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    In N.F.L. Free Agency, Your Team Either Goes Broke or Stinks

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn FootballIn N.F.L. Free Agency, Your Team Either Goes Broke or StinksG.M.s will have to work extra hard to add talent in a salary cap-crunched 2021. It’s still a bad way for most teams to improve.The Dallas Cowboys appeared to have a salary cap surplus until the moment quarterback Dak Prescott’s new $160 million contract was announced Monday. Credit…Ron Jenkins/Associated PressMarch 10, 2021, 5:28 p.m. ETWelcome to the start of N.F.L. free agency, one of the most exciting events of the league’s off-season.Many teams are either flat broke (read: no cap space) or so far from contention that splurging on big-name talent is more likely to hurt than help them. Several of the most coveted free agents were pulled from the market at the last minute. The reports of massive dollar figures doled out in new contracts over the next few weeks will mostly be accounting metafiction, not real money. And the best transactions will inevitably be the ones teams avoid making.Are you excited yet?Free agency officially begins on March 17, but thanks to a “legal tampering period” that begins two days before then, many of the splashiest transactions are announced several days early, making free agency an event that essentially ends before it begins. The N.F.L. instituted the window back in 2016, permitting teams to open talks with other teams’ soon-to-be-free agents a few days early. General managers and agents no longer wink and pretend that they negotiated eight-figure, multiyear contracts seconds after the start of the new league year. Now, they wink and pretend that they negotiated those contracts seconds after the start of the tampering period.This year’s overspending binge promises to be more chaotic than usual due to a rare dip in the N.F.L.’s 2021 salary cap. Each year’s cap is directly tied to the previous year’s league revenues, which partially include gate receipts that of course declined precipitously in 2020 because of pandemic restrictions. The salary cap dipped from $198.2 million in 2020 to anticipated $182.5 million this year. It would have fallen further if the league and the N.F.L. Players Association had not negotiated a sort of relief bill to spread 2020’s losses over multiple years; otherwise, some teams would have been forced to field teams consisting of guaranteed-salary quarterbacks surrounded by groundskeepers and equipment managers.This year’s cap crunch arrived just as the balloon payments came due for many teams that overspent in pursuit of past Super Bowls, forcing those teams to both cut veterans and resort to imaginative bookkeeping to achieve cap compliance. For example, the New Orleans Saints restructured Drew Brees’s contract in early February, even though Brees is expected to retire. The Pittsburgh Steelers restructured Ben Roethlisberger’s contract last week to make ends meet, even though Roethlisberger probably should retire. The Philadelphia Eagles incurred a $33 million cap hit when they traded quarterback Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts in February. To get back under the cap, the team is attempting to perform the budget equivalent of ripping the copper wiring out the walls to sell for gas money.All the accounting sorcery in the multiverse won’t free enough cap space to make the Eagles, Steelers or Saints serious participants in free agency. Meanwhile, the ever-woeful Jacksonville Jaguars (an estimated $72 million under the cap, as of this writing) and the Jets ($67 million) have the most money to spend this year, as they do every few years, which neatly illustrates the folly of trying to build a quality football team via free agency.Some legitimate contenders appear to have money to spend, but again: it’s inadvisable to believe any of the numbers associated with N.F.L. free agency. The defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers entered the week with about $12 million in cap space, and are reportedly planning to clear more by extending Tom Brady’s contract until he’s nearly eligible to join the AARP. The Buccaneers then re-signed linebacker Lavonte David and applied the franchise tag to receiver Chris Godwin, temporarily placing them back in the red before they could address other in-house free agents like the pass rusher Shaquil Barrett or tight end Rob Gronkowski.Tampa Bay’s Shaquil Barrett, right, headlines a deep pool of pass rushing free agents. The Buccaneers entered the week with about $12 million in cap space on their ledger, and are reportedly planning to clear more by extending Tom Brady’s contract Credit…Jason Behnken/Associated PressThe Dallas Cowboys also appeared to have a cap surplus until the moment quarterback Dak Prescott’s new contract was announced Monday. Often, a team’s full bank account is just a sign that the bills haven’t been paid yet.Godwin and Chicago Bears receiver Allen Robinson were among the best players available before each received the dreaded franchise tag, a speed bump on the free market that allows teams to retain the rights to some would-be free agents for one year at a high-but-tightly-regulated salary. For Godwin, the franchise tag at least guarantees him a chance to catch passes from Brady and could perhaps mean a return to the Super Bowl. Robinson will be stuck celebrating the Bears’ 71st consecutive season of trying to replace Sid Luckman at quarterback.Even without Robinson and Godwin, there’s a free-agent talent glut at receiver, including up-and-comers Kenny Golladay, Curtis Samuel and JuJu Smith-Schuster; veterans like Larry Fitzgerald, T.Y. Hilton and A.J. Green, and many others. Barrett headlines a deep pool of pass rushers along with Melvin Ingram, Bud Dupree, and Justin Houston. There are more quality players at these positions than solvent potential employers, and the free-agent ranks are growing because teams are still shedding salaries. For example, the Seattle Seahawks released pass rusher Carlos Dunlap on Monday, adding another job applicant to an already crowded field.Supply and demand dictates that shrewd organizations will be able to sign quality players at deep discounts once the initial spending spree for big names like Barrett subsides. That is how the New England Patriots successfully operated from the dawn of the 21st century through last year’s signing of quarterback Cam Newton. The Jets are bound to figure out the secret one of these decades.The dollar values of the contracts that will be announced next week are widely known to be the most imaginary numbers in all of free agency. N.F.L. contracts are typically bloated with non-guaranteed back-end money that provides bragging rights for players and agents and proration lodestones for cap alchemists. Linebacker Kyle Van Noy signed a reported four-year, $51 million contract with the Miami Dolphins last March. The team released him last week after one year, paying him about $15.5 million. Van Noy is now yet another veteran pass rusher seeking work.As Brady and the Buccaneers illustrated last season, a judicious big-name signing or two can truly help a team that’s already stacked. Still, the best approach to free agency is typically to avoid it. In addition to bargain hunting for leftovers, successful franchises sign core players to extensions before they reach the market, then let veterans who have peaked sign elsewhere in exchange for the compensatory draft picks the N.F.L. doles out in its quest for perfect competitive balance.Organizations that overspend during this time of year end up trapped in a binge-and-purge cycle of cutting past losses to make room for their next round of mistakes. For fans of teams like the Jets and Jaguars, who have endured years of misplaced spring hope, a quiet free agency period would be a truly exciting free agency period.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Why Patrick Mahomes Lost Last Night

