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| Tuesday, March 21, 2023 |
| Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! |
| As everyone knows, today is National Countdown Day (3/21), and the only countdown that matters right now is the countdown to the NFL Draft. The league's biggest offseason event will be kicking off on April 27, which is just 37 days away. To celebrate this fact, Pete Prisco turned in his first mock draft of the year, which you can check out here (Spoiler alert: He has Bryce Young going No. 1 overall). |
| Glad we got that draft talk out of the way, because we're going to spent the rest of the newsletter talking about free agency, plus, we're going to rank landing spots for Cam Newton, because he's apparently planning on returning to the NFL this year. |
| As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the Pick Six newsletter. To get your friends to sign up, all you have to do is click here and then share this link with them. All right, let's get to the rundown. |
| 1. Today's show: Free agency recap by playing Uno |
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| Every so often we like to get a little weird on the Pick Six Podcast and that's exactly what we did today. Instead of doing a normal free agency recap, we decided to recap things by playing a free agency version of Uno, which was good news for me, because I've never lost in Uno. |
| I was joined on the podcast by Katie Mox and Tyler Sullivan, and the three of us talked about 17 different teams. After talking about those teams, we had to decide what kind of impact their free agency class will have on their win total during the 2023 season. Will it make them better than 2022? Will it make them worse? |
| So where does the Uno part come in? Glad you asked. When it comes to rating each team, we had to use one of four options: Skip, Draw Four (the team will win four more games than last year), Draw Two (The team will win two more games than last year), Reverse (a team made a bad move that needs to be reversed. |
| Skip: Two teams that landed in the Skip category were the Bills and Bengals. Although the Bengals made a huge splash by signing Orlando Brown, it likely won't have a huge impact on their win total. The Bengals won 12 games in 2022, and it feels like they should win 12 or 13 games in 2023. As for the Bills, they re-signed Matt Milano and Jordan Poyer, but they didn't make any huge moves, which is why it's difficult to see them topping their 2022 record of 13-3. Draw Two: This was a popular category, and one team that landed here was the Giants. This is a team that went 9-7-1 last year, and a big reason for that is because Daniel Jones had the best season of his career. Although Jones played well in 2022, he did struggle at times, but that was mostly because he had to play with one of the worst receiving units in the NFL. The Giants went into free agency needing more weapons and they filled that need by trading for Darren Waller, signing Parris Campbell and re-signing Darius Slayton, so it won't be surprising if they top their 2022 win total by at least two games. Draw Four: When it comes to teams that could top their 2022 win total by four games, the Bears and Broncos were at the top of our list. On the Bears' end, they've been crushing it in free agency with the additions of several key starters, including Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards and D.J. Moore. Not to mention, they also added some more drafted ammo when they traded away the top pick to the Panthers. As for the Broncos, we all agreed that their biggest addition of the offseason was Sean Payton. In his first offseason with the team, the Broncos beefed up their offensive line by adding Ben Powers and Mike McGlinchey. The Broncos might not be great next season, but they could still hit nine wins. |
| If you want to listen to the rest of our game of free agency Uno, you can do that by clicking here. You can also watch today's show on YouTube by clicking here. |
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| 2. Ranking AFC teams after the first wave of free agency |
| Now that the first wave of free agency is out of the way, we thought now would be a good time to rank every team in the NFL, so that's exactly what we're going to do today. Actually, I take that back, we're only going to rank the AFC teams today. We'll get to the NFC teams later in the week. |
| With that mind, here's our post-free agency rankings of each AFC team, courtesy of Jordan Dajani: |
1. Chiefs
2. Bengals
3. Jets
4. Bills
5. Dolphins
6. Jaguars
7. Chargers
8. Ravens
9. Broncos
10. Browns |
| The one thing you'll instantly notice about these rankings is that Jordan has the Jets at No. 3. I should note that Jordan made these rankings assuming that Aaron Rodgers will eventually be playing for the Jets. Even if that's true, though, I'm not even sure the Jets would be the third-best team in their division with Rodgers, let alone the entire AFC. |
| Anyway, we're only listing the top 10 AFC teams here. If you want to know where the other six AFC teams ended up, you'll have to check out the rest of Jordan's rankings by clicking here. |
| 3. Roger Goodell expected to get a contract extension |
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| Roger Goodell has been commissioner of the NFL for 17 years and at the rate things are going, he might end up being commissioner for 17 more. When the NFL owners meet next week, one topic they're going to talk about is extending Goodell's contract. |
| Here are the details on that: |
| Goodell's contract expires in 2024. According to ESPN.com, the two sides have been eyeing a three-year extension, which would keep Goodell on as commissioner until at least 2027. If he does get a three-year deal, that means Goodell would be under contract until he's 68 (The NFL commissioner is currently 64). This would be Goodell's fourth extension. Since being hired in 2006, Goodell has done a good enough job that the owners have regularly voted to extend his contract. Goodell's first extension came in 2009, then he got one in both 2012 and 2017. Why owners love Goodell. NFL owners love making money and Goodell has made them a lot of money. Under his watch, team valuations have skyrocketed. The last three teams to be sold under Goodell's watch (Broncos, Panthers, Bills) went for an average of $2.78 billion. On the other hand, the last three teams that were sold before Goodell took over (Vikings, Falcons, Ravens) went for an average of $681.7 million. That's an improvement of more than $2 billion. More recently, Goodell helped negotiate a new 11-year, $110 billion media deal in March 2021. How much Goodell makes. If you've ever wondered how much Goodell pulls in every year, the answer is a lot. The most recent available numbers come from 2019-20 and 2020-21 when he pulled in roughly $63.9 million each year fo a total of $127.8 million, according to the New York Times . |
