Fifth-year option projections for every first-round player in the 2018 draft class
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March 14, 2021, 8:00 AM·33 min read
After free agency, and just after the NFL draft closes up shop on May 1, there’s one more way teams can solidify their rosters: The decision to exercise the fifth-year option on first-round draft picks from four years before. The decisions have to be made before May 3, and if the team declines the option on the player, that player becomes a free agent a year earlier, unless a longer-term deal happens.
At this time, none of the first-rounders in the 2018 class have signed second contracts; that’s more likely to happen in the 2022 league year. Teams have those players on relatively cheap deals based on slotted contracts; even 2018 first-overall pick Baker Mayfield will make just $920,000 in base salary, and a $4,936,770 roster bonus. His prorated bonus of $5,462,360 will also count against the 2021 cap, so Mayfield represents a 2021 cap hit o
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-When will the snubs end? They got piled on the day before the Buccaneers are set to play Washington in the Wildcard Round of the NFL playoffs. Yes, a playoff team with not a single First-Team All-Pro player. How does that even work? How?
Inside linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White got Second-Team All-Pro but I m not here for consolation prizes. These guys deserved first-team. The latter of the two had 140 total tackles in the regular season, even though he missed the last game of the year, 9.0 (!!) sacks, 15 (!!) tackles for loss, 16 quarterback hits and a fumble recovery. San Francisco s Fred Warner, who did make the first team list, had 125 tackles, 1.0 sack, five tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits and two interceptions.
Dec 30, 2020
GREEN BAY, Wis. – To be sure, Derrick Henry vs. Aaron Jones doesn’t quite carry the same luster as David Montgomery vs. Aaron Jones, but Montgomery – the Chicago Bears’ second-year running back – is on quite a, well, run headed into Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Green Bay Packers.
Of his three 100-yard games, all three have come over the last five weeks. Of his 1,001 rushing yards, 529 – 52.8 percent – have come over the last five games. Of Montgomery’s seven rushing touchdowns, six have come in the last four games as he’s worked in concert with his blockers.
“They get a feel for how he runs,” Bears running backs coach Charles London said. “He gets a feel for how they block certain plays. Without having an offseason, we didn’t get a lot of time to do that. Obviously, early in the year, there were some guys shuffling in and out due to injuries, but now we’ve got a consistent five and they’re really starting to feed off each
New Orleans Saints · DE
Sacks are an incomplete statistic when used to evaluate a player s performance especially critically but Hendrickson s league-high 12.5 sacks (tied with Aaron Donald) never should ve been overlooked. This is a great example of how reputation often influences Pro Bowl selections, too, considering Hendrickson s teammate, Cameron Jordan, made the Pro Bowl while trailing his teammate in every significant pass-rushing category. Hendrickson was better than Jordan in sacks (12.5 to 6.5), disruptions (54 to 38), pressure percentage (16 to 8.1), turnovers caused by pressure (2 to 1) and hurries (35 to 20). Jordan only bested him in one key category: run stuffs (10 to 6). There s no reason Hendrickson shouldn t be on this roster, and we could fix it by simply swapping teammates. We could put Hendrickson in over Philadelphia s Brandon Graham, too.
Analytics site Pro Football Focus on Wednesday rolled out its Pro Bowl picks for each conference, and
At running back, PFF s Sam Monson highlighted Minnesota s Dalvin Cook, New Orleans Alvin Kamara and Chicago s David Montgomery, whom the Vikings will face at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday. Monson wrote:
Cook has racked up almost 1,000 rushing yards after contact this season, trailing only Derrick Henry, while Kamara was the entirety of the New Orleans offense for much of the season before taking more of a back seat with Taysom Hill at quarterback. Montgomery trails only Henry and Cook in broken tackles (43).