Maurice Jones-Drew

NFL Stock Down: Week 4

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Every Monday during the season we will take a look back at three players who are entering important stages of their contract that may have hurt their stock in upcoming negotiations with their play on Sunday. In addition we will also look at one player signed in the offseason to a new contract that did not live up to the expectations that his contract sets for the player.

Stock Down

Cam Newton– Once again I will reiterate that Newton is nowhere near a $20 million a year QB and his chances for an extension are quickly blowing up. 14/25 for 197 yards is low end game manager type play. I think at some point people are also going to question how Steve Smith is putting up the numbers he is in Baltimore while becoming something of an afterthought in Carolina.

Jason Worilds– Worilds is playing on the transition tag because the Steelers didn’t believe enough in him to sign him to a long term contract but were also holding out hope that he could earn that big contract. Through four games hope looks to be all this is. Worilds has posted just one sack and on Sunday registered just three pressures and 1 tackle in the teams’ loss to the Buccaneers.

LeSean McCoy– McCoy doesn’t look like the same player he was last season and his coach had no confidence to give him the ball at the goalline on two plays. McCoy’s salary balloons next season making this effectively a contract year for him. This is the second week in a row McCoy has done nothing and 10 carries for 17 yards is not going to get the job done for McCoy’s future prospects.

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New Contract Disappointment Of The Week

Maurice Jones Drew– In all honesty this should just go to the entire Raiders organization of free agents, who were all terrible for the 3rd time in four games this year. MJD is trying to work himself back from another injury and carried the ball two times for all of 1 yard. He also added two receptions for just a yard. Oakland had no business making this signing and whomever is running the team next year will likely make sure it’s a one year throw away.

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NFL Stock Down: Week 1

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Every Monday during the season we will take a look back at three players who are entering important stages of their contract that may have hurt their stock in upcoming negotiations with their play on Sunday. In addition we will also look at one player signed in the offseason to a new contract that did not live up to the expectations that his contract sets for the player.

Stock Down

Robert Quinn– The other day I said that Quinn had a great chance at becoming the highest paid defensive player in the NFL, but that is going to hinge on sacking the QB and he wasn’t doing that on Sunday. The Rams defense was embarrassed and its hard to make a case that you should get paid at this high level when your defense allows over 30 points with you on the field. In general I think the Rams are just bad starters so I’d expect better from him and the team next week, but he cant have many of these games if he wants that big deal.

Brian Orakpo– I’ve been a somewhat big Brian Orakpo supporter, much more so than most Redskins fans it seems. But Orakpo was non-existent in the loss against the Texans, and it’s his reputation for disappearing in games that has people questioning being paid highly on a long term extension. Orakpo played 52 snaps, recorded two tackles, 0 sacks and 0 pressures. That’s not the game that gives you a multi year $10+ million a year extension.

Marques Colston– It’s rare that a player records more than 100 yards in a game and gets put in this category, but I find Colston’s situation very unique. The Saints are in a salary cap squeeze starting next year and Colston is one of the few players that can be released for cap considerations. The team has a number of receivers to potentially replace him and he needs to be perfect to keep that job. Colston was credited with two dropped passes on the day and had the critical fumble that set the Falcons up to win the game. Thats not the perfection needed to stay on the Saints.

New Contract Disappointment Of The Week

Maurice Jones-Drew– FWIW, Alex Smith deserves this just as much, but I thought I would go with a free agent rather than an extension for this week. Jones-Drew is attempting to revitalize a career that has looked to be dead for the last two seasons. It still looks dead. Jones-Drew finished the day with 9 carries for 11 yards, 12 of which came late in a game that was more or less decided. I have no clue why the Raiders thought he could be a feature back in an offense, but a few more like this and its the end of a career. With a young inexperienced QB at the helm the Raiders will need much more from Jones-Drew in the future.

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Stock Down: Week 4

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Every Monday during the season we will take a look back at three players who are entering important stages of their contract that may have hurt their stock in upcoming negotiations with their play on Sunday. In addition we will also look at one player signed in the offseason to a new contract that did not live up to the expectations that his contract sets for the player.

