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Stock Up: Week 6

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 helped 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 exceeded all expectations and provided exceptional value to his team.

Stock Up

Tamba Hali– For the second time in the last three weeks Hali has made this list as he is absolutely wrecking games for the Chiefs defense. Yesterday he registered another 3.5 sacks to bring his total to 7.5 just six games into the season. He is arguably the most dominant pass rusher in the NFL right now and on pace to destroy his prior career best of 15 sacks. The Chiefs tight salary cap situation in the next few seasons is going to give Hali all the leverage in the world to get a new contract. Set to earn $8.5 million in cash with a $11.5 million dollar cap hit he is one of the few players on the team that can save the Chiefs money with a restructured deal. Off a season like this, though, he may have no reason to restructure and will push instead for a contract extension that will likely give him a nice pay raise while also helping the Chiefs cap situation.

Aqib Talib– Talib gambled this season by taking a one year contract with the Patriots when he realized how soft the cornerback market had become, but that gamble is paying off. Talib played superstar TE Jimmy Graham yesterday and held him to nothing, completely disrupting the rhythm and strategy of the Saints offense. Talib has had an incredibly productive season and is earning the important reputation of being a shutdown corner. Bill Belichick is not shy about putting Talib on the best each week and each week those players are being shut out. And its not as if these are poor receivers Talib is facing- they are some of the best in the NFL. Unfortunately Talib left the game with a hip injury but the reports are that it is not too serious to impact him moving forward.

Frank Gore– At 30 years old Gore just keeps trucking along as the steady force of the 49ers offense. Gore became the first player this season to gain more than 100 yards against a very stingy Arizona Cardinals defense and his 2nd 100 yard game of the year. Gore has shown no signs of slowing down and is right on his normal pace for the season. Going into the year I think some assumed Gore would take on less of a role with the emergence of Colin Kaepernick throwing the football but Gore is as important as ever. In 2014 he is scheduled to earn $3.3 million in base salary and up to $2.75 million in roster bonuses. I think it had been a foregone conclusion that he would have been released by San Francisco next season and leave that money on the table. Now the 49ers may have to consider a two year extensionto keep Gore at a cap friendly figure in 2014.

New Contract Player Of The Week

Matt Stafford– I often give Stafford a hard time but he was really great in the second half of yesterdays game and helped lead the Lions offense to a 2nd half wipeout of a very good Cleveland Browns defense. Stafford did not try to force the ball to his favorite targets. He found whomever was open against the Browns defense and went there rather than forcing the football which likely would have led to a different outcome. If the Lions get Stafford to consistently play like this they will have a good chance of representing their division in the playoffs.

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Stock Up: 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 helped 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 exceeded all expectations and provided exceptional value to his team.

Stock Up

Patrick Peterson– Though many who grade players at the position will point out the flaws with Peterson, the fact is he does the things in the NFL that get a player paid mega dollars at the position. His two interception performance stole the game from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday and it cements his reputation as one of the biggest playmakers in the NFL. While being a solid corner is always appreciated players who have made impact plays often stand out when it comes to signing deals, such as Cortland Finnegan’s seemingly absurd contract in St Louis. Following the game he was getting the same praise from his coach that Rex Ryan used to throw on Darrelle Revis which helped give Revis all kinds of ammunition to force a contract. With Peterson capable of being extended after the season is over expect he and Seahawks corner Richard Sherman to reset the non-Revis portion of the cornerback market.

Tamba Hali– This is actually a bit of an off the wall selection, not because of how he is playing, but because of his contract status. Hali actually has two years left on his contract after this season with the Chiefs and he will be set to earn $8.5 million in salary next year on a cap figure of $11 million. With the Chiefs cap situation being so tight I don’t think they can go another year with him in double digit cap totals. Hali is putting together a monster season across from Justin Houston, another player who is going to command huge dollars from the Chiefs, and yesterday Hali absolutely destroyed the Giants. He had 2 sacks and caused another 8 hurried throws by Eli Manning, which puts his total at 24 for the season according to stats maintained by Pro Football Focus. Hali is going to be 31 next season which is going to make this the last time he may be able to expect a big contract and he should push the Chiefs for one rather than any restructure for cap relief if this type of performance keeps up. I think this is going to be a pretty interesting year for Hali even though his contract may not be on the radar like some others.

Julian Edelman– I’m not sure that there were many expectations for Edelman when he re-signed with the Patriots for the season. There were questions about his ability to remain healthy and he was low on the depth charts. At one point he had a workout bonus converted into a bonus that would only be paid if he made the roster in week 1, often a sign that the player is on the fringe. A few injuries later and he has become an integral part of the offense and it is hard to imagine that New England would consider not playing him. Since becoming a starter in week 2 Edelman has caught 75% of the passes that have been fired his way and he is averaging just under 92 yards a game. Against Atlanta he had a career high 118 yards on 7 receptions, which allowed him to earn his first small bonus of the season. But the big bonus comes after this year when he is scheduled to become a free agent and he is going to make a push to make the same kind of money the Patriots paid Danny Amendola. Nobody would have thought that before the season, but his stock is going to keep rising, especially to a team with a quality QB situation.

New Contract Player Of The Week

Brian Hoyer– In two weeks Hoyer has led the seemingly hopeless Browns to two wins and made a bunch of receivers nobody felt were very good look like real top quality NFL players. Hoyer dominated the Bengals and easily outplayed Andy Dalton as he threw for nearly 270 yards and kept the ball from the hands of the Bengals. Hoyer’s rise is pretty shocking. Hoyer was undrafted in 2009 but made the Patriots as  a backup to Tom Brady, a role he kept until being released in 2012. Hoyer then bounced around the NFL signing with the Steelers for a few weeks and then subsequently claimed by the Cardinals where he started two pretty non-descript games at the end of the season. Due to spending so many weeks out of the NFL in 2012 Hoyer maintained RFA status and was tendered by the Cardinals who ended up releasing him after they traded for Carson Palmer, which led him to signing with the Browns. While nobody knows how the story will end for Hoyer, and most times they don’t end well, he’s providing the Browns with a spark and giving them an opportunity to compete for a division title. At a salary of $715,000 he is quite the bargain.

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