NFLRT 7/27/2024

    

The questions and discussion…

1) While he won’t be roaming any sidelines this year as an NFL coach, Bill Belichick will be a familiar face throughout the 2024 NFL season as he will appear on shows such as “Inside the NFL” and “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli.” However, according to NFL Media, Belichick is “fully invested” in a return to the sidelines as a head coach in the NFL.

With that in mind…

Before the regular 2024/25 season concludes will Belichick be hired as an NFL head coach by a team looking to make a head coach change? Why or why not?

Bill Belichick will be a familiar face throughout the upcoming NFL season with various media appearances scheduled throughout the year on shows such as “Inside the NFL” and “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli.” However according to NFL Media he is “fully invested” in a return to the sidelines. 

Considering that he was not hired during the off-season’s hiring cycle following his and New England’s supposed mutual decision to leave the Patriots, the 72-year-old Belichick is probably looking to pick and choose very carefully which team he might wind up with to resume his NFL head coaching career. And again per NFL Media particular to his check list are teams that has some form of QB stability… especially in light of the drama that went on when Brady left the Patriots and how the QB situation was never fully resolved in New England… as well as an owner that would give him the latitude to be full vested in front-office decisions involving on the field personnel and assistant coaching staff.

Added a to all that is a recent report from ESPN that he has a special interest in a three teams in particular that he would consider and each of the teams on that list happen to play in the NFC East… the Cowboys, Eagles and Giants.

With all that in mind…

In my opinion it would take a dumpster fire of season for the owners of any of those three teams to fire their HC in midseason and make a monumental decision t ogo hire Belichick to take over the HC reins. And personally I doubt very much Belichick would want to return to the NFL sidelines under the potential very unsettled situation of a team in most likely complete disarray that such a franchise would present and would rather wait until the off-season to get all his duck in a row and make sure all the “T’s” are crossed and “I’s” are dotted before choosing any of those teams to HC.

Therefore I say that his chances to return to the NFL before the regular 2024/25 season concludes is minimal at best and probably highly likely.

2)  Under the topic of current Davante Adams’ rumors…

Recently Adams appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast and when the topic turned to former NFL QB Tom Brady he told Sharpe “Hell yes. You gonna talk about how old he is. I don’t care. I don’t care… I think I’d be the first person to play with Tom and Aaron (Rodgers). So that’d be pretty cool. He’s gotta still be able to throw it better than half these dudes in the league.”

Adams added that he’d welcome Brady, who turns 47 in August, even if he were “58.”

What are the chances of Brady unretiring to be the Raiders’ QB and teaming up with Adams either this season or next season? Why?

With Brady I leave nothing off the table concerning his decisions and/or NFL career.

But…

I would be really surprised… not shocked though… to see Tom Brady unretire and have another go around playing in the NFL. 

Even if it  was with a team that needed a quality QB to head up its team and to play with a top  and exceptional All-Star receiver such as is the Vegas Raiders and wide receiver Davante Adams.

However, in my opinion,  Brady should stay retired… and as tempting as it may sound to step into a situation such as presents itself with the Raiders and Adam… he should forget about it. He has nothing left to prove and those young studs playing the game these days are getting bigger, faster and stronger.  Go do TV and spend time with your kids. 

3) Staying with Davante Adams…  

He recently provided a list of  his top five current NFL wideout receivers and not surprisingly, Adams gave the top spot on the list to himself, followed in order by the Vikings Justin Jefferson, Dolphins Tyreek Hill, Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb and Bengals Ja’Marr Chase and A.J. Brown as an honorable mention.  

What is your opinion of Adams top five wide receivers currently playing in the NFL? Why?

Would you change any of his picks? Why or why not? And if you would, who would you chose instead? Why? 

Not a bad list but here is mine…

Number 1 is Tyreek Hill who last season finished with 119 catches for 1,799 yards and 13 touchdowns. And if it weren’t due to a late-season injury, he most probably would have become the first player in the history of the NFL to break the 2,000 receiving yards barrier. He is approaching being on the wrong side of 30-years of age and time and age will eventually catch up to him but right now he’s the best in the NFL.

At 2, I have CeeDee Lamb who arguably could have been my choice as the number 1 guy because he is that damn good. Last season he simply went out and had a league-leading 135 receptions, 1,749 yards receiving and 12 TDs. Each year he has been in the NFL he has just gotten better and to top it all off he is just 24-years old.

