Trades

Salary Cap and Financial Considerations in Trading Dion Jordan

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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A few days ago Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald wondered if the Miami Dolphins might try to trade DE/OLB Dion Jordan. Former GM Jeff Ireland traded moved up nine spots to make the selection by trading the 12th and 42nd overall choices for Jordan. Now that Ireland is gone there could be a chance that his pick goes with him. So let’s look at the salary cap consequences and financial considerations for both sides.

As a rookie Jordan only saw action on about 29% of all snaps and primarily was used in passing situations, as 75% of his snaps were on passing plays. His performance as a rusher was not bad for a rookie. He pressured the QB on 11.7% of his pass rush opportunities which was second among Dolphins’ defensive lineman to only Cameron Wake (17.1%). However he produced few sacks and considering his role never grew during the season it did not seem as if he was growing as a player or earned the trust of his coaching staff, which still remains in place.

Jordan signed a four year contract worth a fully guaranteed $20,572,298. While the deal does contain offsets all of the remaining salary and cap charges would be due to Jordan if released, so for anyone discussing that option it will not happen. Trades however are a possibility. If traded the situation would be somewhat similar to the situation with RB Trent Richardson, who was traded last year from the Browns to the Colts. When traded all of the future guaranteed salaries transfer to the new team, leaving the drafting team’s responsibility to simply be the prorated bonus charges remaining in the contract. That is still a hefty figure, but much more reasonable than an outright release.

The Dolphins, if seriously considering this option, would need to make the trade sometime before the 5th day of training camp. If Jordan is on the roster as of that day the team would have to pay him $845,104. Most likely he would be traded prior to this years draft, but here are the three trade scenarios and cap charges, and savings involved:

Key Date

2014 Cap

2015 Cap

2014 Savings

2015 Savings

Before June 1

$10,006,254

$0

($5,330,732)

$5,610,627

After June 1/Before Camp

$3,335,418

$6,670,836

$1,340,104

($1,060,209)

After 5th day Camp

$4,180,522

$6,670,836

$495,000

($1,060,209)

It should also be worth noting that if they opt to trade him for the 22nd pick in the draft they will also be spending more money on a draft pick. The cap charges for that player should be $1,499,745 and $1,874,681 in 2014 and 2015 so the savings are less than listed in the above charts due to the replacement player cost.

From the side of the Eagles that presents an interesting situation. They would take on cap charges of $1,340,104 in 2014 and $2,275,209 in 2015 which means over the next two years they would pay just an additional $240,887 in salary cap for a player with, on paper, top 5 talent if they execute the trade. The Eagles overall would be responsible for $6,825,626 in total salary paid for Jordan over the next three seasons compared to $6,703,248 for the number 22 pick. The guarantee for the number 22 pick should be just over $7 million with a first year cash payout of $4,738,980. So the Eagles would save over $3 million in cash expenses in 2014 and have less guaranteed salary left for Jordan than on the blind draft pick.

So clearly there would be a financial advantage for the Eagles to strongly consider the trade if they feel that Jordan is truly a top 10 player. Miami would just be accepting a sunk cost as gone and moving on from a player they don’t believe in.

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Thoughts on Larry Fitzgerald Possibly Being Traded

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Adam Schefter today shared some insight into the situation between the Arizona Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald, which could lead to Fitzgerald being traded either by Tuesday or at some point next season.

Fitzgerald’s record setting contract extension has more or less become unsustainable for the Cardinals. Fitzgerald’s salary cap hit in 2014 is $18,000,000 and he is set to earn $13 million in cash. In 2015 the salary cap charge jumps to $21.25 million with $16.25 million actually paid in cash. The cost to trading Fitzgerald will not be cheap for Arizona. Due to a signing bonus and option bonus paid to Fitzgerald his 2014 “dead money” is $10,000,000. That represents a $8 million cap savings for Arizona.

