NFL News and Notes for April 2015!!!

And the Cowboys kick off April by restructuring Tony Romo's contract once again. This reportedly frees up $12.8 million in salary cap space. It's an odd time to be freeing up cap space. The big free agents are all pretty much signed. Rookie contracts don't cost a lot. Chances are a few higher paid guys will get cut freeing up some cap space by the end of training camp for any replacement players who need to be signed to fill in for injured players.

In an odd coincidence, while the Cowboys are freeing up $12.8 million dollars, Adrian Peterson's contract this year calls for him to be paid $12.75 million. Hmmm . . . interesting. Are the Cowboys planning to make a move for Peterson? He won't come cheap. The Vikings will ask for multiple draft picks, likely including this year's first pick of the Cowboys, to let him go. Would the Cowboys part with multiple picks and then pay Peterson $12.75 million? Only time will tell, but the numbers do add up.

By the way, at the rate the Cowboys are going they'll still be paying Tony Romo when he collects his first social security check. He's going to have a ton of dead money tied up for the Cowboys for years to come. They're backing themselves into a cap corner yet again and it won't be pretty getting out of it. They're going to have to go very cheap at QB for quite a while to get out of the cap mess they've made by constantly deferring Romo's salary. You're apt to see young/rookie quarterbacks starting for the Cowboys for five or six years after Romo retires. They likely won't be able to afford a quarterback with any experience.

Just wanted to wish everyone on the board a Happy Easter! Whatever plans anyone has, I hope the day is a good one.

Thanks! Easter plans include ramping up preparations for the Nats season opener on Monday. Raise a glass to showing Danny Boy how a team is run!

Anyone here do twitter? Maybe we can all find out what RGIII will be doing this weekend.

Best wishes, fellow sports enthusiasts!

Happy Easter everyone! My Easter plans are to eat far too many homemade doughnuts for breakfast tomorrow morning and then have a nice quiet day.

In football news, the Redskins got Dashon Goldson from the Bucs in a trade that looks more like the Bucs unloading him then the Redskins getting him. The Redskins gave up a sixth round pick to get Goldson, and they got back a seventh round pick and the Bucs are even paying Goldson's $4 million that he's guaranteed this year. So basically for dropping back a few spots in the draft, the Redskins get a guy the Bucs are willing to pay $4 million to not play for them. I'm thinking if the Bucs are willing to pay the guy $4 million not to play for them that he may not be all that good of a catch for the Redskins. I have a suspicion he may not make the Redskins' roster this year. As a general rule when a bad team is willing to pay a guy, who plays a hard to fill position, $4 million not to play for them, the guy is on his way out of football. Now the Redskins GM picked him when he was with the Niners, so maybe he can squeeze some performance out of Goldson, but I have a strong suspicion Goldson won't make the final roster cut.

The local media were shocked to read that the Eagles are among the teams that signed the fewest free agents this year. We just signed a bunch of high profile guys in a short period of time that kind of skewed the perspective a bit, but only four teams signed fewer guys than the Eagles.

And today is April the sixth which means that teams with a brand new head coach can now start to officially meet and workout, while teams with pre-existing coaches have to wait another two weeks. It's just a question of time until a coach like Bill Belichick figures out a way to get himself fired after free agency and before the workout period begins, a new coach would then be hired and fired then Belichick rehired so he could get an extra two weeks of work with his players. He'd be back in position for the draft and the league would have to adapt the rules once more to compensate for Bill's genius.

The draft is the next big thing on the agenda and it looks all but certain that Jameis Winston will be the first choice of the Bucs. After that God only knows what will happen. There seems to be more and more belief that Marcus Mariota may drop. A few analysts who have studied Mariota feel that he'll only be successful in a conventional NFL offense after two to three years of work and most teams drafting fairly high want the pick to be an instant impact player which Mariota won't be. Coaches and GM's have a short shelf life these days and picking a guy who won't be a meaningful player for two or three years may benefit the next guy doing their job, but not help them any.

