trade.
Didn’t see a mention of this, and wasn’t sure it was worth its own thread: Chiefs Tyreek Hill being investigated for a domestic battery that allegedly resulted in breaking his 3 y/o son’s arm:
Doesn’t seem to bode well for the Chiefs upcoming season.
One of Gettleman’s first moves with the Panthers was to go big and sign 3 (!) running backs to massive contacts soaking up about 15% of his cap in one of the least valued position groups. I marked him as a moron forever more, so seeing him drive the Giants into the ground now is frankly hilarious.
I’m preparing for this to be a massive downgrade for the Bears. Ha Ha was always one of my favorite punching bags and unless Pagano can work some DB coach magic with him, we’re going to get a bit easier to pass on this year. Amos was great, but I hope the Bears let him go knowing that Fangio and Jackson covered a lot of his warts…if he’s a Pro Bowler for the Packers I’m gonna be so pissed.
The meatballs on Reddit are talking up the Clinton-Dix - Jackson reunion as the second coming, maybe there’s some benefit to these guys having history together. Unlikely though, talent is all that really matters and Ha Ha only got a 1-year prove-it deal for a reason.
This is the price of Mack.
He’s a changed man, though. His first move with the Giants was drafting Saq…
I’m still surprised by the Beckham trade, but aside from that I’m kind of liking his moves so far. Hopefully this new OL doesn’t suck ass yet again.
Aaaaaand Vontaze Burfict is no longer a Bengal. Looks like I can feel pity for them again.
Interesting article here.
“The Raiders won an award from the analytics community for the Kahlil Mack trade”
“Well, everyone did not think it was a “terrible trade.” I defended the decision at the time, arguing that Khalil Mack (or any defensive player for that matter) was not worth multiple first-round picks AND the $23.5 million in average annual salary the Bears gave Mack after the trade.”
I like that no one can seemingly decide how to spell Mack’s first name. I saw at least two different spellings in the headline and article, and wouldn’t swear there weren’t three.
As to “value”, who did the Raiders end up replacing Mack with, and how much did the Bears’s defense improve with Mack. My recollection is 'not much", and ‘a hell of a lot.’ Transcendent players, if Mack is one, I would say are better than a collection of very good players, even if the overall summed value of the very good players is superior to the value of the one transcendent player. It’s funny that it was Daryl Morey who was making the statements for the Sloan Conference about the Mack deal, as the preceding hypothesis of mine is even more true in basketball than football.
Omni, did the deal the Bears signed with Mack, significantly hamper other things they wanted to do as a team? I think you mentioned in this thread or another one, that the Bears had to let some guys go they’d rather have kept, mainly because they were hitting the cap?
Some temporary scrub, I imagine. They got the Bears 1st round picks this year and next year out of the deal, so time will tell.
So at least the first part of my recollection was right.
As I see it, swapping Amos for Clinton-Dix saves 7.5 million this year. (Amos is making 21 over the next two, while Clinton-Dix is on a 3.5/1 year deal. My question is this, given per Spotrac today, the Bears still have 18.3 in cap space for the top 51, and 13.9 in cap space overall, after the Clinton-Dix signing, and that much room puts them about midway through the League in cap space, did the Bears really need to do this deal for cap reasons? Or are there still outstanding FAs that the Bears need to sign, and they need all the cap room they can get?
I’m still waiting for the Texans to realize that it’d be a good idea for them to start spending significantly on the line in FA. Or find a stud lineman via trade, I’m not picky. Watson got sacked 62 times. I’m surprised he lasted the season—car drives to avoid stressing collapsed lungs and all—and that he doesn’t yet seem to have picked up a Gabbert-esque case of gunshyness.
Some thoughts.
Darryl Morey is a basketball guy living in a world where there is a soft cap and where high 1st round picks sometimes represent league altering players which can double or triple value to your franchise over the span of 10-15 years. The NFL doesn’t really have LeBrons, Giannis’, Duncans, Currys or Zions. Even the best QBs don’t have that kind of impact, and in the NBA it is WAY less likely you’ll find one of those guys outside the top 10, and usually not outside the top 2 or 3. In other words, consider the source.
Too many of these player-for-pick critiques fail to acknowledge that you’re essentially accelerating one of your draft picks to have a near 100% certainty of having a GREAT player. The Bears gave up a future 1st rounder for Mack, a guy that would absolutely be the #1 overall pick if he were eligible this year. The Bears benefited from that deal in 2018, the Raiders got nothing in 2018. Time and opportunity cost matter.
