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The New York Knicks pulled the trigger yesterday by acquiring Mikal Bridges in a blockbuster to add another former Villanova star. Many people started wondering if that meant OG Anunoby was going elsewhere, considering the amount of money the Knicks …
The New York Knicks pulled the trigger yesterday by acquiring Mikal Bridges in a blockbuster to add another former Villanova star. Many people started wondering if that meant OG Anunoby was going elsewhere, considering the amount of money the Knicks had on the books with other players.
However, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Anunoby was signing a five-year, $212.5 million deal to stay with the Knicks.
Here is how social media reacted after the news broke of Anunoby’s monster deal.
Could Brissett find an opportunity with more playing time, or perhaps even a bit more than the minimum?
Will backup big man Oshae Brissett re-sign with the Boston Celtics in free agency this summer? The former Indiana Pacer had by all accounts a solid if unremarkable 2023-24 regular season with the Celtics, and saw his role shrink significantly from an already minor one in the postseason.
But he did play some important minutes in the series with his former ball club, and plays a position of need for the Celtics. “While not an elite floor-stretcher, his good physical profile and resultant strong multi-positional defense made him a very solid tenth man, and the occasional highlight-reel plays added some sprinkles to the cake,” writes Mark Deeks on our sister site, HoopsHype.
“In a world where Derrick Jones Jr’s price is the minimum salary, so is Brissett’s, but here is as good as anywhere.”
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Could Brissett find an opportunity with more playing time, or perhaps even a bit more than the minimum? Perhaps, but as Deeks insinuates, it won’t be on a team that has a better shot to win it all in 2024.
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Broncos CB Pat Surtain will likely earn more than $20 million per season if/when he signs a massive contract extension.
Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain will earn about $3.5 million this fall before getting a big pay raise in 2025 on his fifth-year option. Surtain is currently scheduled to earn $19.8 million in 2025 before hitting free agency in 2026.
The Broncos will hope to get a long-term extension done with Surtain long before his current deal expires.
In terms of average value per year, the NFL’s highest-paid cornerbacks are Jaire Alexander ($21 million/year), Denzel Ward ($20.1 million), Jalen Ramsey ($20 million), Marlon Humphrey ($19.5 million), Marshon Lattimore ($19.4 million) and Trevon Diggs ($19.4 million).
The contract with the most fully guaranteed belongs to L’Jarius Sneed, who has $51.5 million guaranteed from the Tennessee Titans. The highest total value belongs to Ward ($100.5 million), followed by Ramsey ($100 million).
The highest signing bonus ever received by a cornerback was $30 million, given to Alexander by the Green Bay Packers in 2022.
Based on those figures, it seems safe to assume Surtain’s agents will seek a deal worth north of $20 million per year with a signing bonus approaching $30 million and guaranteed figures in the range of $50 million.
A four-year extension could fetch north of $84 million. A five-year deal would top $100 million. Either way, PS2 will be paid handsomely. The 24-year-old defensive back is one of the best CBs in the NFL and he’ll soon be paid like one.
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The Broncos cut Russell Wilson and Justin Simmons and traded Jerry Jeudy this spring. “They’re always going to say it’s just business.”
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton retooled the team’s roster this offseason.
The Broncos lost several key starters on both sides of the ball this spring, some by choice and some for financial reasons. Denver released quarterback Russell Wilson in a coach’s decision, cut safety Justin Simmons to save salary cap space, traded wide receiver Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns and lost linebacker Josey Jewell and center Lloyd Cushenberry during free agency.
After seeing the team part ways with so many key teammates, receiver Courtland Sutton had a perfect reaction on social media. Sutton shared a famous GIF of Wil Smith standing in an empty house in the final scene of “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.”
That was back in March and Sutton was not available to speak to the media until he reported for mandatory minicamp earlier this month. During his media availability, Sutton was asked about his reaction to teammates being let go this offseason.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Sutton said on June 11. “I know that the guys upstairs — the people upstairs that make those decisions — they have a rhyme and a reason for why they do it. It’s not for us to understand, we probably will never understand.
“The thing that I have come to understand with this business that we’re in is they’re always going to say it’s just business never personal, so we’ve got to move accordingly.”
Sutton skipped the voluntary part of the team’s offseason program in protest of his contract situation. He was noncommittal when asked if he would report to training camp without a new contract. Wilson, Simmons, Jeudy, Jewell and Cushenberry won’t be on the field when camp begins next month. We’ll see if Sutton shows up.
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Is this the year for Jeremy Chinn?
