Around the league in 32 plays
By Ben Almquist
It’s Friday, Addicts, and time for another roundup of all the NFL news and rumors from the past week. Obviously, in the wake of the draft, there is a lot going on. The rookie wage scale has made signing the newly drafted players a much simpler affair, and so it gets done pretty quick. As a result, I’m largely going to skip over all of that. It’s just too much.
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But even without talking about most of the rookie signings (not to mention all the UDFAs), there was still quite a bit going on in the NFL. Following the draft is when many teams begin to jettison their “Plan B” guys. Those are players that were added, or retained, simply because the front office wasn’t sure they would be able to come up with a suitable option in the draft. The Chiefs had a couple of those that I’ll cover later. But there was one really big deadline this week that generated a ton of news on its own…the fifth-year option deadline.
One of the more important aspects of the new CBA, this gives the team the rights to a 1st round draft pick for one year beyond their original contract. It’s a valuable tool for NFL GMs, including John Dorsey. Here’s how it played out…
Lead Story: 5th Year Options: Eric Fisher (KC), Ezekiel Ansah (DET), Sheldon Richardson (NYJ), Sharrif Floyd (MIN), Xavier Rhodes (MIN), DJ Fluker (SD), Tavon Austin (LA), Star Lotulelei (CAR), Kenny Vaccaro (NO), Eric Reid (SF), Justin Pugh (NYG), Kyle Long (CHI), Tyler Eifert (CIN), Desmond Trufant (ATL), DeAndre Hopkins (HOU), Alec Ogletree (LA), and Travis Frederick (DAL).
For a class that is largely considered to be a bust, that’s a lot of talent being retained. Over half of the players taken in the 1st round had their 5th year option exercised. And, of course, that doesn’t include players who have gotten new contracts (Lane Johnson). But, this number is less than what we had seen in previous years.
Obviously, the most notable name on this list for Chiefs fans is Eric Fisher. Though still controversial among fans, and certainly not having proven he’s got a long-term future in KC, it’s a good sign that the Chiefs want to keep him around despite having the highest fifth-year cap hit.
The hope, of course, is that a new deal can get done for less than what the 5th year option would cost. That may have gone up in smoke though after a couple of OT contracts that were signed this week.
There are other notable names on this list, but it’s perhaps more notable who isn’t up there. Both Luke Joeckel and Dion Jordan were missing from the names being tendered. However, Jordan is currently ineligible due to not accruing enough seasons…but he was unlikely to get tendered anyways.
Over the next few weeks, several of these players are going to be signing new deals. Will Fisher be one of them? At this point, I’m going to say “no”. I don’t think he’ll get a deal done until next season. He has a guaranteed contract for 2016 at this point, and the OT market has just gotten a big bump. He’ll dig in hard on his contract demands, so it will be on the Chiefs to meet his terms. I don’t see John Dorsey being ready to do that just yet.
Next: Onto the teams...