First order of offseason business. Stop trashing the Super Bowl. I, as a football fan, enjoyed the game and could easily rant about why it’s idiotic to say it was boring. Trey Wingo does a good enough job here.
For all the disrespect that the Super Bowl got, none angered me more than LeBron calling out the game while it was still going on.
Imagine playing in a league where the most exciting part of the season is seeing which team can give up the most future assets for stars, just to come in second place. It’s comical that LeBron has to call on Shams and Woj because we know that trades are the only suspenseful moments that the season provides.
Which brings me here. I won’t lie, the NBA’s deadline and offseason have been fun to follow the past few years. The star alignment has completely shifted compared to where it was just a few years ago, and it can be thrilling to watch. However, I’m here not to praise the NBA of course, but to explain that the NFL is about to undergo an NBA-esque offseason. You better pay attention, or you’ll miss it.
Le’Veon Bell Saga
Nothing quite like starting with a familiar friend. As we know, in 2018 Le’Veon Bell did what hundreds have teased and zero have delivered on. He sat out an entire season of football strictly because of a failure by the Steelers to offer a suitable contract.
You might be asking why this is still relevant, as Bell is an unrestricted free agent and can sign where he pleases, but it’s much more complicated. While the option for the Steelers to franchise tag Bell for the third time is almost completely out of the question (he would be owed an enormous $25 million at that point) the slightly lesser known transition tag could be in play.
The transition tag essentially makes Bell a restricted free agent, giving the Steelers an opportunity to match any offer that Bell receives. Should the market never materialize, the Steelers would just have to match the best offer to keep the All-Pro back. The only drawback to the transition tag is that should the Steelers lose Bell, they’ll receive no compensatory picks, which would hurt for a free agent of that caliber.
If the Steelers were to place the transition tag on Bell, a team with tons of cap space could front-load a contract that the Steelers can’t afford, leaving their hands tied with no way of getting anything out of it.
All of this talk could be for nothing. Pittsburgh may just move on, which would create the biggest free agent scramble since Peyton Manning, which admittedly is fun in its own right.
The dates to watch for: February 20. That’s when tag designations are officially allowed by the NFL. March 5 is the deadline to apply a tag. Those 13 Days figure to be one of defining moments of the Le’Veon Bell Cold War.
Top Tier Free Agents
The only thing that could hurt this free agent class is the looming amount of potential franchise tag candidates. Of these, the biggest include safety Landon Collins, and edge-rushers Dee Ford (13.0 sacks), Jadeveon Clowney (9.0 sacks), and Frank Clark (13 sacks). Those four names getting taken off the board would be a blow to, in what my opinion is, a strong group of free agents. If any of the pass rushers, however, were to hit the open market, they’d join Ezekiel Ansah and Demarcus Lawrence (unlikely to be tagged for a second-straight season, yet still likely to sign with Dallas) as the top sack-artists on the market.
Outside of pass rushers, there are a few impact players who could potentially reach unrestricted free agency. Earl Thomas appears unlikely to remain in Seattle, and while the once All-Pro safety is coming off a serious injury, he’ll start next season at just age 30 with plenty left in the tank. Brandon Graham, one of the stars of the Eagles’ underdog driven defense, might be too expensive for Philly to maintain and could provide a spark for a number of contenders looking to bolster the pass rush.
On offense there figure to be many potential starters in play as well. It’s growing increasingly more likely that Nick Foles is going to be a free agent (or somehow available) and might see a Case Keenum-like contract from a team not ready to commit to a youngster. Foles’ brief teammate Golden Tate will be the top WR available and can immediately step in as a WR2 for several teams. While Philly failed to utilize his biggest strength, making guys miss in open space, many forget that Tate was off to a fast start this past season in Detroit. The Colts or Jets could be the highest bidder for a number of free agents and could both benefit heavily from Tate’s services.
Other offensive names to follow include Tevin Coleman, Mark Ingram, Tyrell Williams, and Teddy Bridgewater, as well as OL Matt Paradis, Trent Brown, and Daryl Williams.
Overall this class is studded with household names at the top, with a deep group of quality lesser-known starters at the bottom.
Trades Are Relevant Again
There was a time where Percy Harvin getting traded to the Jets was the most exciting trade happening in football. Trades were dead, but they’re more alive than they’ve been since the early 2000s.
The biggest and most obvious name that’ll be the epicenter of trade talk this offseason is Antonio Brown. Brown is still one of the best pass catchers in the game, but we already know how much the boat has been rocked in Pittsburgh. With Bell most likely leaving, and Ben nearing the end of the line, the Steelers might just blow it all up and stock up on whatever future resources that they can.
Other teams that might head into full tank mode are the Bengals, Dolphins, and Redskins. All are in QB purgatory, yet aren’t in
Obviously, most of the offseason’s trades will involve the draft, which immediately leads right into our last point…
A Once “Boring” Draft Has Lots of Potential
NFL scouting pundits looked at this draft coming into the season as one with exceptional DL talent, solid CB depth, and just a few stars (if any) on offense. What wasn’t expected was for two QBs, Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Murray, to emerge out of the shadows out to become elite college quarterbacks and top NFL prospects. Suddenly the two of them, as well as Missouri QB Drew Lock, have great odds to be top-10 picks and future Sunday starters.
As for what now, we have an elite group of DL entering the league. Nick Bosa, Quinnen Williams, Josh Allen, Rashan Gary, Clelin Ferrell, Ed Oliver, Brian Burns, Montez Sweat, Christian Wilkins, and Dexter Lawrence (that’s 10 guys for those counting), all have legitimate shots to be top-20 picks. Every single of those guys has something that made them a special college player and will hope to translate it into the NFL.
What might happen with this class, however, is that due to the trio of quarterbacks, and fresh bunch of D-Lineman, guys with top-10 or top-15 grades may fall. We saw this happen last year with Derwin James, as unfortunately, safety just isn’t as important as pass rushers, OTs, and QBs. The most likely to suffer because of this could be LSU teammates CB Greedy Williams and LB Devin White. In my opinion, both are top-10 players in this class, but when mocking out this draft, I see realistic scenarios where one or both fall outside of the top-15, just based on positional value and need.
So Basically…
Just like the NFL as a whole had a makeover in 2018, I think the perfect recipe of a solid free agent group, an exciting draft class, and a few Pittsburgh divas, will make for the best offseason of recent memory. By draft day we’ll be having Schefter or Rapoport bombs instead of Woj and Shams, just in time to see the ever-so-suspenseful NBA playoffs that the Warriors are totally not going to dominate.
Care to discuss why football is so obviously better than basketball, hit me up on Instagram and Twitter @MS_Persources.