Arizona has to look at this with a sense of realism about Fitzgerald and his long term price. In the first year of his contract extension, 2011, Fitzgerald caught 80 passes for 1411 yards, despite having Kevin Kolb and John Skelton as his Quarterback. Those numbers represented about 26% of the teams receptions and 35% of the teams passing yards. His numbers crashed in 2012 to just 798 yards on 71 receptions, with similar suspect QB play. The Cardinals felt that they upgraded the QB position this year with the addition of Carson Palmer, but Fitzgerald is on pace for just 964 yards on 73 receptions. He now makes up just 20% of the teams receptions and 24% of their yards. For the most part in four of his last five years he is averaging right around 1,000 yards a season.

Though nobody will ever consider any of the players he has played with over this time to be Aaron Rodgers, there are enough Quarterbacks to where people will begin to at least consider the thought that at 30 years of age and a decade in the NFL that maybe he is not the player he once was. The longer the Cardinals wait on a trade the more people may consider that it’s not just the QB keeping Fitzgerald from producing those 1,400 yard seasons he seemed to have with regularity in his prime. Once you hit $16.25 million cash salary due in 2015 his value will likely plummet in a trade, especially if he has another 1,000 yard or less type year in 2014. It’s just too much money for a team to part with a decent pick. That makes 2014 a must trade year if that is the end-game for Arizona and they want value back from him.

In terms of negotiating leverage the Cardinals may never find a better time to trade him that before Tuesday. If Fitzgerald were to be traded before the deadline a team would require just $2.65 million in cap room to have Fitzgerald for their stretch run. That has to make him extremely attractive to a number of playoff teams. That would give the team Fitzgerald for 24 weeks over the next two years at just $15.65 million in cash and cap commitments. Because no prorated money would be included in the deal Fitzgerald could be cut with no damages in 2015 if his play did not increase to justify the huge salary investment.  If Arizona traded him before the deadline they would save the $2.65 million which would be carried over to help offset the dead money charge the following season.

The contract of Fitzgerald brings up another point that I’ve touched on a few times which is the general view on paying certain players in the QB realm. The average veteran QB earns around $15 million and there are only 6 non-QB’s in the NFL that earn in the ballpark of the starting veteran QB- Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Darrelle Revis, Mario Williams, Adrian Peterson, and Julius Peppers. Fitzgerald’s team is just 16-23 since he signed his extension and the combined records of those players is just 69-100 with Peterson’s Vikings being the lone team to make a playoff appearance. These players can be salary drivers for others in the NFL, but if the lack of success continues the League will likely continue the pullbacks in salary to all positions except Quarterback.

 

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Is Hakeem Nicks’ Value Really Falling?

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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There has been a lot of discussion lately regarding Hakeem Nicks and his level of play in a contract year. Having watched most of his games this season I can understand the negative feelings towards Nicks. He has clearly fallen out of favor with Eli Manning following the emergence of Victor Cruz in 2011 and has become just another secondary target. At times Nicks doesn’t look like he is concentrating leading to what seems to be a large number of drops.  But at the end of the day does it really matter?

Nicks, by pretty much all accounts, wanted a new contract this offseason. The Giants at one point made it known that Nicks was more valuable that Cruz, which likely only added more reasons to seek a new deal now. The Giants, who really had limited cap space to work with, preferred to let Nicks play out the contract. Nicks was unhappy and maybe that has carried over to the field. But it’s not like he is the first to do this.

Mike Wallace, now of the Miami Dolphins, sulked through his final year in a Steelers uniform. Wallace was a Restricted Free Agent who had no choice but to play on his tender. Like Nicks, Wallace watched a teammate be signed to a contract extension while this occurred. DeSean Jackson of the Eagles had hoped for a new contract in 2011. It never happened and he was unhappy throughout the 2011 season. He did get a new contract in 2012 with the Eagles.

When you look at some of the big name contracts given out to Wide Receivers in the last two years there has been minimal importance given to the “down season”  leading into the new contract. The players I want to look at here are Jackson, Wallace, and Dwayne Bowe. I considered Greg Jennings, but his injury plagued season was so bad I thought that it was unfair to include him.

