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Tuesday, March 23, 2021
With free agency winding down, you might be wondering what the next big event is on the NFL calendar and surprise, surprise, it's not the draft. 
The next event you're going to want to keep your eye on is the NFL owners meeting, which will be taking place March 30-31. You're probably going to want to go ahead and mark that on your calendar because there should be a lot of news going down over those two days. Not only will the owners be voting on implementing a 17-game schedule, which is likely going to happen, but they will also be voting on all rule proposals for 2021, like the crazy fourth-and-15 onside-kick rule that I hope passes (You can read details on that rule proposal by clicking here). 
As for free agency, it's not completely over and we're still keeping track of everything that happens. If you also want to keep track, be sure to click here to check out our free agent tracker that will be updated any time one of the top 100 free agents signs a deal. There are 26 players on the list who are still available, including Richard Sherman, Ndamukong Suh and T.Y. Hilton. 
Alright, now that you know where to find that tracker, I think it's time to move on, so let's get to the rundown. As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. All you have to do is click here and then share the link
1. Today's show: Who's the best team in the NFC East?
We weren't planning to spend half of Tuesday's podcast talking about the worst division in football (aka the NFC East), but somehow that's exactly what happened during the show. After picking the Cowboys to win the division last year I have officially jumped off the bandwagon and will either be picking Washington or the Giants to win the division this year. I think Brinson and Wilson both agreed with that take, which means the Cowboys or Eagles will probably win it. Sorry to jinx you like that Washington and Giants fans. 
Speaking of the Giants, we also spent part of the show trying to decide who made the better wide receiver signing over the weekend: New York with Kenny Golladay or the Steelers with JuJu Smith-Schuster. I'm not saying the Giants overpaid for Golladay, but the Giants might have overpaid for Golladay. 
With free agency winding down, we also decided to do one last batch of winners and losers. Here's a sneak peek at the winners: 
Wilson: Joe Burrow. After playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL last year, Burrow might not have to run for his life on every play in 2021 after the Bengals added tackle Riley Reiff. 
Breech: Kenny Golladay. In a dead market for receivers, Golladay was able to land a four-year, $72 million deal that includes $40 million in guaranteed money. Any time you convince someone to give you $40 million, you're a winner in my book .
Brinson: Vic Fangio. Fangio is quietly building a defense that might be able to slow down the Chiefs. By adding Kyle Fuller at corner, the Broncos now have one of the better secondaries in the NFL. 
To listen to today's episode -- and to follow the podcast -- be sure to click here
2. Robert Kraft explains why Patriots went big in free agency
For most of the past 20 years, Patriots fans rarely ever had to pay attention during free agency and that's because New England never really did anything. However, that all changed this year when the Patriots decided to empty out their piggy bank by spending $259 million during the first week of free agency (It was a large piggy bank).
So why did they change their philosophy this year? During an interview over the weekend with Peter King of NBC Sports, Patriots owner Robert Kraft explained why this was the year the team decided to spend big. 
One of the biggest reasons was because the salary cap went down. The Patriots went into free agency with the third-most cap space of any team in the NFL and because of that, they knew they wouldn't have to get into a bidding war to sign anyone. 
"We had the second- or third-most cap room at the start of free agency," Kraft said. "This year, instead of having 10 or 12 teams competing for most of the top players, there were only two or three. And in my 27 years as owner, I've never had to come up with so much capital before."
Kraft is a billionaire and like most billionaires, he decided to use a stock market analogy to explain the spending splurge. 
"It's like investing in the stock market," Kraft added. "You take advantage of corrections and inefficiencies in the market when you can, and that's what we did here." 
One other reason the Patriots went on a spending spree is because they had a lot of holes on their roster. If the Patriots want to be good this year, the team knew they'd have to spend big in free agency. 
"We'll see [how this all goes]," Kraft said. "Nothing is guaranteed, and I'm very cognizant of that. But we're not in the business to be in business. We're in this business to win."
Although all of these explanations make sense, I'm still convinced the actual reason the Patriots went big in free agency is because Bill Belichick snapped after he saw Tom Brady win the Super Bowl and immediately called Kraft after the game to let him know that the Patriots were going to spend whatever it takes during the free agency to get back to the Super Bowl. 
3. Russell Wilson wants Antonio Brown in Seattle
When Russell Wilson decided to publicly complain about the Seahawks back in February, one of his specific complaints revolved around the fact that he doesn't have any say in personnel decisions. Basically, Wilson wants to be able to help pick and choose whom the Seahawks sign. 
The Seahawks clearly haven't given him that power, because if they did, there's a good chance Antonio Brown would already be on the team. According to NFL reporter John Clayton, Wilson is doing his best to try and get the Seahawks to add the receiver. 
Wilson lobbied hard for Brown back in October, but the Seahawks ignored him and the receiver ended up signing in Tampa Bay, where he would win a Super Bowl, which probably didn't sit well with Wilson. 
"I think that with our culture and how our culture is, with Coach [Pete] Carroll, with the teammates that we have, the men that we have and the growth, I think, if he does play football, I think this is a great place," Wilson said of Brown back in October. "If he does play again, I think this is a place that he'll grow a lot as a man as well."
