around the league (starting 5/30)

Asking around league on Julio Jones, teams are watching 49ers closely, though uncertain how far they'd go after giving up 1s for Trey Lance. Ravens would be willing to get involved at right price. High demand plus $15M salary a hurdle. Teams could ask ATL to cover some cost.

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) May 30, 2021

Billy_T wrote:

I’m actually (close to) appalled that the Rams would even consider this. Or laughing to myself cuz it’s so surreal at this point.

Back and forth between misery and laughter.

It’s not enough that they threw away all of those picks to give away Goff to Detroit. It’s not enough that they used their first pick on a tiny receiver, for the deepest “room” on the team. A receiver who will surprise the hell out of me if he gets more than 10 touches a game.

I love his speed, and potential for big plays, and he looks fearless on film, even at 150 pounds. But a #2 is just waaay too early to draft a gadget guy, essentially, when the team is already four deep at the position. He basically duplicates Jackson’s skill set, and may end up being the fifth receiver, at least as long and Jackson is healthy.

So, now, they’re actually seriously considering adding ANOTHER receiver?

Julio Jones, when healthy, is a game-changing, all-world receiver, with freakish athleticism and strength. But he’s also 31, has been hurt a lot, and he won’t come cheap. The Rams don’t have the draft capital for this, but I’m afraid they’ll find another way to mortgage the future to bring him in. McVay is outdoing George Allen in the Future is Now department.

Hope I’m wrong, and even if they do make the deal, I’ll still love my team. But, sheesh!! They’re driving me to drinkin’ these days!

You know criticism of the Rams is not allowed.

Even if (as in this case) I agree with most of it.

Those are just the rules. I don’t make the rules.

So let me just put it this way. If they do indeed go after and acquire Julio Jones, while we must say it is a good thing, it nevertheless might not be the absolutely unqualified 100% best thing they could do.

😎

Billy_T wrote:

I’m actually (close to) appalled that the Rams would even consider this. Or laughing to myself cuz it’s so surreal at this point.

More on this. Yeah to even be interested seems like a problem.

I don’t know about this idea that you’re more likely to win if you keep adding high-end elite talent. To me that’s not trusting the right things.

Since free agency I have rarely seen top winning teams that are like that. It was much more common before free agency—back when a team could draft a guy and he was basically a career long member of that team. For example having Greene, Ham, Lambert, Blount, Shell, Webster, Harris, Bradshaw, Swann and Stallworth on the same team for years. Or like the old Rams. The Rams had 26 consecutive years–1967 to 1990—with at least one offensive lineman in the pro bowl, and in that span, they had 4 OL in the pro bowl 3 times–68, 78, and 85. Look at the 85 line–it’s of course Pankey, Hill, Smith, Harrah, and Slater. Only Pankey was not in the pro bowl that year. In 85 all 5 of those guys were in the league 5 years or more, and in the case of Slater and Harrah, it was 9 and 10 years respectively. A line like that is unimaginable today. No team could afford it without sapping some other part of the roster.

So now, you can afford a handful of elite guys and you build around them with talent that is hopefully good. Even then there will be a high turnover every 4 years (or 5 with 1st rounders). There are only so many big contract guys you can maintain on a team. By big contract, although this is open to debate, right now I would say that’s anyone over 10 M for the 2nd tier of “big” and then the 20+ M guys for the 1st tier. It’s actually not that common for a team to have 3 or more 1st tier, 20+ M players.

Rams have 3 1st tier contracts (4 actually since they are paying for 2 20 M qbs) and beyond that, they have some 2nd tier high end contracts–right now that’s Whitworth, Woods, Floyd, and Kupp. In terms of contracts it’s a top heavy team.

I have defended that approach, saying it’s worth it to put a high percentage of that cap into a few guys and then keep adding good but younger guys around them.

But at a certain point, enough is enough.

Which gets me back to where I started. I don’t see teams thriving in multiple years by continually adding high-end contract talent. You have to have some, but beyond that it’s coaching and luck.

I am not sure how I feel about a coach who thinks they are always just one expensive trade away. Why isn’t it the case that you are just some inexpensive good coaching ideas away. It seems to me that the teams that win year in and out have THAT, not the “trade a year” mentality.

To be fair I didn’t say that when they got Ramsey or Stafford. But–enough is enough, and there is just no such thing anymore as a sustainable 70s Steelers roster in the NFL’s 21st century. And IMO it won’t work by doing it the “here’s our window” way either. I prefer long term strategies. I never think any player is THE difference. Back in 99 they added Faulk to a team that was just crazy talent rich but that talent did not come from big trades for superstars. That team started 6 UDFAs (Jenkins, Fletcher, Jones, Farr, Nutten, Warner). And of course without Vermeil and Martz, all that would have mattered less.

So that’s how I feel about Jones. It’s just this guy’s take.

NFL players urged to limit Toradol use. https://t.co/rDzxhLRC2Y

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) June 4, 2021

NFL Concussion Settlement attorney Chris Seeger joins @AndrewBrandt on the latest Business Of Sports pod to discuss the latest in the settlement… pic.twitter.com/RlgnLOJraU

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