My number 3 player is Davante Adams. He might be on the wrong side of 30… 31 actually… but by his play on the field you would never guess it. Like Hill time and age will eventually catch up to him but right now he is arguably the best route runner and one of the best receivers after the catch in the game. He’s also posted at least 100 catches and 1,000 yards in five of the last six seasons, including four straight. Last season, in a very unsettled QB situation, he still posted  103 receptions, 1,144 Receiving Yards and 8 receiving TDs.

At 4 I have Amon-Ra St. Brown. St. Brown, at just 24-years old, is fast approaching becoming an elite pass catcher in the NFL and is another who is especially good at gaining yards after the catch. Last season he totaled 119 Receptions, 1,515 receiving yards and 10 receiving TDs.

And at 5 is Brandon Aiyuk (26-years old) who is another player who is a great route runner, great after the catch, and a true threat to take each pass he catches to the end zone. In 2023 he finished with 75 catches for 1,342 yards and 7 touchdowns.

4) After Kirk Cousins left the Vikings to sign on with Falcons, Minnesota set about formulating their QB replacement plans by first signing former Jets, Panthers, and 49ers quarterback Sam Darnold as a stop-gap option.

Then in the first round of this year’s draft the team selected former Michigan star J.J. McCarthy.  

Which player starts at QB for the Vikings when the regular season begins? Why?

The Vikings in my opinion are not going to rush McCarthy into starting right from jumps street knowing that they can err on the side of caution by starting the season off with bridge option Sam Darnold as QB1.

If Darnold, who after a very inauspicious beginning to his career with the Jets has proven to be a relatively reliable if unspectacular QB, totally soils the bed then and only then will the Vikings “rush” McCarthy into the QB1 role.

In fact 

5) After months of stagnant contract negotiations, Brandon Aiyuk officially wants out. According to CBS Sports.com, this past Tuesday (7/16) the 49ers wide receiver informed the team he now prefers to be traded, despite previously indicating he desired to strike a long-term contract with the 49ers.

And per ESPN.com, 49ers general manager John Lynch has said publicly the 49ers want to sign Aiyuk to a long-term deal, but San Francisco has so far been unwilling to meet the wideout’s contract demands. In fact, the team hasn’t engaged in long-term talks since May, NFL Media reported Tuesday.

At a some point during the current pre-season or regular season will the 49ers eventually trade Aiyuk? Or do the 49ers and Aiyuk wind up coming to an agreement on a long term deal? Why or why not?

Simply put: Aiyuk wants to get paid as one of the top receivers in the NFL. This offseason alone has seen star wideouts such as Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson, Philadelphia’s DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, Miami’s Jaylen Waddle, and Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown sign lucrative contract extensions with St. Brown, Brown and Jefferson all inking deals that average at least $30 million per season.

The contract negotiations between Aiyuk and the 49ers has been an ongoing situation for a while now with Aiyuk trying multiple methods to coax the team into getting a deal done this offseason. Throughout that time, Aiyuk declined to ask for a trade.. until relatively recently .

As the Niners preparing to report for training camp, Aiyuk has now officially asked to be traded.  

Aiyuk, 26, has one year remaining on his rookie contract, the fifth-year option that is set to pay him $14.124 million for this season. He is seeking an extension that would roughly double that value in the form of average annual salary.

The Niners, meanwhile, have long said they planned to re-sign Aiyuk with the intention of keeping him around as a franchise focal point.

If Aiyuk remains this season, the Niners would return all 11 offensive starters from a group that finished first in offensive points per game (28.4), offensive efficiency (76.02) and offensive expected points added (148.06) and second in yards per game (398.4) in 2023.

Aiyuk was a big a part of the production of that offensive output as he led San Francisco in receiving for the second straight year, with a career high in receiving yards (1,342) and leading the league in yards per target (12.9) while finishing second in yards per catch (17.9).

So it makes a lot of sense for the 49ers to say they are steadfast in their commitment to working out an extension and that they have no desire to trade Aiyuk and his trade request will most probably do nothing to change their mind on that front.

A look at the past history of contract negotiations between the 49ers and other star players shows that while sometimes the negotiations can be contentious at times the team usually winds up getting a deal done… for instance…

In 2022 after contract negotiations seemed to come to a standstill, wideout Deebo Samuel Sr. asked for a trade in early spring only to sign a three-year deal worth up to $73.5 million in late July.

Bottom line, in my opinion, is that Aiyuk resigns with the 49ers and he is not traded.