Category: NFL News

Patriots’ new draft grading system among takeaways from NFL Combine originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The New England Patriots have a new man making roster decisions, and he’s implementing a new draft grading system.

The last five or six drafts have produced a couple good players for the Patriots, but these classes overall have been mostly underwhelming. For the Patriots to get back to contender status in the AFC, getting more talent out of the draft has to be a huge priority.

Eliot Wolf has taken over as the director of player personnel, and his front office is going to be using a draft grading system that’s different from what Bill Belichick used over the last 24 years.

🔊 Next Pats: DRAFT and DEVELOP: Eliot Wolf is bringing the Packer Way to the Patriots | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

The new grading system was among Phil Perry’s key takeaways from Wolf’s presser at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday.

“(It was) interesting to hear because we have gone over this and over it and over it again this time of year, the last several years, the Patriots’ grading system under Bill Belichick,” Perry said on a new episode of the Next Pats Podcast.

“And we’ve done complete podcast episodes where for 20 minutes, I’ll break down for you what a Patriots grade would look like and what the numbers mean and what the lowercase letters and the capital letters and the color coding and all that goes into one little card next to a player’s name on their draft board. There’s a lot of information compiled into those cards, and if you’re not accustomed to seeing players graded that way, my guess is for scouts, it could be pretty complicated.

“They’ve changed that. They’re into a new grading system. Now it’s going to be closer to what Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith, now part of this Patriots front office as a senior personnel executive, were used to dealing with in Green Bay. So you’re going to have the Packer Way here in New England from a front office…

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The NFL offseason is officially underway, as the combine takes place this week, while free agency begins next week. Recently, the NFL announced that the official salary cap figure for 2024 would be $255.4 million — which is up from $224.8 million. The $30.6 million increase is the largest in free agency history.

The “football business” is doing quite well, which is good news for all 32 NFL teams, as it gives them more financial flexibility for roster building. Some teams will use this boost to be even more aggressive in free agency, while others will sit back and reconsider cost-cutting measures.

Now that we are approaching free agency, this is a good time to revisit the salary cap situations for every team. Let’s take a look. 

Salary cap figures via Over The Cap on Feb. 26

Commanders

$79,614,671

Titans

$78,524,381

Bears

$78,335,157

Patriots

$78,070,006

Colts

$72,075,573

Texans

$67,321,290

Lions

$57,614,821

Cardinals

$51,104,463

Bengals

$50,670,373

Buccaneers

$43,682,067

Raiders

$42,936,109

Rams

$39,905,695

Vikings

$35,807,132

Panthers

$34,572,274

Falcons

$33,004,013

Giants

$30,601,691

Eagles

$27,469,811

Jaguars

$24,421,167

Chiefs

$17,139,240

Ravens

$16,631,328

Jets

$12,756,122

Seahawks

$12,569,647

Steelers

$8,906,955

Packers

$2,340,288

49ers

-$5,046,251

Browns

-$7,758,897

Cowboys

-$9,863,127

Broncos

-$16,811,078

Chargers

-$25,607,797

Dolphins

-$29,069,894

Saints

-$39,879,497

Bills

-$43,815,909

The Commanders, who also hold the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, lead the way with over $79 million in available funds. It’s a good thing, because they have plenty of holes to fill on both sides of the ball. The Titans will be an interesting team to watch as well. They have the second-most available money as it stands, and are prepared to undergo a change in identity with Brian…

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Quarterback Russell Wilson continues to be under contract with the Broncos. Appearing on the I Am Athlete podcast with Brandon Marshall, Wilson said he wants to stay in Denver.

“I got more fire than ever, honestly,” Wilson said. “Especially over the past two years of what I’ve gone through. Whether it’s in Denver or somewhere else. I hope it’s in Denver. You know, I hope I get to finish there. I committed there. I wanted to be there. I want to be there.”

Marshall went over the betting odds with Wilson regarding his next team, and Marshall then began to ask Wilson about some of them. Wilson short-circuited that discussion.