    Why Patrick Mahomes Lost Last NightDoug Mills/The New York TimesPatrick Mahomes didn’t look anything like himself during the Super Bowl, largely because Tampa Bay’s pass rush had him on the run all game — setting a fairly incredible record in the process.Here’s how the Buccaneers disrupted the Chiefs’ unflappable quarterback → More

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    Super Bowl: What We Learned

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021N.F.L.’s Most Challenging YearGame HighlightsThe CommercialsHalftime ShowWhat We LearnedAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat We Learned From Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl VictoryWith help from his team’s fearsome pass rush, Tom Brady reminded Patrick Mahomes that he could still control the N.F.L.’s biggest stage.At 43, Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won his seventh Super Bowl and his fifth Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesPublished More

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    Tampa Bay’s Pass Rush Would Like Your Attention

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradyToned Down TV CommercialsLuring Online Sports BettorsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTampa Bay’s Pass Rush Would Like Your AttentionShaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh found a home with the Buccaneers after being discarded elsewhere. On Sunday, their mission is clear: Get Patrick Mahomes.Shaquil Barrett of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had one sack and one quarterback hit in Tampa Bay’s Week 12 loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.Credit…Jason Behnken/Associated PressFeb. 4, 2021, 8:14 a.m. ETThey’re big. They’re fast. Sometimes they can seem a little mean. Each one has Super Bowl experience and, come Sunday, they just might be Tampa Bay’s best chance of stopping Patrick Mahomes from winning a second consecutive championship.But the most surprising thing when you watch Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh dominate for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the realization that each of them, at one point in their career, was deemed expendable.You would hardly guess it — particularly after watching them torment Aaron Rodgers throughout an upset of the Green Bay Packers in the N.F.C. championship game — but each of them also came to Tampa Bay with metaphorical hat in hand, looking for a fresh start.Suh, a five-time Pro Bowler, was three seasons into an enormous contract with the Miami Dolphins when he was released in 2018, and after helping the Los Angeles Rams make that season’s Super Bowl, Los Angeles made no attempt to re-sign him. Pierre-Paul, with a laundry list of big moments and scary injuries, was coming off an uneven 2017 season when the Giants, as part of a move to a 3-4 defense, decided he was a bad fit and traded him to the Buccaneers for a third-round pick. And Barrett, ever the understudy to stars like Von Miller in five seasons with the Denver Broncos, walked away from a team that never found a role for him.Over the past two seasons, those three players — along with linebacker Devin White and the mammoth defensive tackle Vita Vea — have powered the Buccaneers to an average of just under three sacks a game. Barrett, who had 14 sacks in five seasons with Denver, has 27.5 in two years with the Buccaneers. Pierre-Paul, who adjusted just fine to a role as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme, has 18 sacks in the last two seasons despite missing six games.In the Bucs’ win over Green Bay two weeks ago, Barrett and Pierre-Paul accounted for all five of Tampa Bay’s sacks.Ndamukong Suh’s impact in the N.F.C. championship game did not show up on the stat sheet, but he played a huge role in ruining Aaron Rodgers’s day.Credit…Jeff Haynes/Associated PressThe group has gone from being discarded by their old teams to becoming the savvy veteran leaders of a defense that is particularly young in the secondary. And beyond the group’s obvious talent on the field, Barrett, Pierre-Paul and Suh have also proved to be leaders by sharing their life experience with the team’s younger players.