The following table will include the percentage increase/decrease in a number of key categories from the players “contract season” to  the two year prime season. For Nicks we’ll be using the 2010 and 2011 season as he struggled with injuries in 2012. The categories are target per game, yards per game, yards per target, yards per receptions, and catch rates. All raw data used to compile this figures is courtesy Pro Football Focus

Player

TPG

YPG

YPT

YPR

Catch Rate

Wallace

20.1%

-27.0%

-39.3%

-29.5%

-13.9%

Bowe

3.3%

-15.0%

-17.8%

-10.5%

-8.1%

Jackson

-10.0%

-16.5%

-7.2%

-18.0%

13.2%

Nicks

-18.1%

-16.2%

2.3%

20.2%

-14.9%

In terms of yards per target and yards per reception Nicks numbers are actually better than where he was back in 2010 and 2011 when he looked like a can’t miss player. Each of the other players saw dramatic dips in their contract seasons. On a per game basis  Nicks is right alongside Bowe and Jackson and significantly ahead of Wallace, who crashed on the Steelers.  His reception rate decline is the worst of the group, however, and his targets were way down.

The real important takeaway for a player like Nicks, who used to be a dominant target in the passing game, is that all he has to do is convince one team that the Giants are not featuring him for reasons unknown to him and that it has nothing to do with his play. If he was featured the way he was in the past his numbers would be right on  his career averages, which is more than the other three could say at contract time.

The alarming items for Nicks come from two areas. One is drops. Like I said above his drops seem terrible and the stats completely back that up. His fall in that category is unique compared to the others.

Player

DPT

DPR

Wallace

-3.1%

12.5%

Bowe

-20.6%

-13.6%

Jackson

20.8%

6.7%

Nicks

109.3%

146.0%

Nicks is essentially dropping double the amount of passes he did in the past. That should be a red flag to an organization about how distracted he can be once taken out of an offense and a clear indication of a reason why he is not being featured as much in the offense. Nicks does have an injured finger and I am sure they will argue that these numbers are so far above his averages that they are a byproduct of injury, but it would be the one major concern.

The other concern is that you do have to go back, because of injury, two years to hit Nicks’ prime seasons when Eli Manning treated him as a number 1 receiver in an offense. I’m not sure how much weight teams will put on that but it could potentially be an issue.

Again though, all it takes is one team to bite. The Eagles eventually paid Jackson $9.7 million a season, at the time one of the more lucrative contracts at the position. Bowe became the highest receiver not named Calvin or Larry for a few weeks this season before Wallace jumped him with his $12 million a year contract. Whether they are worth it or not is a different debate (Bowe and Wallace are struggling and Jackson is hoping to avoid a re-done contract in 2014), but the seeming lack of production is not something that should compromise his ability to earn a new contract, provided his finishes the year on the same pace. If he can bring his drops down there is little to really point to about his decline.

In some ways it may be better for Nicks to remain on the Giants for the remainder of the season. If he gets traded and fails to perform that could have an impact on him, much more than what is occurring in New York. While I think many positions are capable of transferring offenses in-season I don’t believe wide receiver is one of them. It takes chemistry with your QB to be a top level producer. For whatever reason he doesn’t have that with Eli, but I would think he would have far more chemistry with Eli than with a QB he has never played with before.

Years ago when the Dallas Cowboys traded for Roy Williams of the Lions, Williams was someone with 1,000+ yard talent and an injury history. He was struggling in his contract year and the Cowboys gave up a significant set of draft picks to bring him on the team before the trade deadline. He went from bad to worse in Dallas averaging under 20 yards a game as he struggled to learn the offense. Luckily for Williams, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones blindly gave him a $54 million dollar contract before he ever played a down for Dallas. Had Williams played the season out and failed with the Lions and Cowboys I think his options would have been more limited since you can make an excuse for not being used on one team, but once you get to two teams it starts to look more troublesome.

So if a team is able to pry Nicks away for a minimal haul and fails to extend him then I think his price tag could be damaged. If he keeps doing what he is doing he will have all offseason to convince a number of teams that this one situation was poor in New York and if given the opportunity he’ll be every bit the number 1 receiver most projected him as two years ago.