Jeremy Chinn looked like he was on the verge of stardom during his rookie season in 2020. A second-round pick from Southern Illinois, Chinn started 15 games and recorded 117 tackles, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, one interception, two touchdowns, and five passes defended.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Chinn finished second in the NFL — behind Washington defensive end Chase Young — in the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
What a difference a few years makes — for Chinn and Young. The Commanders traded Young last season after he failed to live up to his potential as a former No. 2 overall pick.
As for Chinn, he participated in just 39% of Carolina’s defensive snaps in 2023 after playing in over 90% of the snaps in his first three seasons. Part of Chinn’s struggles were due to multiple coaching changes, injuries, or coaches not knowing how to use Chinn best.
So Chinn entered free agency in March, looking for the right place to play on a “prove-it deal.” He chose Washington primarily because he believed new head coach Dan Quinn could help turn his career around.
With Chinn on a one-year deal with the Commanders, is this a make-or-break year?
Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports believes it is but sees good things for Chinn and the Commanders.
But I’ll focus on Chinn because he’s another Commanders player who’s produced at high level in the NFL and boasts the talent to be a foundational piece of Washington’s defensive unit for a long time. He also could be on this third team in three years if he doesn’t return to his early form in 2024.
Chinn, now 26, is playing on a one-year deal for less than $5 million this season, and it comes after a nightmarish 2023 in which he appeared on 27.1% of Carolina’s defensive snaps without serious injuries keeping him off the field. Remember, Chinn is a serious specimen for the safety spot — 6-foot-3 and 221-pounds with elite 4.45 speed and a 41-inch vertical. He has the built-in-a-lab size and athleticism to be half-safety, half-linebacker when more is being asked from the safety position than ever before.
His new head coach, Dan Quinn, had a front-row seat to Kam Chancellor in Seattle, and Donovan Wilson and Markquese Bell became two quality, hard-hitting safeties in Dallas. Chinn should blossom under Quinn’s watch.
Chinn looks like the prototypical Quinn defender. He has size and speed and has proven he can succeed in the NFL. If he can remain healthy, the 2024 season could be a breakout year for him, and the Commanders would likely look to lock him up beyond next season.
If you ask one NBA analyst, it could depend on how the team’s front office feels about another reserve center on the team’s roster.
Will the Boston Celtics bring back backup big man Luke Kornet in free agency? If you ask one NBA analyst, it could depend on how the team’s front office feels about another reserve center on the team’s roster. That analyst would be HoopsHype’s Mark Deeks, who recently wrote up what he thinks of the Vanderbilt alum’s odds of sticking with the ball club he won the 2024 NBA Championship with.
“With the team since February 2022, Kornet’s second stint in Boston has now lasted almost two and a half years, which is enough to qualify him for full Bird rights,” notes Deeks.
“This might be important, because having reinvented himself away from the modern stretch five archetype he was once thought to embody, Kornet has gotten good.”
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“Always a genuine paint deterrent … Kornet has added tremendous offensive efficiency to that, and has proved hardier than it was once supposed he would be given his narrow frame,” adds the HH analyst. “Other quality teams may find a portion of their mid-level exception to use on this quality 7-foot-2 backup.”
“By virtue of having the Bird rights, the Celtics will not need to use a portion of their own to compete with that – however, they may have to choose between him and Tillman, purely for financial reasons.”
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The Commanders could not rush the passer in 2023. Will that change in 2024 under Dan Quinn?
When the Washington Commanders opened the 2023 NFL season, they had Chase Young and Montez Sweat starting at defensive end. By November 1, both players were gone, and Washington turned to a pair of 2023 Day-3 draft picks and two other former seventh-round picks as its top pass rushers.
As you’d imagine, the Commanders struggled to rush the passer, but it wasn’t only because of the personnel. Washington was always seemingly at a coaching disadvantage, too. The Commanders didn’t have the pass rushers to win one-on-one, and the coaching staff didn’t do a good job of creating pressure.
That will change under new head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. While Quinn and Whitt will not have Micah Parsons in Washington, Quinn has always been excellent at finding ways to create pressure.
We’ve reviewed the Commanders’ defensive ineptitude a number of times, but Pro Football Focus recently gave us another statistic showing their struggles.
PFF used “clustering” to examine all 32 NFL defenses from the 2023 season. Before we review the assessment on Washington, let’s allow PFF to explain the clustering method:
Clustering is a mathematical technique used to group similar observations. The most common form is the k-means clustering algorithm, which completes its iterative process when each observation is in the cluster that best represents it. In other words, there is no other cluster whose center (or mean of all the variables) is closer to that observation than the one it currently belongs to.
Now, what about the Commanders?
PFF has Washington in Cluster One with the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans.
The Commanders rushed the passer the least often of any defense in 2023 (29.3%).