Stock Down

Hakeem Nicks– Nicks complained to some extent last week about his lack of getting the ball thrown his way, but this week the ball went his way and too often fell off his fingertips. Nicks, who after 2011 was poised to be a top paid WR, has struggled for the last two years. He hadn’t really made the kind of impact the team was expecting and against Kansas City he was a major disappointment. Nicks finished the day with 33 yards, which was 33 yards more than the week before, and had multiple passes that he could have hauled in end up on the ground. Early in the game he dropped a deep sideline pass and immediately began looking for a flag. Luckily for him there was one, except on the Giants which called the play back, making his drop easily forgotten. Later in the game he again was there down the sideline and he attempted a one handed grab for a reason only he could answer as he easily could have gotten a second hand under it. Two years of struggling on a team with another receiver doing well may prove difficult when he hits free agency looking to be paid like Mike Wallace. Like the Giants he needs to turn the season around.

Andy Dalton– Entering his third season in the league, Dalton was supposed to take the leap and establish himself as a bonafide top level starter in the NFL. He’s had the near perfect situation with a defense that is considered among the top 5 in the game, a solid offensive line, and playmakers in the passing game to make a playoff run that likely would lead to a lucrative contract extension after the season from the surprisingly high spending Bengals. Instead Dalton has been underewhelming and on Sunday was outplayed by a player most considered a  journeyman backup. Dalton is going to be perceived similar to Josh Freeman in that he is highly dependent on one receiver and if that receiver was removed from the game his stats would fall to far below average territory. The Browns did a decent job of taking that receiver, AJ Green, out of the mix and Dalton struggled badly. More games like this and the extension talk is going to turn to “finding another QB before we waste the talent” talk very quickly

Maurice Jones-Drew– MJD has been here before and let’s face facts its over for him. Maybe he will find a home somewhere next season and have a surprising one year wonder resurgence like Jamal Lewis did with the Browns in 2007, but his ability to command big dollars is pretty much gone. Jones-Drew has yet to break 50 yards this season and this weeks’ 1.8 yards per carry is a season low, topping last weeks’ 2.26 YPC disaster.  There was a time in his career when he could have at least made a team like the Jaguars with no viable QB at least look like a professional team, but now he just looks like the rest of the Jaguars. At this rate MJD may find it hard to even find a team to try him out next season.

New Contract Disappointment Of The Week 

Matt Flynn– I could have easily gone with Joe Flacco this week after his 5 interception outing versus the Browns, but I chose Flynn instead. Flynn went up against one of the worst defenses in the NFL and did nothing. Flynn led the team to just 7 offensive points, but returned the favor with a pick 6 to give the Redskins life. He was sacked 7 times and fumbled once. The Raiders traded for Flynn this offseason assuming he would be a holdover starter for one to two seasons while they rebuilt the organization. The Raiders were the second team to learn that there is no upside to Flynn and benched him before being forced to start him this week due to injury to their actual starter. This was Flynn’s opportunity to prove everyone wrong and he failed badly. Flynn has just become another in a long line of failed backup QBs that should all have a buyer beware sticker around their neck at this point.

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Stock Down: Week 2

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Every Monday during the season we will take a look back at three players who are entering important stages of their contract that may have hurt their stock in upcoming negotiations with their play on Sunday. In addition we will also look at one player signed in the offseason to a new contract that did not live up to the expectations that his contract sets for the player.

Stock Down

Josh Freeman– Freeman has had a rough few weeks as numerous outlets are reporting that there is a major rift between him and his head coach. According to Jason LaCanfora Freemen is seeking a trade, but with games like this it could be a limited market. 9 completions and 22 attempts for 125 yards is brutal. He had a costly interception and was all over the field with some of his passes. If not for a penalty Vincent Jackson would have helped his stat line tremendously, but if you watched that play 99% of the credit would go to Jackson who had to come back on a badly thrown ball and shield out the defender from making an interception. One or two more games like this and Freeman wont be playing at the end of the season, basically the doomsday scenario for a player looking for a new contract.

Maurice Jones-Drew– Last season MJD held out as long as he possibly could as he hoped to pand a contract extension that would increase his pay rate from good to back towards the top of the NFL. The Jaguars and their new ownership held firm and have forced him to honor his contract which expires at the end of the season. After an injury last year MJD needed to bounce back and have a big season.  Working with no quarterback, Jones-Drew I would imagine looked at this as an opportunity to showcase that he could help a team with a developing QB or slide into a playoff caliber team and do extremely well with the presence of a strong QB lessening the defenses attention to the run. Through two games MJD looks to be nothing more than a replacement back on a bad team. This week Jones-Drew finished with just 27 yards on 10 carries and added just 1 receiving yard. While these types of games often plague many runners, back to back games for MJD like this is something he has never really done before. If he doesn’t right the ship soon he may struggle to find a job next season.

