Once millions of dollars start flying around, it can be easy to forget that NFL free agents don’t have to sign on the dotted line because they said they will. Like any person with a regular job, they are still playing the open market.
Verbal agreements are just that: Verbal, non-binding and an open opportunity to seek more compensation if you see your talented pals around the league getting bigger bags of cash.
Nowhere do we have a better reminder of player choice and leverage than this year’s free agency period. Three separate players — J.D. McKissic, Randy Gregory and Za’Darius Smith — have now backed out of deals they said they would sign. Gregory went from re-upping to Dallas to join the Broncos. McKissic pivoted on the Bills and returned to Washington.
But Smith, once set to join Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, encapsulates a clear and welcome trend.
Plot twist: Former #Packers pass-rusher Za'Darius Smith is not signing his deal with the #Ravens after all, sources say. He remains a free agent.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 17, 2022
Aside from the awkward tweet deletions from social media teams meaning to promote “their” new players, it’s worth highlighting what three separate professionals reneging on their word means.
Players are right to leverage what minimal power they have as free agents, given the limitations of the CBA. Until you’re officially on someone’s books, play the field as much as possible. In a professional sports league where one injury potentially means the end of your career (and cash flow), you’d be silly not to.
From that perspective, it’s also great that McKissic, Gregory and Smith — three guys in their late 20s who might never see another big NFL contract — happen to be the three case studies. Each tells us something different about the “commitment” of free agency.
First, there’s McKissic. After he was apparently on his way to the Super Bowl favorite Bills on a two-year, $7 million contract, he had a change of heart. He instead stayed in Washington on the same exact terms. Huh? Let me connect the dots for you.
The Bills live and die with Josh Allen’s cybernetic arm. They’re going to throw the ball. A lot. They have one of pro football’s best complements of offensive firepower and already have an established hierarchy of options. If you’re a multi-purpose platoon back like McKissic, who needs to touch the ball often to show your value, it makes more sense to return to the pop-gun Commanders, so you have options when you hit the open market again in a couple of years. Sometimes, it’s about more than signing with a better team. Sometimes, it’s where you, personally, can fare better.
Next, in Gregory’s situation, the Broncos also, quite literally, gave the 29-year-old pass rusher what the Cowboys did.
Five years. $70 million. $28 million guaranteed. That’s weird. What is happening? It doesn’t add up. Oh, wait. The Cowboys reportedly “protected” themselves too much with their version of Gregory’s contract — in that there was likely some sort of easier means to back out of their commitment.
And so it’s the #Broncos — not the #Cowboys — that are in agreement with Randy Gregory. My understanding is Dallas insisted on contract language that Gregory did not like protecting themselves. So he heads to Denver.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 15, 2022
Yeah, I probably wouldn’t sign a contract where my boss could potentially fire me on a whim the moment I tore my ACL or ankle up, either. Like Gregory, I would prefer more security. To each, their own, am I right?
Finally, in Smith’s situation, he saw the forest for the trees. The Ravens gave him $45 million over three years. An amicable agreement for a veteran released by Green Bay. But then some of his edge pass rush contemporaries, Von Miller and Chandler Jones, signed for considerably more. Uh-oh. The writing was on the wall.
Or I guess it wasn’t. And so it’s back into the free-agent pool for Smith, who had unwittingly low-balled himself.
What McKissic, Gregory and Smith are showing during this free agency is a relatively simple concept: Until the ink is on the paper and dry, no one is under any obligation to “honor” their agreements. Get your money and stability whenever you can, especially in a league predicated on putting your body through hell.
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