Tag: Spotrac

Ohio State football ranks near the top in most active players in the NFL

The Columbus to the NFL pipeline is strong

One of Ohio State football’s top recruiting pitches is the path to the NFL goes through Columbus.

Some of the games biggest stars played in the Scarlet and Gray, but it’s not just about the top players. A good portion of it is getting the opportunity to play in “The League,” and there is plenty of data to back up the Buckeyes ability to get players to the next level. One of those points was highlighted on Sunday.

According to Spotrac, only one other school has more active NFL players than Ohio State’s sixty-six, Alabama. The Crimson Tide lead the list with seventy-seven, but the Buckeyes aren’t that far behind.

This list will clearly change over the coming season’s, but Ohio State should only be adding to it’s count following this year and beyond.

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X. 

Cowboys roster ranks 3rd in value; Lamb, Bland make ‘best value’ team

From @ToddBrock24f7: CeeDee Lamb and DaRon Bland were the top values at their respective positions in 2023, while 8 other Cowboys made the top 10 at theirs.

The world-weary cynics within Cowboys Nation firmly believe that, at least to the Jones family, finishing the season strong in dollars and cents is way more important than wins and losses.

On the field, Dallas didn’t make it out of the wild-card round. But financially, the front office finished almost at the top of the league when it comes to the overall value they got out of their players this season.

Spotrac has determined their 2023 Team Value Rankings using scores calculated for each player on the league’s rosters. Individually, a player’s cumulative production is factored against his average annual salary, and the resulting score (out of 100) offers a look at how much bang a player provides for his buck.

Do that for everybody, and it becomes clear which teams make their money work the hardest come gametime.

San Francisco led the NFL with a “True Value Score” (TVS) of 99.56, while Baltimore came in second with 95.11. The Cowboys finished in third place with 91.38. No other team scored in the 90s. (Within the NFC East, Philadelphia finished 16th with 52.48, the Giants were 28th at 16.44, and Washington ended 31st with 6.11.)

Using players’ individual scores, Spotrac also assembled their “Best Value” roster, spotlighting the player with the highest TVS at each position. The Dallas was one of four teams to put two players in the hypothetical starting lineup; eight other Cowboys made the top 10 at their positions.

Here’s a look at who was named the absolute best value at their spot, as well as which players on the team still gave great production at a nice price.

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Where do the Bills rank in positional spending among rest of NFL?

Where do the #Bills rank in positional spending among rest of NFL prior to the start of training camp?

There could be changes to come with the Buffalo Bills roster during training camp.

But prior to the start of it, general manager Brandon Beane mostly has things set. That begs the question, following free agency and the 2023 NFL draft, where is Buffalo spending their salary cap space?

Here’s a position-by-position spending breakdown for the current Bills roster:

Looking at the projected market value for Jalen Hurts, Darius Slay, and Eagles’ top free agents

With the legal tampering period just hours away, we’re looking at the projected market value for the Philadelphia Eagles’ top free agents

The NFL’s new league is less than four days away, and with the legal tampering period scheduled to start on Monday, Philadelphia will look to retool on defense, while making cost-effective decisions.

All-Pro quarterback Jalen Hurts and his contract is the biggest concern this offseason, but the Eagles will also need to navigate 19 looming free agents and the likelihood that they’ll lose C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Javon Hargrave and James Bradberry.

GM Howie Roseman has made it clear that he’s prepared to lose several key starters and he’ll retool via the draft with a handful of 2024 compensatory picks.

With the new league year just days away, Spotrac projected the market values for the top free agents, players in line for a new deal, or guys looking for a potential trade.

Below is the predicted market value for the Eagles’ top free agents, along with Jalen Hurts and Darius Slay.

Buffalo Bills roster amongst oldest in NFL

#Bills roster amongst oldest in NFL:

The Buffalo Bills have a roster that’s a very experienced one. The eye test says it, but so do the numbers.

According to Spotrac, the Bills have the fifth-oldest roster in the NFL. Overall, Buffalo has a roster that has an average age of 26.92.

For those curious, here are the five eldest rosters in the league:

  • 5. Bills (26.92)
  • 4. Cardinals (27.06)
  • 3. Patriots (27.25)
  • 2. Saints (27.25)
  • 1. Buccaneers (27.32)

For each team, the circumstances differ. For the past few  years, Buffalo has had talent but it’s all been youthful. That is starting to change.

Safety duo Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer are both over 30. Plus, recent star defender signee, Von Miller, is 33.

Despite that, the Bills do have multiple important pieces under 30. Of course, the one at the top of that list is quarterback Josh Allen.

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2022 NFL Free Agency: Estimating the price of signing Chandler Jones

Signing Jones wouldn’t be cheap, but it’s a deal the Jaguars could afford.