Here’s the way I filter the cost of that trade, in draft assets, for the Bears. The Bears effectively draft Mack 1 year early with the #1 overall pick in 2019. The Bears had the 24th pick in the 1st round, so what would it cost to trade up to #1? The Bears threw in a 2019 6th rounder, the 198th pick. They also did 2 pick swaps in 2020, a 1st for a 2nd (15 draft slots, maybe 10?) and a 3rd for a 5th (around a round and a half).
So for the following benefits:
[ul]
[li]Remove the uncertainly of drafting the 2019 24th overall player[/li][li]Remove the time it takes to develop the 2019 24th overall player [/li][li]Gain an extra full year of Mack at his peak[/li][/ul]
The Bears spent:
[ul]
[li]2019 6th rounder[/li][li]Move back 10-15 spots on day one in 2020[/li][li]Move back 40-60 spots on day three in 2020[/li][/ul]
I’ll make that deal every single day and twice on Sunday.
Now, the other factor here is salary cap cost. Mack is very, very expensive and the supposed draft pick they gave away would be a lot cheaper over the life of that contract. Totally valid concern. But it’s all about opportunity cost. Here’s what the Bears are thinking.
- Mitch is starting year 2 of his rookie deal and will be cheap for the next 4 seasons. We’re saving a ton of money at the QB position.
- We don’t have time to wait for our 2019 1st rounder to show up and to become good. By the time that happens Mitch will be up for a massive extension (or being jettisoned).
- We’d LOVE to gobble up a FA EDGE on the open market that’s as good as Mack, but there isn’t one. There will never be one, you don’t get players as good as Mack on the open market.
I think the results prove all this out. The Bears went from worst to first in the NFC North. They should have won a playoff game (fucking Parkey). Their defense went from good, top 12, to one of the very best in the last decade through the addition of Mack. I simply can’t see how that’s a bad deal, MAYBE you argue it’s not a highway robbery, but the Bears got their money’s worth.
Longer term, there will probably be trade offs.
This season we let Amos go due to a cap limitations, but we replaced him pretty cheap. Time will tell how big the drop off is. Maybe we let Amos go anyways, who knows. We also signed a handful of other guys who were a lot less important than Mack. If I had it to do all over again, I’d probably pass on Taylor Gabriel in order to keep Amos, but we’ll see. Parkey is carrying a fair bit of dead money that could be going to Amos too.
In the coming years, I suspect that Leonard Floyd will probably be allowed to test the open market next season. Roquan Smith may end up making Danny Trevathan a luxury we can’t afford. Kyle Long will probably be a cap casualty sooner or later. Worst case scenario we may be forced to choose between Mitch and Mack 3 years down the road.
I’d do it again without blinking.
Aaaaaand Vontaze Burfict is a Raider. I’m a little surprised he was signed so quickly given that in addition to him being a concussion/suspension/penalty machine, he was super ineffective last season. Dude couldn’t (or wouldn’t) even tackle.
Maybe it was a ruse to get out of Cincinnati?
And this, in a nutshell, is why I love the Bears. Always chase the next big thing, nevermind the cost or the repercussions.
What struck me wasn’t that the Bears went out and signed an amazing player to an overwhelming contract; or that they gave up the future to chase a win now stud. It was the fact they did both at the exact same time. Not only did they throw jaw dropping money at Mack, they also threw draft picks to get him. The Bears are like addicts; always chasing the next hot player(whether it be Cutler or Trubisky or Mack), and ignoring the cost.
That, or Jon Gruden is an idiot.
In Packers news, Randall Cobb just signed a one year contract with the Cowboys for $5 million. I do wish the best for him and hope he can find a way to stay healthy, but ugh, the Cowboys? It’s like he traded in a LaFerrari for a Yugo as his quarterback.
This is my theory. They’re loading up the locker room with talented knuckleheads. That’s gonna be a powder keg.
I’m very sad to see Cobb go; he’s a classy guy, and a team player. He’s fought injuries for the past several years, and I do think they’ve taken a toll on his productivity (plus, he missed almost half of last season).
Rob Gronkowski is retiring. He maybe could have squeezed one more playoff season out of that always-injured body, but nobody can blame him. Remarkably, he has never spent a penny of the money he made in the NFL, living entirely off his endorsements, and next on his TV and film royalties. And there’s never been an athlete who was more fun to cheer for.
Brady will still be playing when he introduces Gronk at his Hall of Fame ceremony. 
Wide receiver Jordy Nelson is reportedly retiring. He’d spent 2018 with the Raiders, after being cut by the Packers last spring, but the Raiders had cut him earlier this month after they’d acquired Antonio Brown.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/27/jordy-nelson-retirement-packers-raiders-wide-receiver-career