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Trade Costs of NFL Players Part II

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Yesterday I asked for some requests on trade implications and got a few names so I thought I would post them here. One I have never heard before and I cant imagine he is really on the block (Justin Blackmon) but hes listed anyway.  If there are any other names feel free to email me or let me know via Twitter or the comments here

Fred Davis– Davis currently would cost a team $588,235 in initial cap space to execute a trade. The is also a $500,000 roster bonus to consider if Davis was active for 8 of the final 10 weeks of the season. Davis is a talented player who has suffered through injuries. The Redskins gave him a one year contract to prove he could stay healthy but he has not been effective and has more or less completely fallen out of the rotation. The Jets and Bills both took a look at him in the offseason and both could make the move with no problems if they wanted to. Davis is a free agent at the end of the season and considering his level of play would likely only fetch a low conditional pick in a trade.

Tony Gonzalez– The HOF Tight End has been rumored in trades by fans for weeks but he doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere and I don’t think the Falcons will turn around and trade him because of that. A team would require $2.06 million in cap space to execute the trade. Multiple teams could make the trade, but I think there would be concerns with how he would play outdoors at this stage in his career. This is a trade that sounds better in fantasy terms than in real life.

Justin Blackmon– I admit I have not heard his name mentioned at all, but I received a request on him so we’ll examine him. Blackmon would cost a team $724,385 in cap room for this season and at least $4.98 million the next two seasons. The reason I say at least is that Blackmon has yearly roster bonuses in his contract that were treated as signing bonuses for salary cap purposes, but are not yet paid. I have to do more research as to how that works both from a cash and a cap perspective. My assumption is the Jaguars would receive a credit for money accounted for but not paid while the acquiring team would need to account for it on their salary cap, but that’s just a guess. The roster bonuses total $3.09 million. Like Josh Gordon, Blackmon is a suspension risk though I think he is two strikes away. It is likely all his future guarantees have been voided due to his suspension this year. He is supremely talented and the Jaguars would only be moving him because they don’t trust him off the field. I can’t imagine him being traded for anything less than a first round pick.

Mark Ingram– Ingram has been a complete bust at the NFL level and is no longer a real part of the Saints gameplans. He has no more guarantees remaining in his contract beyond this season so it’s a certainty that the salary cap strapped Saints will cut him and save $1.386 million. A team would need $617,206 in extra cap space to pull a trade off for Ingram. The trade cost would be next to nothing for Ingram so I guess a team with no running game could consider giving Ingram a look for a conditional 6th or 7th round pick.

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Trade Costs Of Various Players in the NFL

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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One of the things I saw mentioned often last night on Twitter was the belief that the Vikings should trade away Jared Allen and Adrian Peterson as they rebuild their franchise. Allen is a free agent next season while Peterson has four years remaining on his contract. I thought it might be worth looking at the costs of these two players and other rumored players to see if trades can really happen.

Jared Allen- If Allen were traded this week it would require a team to have $8.4 million in cap space to absorb Allen’s $14.28 million dollar salary or for a team to be willing to extend Allen for future years and prorate a portion of the salary. The only teams able to take Allen in a straight trade would be the Browns, Jaguars, Dolphins, Bills, Eagles, Panthers, Packers, and perhaps the Bengals. Allen is not going to go to a 34 defense which eliminates four of the teams. The Panthers are already set at DE and the Jaguars would have no interest. Miami and Cincinnati already have significant investments in their defensive lines, so its doubtful he will go anywhere.

Adrian Peterson– Peterson would consume $6.6 million in cap space which allows us to add Tampa Bay, Tennessee, and maybe Denver to the list of teams with big cap space. Teams could choose to prorate some of the salary but Peterson’s future year salaries are cost prohibitive. Even in his record breaking season last year Peterson was overvalued and he has not been the same player this season. Miami has gone into a tailspin and has no running game and could be in desperation mode, but again Id imagine a pretty limited trade market with a $12 million dollar salary coming his way in 2014.

