2018 NFL off-season thread: Mr. Alex Smith goes to Washington

Who knew Luck was a Civil War re-enactor? If that's real, it's ... well, pretty great.

 

So Saquan Barkley gets $31M+ guaranteed despite never even taking a preseason snap.

And then Gurley gets $45M in guarantees in an contract extension.

Yeah Bell was absolutely right to tell the Steelers to go fuck themselves. It's a new market for running backs now.

 

Le'Veon Bell reacts to Todd Gurley's $60 million contract extension with the Rams

Gurley was better than Bell last year. He is younger with a heck of a lot less mileage on him. He hasn't been suspended by the league twice for violations of the NFL drug policy, but Bell hashad that happen. Both have injuries in their history, but Bell's got more red flags.

The Steelers low-balled Bell on the guaranteed money, but his demands were not reasonable, either.

 

The important numbers are 21, 23 and 26. Not to mention the number of carries.

 

Don't forget the number of total touches, but you are absolutely correct in pointing out the age difference as a significant factor, especially given how poorly most running backs age.

 

Of the top 9 RBs in attempts last year, all played min of 15 games, only 2 were older than 26, Gore and McCoy. Of the top 20 attempts 7 were older than 26. Of the top 10 in yardage only 2were older than 26. The NFL isn’t Kobe’s NBA where you get paid this year and next for what you did 2 & 3 years ago.

Bell was #1 in carries and #3 in yards. He’s worth being a top 5paid RB for 2more years and the odds are he will start to fade. As said before his injuries and suspensions make him a risk.

 

The other organizations being fucking stupid doesn't really obligate the Steelers to pay Bell though. Kind of reminds me of when the cap spiked a couple years ago in the NBA, and teams rushed to give contracts out to Biz Markie Biyambo and Mozgov. The teams pretty much regretted it within a year, and it wouldn't surprise me if teams doing something similar with NFL running backs right now feel similarly.

 

Didn't some of those NBA contracts have to do with the NBA also having a salary floor teams were in danger of being under?
Doesn't seem like any NFL teams have that problem.

 

Neil O'Donnell

Steelers and Bell were unlikely to reach a deal anyway. Steelers won't overpay Bell. Someone else will. End of story.

 

Not really - IIRC, the Sixers were the only team ever in real danger of not hitting the salary floor. And even if you didn't hit it, the only penalty was that you had to pay the difference to the guys on your roster.

 

Supposedly Jason Verrett is a key player for the Chargers even though he barely played the last two years. He won't be playing this season either:

Chargers' Jason Verrett out for season with torn Achilles tendon