The Jacksonville Jaguars may not have the most cap space to spend in the league this offseason, but they will still be in the top three of the NFL in terms of available cash to spend. After a 2021 offseason that featured mostly value signings, this team could look to make a bigger splash this time around.

While this team needs more help on offense than defense, it has holes across the board. It could plug a major one if it was able to add outside linebacker Chandler Jones from the Arizona Cardinals.

Jones is primarily an edge rusher can play off-ball occasionally (has received 42 targets in coverage), and that versatility would be welcome for a Jaguars defense that is lacking playmakers. Josh Allen has that potential, but pairing him up with a player like Jones would prove to be a major boost for this defense.

Second-year player K’Lavon Chaisson didn’t take much of a step forward after a bad rookie season, and while Dawuane Smoot had a breakout year, he may not be a starting-caliber player.

The Jaguars hired Brentson Buckner away from Arizona to serve as the new defensive line coach under Doug Pederson, and that has spurred speculation that the Jaguars could target Jones this offseason.

To sign away Arizona’s all-time sacks leader, it won’t be cheap. According to Spotrac, Jones is expected to have a market value of $14.5 million/year over three years for a deal that would have a total value somewhere in the neighborhood of $43 million. That’s certainly not pennies for a 31-year-old.

Should the Jaguars pursue Jones this offseason?

Age and price tag aside, going after Jones would still make a lot of sense for the Jags. Coming off a torn bicep and some offseason drama in which he made a trade request that wasn’t granted by the Cardinals, a down year would have been expected.

Though it was his lowest sack total since 2014, it’s hard to call Jones’ production in 2021 “down” in any way. He finished with 10.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and six forced fumbles. He’s also not too far removed from a 19-sack season in 2019 that represented his career-high.

While his best play may be behind him, he should have a lot of good seasons left if he can maintain his health, and with a player like Allen already on the roster, Jones could be a very helpful piece for this team up front defensively.

The Jaguars need to use some of that money to make splashy additions this offseason, and Jones, while expensive, would be an immediate upgrade on defense.

Is this ‘a lot of compensation’ for a potential trade of Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey?

If this is considered “a lot of compensation” for a potential trade of Christian McCaffrey, then the Panthers may be better off just hanging up the phone.

The Carolina Panthers have a Christian McCaffrey conundrum—one that can be fixed by the oft-injured back finally staying healthy or the team dumping off his hefty contract elsewhere. So if the answer is ultimately the latter of the two, how may that solution look?

Founder and managing editor of Spotrac Mike Ginnitti has an idea of his own, involving ye ol’ faithful pipeline up to Orchard Park, N.Y. On “The Spotrac Podcast,” he suggests the Panthers send the two-time All-Pro to the Buffalo Bills for what he considers a substantial haul of wide receiver Cole Beasley, a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick.

“It’s a lot of compensation,” Ginnitti suggests. “The reason I threw Beasley on this list is A, I believe the Bills will move on anyway. And B, I’m bringing in Christian McCaffrey to be a quasi slot receiver, because I think that’s actually where his career is headed. No matter where he is, even if he stays in Carolina. I do think that’s how you keep him healthy.”

Well, geez. Then maybe the Panthers should just keep him and do that instead of shipping off their best player for a soon-to-be 33-year-old wideout, a late third-round pick and a lottery ticket.

“What I’m basically saying here is ‘Carolina, go draft your next running back with whatever we give you here,” Ginnitti expands. “‘And, oh, by the way, you need a slot receiver, too. Here’s Cole Beasley for one-year, $6 million—not that big of a deal.’ So I do think there’s a little bit of logic on their side as well.”

Ginnitii is certainly spot-on about that type of logic for Carolina. Without picks in the second and third round of the 2022 draft, perhaps it makes sense for the Panthers to load off the burden of that pact in recouping some much needed draft capital.

General manager Scott Fitterer and head coach Matt Rhule, with a vital 2022 campaign coming up, don’t exactly have a plentiful amount of cap space to work with. They are plentiful, however, in areas of need—specifically at quarterback, tight end, linebacker, safety and almost every spot on their offensive line two times over.

But, when McCaffrey’s healthy, he’s easily amongst the game’s most valuable players outside of the quarterback position. And while the Panthers don’t have any assurances of that health, especially in his case, there has to be a better deal out there for a dynamic talent like him . . . right?

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Extending D.J. Chark Jr. could be manageable, per Spotrac’s market value projections

An extension for Chark would likely be worth around $11.9 million annually.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have several areas of need this offseason, but there aren’t many bigger priorities than adding weapons in the passing game to aid in the development of second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence. As far as the receiver position goes, the team has one massive decision to make regarding D.J. Chark Jr.

The former second-round pick struggled with drops as a rookie in 2018, but he was vastly improved in his second season and has been the team’s most reliable playmaker since. His 2021 season was cut short with a broken ankle in Week 4, though, and now it’s time to decide whether to offer him an extension or let him test free agency.

