Hey man, some of us aren't part of that generation that needs a participation award. You don't get something for doing nothing.
So I was looking at doing a "Who Really Had The Best FA" piece and currently auditing Griddles voting here, I see some an error or two some five years later. 2010 Best In Free Agency: Boik14 However looking at the records of voting I can see that we didn't have a particular set of finalists as we do now in the current system. What we may have had was a system similar to what we do for GM of the Year with each GM voting for their top three picks, with number one earning 3 pts, two earning 2 pts and three earning 1 pt. What happened during voting was 9 out of 14 voters only voted for 1 team, whereas the other 5 voted for their top three. Here is how the votes broke down if we went by the top three voting system... 1. Jacksonville (PSG) 3 + 1 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 13 2. Indianapolis (Boik14) 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12 3. Washington (Skull Destroyer) 2 + 1 + 3 + 2 = 8 4. New England (GridIronKing34/Schisno) 1+3 +1 = 5 Tied: 5. San Francisco (B. Sebo) 3 5. Cleveland (Fin-Omenal) 3 5. Philadelphia (Gish/GAP) 3 5. Green Bay (PeaTearGriffin) 3 Tied: 6. Buffalo (Silverphin) 2 6. Tampa Bay (Vengeful Odin) 2 6. St Louis (Big E) 2 7. Pittsburgh (Sports24/7) 1 As you can see PSG won the 2010 Best In Free Agency by a mere point. However if you only take the top vote as the only vote, here is how the voting would have looked... Tied: 1. Jacksonville (PSG) 4 1. Indianapolis (Boik14) 4 Tied: 2. Washington (Skull Destroyer) 1 2. New England (GridIronKing34/Schisno) 1 2. San Francisco (B. Sebo) 1 2. Cleveland (Fin-Omenal) 1 2. Philadelphia (Gish/GAP) 1 2. Green Bay (PeaTearGriffin) 1 As you can see PSG and Boik would have shared the 2010 Best In Free Agency Award. This is not diminished anyone's accomplishments but to give credit to PSG for at the very least sharing the Best In Free Agency Award. However, I must investigate and see who really had the best Free Agent Class in 2010.
Top 10 Highest Paid Free Agent Quarterbacks GML (2010-2014) We've looked at how devalued wide receiver and running back free agents have become since the 2010 offseason but neither of those offensive positions can touch the lack of big money contracts that free agent quarterbacks are given. The most important position in all of football is the highest paid position for good reason, but not when it comes to free agency because you don't see talented pivots in their prime, instead you have journeyman types, or those highly touted first rounders who flamed out and second tier starters. Can you win a Super Bowl with a free agent quarterback? It's been done with the likes of Kurt Warner, Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson and Drew Brees. However that's only 4 out of 30 teams in Super Bowls since 2000 that have won, and only 7 of those 30 teams have had free agent quarterbacks lead them to the title game with Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme and Peyton Manning all losing in their respective Super Bowls. With free agent quarterbacks rarely leading their teams to the Super Bowl and going 4-3, it's not a good bet to see one lead their GML team to a big win. However there have been two noticeable names to have hit free agency (sort of...) In 2010 Jay Cutler was the marquee name in QB free agency and predictably earned the biggest contract and accounted for 15% of the total $58,000,000 salary cap. Was it worth it? Jay Cutler 2010 GML Contract: $8,500,000 (15% of Cap Space) 2010 Stats: 15 Games Started - 3274 Passing Yards - 24 Passing TDs - 16 Interceptions - 232 Rush Yards - 1 Rush TD - 10 Fumbles - 6 Lost Fumbles Cutler would also lead the Bears to an 11-5 regular season record and the NFC North Division title. The Bears would then defeat the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs before losing to the Green Bay Packers 21-14 in the NFC Conference game, so clearly we can see the $8,500,000 contract paid out in free agency was probably one of the best... especially compared to the one given out in 2011... The 2011 GML Offseason Many were anticipating a historic offseason with Peyton Manning's impending free agency, little did we know what was going to occur. Natural the GML follows the course of the NFL and base their current contracts on the NFL's. Enter Peyton Manning without a contract extension and one GM PSG with only one option... franchise tag the best QB in the NFL. Lose Peyton Manning to free agency? Would there be anyone willing to give up a first and third rounder for Manning? There happen to be one in particular, Gish, GM of the rival Tennessee Titans who put in a bid of $36,000,000 on the tagged Peyton Manning. PSG was left with a dilemna, match or let him walk for a first and third rounder? Clearly it wasn't enough in return and the bid was matched, but the Colts would trade Manning to the Titans for #27 Overall and Russell Okung. Happy ending for both sides? The Bidding War Then Gish had the smart idea to release Peyton Manning from his $36,000,000 and pick him up for a smaller contract. This would lead to