If the Seahawks are trying to fix things with Wilson, I'm guessing that signing Brown would probably go a long way toward mending the fences. 
4. Packers trying to restructure Aaron Rodgers' contract
Wilson isn't the only star quarterback who seems kind of unhappy with his team this offseason and that's because Aaron Rodger also exists. Rodgers hasn't been as vocal as Wilson about his unhappiness, but he's clearly not thrilled about a few things that are going on in Green Bay. 
The Packers could have tried to fix things by adding a few weapons in free agency, but they didn't do that. They also could potentially fix things by restructuring Rodgers' contract and since they whiffed on the free agency thing, it appears they're trying to go this route. 
According to Michael Silver of the NFL Network , Green Bay is trying to negotiate a restructured contract with Rodgers to free up some cap space. The catch here is that this doesn't seem like a simple restructure, which would involve taking Rodgers' base salary for 2021 ($14.7 million) and turning that into bonus money. If that happened, Rodgers would make the league minimum ($1.075 million) and the cap hit from the rest of the money ($13.625 million) could be spread out over the life of the deal. However, it doesn't seem that a simple restructure is what's happening because if that were the case, it would have already happened since the Packers don't need Rodgers' permission to do this, according to the guys at OverTheCap
What this means is that Rodgers might be looking for more security before agreeing to a restructure. Basically, the Packers could theoretically unload him after this year and turn to Jordan Love if that's the route they wanted to go. Rodgers didn't sound too confident about his future in Green Bay after the Packers' loss in the NFC title game and that's likely because he knows the team can get out of his contract after the 2021 season. On Rodgers' end, he probably wants a deal that gives more security after 2021. Of course, the problem for the Packers is that if they give him that security, that basically means they'll have wasted the Love pick. It's kind of an awkward situation for everyone involved. 
5. Top 13 most underrated signings of free agency
With one full week of free agency in the books, Cody Benjamin decided to go through every signing that's been made over the past seven days to figure out which teams have gotten the best deals of free agency so far.
With that in mind, here's Cody's list of the 13 most underrated free agents who have been signed:  
Offense
Jacoby Brissett to the Dolphins (1 year, $5 million)
Mitchell Trubisky to the Bills (1 year, $2.5 million)
Emmanuel Sanders to the Bills (1 year, $6 million)
Phillip Lindsay to the Texans (1 year, $3.25 million)
David Moore to the Panthers (2 years, $4.75 million)
John Brown to the Raiders  (1 year, $3.75 million)
Marvin Jones to the Jaguars (2 years, $14.5 million)
Rashard Higgins to the Browns (1 year, $2.38 million)
Kyle Rudolph to the Giants (2 years, $16 million)
Defense
Jayon Brown to the Titans (1 year, $5.3 million)
Michael Davis to the Chargers (3 years, $25.2 million)
Mike Hilton to the Bengals  (4 years, $24 million)
Anthony Harris to the Eagles (1 year, $5 million)
To see Cody's explanation for why each one of these players made his list, be sure to click here
6. Rapid-fire free agent roundup
Although free agency is winding down, there's still plenty happening around the NFL and we've seen a few big moves go down over the past 24 hours. Here's a quick roundup of everything that's happened since Monday. 
  • One of our top 10 remaining free agents is off the market with Kevin King agreeing to return to the Packers on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million. King was the sixth-best player available according to our free agent rankings. 
  • The Giants continued their spending spree on Monday by signing Adoree Jackson. The former Titans first-round pick landed a three-year deal worth up to $39 million
  • The Falcons added some running back help on Tuesday by signing Mike Davis to a two-year, $5.5 million deal. Davis is coming off a 2020 season in Carolina where he led the Panthers in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. 
  • Sammy Watkins is continuing his free agency tour this week. Watkins, who has spent his past three years with the Chiefs, is expected to visit with the Ravens and Colts. 
  • A 14th lawsuit has been filed against Deshaun Watson. The latest lawsuit refers to Watson as a "serial predator" and includes allegations that he sexually assaulted a massage therapist in California. 
Although there haven't been any criminal charges filed against Watson, he could still face a suspension by the NFL if the league finds that the accusations have merit. Over the past 15 years, Ben Roethlisberger and Ezekiel Elliott were suspended for cases where there were no criminal charges filed. 
7. The Kicker: San Diego's NFL stadium is no more
As someone who lived in San Diego for two years of my life, I was secretly hoping that the Chargers would quickly move back to San Diego after they realized how dumb it was to move to Los Angeles. However, I guess I can throw those hopes out the window because even if they want to move back, there's no NFL stadium for them to use in San Diego anymore. 
The Chargers' old stadium is basically gone and it now looks like a piece of leftover ruins from Pompeii. You can see a before-and-after photo of the stadium by clicking here
If I'm ever named commissioner of the NFL, the first thing I'm going to do is get a stadium built in San Diego and then let that stadium host the Super Bowl every other year for the rest of time. That being said, if I do get named commissioner, I do promise to keep writing this newsletter, except on Wednesdays when Cody Benjamin is in charge. Please be nice to Cody, tomorrow. 
 
 
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