The NFL has sent out a memo to teams regarding tampering and trades. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com obtained that memo, noting that it specifically relates to “granting players permission to shop themselves to a new team via trade.” Most importantly, the NFL noted that permission must be obtained from the player’s current team before talks with another organization can take place.
“Under no circumstances should a new club rely upon any written or oral representation by a player or his agent that he has received permission to enter into discussions for a trade for contract,” the memo states. “Nor should a new club rely upon a letter from the employer club to the agent or player granting such permission since employer clubs typically reserve the right to withdraw permission at any time, and may have already done so. Permission must be received directly from the employer club.”
As Florio notes, it’s uncertain if this is just a yearly reminder or if it “arises from a specific incident that has occurred in recent weeks.” If that’s the case, Florio expects the respective team to be disciplined.
Here’s the latest from around the league on the eve of the tampering window.
- The NFL Players Association has announced (via Twitter) that veteran offensive lineman Eric Winston has been re-elected as union president. This will be the 34-year-old’s third two-year term. Florio points out that Winston may not even play next year, but he was eligible to run in 2018 since he played last season. If Winston doesn’t play in 2019, he won’t be eligible to run in 2020. Florio observes that this is an important note, as the current labor deal is likely to expire after 2020. In that case, there may be a new president in place when the next work stoppage arises.
- Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller talked to one league executive who believes the Browns recent moves indicate that general manager John Dorsey is in control of the organization instead of head coach Hue Jackson. “The Browns trading for Tyrod [Taylor] and not signing [A.J.] McCarron tells you who’s running the show,” the executive said (via Twitter).
- As part of a recent series, former NFL agent (and current CBS Sports writer) Joel Corry analyzed what contracts top free agents should pursue. For quarterbacks, Corry focuses on a five-year, $150MM contract ($100MM guaranteed) for Kirk Cousins, a three-year, $85MM deal ($60MM guaranteed) for Drew Brees, and three-year, $50MM deal ($34MM guaranteed) for McCarron.
And now 1 year at $16 million for Tyrod Taylor doesn’t look so bad.
Thank god Dorsey is running football ops and not Hue Jackson. Hiring Todd Haley also helps the offense massively. Hue Jackson’s best contribution thus far has been making them so terrible that they got all these great draft picks.
I’m sure HJ was part of the drafting problems so in order to keep his job he knew his input on future draft is minimal if at all and with Haley as Oc he would no longer call plays
Hue Jackson obviously didn’t have a big enough input in drafting though. He supposedly told Wentz that the Browns were going to take him with the #2 pick; and its well known that HJ was a big fan of Wentz. The previous front office probably asked for Jackson’s input but obviously didn’t put too much weight into it.
And all this came out after the front office was canned…Hue has perfect vision, all hindsight, but perfect nonetheless.
I’m not saying Hue Jackson is perfect or has made the right call all the time. His game management and calling alone is questionable and is borderline a firable offense. But just looking at the roster from the previous two years, I doubt many other coaches could do more. The front office was being run by a bunch of guys who knew nothing about football but were trying to be trendsetters. They seemed to put too much into analytics instead of the opinions of good football minds. Its not like previous head coaches in Cleveland did much better. And the bigger problem is the team hasn’t had a QB in forever. If it isn’t painfully obvious, you need a QB to do anything. With as much turmoil and turnover at that position, its impossible for any coach to do anything. As far as we know, Hue Jackson didn’t have final say over the roster and he surely didn’t have a significant enough voice when it came to the draft.
Hehehehe….
The thing with Hue Jackson, aside from being a terrible playcaller and game day head coach, is that he is and has been throwing everyone under the bus.. he talks about “Turning the franchise around by winning”, but has been a big part of the historic losing. How a head coach that has gone 1-31 in two years thinks he should have more control of the franchise is borderline offensive to fans, front office and the owner… the browns weren’t expected to do well, or be .500, but 1-31 is in a whole new league of terrible. Blaming the roster mid season is more embarrassing than the roster itself.
If any team gives Kirk 5 years 150M with 100M in guarantees the GM needs to be fired and banned from NFL and the owner needs to be forced to sell for allowing such a stupid thing. I firmly believe one of the reasons that Patriots dynasty has lived for so long is because they aren’t paying their QB an insane amount of money, allowing them to spend money elsewhere. It makes me sick to my stomach to think a mediocre QB like Cousins is gonna finesse a team out of a ton of money
If you truly believe Brady is asking for less money to help the tram, you’re delusional. Every time Brady renegotiates his salary, more is deferred. The Pats will either owe a one time,$80mil cap hit, or have Brady on the payroll for about 20 years
So Cousins should take less money just because he’s not a good QB? He’s more than entitled to whatever price a team is willing to pay him. It’s Supply and Demand 101 really.
You also have to consider advertisement/sponsorship money. Someone like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers can afford to take a little less on their contract because they can make it up via sponsorships. Someone like Kirk Cousins? Sure he’ll get some money from sponsors but he’s not going to make millions of dollars from them. It also helps that Tom Brady’s wife makes just as much, if not more, than him.