“I would put Denver one because I’m there right now,” Wilson said. “You know, I think you have to have the ability to compartmentalize. I think you have the ability to compartmentalize that, ‘Listen, it’s a business.’ Got to be also nonemotional about it too, at the same time. You also have to know that there’s ebbs and flows to it, you know? Winning heals all wounds. To me, it’s really focusing about being the best version of me, being prepared, and no matter what, you control what you can control. So, my mindset right now, where I am is where I am and I’d love to be there, you know? Love to win. That’s what I came there to do is win more Super Bowls.”

While it sounds good, it’s not realistic. Wilson’s $37 million salary for 2025, which is currently guaranteed for injury, becomes fully guaranteed on March 17. Unless he agrees to delay the vesting of the guarantee until after the 2024 season, the Broncos will cut him before the 2025 salary fully guarantees.

The Broncos haven’t said it. They don’t need to. They benched Wilson for Jarrett Stidham while they still had a chance to make it to the playoffs. That says it all. Wilson isn’t the guy around whom coach Sean Payton wants to build his offense. Payton won’t throw $37 million in good money after $39 million in bad.

And to the extent that fences would need to be mended between Wilson…

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The Caesars Superdome is getting some improvements, $500 million worth of improvements to be exact, that are expected to be completed by the time the stadium hosts Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025. According to city officials, the New Orleans stadium’s renovations are scheduled to be completed by July of 2024. 

The upgrades, including new escalators, bathrooms and walkways, not only line up with Super Bowl LIX, but also with the stadium’s 50th birthday. Renovations have been in progress for some time, with the eastern side of the stadium completed in the summer of 2023. 

With some of these new features already done, fans got to experience the new-and-improved Superdome during the 2023 season. Saints president Dennis Lauscha says the fans are the main motivation when it comes to upgrading the stadium. 

“The focus really was on that fan experience, and I think for our fans this year that got to see half the building done, I think they’ll come out and say it was really a step up in that experience,” Lauscha said. “I think once our fans see the second half done it really is raising the bar.”

The changes were approved in 2019 and at the time were predicted to cost $450 million. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, another $50 million was added to the cost. 

Saints owner Gayle Benson included these upgrades as one selling point for New Orleans getting a Super Bowl bid. 

Louisiana was initially granted the 2024 Super Bowl, concluding the 2023 season, but conflicts with Mardi Gras celebrations caused a change of plans. When the league moved from a 17-week regular season to an 18-week regular season, the Super Bowl was pushed back a week, creating the overlapping of events in the Big Easy. Las Vegas was instead given the Super Bowl for February 2024 and New Orleans was pushed back to 2025.

This will mark the city’s 11th Super Bowl, tied with Miami for the most of all time. Caesars…

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How ‘The Dynasty’ director approached asking Belichick about Spygate originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

If you’re filming a 10-part documentary about the 21st century New England Patriots, you’ll need to ask some hard questions. Specifically to a man who may not want to answer them.

That was the unenviable task of Matt Hamachek, the director of the Apple TV+ docuseries “The Dynasty,” which chronicles the Patriots’ unprecedented success and eventual fall from grace under former head coach Bill Belichick over 20-plus seasons.

Episodes 3 and 4 of the series were released Friday, with Episode 4 focusing on the Spygate scandal that rocked the team during the 2007 season. Hamachek interviewed several prominent figures about Spygate — which involved the Patriots illegally videotaping signals from the New York Jets’ defensive coaches on the sideline during their Week 1 game in 2007 — but obviously had to broach the issue with Belichick.

So, how did Hamachek approach asking Belichick, a coach notorious for shooting down questions he doesn’t like, about the subject he’d probably least like to discuss? Hamachek joined Tom E. Curran, Phil Perry and Michael Holley on NBC Sports Boston’s The Dynastic Post Show to reveal his strategy, which involved utilizing one of the most candid interviews Belichick gave as Patriots head coach.

🔊 Patriots Talk: Dynastic postgame show – Takeaways from Episodes 3 and 4 | Listen & Subscribe

“By the time I interviewed Bill, I knew that I had the Armen Keteyian interview,” Hamachek said. “I had seen Bill get asked about it enough to know that he was never going to go to the places that he had already gone in the Keteyian interview.”

