Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

So tired of hearing about this junk. The guy is a tight end who moves around the formation, no different than half the tight ends in the league anymore. Why are we still talking about this crap? So tiresome.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

He is certainly not a blocking TE. If he's a WR then he's really slow.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

Very good read!! Excellent really!!

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

How fast is Colston? Moreover, couldn't someone transform from playing 1 position to another? Hey I hope it works out as TE or a WR paid at the rate a top TE is paid or whatever else keeps him here.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

A short Caponomics lesson:

1. The $7 million franchise tag value is currently a part of the cap. Once the long term deal is signed, that money is released.

2. Long term deals are structured with the signing bonus spread over the life of the contract. So a $15 million signing bonus over 6 years for example would count $2.5 million against the cap each year.

3. The $10 million is the average salary over the life of the contract. Typically because of the signing bonus, the salaries for the first year or two are low. So a $1.5 million salary and a $3 million salary in 2014 and 2015 respectively would not be unreasonable. With the signing bonus that would be a shade less than $20 million in the first 2 years, matching the average.

Couple it all together and JG may count less than $5 million against the cap for 2014. So in fact signing a long term deal will likely open up some cap space.

Edit: I missed the "high back end" when I first read it. My apologies. My lesson just explains what a "high back end" means. All non guaranteed (or more precisely "not likely to be earned") dollars in a contract is monopoly money. The breakpoint is almost always when the first option bonus comes up and/or when the salary jumps. Usually this is close to mid contract. All salary after that is the "high back end".

SFIAH

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

Take your pick:

- Because it's June.

- Because the clause "majority of snaps played" is in the CBA

- Because of ESPN and NFL Network

- Because the hearing is next week

- Because JG is the highest profile franchised player this offseason

- Because JG is currently not attending OTAs and minicamp. Of course he's currently not under contract (just sayin...)

SFIAH

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

He's likely to get a similar 8-year deal to Gronk. Just add about 2 million to each year and you have roughly what Jimmy is gonna make.

Gronks cap hits...
2.7
2.8
5.4
8.6
8.8
7.3
10.3
11

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

Even the NFLPA has said this is nothing but a naked grab for cash. I'm so sick of this mess that I'm to the point where if Saint's just said screw it, we don't need the headache and cut him, I wouldn't mind.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

No, that was an unnamed source from Triplett's article and it was about the NFLPA, not the NFLPA about Graham.

“The union’s position is a naked cash grab,”

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

If I were the Saints I would open up the hearing with this: "Aqib Talib shut him down". I would pause for a couple seconds and then turn to Jimmy's people and say "beat that".

Everyone in the media were praising Talib after that game and saying he's the defensive player of the year. But as I recall, he struggled quite a bit after that. He wasn't even healthy against Jimmy, and still he got shut out. Some "wide receiver" we got there.