I'm still thinking Cleveland will end up with Mariota with their twelfth pick and then trade him to the Eagles for the Eagles twentieth pick and Sam Bradford. The Browns offered their nineteenth pick for Bradford so that price seems about right. Essentially the Eagles would be trading pick 20 and Bradford (a guy the Browns valued as the nineteenth pick) to move up to twelve. The Browns may even throw in a later pick or a future pick as additional compensation. Picks nineteen (875 points) and twenty (850 points) combine to 1725 points in draft value and pick twelve is worth 1200 points, so the Browns are 525 points ahead. I'm figuring a second round pick (270 to 580 points) next year from the Browns would fill that void nicely and replace the pick the Eagles gave up to get Bradford. The Browns probably don't want to, and can't, count on Manziel for this coming season, and with Mariota needing a couple of years to play in their offense, picking up Bradford to be the immediate starter and have Manziel maturing into a backup for a year or two then if he progresses, take over the starting role makes a lot of sense.

That scenario is largely a win for everyone involved. Chip Kelly gets his guy who can learn the new Eagle system while Sanchez holds down the fort for the short term. Mariota comes to a team heavily stocked with guys who know him and believe in him. The adjustment, while still there, is less for Mariota and he can contribute faster. Bradford gets a fresh start in a city that hasn't had a real quarterback since Bernie Kosar.

If every team values Bradford as the nineteenth overall pick (875 points) in the first round then the Eagles have a lot of value to move up in the draft. Their twentieth pick is worth 850 points so Bradford and that pick is 1825 points. Pick four in the draft is valued at 1800 points, but Oakland doesn't need a QB. Could the Eagles move up to second overall? Add Mychal Kendricks to the trade (likely valued as a mid-first round pick even though he was drafted in round two) and the points of value are there on the draft chart.

I'm thinking Sam Bradford may not last long in Philly if things break right. He'll be here as insurance in case things don't break right, but my suspicion is he's not going to ever play a down in Philly.

Hmmm . . . . the Cleveland speculation is increasing now with rumors that Johnny Manziel is what the Browns are offering as additional compensation for Sam Bradford. So the rumor is that the Eagles would send Sam Bradford and pick 20 to the Browns and get back pick 12 and Johnny Manziel. I'm not sure the Eagles want Manziel (they could have drafted him last year) but he would have some value in Chip's system. Things are going to be a bit crazy for the next 23 days.

And in the least surprising news of the off season, the Colts have picked up the fifth year option on Andrew Luck. Whether the Redskins do the same with RGIII will be interesting to watch. Daniel Snyder still apparently loves RGIII, so there's a likelihood they will pick up his option, but we'll have to see.

And the Steelers' off season just got more interesting with Troy Polamula retiring and Le'Veon Bell getting suspended for the first three games. It's a tad late to replace either guy through free agency, so the Steelers will have to look to the draft for reinforcements.

On 4/9/2015 gardenman said:

And in the least surprising news of the off season, the Colts have picked up the fifth year option on Andrew Luck. Whether the Redskins do the same with RGIII will be interesting to watch. Daniel Snyder still apparently loves RGIII, so there's a likelihood they will pick up his option, but we'll have to see.

The Redskins canceled their private workout with Mariota.....what that means who knows (smokescreen or they are picking someone else or trading down).

If the Redskins pick up RGIII's option that would be a disaster!!!! But I think both the coach, and new GM, who seems to be in charge of the decisions these days, (and will convince Snyder it's the right thing to do if he wants to win) and in the end it will be the let's see how he does approach, before commenting to the long term......I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we pass on his option!

In Kiper's latest mock draft he has the Redskins picking Fowler who has a high rating with many scouts. I guess Randy Gregory's issues with drugs made his stock drop. Since he said he has been clean since December, yet drugs showed up in his drug test in February.....not good.....