Tim took a look at the two games Delpit played in 2019 after he had had three weeks off to recover from the HIGH ANKLE SPRAIN which he had played with for several games. These were the playoff and championship games, so it's even a better projector of what this Swiss Army safety will do in the NFL.
Tim didn't address Delpit's tackling in particular, but I heard a PFF writer say he missed zero tackles in those 2 games (including on both Quarterbacks when they scrambled).
As Kevin Stefanski says, Grant Delpit (like Greedy Williams and Denzel Ward) are here to cover first, and although KS didn't say it, it's really stupid to pass up a freak turnover machine because you're worried about his tackling.
This isn't to say that tackling is irrelevant (especially for a safety). But Delpit's "issues" in this dept. were massively overstated.
Tim points out that in these 2 games, Delpit's best plays came from the slot.
That's good, because Andrew Sendejo is a pretty good seasoned veteran Free Safety and Karl Joseph is (when healthy) an elite Strong Safety. Nickel corner is the simplest entry-level position, so using Delpit there is an efficient way of making sure you get your five best guys on the field while the rookie learns the ropes.
...but those who are worried about Grant Delpit's ability to play Free Safety in his first year are really just...well you're wearing masks in your cars, aren't you? You won't roll down your window to talk to anybody, right?
Oh yeah hey everybody we're all in this together! We'll get through this somehow! Cuz we're amerikahaaaahaha oh god -sob/sniff- heh-heh no really...I'm just so embarrassed for you...
But I digress: We saw what adding Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Steelers (instantly) did for that so-so defense, and Grant Delpitt is that kind of player, or even better.
Dan Justik says that the Browns have a slight edge in the Jadeveon Clowney sweepsakes, as he and Myles Garrett have the same agent.
I'm sure that Bus Cook appreciates Dan and other pundits for doing his job for him by projecting a 25 mil/year record-setting deal right off his 6-game suspension.
Good grief: Khalil Mack has a balloon payment 26.6 mil cap hit for 2020 (nice job Bearss Mayock), but this is an outlier.
That is a historically dumb contract, akin to (oh, I don't know) trading away half a draft class to move up to draft Mitch Trubiski second overall, maybe?
(Note: You people check out Da Bearss last few offseasons and tell me Andrew Berry is a dumbass!)
Anyway, agents want you to think that dumbassitude is irrelevant, but in the real world it matters. If you were looking to buy a house, and some idiot paid 30% over market for one 6 doors down, that means you have to overpay too?
Look around at the other people looking at that house. It's a reverse intelligence test, you see? Somebody might pay an extra 5% or so, but nobody will get close to the money the moron paid (and you're all going to egg and TP his house tomorrow night btw).
DeMarcus Lawrence got 21.9 mil in 2020 and then incremental raises (as his guarantees drop) until he makes 26 mil (5 mil guaranteed) in 2023.
Myles Garrett can expect more than that. Despite his suspension, he's better than Lawrence.
But the Browns are negotiating 2 years before they have to. They could just ride out his 2020 salary and 2021 option and then even franchise tag him. The early renegotiation represents a big fat raise right tf now, along with security (against carreer-ending injuries, for example).
The contract might actually even pay 25 mil in 2020 (all guaranteed), but then decline, and average out to 5% over Lawrence's over time; maybe 23 mil/year.
It could also be less, as Andrew Berry will be pointing at the inevitable shrinkage of the salary cap in 2021 after the damage from the Covid 19 anti-Trump hysteria deadly pandemic oh the humanity BS wrecks NFL revenues along with the rest of the economy in 2020.
I'm not sure how that influences these negotiations, though: Bus Cook could say "ok. We'll just wait for the cap to bounce back in '22"...noo...I think that with the up-front raise and security issues factored in, the Browns have more leverage with an intelligent player.
Also, Myles Garrett wants to win championships, and he finds himself surrounded by young and ascending talent, and opposite an eventual Aaron Rodgers type Quarterback (roll your eyes all you want just remember I said it a couple years from now).
Myles might have dreams of other teams he likes better, but can't control any of that, and for now is locked in here for 2 more seasons. If he has faith in Mayfield and Stefanski, he will want to stay here.
Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward enter their third seasons, and both have 5th year club options which would be excersized after 2020. This would lock them up through 2022, but wow...
Ultimately, free agents will take one-year deals just to keep playing, and guys like Mayfield and Ward will just play out their hands and back up their Brinks trucks in 2022 (dammit).
That's why locking Garrett up now is probably a good idea for both parties.
Sorry I got all business analytical-like there, but it's important, especially here, where this business analytics pioneer named Paul DePodesta is the Chief STRATEGY Officer.
Thanks to DePodesta, the Cleveland Browns will do at least as well as any other team when the cap shrinks.