Cam Newton– It was just two years ago when Newton burst onto the scene and after two games looked to be the new age version of Dan Marino, as Newton threw for over 400 yards in back to back games.  That player is completely gone right now and with it are the thoughts of any kind of early extension that could have come after the season. Newton has now become somewhat of an afterthought when we think about the young QB in the NFL. It’s not all his fault as his coaches seem to be trying to turn him into a game manager of sorts. Against the Bills Newton was sacked 6 times and only completed 55.8% of his attempts for just 229 yards. The team had to settle for field goals most of the day and rightly or wrongly he is going to get most of the blame for the day.

New Contract Disappointment Of The Week

Greg Toler– Every time I saw a big Mike Wallace highlight I seemed to see Toler running 3 or 4 yards behind him, including the big TD catch and run. Wallace was unable to get on track against the Browns in week 1, but decimated the Colts going for 115 yards, 81 of which came against Toler according to Pro Football Focus. Toler was brought in this offseason and given $5 million guaranteed, which in the sluggish CB market was actually considered pretty good money. He’ll need to put forth a better effort for the Colts this season especially if he is going to match up with the most dangerous target on each team.

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An Offseason Look at the Jacksonville Jaguars

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Today we will take a look at the Jacksonville Jaguars, who finished a terrible 2-14 in 2012 and may have the worst roster in the entire NFL. It’s rare in today’s NFL to find a team that does not have at least one standout player, but with the injury to RB Maurice Jones-Drew I think the Jaguars may be that team. Though they do have an owner that seems willing to spend money to try and improve the standing of the team, this may be the toughest job to navigate in the short term.

Cap Positions

I would expect the Jaguars to be somewhere around $23 million in cap room right now, which is primarily due to carryover money that they can use from the 2012 league year, which ESPN’s John Clayton reported to be $19.4 million. The Jaguars made some name moves last year trading Mike Thomas and releasing Clint Session and Aaron Kampman after June 1st which accelerated their bonus money onto the 2013 salary cap, so it leaves them with a pretty high dead money figure for this early in the season.

There are not a lot of places that the team can really go for cap relief as they don’t have any big money talent under contract, so most likely this is a situation where they will look for cash relief as much as anything else. The biggest cap relief, $5 million dollars, would come from releasing or trading Jones-Drew. MJD held out last season in hopes of getting a new contract and the Jaguars wisely refused. He ended up injured most of the season and is probably worth more to Jacksonville as trade bait than as a player.

CB Aaron Ross did not have an impactful first season in Jacksonville and saves the team $3.416 million in cap room if released before his roster bonus due date. I don’t have the particulars of the contract, but I don’t believe any of his salary would be guaranteed if released, so that is significant cap savings while also saving Jacksonville $3.75 million in salary to boot.

The release of LB Paul Posluszny, who Pro Football Focus rated the worst defender on the team in 2012, would be the best move the team could make for cash purposes.  Releasing Posluszny saves the team $6.5 million in cash while creating $2.5 million in cap room. Of course it leaves a void at LB and he played well the year before so while possible its probably not likely.

TE Marcedes Lewis, a terrible signing at $6.8 million a year, would save the Jaguars $4.35 million in cash this year and create $1.55 million in cap room. He must be released before mid-April when a small portion of his salary fully guarantees for the year.   I would anticipate that he could be released in short order unless they see reason to hold onto him as a run blocking TE for this season.

Notable Free Agents

The Jaguars do not have any free agents of note.

Rookie Pool

The following are my estimates for the Jaguars 2013 rookie pool:

 PickSB2013 Cap2014Cap2015Cap2016CapTotal
Round 12$13,799,344$3,854,836$4,818,545$5,782,254$6,745,963$21,201,598
Round 21$2,357,528$994,382$1,242,978$1,491,574$1,740,170$5,469,104
Round 32$671,176$572,794$711,794$825,794$990,294$3,100,676
Round 41$497,028$529,257$619,257$709,257$799,257$2,657,028
Round 52$213,612$458,403$548,403$638,403$728,403$2,373,612
Round 61$128,820$437,205$527,205$617,205$707,205$2,288,820
Round 72$68,900$422,225$512,225$602,225$692,225$2,228,900
Total$17,736,408$7,269,102$8,980,407$10,666,712$12,403,517$39,319,738

Hopefully none of this money will be spent on a Punter again this year. Seriously this can eat into cap money quickly so if the Jaguars are active in free agency they may have to use some large signing bonuses and backload these contracts to make significant improvements to their roster while remaining cap compliant.

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