Darren McFadden– I’m only throwing his name out there because I’ve read it among fans, but I have not seen any new outlet really discuss this as a possibility. McFadden is a health risk and has never lived up to his potential since being drafted by the Raiders. The Raiders claim they would like to re-sign him next season, but I don’t really know why. I have to think if a team offered them something reasonable they would consider it since they are going to improve via the draft. McFadden would cost a team $3.45 million which limits his suitors as he has made it clear he is hoping to hit free agency next year. If Tampa was decent I could see them being interested but they should be sellers right now.

Maurice Jones-Drew– Jones-Drew would cost a team $2.92 million in 2013 cap room before he heads for free agency. MJD has not been effective for two seasons, but he is also on a historically bad team that creates no room for it’s runners. This is going to have someone stick their neck out and say that MJD’s issue are more about Jacksonville than about his skill.  At this salary 17 teams could take MJD. Dallas is not one of them, but is only about $900,000 off meaning a contract restructure could get the job done.

Hakeem Nicks– Nicks would be much more reasonably priced at $1.57 million for 10 week rental. At that price the only teams that would need to really work to get him under the cap would be the Rams, Vikings, 49ers and Steelers, none of whom would likely be interested anyway(I dont see the 49ers re-signing him, and they wont trade for a pure few game rental). The Saints, Colts, Ravens, and Jets could all make it work with some minimal restructures of veterans currently on the team. The difficulty is the asking price. I went over trade possibilities and I’d think the cost is going to be two 2nd rounders. The Colts could make sense given the injury to Reggie Wayne, but they have already traded a 1 for Trent Richardson who was and is nowhere near the player Nicks is. The Giants, based on the Colts history, are not going to give him away to Indianapolis. The Colts would have the cap room to keep him in 2014 if they want.

Kenny Britt– Britt is cheap and only costs a team $528,000 making everyone in the league pretty much able to jump in on him. Britt comes with major baggage and has been ineffective this year and is now benched. Hes a free agent in 2014 so its only for a few weeks, but hes just a prayer for a team at this point where you hope the change of scenery helps the player.

Josh Gordon– A team only needs $372,000 to bring in Gordon making him affordable for all. He has two more years under contract that will only cost a total of $1.89 million making him a great value for a potential 1,000+ yard player for the next two seasons. The negative is that he is one strike away from being out of the NFL for a season.  That may make the cost too high but for a team with WR troubles and future tight cap situations it might be worth the risk. The 49ers got a 2nd rounder for Alex Smith so essentially flipping Smith for Gordon might be looked at as not so risky as if they had no other 2nd rounder to spend. I don’t think anyone touches him for a 1.

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Nicks, Britt, and Gordon- Should they be Traded?

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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With trade rumors swirling in the NFL, I thought it would make sense to look at three of the big names mentioned at Wide Receiver and the reasons why the teams might or might not pull the trigger on trading their players.  The big names in question are the Giants’ Hakeem Nicks, Browns’ Josh Gordon, and Titans’ Kenny Britt. All three would seem to be on the block for various reasons and we’ll try to look at some comparables to determine what the players may gain in a trade.

Kenny Britt

Of the three names Britt is likely the least appealing. Britt is a former 1st round draft pick whose best seasons came in 2009 and 2010 when he looked poised to break out as one of the next great receivers in the game. Britt suffered a serious knee injury in 2011 that seemed to de-rail his career. Prior to his injury Britt averaged 17.5 YPC and was looked to be at a minimum a 55 catch/900 yard type player. Since then his numbers have plummeted to under 13 YPC and he has basically been benched by the Titans for general ineffectiveness. Britt’s off the field problems are well documented and I think there are some who question whether Britt is simply not recovered from injury or just unhappy in Tennessee.

Britt will be a free agent in 2014 and there is no chance that the Titans would designate him a franchise player. For Tennessee they first need to weigh what they would receive in draft compensation in 2015 if they let him walk next season. I don’t believe it would be much anything because there are so many questions surrounding him that it would seem hard to imagine a team signing him to anything more than a two year low base value but incentive laden contract.