In May 2008, CBS News’ Armen Keteyian pressed Belichick for nearly 15 minutes in a rare 1-on-1 interview focused on the Spygate scandal. Belichick was surprisingly candid, calling out former Patriots video director Matt Walsh — “For him to talk about game-planning and strategy and play-calling and how he…

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There won’t be any franchise-tag drama between Tee Higgins and the Cincinnati Bengals. 

According to NFL.com, the Bengals have informed Higgins that they’ll be using the franchise tag on him this year. The news comes on the same day where the Bengals — and the 31 other teams — got an unexpected gift from the NFL when the league announced that the salary cap would be set at $255.4 million in 2024, which is $10 million to $15 million more than most teams were expecting. 

The Bengals will now be using some of that extra money to pay Higgins, who will get a fully guaranteed one-year deal worth $21.816 million if he plays on the tag. Once Higgins signs his franchise deal, he’ll have until July 15 to work out a long-term contract with the Bengals. If that doesn’t happen, then he’ll go into the 2024 season on his one-year deal. 

The fact that the Bengals decided to tag Higgins isn’t that surprising, but the timing of the decision is somewhat unusual. Most teams wait until closer to the tag deadline before making a decision on whether to use the franchise tag (the deadline this year is March 5). That gives the team more time to work out a possible long-term deal with the player. 

Assuming Higgins gets officially tagged in the next few days, that will make him just the fourth player since 2018 to be tagged in the month of February. If he’s officially tagged by Monday, it will be the earliest that ANY player has been tagged since Jarvis Landry was hit with the franchise tag by the Dolphins on Feb. 20 back in 2018. 

Keeping Higgins was high on Cincinnati’s priority list for the offseason. The Bengals didn’t hide the fact that they wanted to keep Higgins with everyone from Joe Burrow to the team’s director of player personnel, Duke Tobin, making it clear that they wanted the receiver back. 

“He’s a big part of what we have done here,” Burrow said of Higgins in January. “It’s no secret our…

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The 49ers released veteran cornerback Isaiah Oliver on Friday, the team announced.

The move saves $2 million in salary cap space.

Oliver appeared in all 17 games last season, but he played only four snaps or fewer per game in six of the last nine games. He did not play a single down on defense in the postseason but saw action on 35 special teams snaps.

He totaled 58 tackles, two passes defensed, one interception and one fumble recovery in 2023.

Oliver originally signed with the 49ers last March.

The Falcons made him a second-round pick in 2018, and Oliver spent his first five seasons in Atlanta. He played 62 games with 38 starts for the Falcons.

In his six-year career, Oliver has totaled 270 tackles, three interceptions 36 passes defensed and three forced fumbles.

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The 2024 NFL season will be different for the Dallas Cowboys. 

There’s a cliche among Cowboys nation that each year is “their year” to make a Super Bowl run, but the mindset from the top has changed. Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones used to say he thinks “longer term” and is “real hesitant to bet it all for a year” when it came to his Cowboys team-building approach. 

Jones’ methodology has now changed after a third 12-win season in a row ended without at least reaching the NFC title game, making the 2021-23 Cowboys the first team ever to do so. 

“I would anticipate, with looking ahead at our key contracts that we’d like to address, we will be all-in,” Jones said at this year’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. “I would anticipate we will be all-in at the end of this year. We will push the hell out of it. It will be going all-in on different people than you’ve done in the past. We will be going all-in. We’ve seen some things out of some of the players that we want to be all-in on. Yes, I would say that you will see us this coming year not build for the future.”  

Jones called the second-seeded Cowboys’ 48-32 wild-card round loss to the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers “the most painful [in his 35 years owning the team]” because of the “great expectation and hope” for his 2023 Dallas squad. Jones made it clear to his team that “he doesn’t have too many years left in this business” and wants another Super Bowl ring “badly” when Dallas met for its 2023 exit meeting and locker room clean-out.     

So what should Dallas do to erase the memory of how flat they played this past postseason? Here are five steps the Cowboys could take to truly be “all-in” and in position to make a massive push for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans next season.

1. Re-sign stars to long-term contract extensions now; restructure other key contracts

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