NFL
By: Greg Rector
The NFL free agency window for negotiating will start on Friday at 12 PM Eastern and then on Sunday at 4 PM Eastern the new NFL fiscal year starts and deals can be made official. This is always a very busy time for every front office. No rest for the wicked is the old saying and in the NFL that holds true. The NFL Draft Combine just ended of course and now it’s the business end that takes center stage.
Roster Turnover
I understand being attached to favorite players, but some folks just take it way too far in their fandom for the names on the back of a jersey, instead of the franchise. The turnover rate on rosters every season is 30% on average for all 32 teams. Sometimes this means that your favorite player is not going to stay. In the free agency era, it comes down to the player’s having one shot at getting the most money for their career, and the team’s needing to have enough salary cap space for other players quite often. If you need to re-sign a left tackle, wide receiver, corner, and most especially a quarterback, there will be others who have to be elsewhere thanks to the salary cap. The choices made are hard ones, but a necessary evil with the system in place. I’ll give two examples for the Dallas Cowboys.
Leighton Vander Esche had an awfully good season for the Cowboys and he was playing on a one-year “prove it” deal. With a good season on his resume which will draw interest from other teams. The Cowboys already opted to use the franchise tag on running back Tony Pollard so that’s not an option. Then you need to factor in the rest of the free agents that Dallas wants to retain for 2023 and their cost. They would love to bring him back but the fit under the salary cap may make that impossible. The same holds true for safety Donovan Wilson who put together a very solid season including having 5 sacks. There’s no telling until the negotiating window opens up on Friday as to how many teams and what kind of offers both players may get.
Personally, I have an affinity for Wilson as a player and as a leader on the Cowboys’ defense. I’m also a lifelong aficionado of safety play. Losing Wilson won’t be fun. For me, though I understand that it might happen. Is that cause for doom and gloom? Not really. Wilson can secure his bag as the saying goes, and the Cowboys will still have Malik Hooker, Jayron Kearse, and last year signed a potential absolute steal as a UDFA Marquese Bell. So there’s still reason to be optimistic about that group. The same holds true with Vander Esche. There’s Damone Clarke and Jabril Cox still available at linebacker, plus the Cowboys may and it’s a big “maybe” be in the market for free agent Bobby Wagner again. There are always new options folks. The names on the back of the jersey will always change and it comes with the territory.
Another factor with every team is the window has opened for players that were first-round picks three years ago to negotiate extensions starting this weekend. Again if you are not that guy on a team you could be looking for work elsewhere because the money those guys earn on a second contract is not small potatoes. Case in point the Kansas City Chiefs opted not to re-sign Tyreek Hill, completely transformed their receiving corps, and still won the Super Bowl despite the outcry of many Chiefs fans when the trade was made.
Quarterbacks
This group of course gets the most attention in the NFL. The domino most are waiting for is the decision surrounding Aaron Rodgers. Will he become a NY Jet via a trade, or does he remain with the Green Bay Packers? Meanwhile, contingencies are in place for the rest of the teams with question marks at the most prominent position in the game. Baker Mayfield is going to be somewhere in 2023 as will Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz, and many other names we all know.
The other intrigue surrounds what will the Baltimore Ravens decide to do with Lamar Jackson. If the Ravens were to trade Jackson that would shake up the entire league in a big way. It would alter decisions available around front offices league-wide. This is why the NFL dominates the sports news cycle so much. One move and the ripple effect can be felt in all 32 NFL cities. Rodger’s new contract last year necessitated the Davonte Adams trade to the Las Vegas Raiders, the selections the Packers made at the draft, and so on.
Change Is Inevitable
No matter the decisions that are made this week, understanding the business end of the NFL and even the career earnings for the players it becomes more understandable that will see many fan favorites change teams. The good old days of players being able to stay in one city for other entire careers have become a rarer occurrence. Appreciate the player’s contributions to your team, and be happy for them that if they do go elsewhere they are making the most they can for themselves and their families. The NFL is a business and the CBA with the NFLPA has been set up so that players who generally have awfully short careers can maximize their earnings. Whether it’s for that reason or because other players on your team will take up more salary cap space it really isn’t personal, it’s business.
Enjoy the insanity that’s about to happen folks.