There are rumors that the Titans are looking for at least a 3rd round pick for Britt. That number is insane and I’m not sure what justification there would be to that price tag other than management preferring to have him suffer through the rest of the year on the bench. The best high end comparison I could come up with for Britt was Santonio Holmes. Holmes was 26 years old when traded to the New York Jets prior to the 2010 NFL draft. Holmes was in the final year of his deal and had well documented off the field issues. He has just finished a season in which he went off for more than 1200 yards and was two seasons removed from being named Super Bowl MVP. Holmes only fetched a 5th round pick.

Another possible player to look at would be Ted Ginn, Jr, who was just 25 when he was traded from Miami to San Francisco. Ginn’s productivity was nowhere near that of Holmes and like Britt had seemingly regressed, though he was never at as high of a level as Britt. Ginn did not have the off the field issues and also had tremendous value as a kick returner. Ginn also only cost a 5th round pick and was set to enter free agency one year following the trade.

The final possible look would be Davone Bess. Bess was a bit older than Britt and never had the upside or cache of Britt, but maybe one could make an argument that a motivated post-injury Britt could be productive as a shorter field threat capable of gaining maybe 500-650 low impact yards a season. The trade for Bess amounted to a 5th rounder in return for Bess and a 7th. Bess was set to be a free agent when traded.

At the most the Titans could expect to receive a 5th round pick for Britt and even that could be pushing it due to his lack of use this season. He was never as good as Holmes and may not be as varied a threat as Ginn especially post-injury. My gut feeling is that they should be happy with receiving a 5th for him and giving up a 7th in return, similar to the Bess trade. Even a 6th rounder might be worth doing. I don’t see the compensatory pick being very large in this case, if it happens at all. It seems to be a trade that should happen if anyone is really interested.

Josh Gordon

Gordon is a very interesting prospect because he still has two years remaining on his rookie contract and will thus be an extremely low cost option for a team that acquires him. As a rookie Gordon had over 800 yards and this season would be on pace for 1700 yards if he played 16 games. So the upside with Gordon is tremendous. So why are the Browns looking to trade him?

In this case I think this is the Browns trying to strike before the clock strikes 12. Gordon has had many drug issues in the past and is one strike away from being out of the NFL for a full year. I doubt the Browns trust him to stay clean and he missed two games for a failed test this season. If he was to slip up again next year he goes from high value to no value.

The Browns are said to be seeking a first round pick for Gordon. It is pretty much impossible to find a comparable player because players this young never get traded.  In terms of off the field trouble Holmes would be a comparison, but contractually they were in very different spots. Godson would give a team 2 ½ low cost years while Holmes was only going to give one.

That said the only receivers in the last few years to get a 1st round pick in return were Percy Harvin and Roy Williams, both of whom were entering their contract years and received extensions following the trade. Williams was a colossal bust and Harvin has yet to play a game for Minnesota. Prior to that would be Deion Branch in 2006 and Randy Moss in 2005. Considering Gordon’s history I think a first rounder would be out of reach, though a 2nd rounder from a playoff contender could be in play.  Even a second, though, could be high. Brandon Marshall is the only recent trade (the one that sent him from Denver to Miami) to include a 2nd round pick. Beyond Marshall the only other trade I can recall is the 2007 in-season trade of Chris Chambers from the Dolphins to the Chargers.

Whatever decision is made with Gordon will take a great deal of guts on both sides. If the Browns think he can be clean then they should hold on to him. If they feel he is going to fail another drug test they should take a 2nd or 3rd for him.

Hakeem Nicks

Of the three names Nicks is the most intriguing. Nicks has had monster years in the past and has been treated as a true number 1 target. But injuries in 2012 seemed to move him to second fiddle behind Victor Cruz and it’s clear that he never regained his chemistry with QB Eli Manning. Nicks is on pace for nearly 1200 yards this year but it seems like a quiet 1,200 yards as he has battled drops and gaining the attention of his QB. Some seem to perceive a rift between Nicks and Manning that most will blame on Nicks going through the motions and not putting in the work.

