ztboiler

Mine too...and that’s not necessarily a good thing. But nonetheless, I love the pick. When you need a LT like we do, and Darrisaw is available, it tells you how much this staff must love Paye...I like that a lot.

There is a built in likelihood of a 3rd round comp pick...so that’s worth something...

While you’re probably right...as are so many that are saying the same...a pass rush phenom doesn’t need a scheme fit. Von Miller in his prime would fit our scheme just fine, for instance, but wouldn’t have been considered a scheme fit for us either coming out of college

Completely agree. It absolutely frees Ballard up to add talent through the draft as his board breaks, including the freedom to take some risk and trade down when a LT prospect is grouped with other prospects of comparable draft value

While it’s evident that Ballard has set up the off-season to draft LT at 1 or 2...this mock would be a great outcome if the board doesn’t break his way.

I’m not sure you get it

Ballard is rigorous about performance delta and contribution alignment with contract. It’s not very entertaining in the early days of the off-season...but he does exactly what he says he will do. And he pays premium guys like Buckner the premium they deserve...just as he will Leonard and Q. Most of the guys flying off the board offer rather little performance delta at 15M per year above the guys he’s getting ready to pay 5M per year or less in a buyers market...

Methinks Brandt, credentialed though he is, mixed up his facts re: Colts. It happens...and the Browns number was probably the line above the Colts in his spreadsheet...

History suggests it will affect the middle class the most. Many, maybe even most mid-level guys will have to join the poverty class. Even in rising cap years we see the crunch where mid level FA's that miss the early waves of free agency have to settle for a year of chump change. This year the premium class will have to be thinner and the early waves of free agency shallower until most of the UFA's are gathered between league minimum and about $3M. You make a great point, that a team like the Colts might get a premium guy at a market number Ballard is willing to pay...though I think most premium players will forego multi-year contracts in compressed market that may only last a year.

I don't think very many off-season Mocks, including professional talking heads, are incorporating the reduced salary cap level enough into Free Agent contract predictions. All your contract numbers make sense to me in a normal year, none are out of whack with normal market values, but there simply isn't enough money sloshing around the league to fuel them. It's unfortunate for TY, but if we don't pay him 2yrs/$20M, it's almost certain that nobody else will. There will be a handful of normal, bank breaking UFA signings to premium and rising second contract players, but the rest of the league's UFA's are mostly going to have to play on cheap one year deals slotted by their relative value. Even after 1/2 the league finishes slashing their roster to get below minimums, there isn't a third of the cap space available to spend in a normal rising cap year...

That's correct

Total NFL Cap Space March 2020 - $1.4 Billion Total NFL Cap Space Today - $284 Million (per OTC) based on projected $180.5 Million Cap We have all known it is going to be an unpredictable off-season league-wide...but this quantitative look at only 20% of the money available, year over year, to chase players and manage rosters is unprecedented...there is no way possible to put this into perspective until we see it play out...but really good veteran players will have to play for very little money in 2021 unless something changes. Ballard is likely to wait until the league spends what little it can...then hand pick premium talent from the clearance rack on one year deals. The Colts are in the perfect position in a perfect storm.

Exactly. I’m OK with Darnold except Trubisky has accomplished more and costs less.

To your point, if you want Darnold, you should really want Trubisky

Interesting declaration about our 3rd string QB. Hope you feel better about whatever is bothering you.