“Without question,” Suh said when asked if there were things to learn from past struggles. “The tough times leave a lasting impression of something you don’t ever want to revisit again.”For Pierre-Paul, those struggles have included back surgery, the loss of his right index finger in a fireworks accident in 2015, and a car accident in 2019 that left him with a fractured vertebra in his neck.Pierre-Paul recounted his various comebacks with some lighthearted banter. He said growing up with a blind father gave him an excellent role model for resiliency, and he chastised the voters for not putting him in the Pro Bowl in 2019 after he came back from a broken neck to record 8.5 sacks in 10 games.“With all the things that I’ve been through, I’m overachieving,” he said. “I’m letting everybody know that no matter what you go through, you can do whatever.”Coach Bruce Arians said Pierre-Paul’s obstacles had made him an ideal leader.“He plays with a heart that is as big as a lion and high, high energy,” Arians said. “Guys just love playing with him. He doesn’t speak a lot because he lets his play do the talking, but when he speaks, everybody listens.”Tom Brady, who lost to Pierre-Paul and the Giants in the Super Bowl after the 2011 season, said he liked being the star defender’s teammate rather than his opponent. And he agreed with Arians about Pierre-Paul’s leadership.“J.P.P. is absolutely like a ringleader in that group,” Brady said. “When he’s going, everyone is going.”The question now is if all of that life experience, and all of that talent, can translate into Tampa Bay’s front seven creating the disruptions necessary to slow down Mahomes.While he does not run the ball very often, Mahomes is evasive in the backfield, using his legs to create separation and his arm strength to make up for having moved outside of the pocket. He is rarely sacked, and his ability to throw under pressure negates any advantage of a blitz: To Mahomes, a blitz just means there is one fewer defender in coverage. So Tampa Bay’s best bet may be to go after him with a four-man rush, a point that was repeated several times by each of the defensive stars.“He’s just got it — he’s got it all,” Barrett said of Mahomes. “So we’re going to try to keep him in a pocket. That’s why the way we rush is perfect with me and J.P.P.”Helping matters is the Chiefs’ being without several offensive linemen. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a starting guard, opted out of the season. Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz hasn’t played since Week 6, guard Kelechi Osemele hasn’t played since Week 5 and left tackle Eric Fisher tore his Achilles’ tendon in the A.F.C. championship game. Center Daniel Kilgore has missed practice all week; he is isolating away from the team after a close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus, but he is expected to be cleared to play on Sunday.Coach Bruce Arians praised Jason Pierre-Paul for his ability to play through significant injuries. “He is a rolling ball of energy every single day,” Arians said.Credit…Jason Behnken/Associated PressA few injuries — not a broken neck among them — did not draw much sympathy from Pierre-Paul.“I don’t care; it don’t matter,” Pierre-Paul said. “This is the freaking Super Bowl. I’m going to do what I need to do. That’s a ‘you’ problem. They need to figure that out.”For as confident as they are, and for as much opportunity as they have to influence the outcome of Sunday’s game, Tampa Bay’s star defenders took plenty of time to praise Mahomes as a worthy opponent. Barrett went as far as to wade in on the GOAT vs. Baby GOAT debate, in which some have suggested that Tom Brady should share his Greatest of All Time nickname with Mahomes.Barrett thinks Mahomes is well on his way to earning that distinction, but he argues that the Buccaneers defense, with a pass rush led by him, Pierre-Paul and Suh, can help slow down the passing of that torch. While Mahomes is hoping to collect a second Super Bowl ring, Brady is one win from his seventh.“We’ve just got to tell him he ain’t ready to be the big GOAT yet, because we still got Tom Brady,” Barrett said. “So we’ve got to step it up and make sure Tom Brady gets another one.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More