Nicks is in the final year of his contract, but unlike Britt is going to be a Franchise player. I get the feeling that Nicks is not too thrilled to stay with the Giants but he is going to get that tag which will allow the Giants to control his rights for next season as well. While nobody expects the young wideout to really sign a contract with another team as a Franchise player it does set a bar even now as to his worth. The other two teams can dream and ask for whatever they want but the Giants are the only team that can truly block Nicks with the price they want.

I tend to think the rumors of the Giants being open to offers for Nicks is more of a fishing expedition to hear what he is worth to teams next season. They could just be setting the groundwork for a trade next year rather than this one. Provided the Giants don’t go wild in free agency next year, which they likely won’t, at worst he is worth a compensatory 3. So they are the one team that can really set parameters of a 1 all the way down to a 3 and have reasons behind those parameters.

Finding the trade value for Nicks is difficult because the results are so varied. Nicks is a much more proven player than Harvin and the Seahawks gave up a fortune for him in both draft picks and money. Harvin is also injury prone. Going back to the Williams trade in 2008 the situations could be looked at as similar. Williams often had lingering injury issues, but he had shown tremendous talent when healthy. Dallas gave up a first rounder and other mid round picks to get the job done. I would think both would be the Giants ideal scenarios.

Other teams could use the Braylon Edwards in season Browns to Jets trade as some type of lowball offer. Edwards was an extremely high draft selection who never really lived up to expectations in Cleveland and had fallen out of favor with the new coaching staff. Edwards still was somewhat productive and the Jets traded a 3 and a 5 along with some spare piece players in order to acquire Edwards from the Browns. Edwards was in the final year of his contract at the time of the trade. Other deals involving third round picks include Marshall from Miami to Chicago and Anquan Boldin from Arizona to Baltimore. Both players were in different stages of their carriers than Nicks

Nicks has been t he better pro than Edwards and remains more productive even now. Edwards was almost like a firesale trade because he clashed with the coach. The least the Giants should settle for is the two second round picks that the Dolphins gave for Marshall in 2010. Marshall also signed an extension almost immediately upon being traded. Teams could make the deal at a 2 and a conditional 3, with the 3 becoming a 2 if Nicks is re-signed.

The Giants clearly have options here and with the Franchise power probably do not have any reason to trade him this year. Unless he gets injured his value should remain the same and teams have shown a willingness to spend on the position. The only reason to trade him now would be because they want to make certain they have additional draft selections in the 2014 draft, which may not occur if they have him on the tag.

If it was me I would not trade him, but Franchise him instead and let him more or less seek out his own trade next year. If they do that early enough they should grab two picks over the next two drafts. It allows the Giants to keep up a mirage that they think this season means something and probably will not compromise their position in the long run.

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Bills Open To Trading Jairus Byrd

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter the Bills are now open to trading Safety Jairus Byrd, the teams Franchise player.

Byrd had been seeking a trade since it seemed clear that the Bills were not going to come to an acceptable agreement with Byrd and he was going to be forced to play the year on a one year contract. The Bills likely had more trade leverage before the season began when teams had more salary cap space to work with and would have been able to negotiate a long term contract with Byrd. Byrd is now locked into a one year contract and has yet to play this season because of injury. It was rumored that Byrd was healthy enough to play this past Thursday but was held out of the game. In light of this new information its possible the Bills did not want Byrd to aggravate any injury that could dampen their trade possibilities.

In order to trade for Byrd a team must be able to absorb $4,881,882 in salary unless the Bills would be willing to prepay some of that money to facilitate a trade. Unless a team was willing to part with a high second round pick I would find that hard to imagine. Based on the current cap league cap space report the only teams that could absorb the charges are the Browns, Jaguars, Dolphins, Eagles, Panthers, Packers, Buccaneers, Bengals, Titans, Patriots, Broncos, and Cardinals, some of whom would have no interest for a variety of reasons. For a one year rental I could see the Panthers and Bengals both being interested in the player.

View Jairus Byrds Contract and Salary Cap Page

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