Agent’s Take: 10 NFL free agency observations from first week, including resurgent RB market, guards get paid

Money was burning a hole in NFL owners pockets, thanks to an unprecedented $30.6 million increase in the salary cap when teams could officially begin contacting the agents of players with expiring contracts as the two-day negotiating window that’s a precursor to the start of free agency opened on Monday. As usual, the initial days of free agency were a seller’s market. The tables have turned since the first wave of free agency is over. It’s now a buyer’s market. Nearly all of the consensus best players available who were on the open market have been signed.

The NFL annual owners meeting, which is March 24-27 in Orlando, Florida, typically signifies the end of free agency for all practical purposes. Teams will devote most of their attention to the upcoming NFL Draft held April 25-27 after the meeting wraps up.

Here are a 10 contract-related thoughts and observations relating to free agency and the early part of the offseason.

It’s hard to find a player who has played the contract game better than Kirk Cousins ever since he broke new ground with the NFL’s first lucrative fully guaranteed veteran contract in 2018. Cousins signed a three-year, $84 million deal (worth a maximum of $90 million through incentives) with the Minnesota Vikings, making him the NFL’s highest-paid player at $28 million per year.

The contract also contained a no-trade clause and language preventing the Vikings from designating Cousins as a transition player. Mike McCartney, Cousins’ agent, was able to leverage these contract provisions and Minnesota’s tight salary cap situation into a couple of extensions of the original Vikings’ contract. The last extension was designed so the Vikings wouldn’t be able to put a franchise tag on Cousins when his contract expired after the 2023 season.

Cousins capitalized on finally hitting the open market again by signing a four-year, $180 million contract averaging $45 million…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agents-take-10-nfl-free-agency-observations-from-first-week-including-resurgent-rb-market-guards-get-paid/

Author : Joel Corry

Publish date : 2024-03-15 19:31:21

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