Reality of the NFL and 1st Round and Draft Picks

[Shake n Blake]

(09-08-2017, 04:37 PM)Hammerstripes Wrote: True - and I completely agree.

The only thing that I will say is that the free agent market isn't the way it used to be.  Now, teams HAVE to spend a certain amount, so you start to see some of these outrageous contracts.  Guys that should make $6 million are getting double that.  Just look at Zietler's contract.

It's not as simple as using free agency, since the cost of getting a tier 1 or tier 2 free agent is probably double to triple the cost of another guy.  

Those are the deals that make the headlines. There are plenty of deals after day 1 for good players at fair prices. Nobody wants to talk about those, though.

Manti Te'o- 2 years, $5 million
Morris Claiborne- 1 year, $5 million
Connor Barwin- 1 year, $3.5 million
Jared Cook- 2 years, $10.6 million
Brandon Carr- 4 years, $23.5 million (easy out after year 1)
Datone Jones- 1 year, $3.75 million
Cordarrelle Patterson- 2 years, $8.5 million
DJ Fluker- 1 year, $3 million
Mike Remmers- 5 years, $30 million (easy out after year 2)
Terrelle Pryor- 1 year, $6 million 
Lawrence Timmons- 2 years, $12 million (easy out after year 1)
Prince Amukamara- 1 year, $6 million
Logan Ryan- 3 years, $30 million (easy out after year 1...this was a bargain for a star CB in his prime)
DJ Swearinger- 3 years, $13.5 million (easy out after year 1)
Micah Hyde- 5 years, $30.5 million (easy out after year 3)
Alshon Jeffery- 1 year, $9.5 million (stud WR at this price? In free agency?)
John Cyprien- 4 years, $25 million (easy out after year 1)
Torrey Smith- 3 years, $15 million
Luke Joeckel- 1 year, $8 million 
Brandon Marshall- 2 years, $11 million (easy out after year 1...incredible bargain)

And this is just for 2017. 

Many of these contracts are short term or have an easy out after year one or two, which minimizes risk. I did see plenty of big deals for o-linemen, but I think that has more to do with the rising value for those positions than free agency itself. Usually with FA, we see 1 or 2 blockbuster deals that get all the headlines, but every year we also see that 90% of free agents wind up signing for fair value.