The Jags could decide to go in a different direction at receiver, but if they decide to extend Chark, it might hurt their pockets too much, at least in the eyes of Spotrac. According to them, a market value deal for Chark would be in the range of $47.6 million over four years, which would pay an average of $11.9 million annually.

That deal would make him just the 22nd highest-paid receiver in the league, which seems like good value for a player with Chark’s upside. Perhaps more importantly, it’s not a price tag that would prohibit the Jags from targeting a top-tier receiver in free agency like Chris Godwin.

The Jags don’t have a lot of big contracts on the books, and with the team currently projected to have the third-most available cap space in the league, they could easily afford to sign Chark. Considering his decent production — 2,042 yards and 15 touchdowns on 147 catches in four years — that seems like a deal they’d be happy to make, even if he’s only crossed the 1,000-yard threshold once back in 2019.

Extending Cam Robinson could cost Jags nearly $17 million/year, per Spotrac

The value of a projected extension for Robinson would make him the seventh highest-paid left tackle in football.

Jacksonville’s toughest decision last offseason regarded offensive tackle Cam Robinson, a second-round pick in 2017 whose rookie contract was expiring. The Jaguars kicked the can down the road a year by placing the franchise tag on Robinson, but now the time has come to decide on his future once again.

The team could choose to tag him once again, but that would result in an even bigger one-year deal than the $13.8 million agreement he played under in 2021. With that being said, signing him to a long-term contract would be even pricier.

According to Spotrac, a market-value deal for Robinson would be around a four-year, $67.3 million commitment that would pay the veteran tackle an average of $16.8 million. That would rank seventh among NFL left tackles and give him a contract similar to those of others at the position like Garrett Bolles, D.J. Humphries, and Laremy Tunsil.

With the Jags either losing or opting out of the bidding wars for players like Trent Williams and Orlando Brown last offseason, retaining Robinson on a one-year basis made a good deal of sense, given the other positions the team also needed to prioritize. Robinson was decent in 2021, but it’s a stretch to say his production justifies a contract of this size.

According to Pro Football Focus, he earned a season grade of just 67.3, squarely in the bottom of the average range. That grade ranked just 50th among 84 NFL tackles, and that’s not exactly the type of contract year a staff would like to see from a player they’re about to hand a top-10 contract at the position to.

If Jacksonville decides to move on from Robinson and let him test free agency, it has options. Walker Little, a second-round pick from 2021, started three games this season. Though it’s a small sample size, he registered the third-highest offensive grade on the team at 68.8 (higher than Robinson). The Jags could also shore up the position with the first overall pick by taking a player like Alabama’s Evan Neal or North Carolina State’s Ikem Ekwonu.

Regardless, if the Jaguars decide they want Cam Robinson in Jacksonville in the long run, it won’t be a cheap move for the team.

Jags set to have among most cap space in NFL once again

The Jaguars are currently projected to have the third-most cash to spend in the NFL this offseason.

This time last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars sat with the most available cap space in the entire NFL. General Manager Trent Baalke went for a value strategy instead of using that space to spend big on top-tier free agents, but that tactic looks questionable in hindsight, to say the least. The team didn’t improve much from its 1-15 finish in 2020, going 3-14 and picking first overall once again.

However, the team may have a chance to rectify that mistake this offseason. Once again, the team has among the most available cap space in the league. Though the official number isn’t yet known, Over the Cap predicts that Jacksonville will have about $61.2 million to spend this offseason.

That would rank third in the NFL behind only the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers. The overall cap number for each NFL team hasn’t been determined, but it’s expected to be boosted to around $208 million after it was reduced due to COVID-19.

The Jaguars don’t have a lot of big contracts on the books, but the players with the biggest cap hits (and the only ones in eight figures) will be cornerback Shaquill Griffin ($16.5 million) and linebacker Myles Jack ($13.2 million).

However, they do have several decisions to make with impending free agents, namely receiver DJ Chark Jr. and offensive tackle Cam Robinson. Chark has been productive throughout his career despite poor quarterback play, but he missed almost the entire 2021 season with an ankle fracture. He could be a franchise tag candidate, but regardless of how the Jags do it, they need to keep him around. The receiving corps this year struggled mightily without him, and Jacksonville can’t afford to move on from a promising young receiver.

Robinson, meanwhile, played under the franchise tag in 2021. He was solid if not overly impressive, but he did make a decent case for sticking around. The Jaguars could tag him again, but that would make his 2022 deal even more lucrative than it was this season. If they choose to offer him a long-term contract, he will likely want a big deal in line with the other top tackles in the league.

Still, even if the Jags offer both Chark and Robinson multi-year extensions, they should have plenty of cap space to work with. After last year’s offseason proved to be disappointing, it seems likely the team will be a bit more aggressive in pursuing talented players in free agency this time around.