Mary Kay thinks the Browns should trade for EDGE Yannick Ngakoue, who's been tendered the Franchise Tag by the JagUARS, and might possibly refuse to sign it.
I'm tired of fans mindlessly saying the Browns should spend all their money and draft picks on each and every disgruntled player who asks to be traded, but have to again take this one seriously.
I posted on this a few weeks ago, but since then, the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to spread the inevitable 2020 revenue loss out over the next 4 seasons to mitigate the shrinkage in 2021, and Ngakoue is sounding more adament.
A happy ending here is very unlikely. As good as this player is, even if he decides he and his family can scrape by on just a little under 18 mil for one season, he'll cost them that much cap space and then leave for another team.
Ngakoue, as an edge-rusher, is worth more than Jamal Adams in a trade on paper, but in the real market, not so much.
Nobody wants to rent the guy for one season and cross their fingers about keeping him for 2021 and beyond. Without a new contract *which the majority of teams can't afford*, nobody will cough up any significant compensation for him.
The new contract itself is an issue too. What offer did this player and his agent reject before he was tendered?
I get that many players hate the tag because if they're injured during that season, it undermines their earning power, essentially for the rest of their carreers.
But is that the issue, or is 17.6 mil (or whatever) not enough for him? And will he look at Garrett's new contract and expect 99% of that? More than that?
I guess I'm wondering if Yannick is another Ebineezer Bell, or would he accept maybe 6 years at 21 mil/year (this is a tad less than Garrett's 2 combined contracts averaged out)?
Would he demand that 80% of it be guaranteed, as it was for Garrett? The Browns couldn't afford that, ok?
The 2021 cap might be 185 mil, and these 2 Defensive Ends would account for around 38 mil of that--then 46 mil in 2022 (assume a 195 mil cap).
With Ward, Mayfield, and Chubb on deck?
This couldn't work. It would be suicidal. It's possible that if Ngakoue would accept less guaranteed money in the out-years and a big down-payment in 2020, they could get this done.
Something rediculous like 25 mil fully guaranteed in 2020 (he would earn a lot more than Garrett for that season, and more in his second season as well).
But 70% guaranteed, and maybe 19 mil with 13 mil guaranteed in 2022 (his third season), at which point a healthy Ngakoue would be a white-hot trade prospect, as well as possibly affordable for the Browns to retain.
As for trade compensation, I bring you back to the Jags' untenable situation. They're not on the verge of a Superbowl, so their smartest move is to cash out...as every other GM in the NFL knows.
This time, Mary Kay was partly right: the JagUARS probably can't even get a 1st round pick for him.
If the new contract could be worked out, DePoBerry could offer maybe a 2nd round pick, then a couple lower picks, OR:
Mary Kay says that the JagUARS aren't interested in David Njoku, but that's because she hasn't heard anything about it. Me? I looked up the Jags depth-chart, and assure you that they ARE (because they have to be).
...Obviously. Berry's first offer (should he make one) should be Njoku for Ngakoue straight up. This would be a huge ripoff, but the Jags are (or should be) desperate. The final deal might be Njoku and a 2021 4th and 5th rounder.
Njoku's base salary for 2020 is under 2 mil, so the Jags could roll over 16 mil more in cap space this year. He's under contract for 6 mil in 2021.
If the Jags are smart enough to ignore the punditry (and John Dorsey), David Njoku could be an integral part of their rebuild, and save Minshu (or whoever's) life, and the math is perfect.
Indulging my inner-fan here, WOW who wants to be the creamy filling in a Ngakoue-Garrett oreo?
Seriously, it would significantly improve the Browns prospects for a wild card or the Division in 2020.
The Jamal Adams stuff was pure dumbassitude, of course. No knock on Jamal, who is awesome, but so is his successor at LSU Grant Delpit, and look at what the Seahawks mortgaged for him, starting with 2 first round picks.
If you thought the Browns should trade for Adams, you need a brain transplant.
Back to reality: I doubt that an Ngakoue trade can work out, but Everson Griffen is still hanging around, and is an extremely more realistic and affordable prospect.
But this Chad Thomas guy...he came on late last season, after Myles Garrett lost his mind and got suspended. Signing Griffen could kick Thomas to the curb.
As I've posted, I understand Chad's artistic/creative tendancies, and how they can screw a guy up, and how it's hard for creative people to "buckle down" and shut their right brains down.
Chad Thomas can become a very good edge-rusher and Defensive Lineman if he zeroes in on football only for 8 months/year and saves his music carreer til he's in his 30's and can buy recording studios and stuff out of petty cash.
And for all we know, he might suck at music anyway. Is reciting obcene nursery rhymes "music"? I'm listening to some pure garbage now that...but I digress:
I trust the the current regime to make smart personnel decisions. If John Dorsey was still here, I would not trust him, as I now consider myself smarter than him.
More snickers and eyerolls? Well sheee...I called the OBJ trade rumors idiotic, then declared the actual trade for him and Pegleg Vernon stupid...
...Ok well I was deferring to Dorsey off the team he'd built in KC so I didn't officially declare him an egomaniacal idiot at that time, but you can check my "WTF" posts back then and see I was right and he was wrong.
It's ok, since trading OBJ after 2020 (if he manages not to get injured for the first time ever) should yield at least a 2nd round pick and more...
But just to be clear, I am not a John Dorsey fan. Don't get me wrong: He signed Kareem Hunt, drafted Ward, Mayfield etc, turned Deshaun Kizer into Damarius Randall, and did other great things, but he also made a bunch of dumbass moves.
Overrating/paying Hubbard. Extending Robinson. Trading Kevin Zeitler, Jabrill Peppers, a 1st round pick, and more high picks for 2 players that spent half their carreers on IR, including one over 30 well...
I'm trying to give Dorsey his props, but dammit when I knew how stupid this stuff was BEFORE he did it (by all means check my posts), well...?
Paul DePodesta has more authority now, and Andrew Berry frankly, in my opinion, is more pragmatic, objective, and downright smarter than John Dorsey.
The Chiefs (surrogates) cited cap mismanagement as the main reason for firing John Dorsey.
I assumed that John would have learned his lesson off this when he came here, and indeed in 2018 he was great (well except for overpaying Hubbard--that was dumb. Ok so was drafting Austin Corbett, in retrospect).
In 2019, he spazzed out with the aforementioned blockbuster trade with the Giants.
I KNOW FOR SURE that Paul DePodesta got all up in Haslam's face about Kitchens vs Stefanski in 2019, and that the Haslems got the message as the should-be juggernaut Browns fizzled in 2019.
Trust me: Paul DePodesta was (heaven forfend!) "in Haslam's ear" DUH.
Well as my readers know, Kitchens may have leaned on Zampese in 2018, and been Dorsey's puppet in 2019 (my bad).
Anyway if you expect the new regime to replicate their predeccessors' mediocrity, you are atop the brain-transplant waiting list.
...okbye
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