| Goodell's extension will be one of many topics discussed by owners during at the Annual League Meeting, which will be held March 26-29 in Arizona. |
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| 4. Cam Newton teases NFL return: Looking at possible landing spots |
| After sitting out of the NFL last year, it seems that Cam Newton is now interested in making a return. The former NFL MVP has announced that he'll be throwing at Auburn's Pro Day, which will be going down today. |
| Newton seems pretty confident that he should still have a starting QB job in the NFL. "Tell me how these randoms keep getting jobs...ain't 32 motherf---- better than me," the 33-year-old said in his announcement. |
| Since Newton thinks he should still be in the NFL, we decided to take a look at few possible landing spots for the former NFL MVP. Cody Benjamin ranked the top six landing spots, and we're going to take a look at three of them here. |
| 1. Raiders. "Yes, they just paid Jimmy Garoppolo, but he has trouble staying healthy. Also, Josh McDaniels worked with -- and spoke highly of -- Newton during their lone year together in New England, and the Raiders could be eyeing multiple short-term swings at the position, knowing their real answer at QB may not come until 2024 or beyond." |
| 2. Titans. "The Titans have tentatively retained two of their biggest, priciest names in Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry. But Tannehill is aging and coming off an injury-riddled season, and unpolished reserve Malik Willis is the only other QB under contract. Newton could potentially pair with Henry as a bruising ground option, and/or mentor Willis is the only other QB under contract. Newton could potentially pair with Henry as a bruising ground option, and/or mentor Willis." |
| 3. Ravens. "Lamar Jackson is technically under team control, but where do he and the front office actually stand? Barring a sudden breakthrough in long-term contract talks, Jackson feels destined for a whirlwind of a 2023 season, either in Baltimore or elsewhere. Newton could function as a similarly run-heavy weapon either in relief of Jackson or in place of him as a last-gasp stopgap, even if Tyler Huntley-- also a free agent -- returns as well." |
| To see Cody's full list of Newton landing spots, be sure to click here. |
| 5. Draft prospects who could replace the biggest names lost in free agency |
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| During free agency, a big reason that teams will let a key player walk is because the player has become too expensive and because the team has a plan to replace that player in the NFL Draft. The advantage of drafting a player is that they're both younger and cheaper. |
| With that in mind, CBSSports.com draft guru Josh Edwards took a look at some of the biggest personnel losses that teams have suffered this year and came up with a player in the draft who could replace those losses. |
| Here's what he came up with: |
RAIDERS
Loss: Derek Carr
Draft replacement: Florida QB Antony Richardson
Edwards' take: "Based on prospect rankings, it is most likely that either Kentucky's Will Levis or Florida's Anthony Richardson will be the last quarterback standing when the Raiders pick and it won't be surprising to see them take one of those guys." |
EAGLES
Loss: Javon Hargrave
Draft replacement: UGA DL Jalen Carter
Edwards' take: "It was a bit of a surprise to see Philadelphia allow Hargrave to leave. The idea of Carter being available at No. 10 overall, or at least in range for the team to make a move, has grown more likely. Carter's on-field ability would be an ideal replacement for the highest-paid defender on the free agency market." |
PATRIOTS
Loss: Jakobi Meyers
Draft replacement: USC WR Jordan Addison
Edwards' take: "New England has JuJu Smith-Schuster and Devante Parker but it is not a wide receiver room that does a good job of creating opportunities for itself on the field. The Patriots have been active looking for upgrades at the position and that should tell fans all they need to know about how confident they are going into the season with this group." |
| You can check out the rest of Edwards' suggestions for each team by clicking here. |
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| 6. Rapid-fire roundup: Austin Ekeler explains his trade demand |
| It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. |
| Austin Ekeler actually wants to stay in Los Angeles. The Chargers running back made a trade demand last week, but as it turns out, he doesn't actually want to leave L.A., he just wants to be paid what he's worth. "I'm so underpaid right now as far as my contract and what I contribute to the team, it's like, I am relentlessly pursuing this," Ekeler said recently. "I want to get something long term done. I want a team that wants me long term." You can see Ekeler's full comments by going here. Texans add two players on offense. The Texans have quietly been impressive in free agency so far and they continued that on Monday by signing Dalton Schultz and Devin Singletary. Schultz got a one-year deal worth up to $9 million while Singletary got a one-year deal worth up to $3.75 million. Bills sign Damien Harris. With Devin Singletary now in Houston, the Bills have signed former Patriots running back Damien Harris to replace him. The 26-year-old is getting a one-year deal in Buffalo. Harris finished second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2021 with 15, but last season struggled to stay healthy during a year where he missed six games due to injury. Raiders sign O.J. Howard. With Darren Waller now in New York, the Raiders needed some help at tight end and they got that on Monday by signing Howard. The Raiders will be the third team that Howard has played for over the past three seasons. The former first-round pick spent his first five seasons in Tampa Bay (2017-21) before moving on to Houston last year. Dont'a Hightower retires. The Patriots linebacker is calling it a career after nine seasons. Hightower was drafted by the Patriots in 2012 and during his time with the team, he played in three Super Bowls and the Patriots won them all (He was on injured reserve for their Super Bowl LII loss to the Eagles). For more on Hightower's career, be sure to go here. Magic Johnson to join bid for the Commanders. Magic Johnson could soon be an NFL owner. The former NBA great has joined a group led by billionaire Josh Harris and that group is hoping to purchase the Commanders from Daniel Snyder. If their bid wins, Johnson would own a minority stake in the team. |
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