In addition to Washington’s inability to rush the passer, the team struggled across the board defensively. This offseason, general manager Adam Peters signed Dorance Armstrong, Clelin Ferrell and Dante Fowler at defensive end. Armstrong and Fowler followed Quinn to the Commanders from Dallas.
And while none of the aforementioned newcomers are known as standout pass rushers, Washington will be much better at applying pressure in 2024. Armstrong, in particular, is the most intriguing addition.
The Saints will have some high-profile free agents in 2025 like Paulson Adebo and Rashid Shaheed. The NFL just announced when they could hit the market:
Yes, 2025 is still a long ways away — but it’s important to keep an eye on the future. That’s how the New Orleans Saints operate, and so does every other NFL team. The league office announced key dates for the 2025 offseason this week, highlighting the 2025 NFL draft and the start of free agency.
Here’s what we learned:
We can infer some other things, like the real start of free agency being March 10. That’s when the legal tampering period opens, where teams court free agents and discuss contracts, but deals may only be agreed to, not signed. Every year a couple of players renege on those handshake agreements so nothing is guaranteed until pens go to paper a few days later.
Will the Saints use the franchise tag in 2025? Maybe. They’d like to avoid it given their complex salary cap situation, but they have several high-profile players headed for free agency after the 2024 season: Paulson Adebo, Pete Werner, Chase Young, Willie Gay, Juwan Johnson, Payton Turner, and Rashid Shaheed (who will be a restricted free agent, making him ineligible for the tag but easier to re-sign).
No one expected the Saints to use the franchise tag the last time they brought it out, at least not the summer before. It certainly wasn’t expected to be such a difficult decision between tagging Marcus Williams or Trey Hendrickson. Letting Hendrickson walk away in free agency (while tagging Williams only to fail to re-sign him later) has turned out to be one of Mickey Loomis’ biggest blunders, but going into his breakout season with the Saints he had just 6.5 sacks in three years. We’re in the same position now that we were then. Maybe one of those players we just listed performs so well in 2024 the Saints can’t afford to let them go in 2025.
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Former Panthers CB Mac McCain has settled back into the NFC South.
As announced on Thursday, the New Orleans Saints have signed free-agent cornerback Mac McCain. The 26-year-old spent last August as a member of the Carolina Panthers, who waived him during their cutdown to the initial 2023 53-man roster.
The Greensboro, N.C. native played his pre-NFL ball locally, attending James B. Dudley High School before committing to North Carolina A&T beginning in 2017. He played in 29 games for the Aggies up until 2020—amassing 113 total tackles, eight interceptions, 22 passes defensed, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.
McCain would then sign as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles in the spring of 2021. He appeared in two games for Philadelphia that year, both against the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys—recording 13 snaps on special teams in the Week 3 contest and 31 total (11 defensive) snaps in the season finale.
Prior to signing with the Saints, McCain spent a few weeks with the United Football League’s San Antonio Brahmas during their 2024 season.
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The Saints picked Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter in this 2025 mock draft. He could help out on either side of the ball:
There’s a chance the New Orleans Saints could pick one of the most electrifying (and enigmatic) talents in the 2025 NFL draft. We turned the controls over to the Pro Football Focus mock draft simulator to run a first-round projection for next year’s draft, and the computer gave the Saints a fascinating player: Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter.
Hunter has been linked to the Saints before. He was their pick in Dane Brugler’s day-after mock draft in April, with Brugler pointing to Hunter’s ability to make a play with the ball in his hands as a point in favor of keeping him at wide receiver.
But would Hunter play offense or defense in the NFL? The answer may depend on which team drafts him. He’s listed at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, fine size for either position, and last year he saw more snaps on defense (592) than offense (452). He finished with 57 receptions for 721 yards and 5 touchdown catches while bagging 3 interceptions and 5 pass breakups, with 26 tackles.
What could those positions look like a year from now? The Saints’ pending free agents in 2025 at wide receiver include Rashid Shaheed (who should be easy to re-sign as a restricted free agent), Equanimeous St. Brown, and Stanley Morgan. Cornerbacks Paulson Adebo, Ugo Amadi, and Shemar Jean-Charles are also scheduled to test the market. If Adebo leaves in free agency and Marshon Lattimore is ultimately traded the Saints could look to add another corner. If something happens with Shaheed or the other wideouts on the roster fail to make an impact, they’ll need another receiver.
It’s too soon to say where Hunter’s NFL future will take him. What’s certain is he won’t be playing full-time on both sides of the ball like he has in college. The pro game is too fast-paced, too physical, and too specialized to allow it. He’ll need to pick a path eventually. For now, he’s impressing everyone watching him on Saturdays — and that includes a lot of excited NFL scouts.
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