Ok I'm sorry but I have to stay in the weeds here this matters, you people:
The market will be flooded with free agents, including a lot more high profile guys like Hooper and Conklin. A guy like Jadeveon Clowney is asking 13 mil for one season. Sendejo and Joseph would have accepted league minimum salaries.
Nobody would have offered Schobert 11 mil, and he might possibly be retained. Guys like Everson Griffen would already have signed for 1 year and 6 mil. Every holdout gets a middle finger. Trades get creative; more player-for-player with cash changing hands and team-freindy extentions.
Obviously, the teams with the most draft picks are the best off, and the oldest (and often the best) teams are in the biggest trouble.
DePodesta will thrive in this post-apocolyptic chaos...
Back to 2020: MKC says Jarvis Landry is an adult, and won't rush back from his surgery like a lot of guys do.
The fact is, the longer Jarvis takes to get back on the field, the better. Landry is money in the bank, and doesn't need reps with Baker Mayfield. OBJ and a BUNCH of young WRs need all the reps they can get.
Everybody is making a big deal out of the Browns' new fullback Andy Janovich, and it kind of drives me nuts:
The QB and offensive line total 6 players, leaving 5 slots. Not 7. Not 6. FIVE slots.
Ok well if you field 2 Tight Ends, you only have 3 slots left, and I feel confident that a Running Back is one of these, leaving 2 slots.
Landry/OBJ? Makes sense. Or park one of them on the bench to use Janovich? Well...instead of Hunt? Hmm...Janovich or Hunt...Hunt or Janovich...somebody got a quarter or some dice?
Oh I get it! You platoon Chubb and Hunt so you can get Janovich on the field more! Or else only use one Tight End more (and 3 running backs).
As I've said, Janovich won't play much beyond 3rd and shorts until Kareem Hunt is off the team.
DUH.
*I still hope that Kareem Hunt will somehow get turned into a high draft pick before the season starts: He's awesome short-term but can't be a core player here. The player you draft with the pick you get for him can be, and that's how you sustain success*
An OBJ trade isn't dead yet either, by the way.
You people need to excuse me for following my emotions back to Jadeveon Clowney here again:
I'm prejudiced in favor of long-term contracts for young players whenever possible, as this is how you sustain a core. Clowney is under duress now due to his mediocre 2019 performance, the fact that he has never had double-digit sacks, his (overinflated) injury history, and the very fact that no NFL team has been willing to sign him long-term.
In re the latter, there are 2 sides to that: Clowney himself may have nixed longer-term deals, as he kept expecting to cash in on 13 or so sacks off each one-year deal.
He can't keep doing that. He had a great chance with the Seahawks, but he got a core muscle injury and played with it.
He still played very well per PFF, if you're not fixated on sacks and aren't a dumbass. With his muscle injuries repaired, Clowney at 27 should be fine.
Looking ahead to a diminished cap in 2021, Clowney is under pressure to sign for at least 2 years right now, and take less money than he wants.
If he signs for one year, he's a free agent just when the cap crashes. If he doesn't sign very, very soon, he's going to make peanuts or retire early.
DePoBerry could offer him 3 years and guarantee all of 15.5 mil in 2020, then---nevermind but shrink the base and guarantees but offer performance incentives and stuff.
Tough call: He's 30 when it's over--he'd rather be 29 with more leverage. But what if he never gets 10 sacks? What if he gets hurt again (and worse)? How much does winning matter?
Sorry again but anyway Jadeveon Clowney is, and always has been, terrific vs the pass and the run, and even in coverage for that matter. He could absolutely bookend Myles Garrett and give Joe Woods lots more options schematically.
...or Griffen and Matthews would work fine too.
Those are the 2 best replacements for Pegleg Vernon.
I'll mercifully end this soon, but before I do, I need to revisit my Mayfield/Rodgers comparison again:
I've heard rumors (from legit sources) that Rodgers deviated from Matt LaFluer's "script" quite a bit in 2019; not throwing to his predesignated targets, and improvising too much in this timing offense.
Both LaFluer and Rodgers deny the rumors of conflict between them, and I kinda buy that, but Aaron Rodgers is not a "system" Quarterback, and Baker Mayfield is just like him.
Rodgers has been around long enough to stand up for himself, whereas Mayfield still has a lot to prove, but the message for both is the same:
"Let ME decide who to throw to as the play unfolds. Don't tell me to target OBJ when I see him covered before the snap, or despite that. Let me fkng figure it out for myself (but thanks for the timing routes so I know where to look)"
Russell Wilson is kinda like that, and Drew Brees I think. DeShaun Jackson maybe. But Baker Mayfield belongs right there with Aaron Rodgers, if you just let him be him.
Stay tuned.
I HAVE SPOKEN
No comments:
Post a Comment