the revise rules of "Franchise Tagged Players may not be cut" in 2012. The Exclusive Franchise Tag wasn't created because of this, instead that was the New York Jets constantly trading down their picks to the lowest possible compensation for Arian Foster and the Houston Texans in 2012. Gish wasn't lucky enough to get the bargain he was looking for, instead the Minnesota Vikings GM (schisno) entered into a bidding war with the Titans and had Gish surrendering at $30,000,000 until the commissioners office found some accounting errors in Minnesota and Gish was awarded Peyton Manning for $29,000,000. Whether you regard the $36,000,000 or $29,000,000 as the biggest GML contract, know that Peyton Manning took up 36% or 48% of the Titans salary cap. Was it worth it? For $29,000,000 the Titans received 0 Games played from Peyton Manning as he had to have neck surgery. Historically this is the worst contract ever given here in the GML, three times I might add (Titans/Colts, Vikings, Titans). Meanwhile the Colts signed Matt Hasselbeck (Who had signed with the Titans in real life) to a modest $6,000,000 contract and received: Matt Hasselbeck 2011 stats: 16 Games Started - 3,571 Passing Yards - 18 Passing TDs - 14 Interceptions Not close to the Cutler deal from 2010, but it was the best production from any of the 2011 Free Agent quarterbacks. 2012 GML Offseason There was nothing exciting about 2012, Matt Flynn was the hottest name on the market and received the biggest contract and would wind up playing in 3 games for the Seahawks and passing for 58 yards, losing out on the starting job to Russell Wilson. Not really worth the $7,500,000 (9% cap hit), but Alex Smith didn't do much better as he started 9 games before losing his job to injury and Colin Kapernick. In fact Ryan Fitzpatrick was the best deal in both 2012 and 2013 as the 4th highest paid free agent quarterback, outplaying the top 3 including Matt Flynn twice. Ryan Fitzpatrick GML Contract: 2012 - $1,700,000 (2% of Salary Cap); 2013 - $1,500,000 (1% of Salary Cap) 2012 Stats: 16 Games Started - 3,400 Passing Yards - 24 Passing TDs - 16 INTs Not since Jay Cutler in 2010 has there been a notable free agent quarterback worthy of a big contract, which has led us to the steepest decline in contracts with most GMs preferring to find a suitable back up for the league minimum. Like the running back position, the GML has also seen a trend in drafting a franchise player or starter at the position. [table="width: 1000"] [tr] [td]2010[/td] [td]2011[/td] [td]2012[/td] [td]2013[/td] [td]2014[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Salary Cap: $58,000,000 Salary Cap %: 2-15% [/td] [td]Salary Cap: $75,000,000 Salary Cap %: 0.4-48%[/td] [td]Salary Cap: $85,000,000 Salary Cap %: 0.4-9%[/td] [td]Salary Cap: $124,000,000 Salary Cap %: 0.4-11%[/td] [td]Salary Cap: $130,000,000 Salary Cap %: 0.4-2%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]01. Jay Cutler $8,500,000 02. Jason Campbell $4,500,000 03. Favre, Brett $4,300,000 04. Chad Pennington $3,800,000 05. Marc Bulger $3,500,000 06. Jake Delhomme $1,500,000 07. Matt Moore $1,500,000 08. Tavaris Jackson $1,300,000 09. Kyle Orton $1,400,000 10. Sage Rosenfels $900,000 11. Troy Smith $900,000 12. Billy Volek $800,000[/td] [td]01. Peyton Manning $36,000,000.00 02. Matt Hasselback $6,000,000.00 03. Charlie Whitehurst $1,500,000.00 04. Vince Young $700,000.00 05. Jason Campbell $450,000.00 06. Drew Stanton $402,000.00 07. Tyler Thigpen $351,000.00 08. Bret Favre $351,000.00 09. Rex Grossman $300,000.00 10. David Carr $300,000.00 11. Jon Kitna $300,000.00[/td] [td]01. Matt Flynn $7,500,000 02. Alex Smith $4,100,000 03. Jason Campbell $2,000,000 04. Ryan Fitzpatrick $1,700,000 05. Kyle Orton $1,000,000 06. Chad Henne $600,000 07. Tyler Thigpen $500,000 08. Seneca Wallace $450,000 09. Billy Volek $400,000 10. Brady Quinn $350,000[/td] [td]01. Michael Vick $12,500,000 02. Matt Moore $4,500,000 03. Matt Flynn $3,000,000 04. Ryan Fitzpatrick $1,500,000 05. Kyle Orton $900,000 06. Kevin Kolb $750,000 07. Mark Sanchez $600,000 08. Shaun Hill $550,000 09. Blaine Gabbert $540,000 10. Matt Hasselbeck $530,000[/td] [td]01. Jake Locker $2,000,000 02. Michael Vick $1,500,000 03. Christian Ponder $1,000,000 04. Matt Flynn $850,000 05. Matt Moore $700,000 06. Matt Schaub $700,000 07. Jason Campbell $650,000 08. Chad Henne $645,000 09. Mark Sanchez $600,000 10. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick $495,000 11. Matt Cassel $495,000 12. Josh McCown $495,000 Chicago[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Bengals votes have been cast. They were cast by Mike Brown as he was canoeing down the Ohio River wearing a short sleeve oxford shirt with tie, life-jacket, and and cargo shorts with dress shoes and no socks. The second sentence is a partially true story, really. I'll let you figure out which part of that story is true. I don't have a picture but most of that has been verified to me by several ex-Bengals.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/05/16/the-pff-101-top-to-bottom/ I have 8 of the top 101 (4 of my front seven)..obviously a healthy AROD would've made 9. Was a little shocked Daryl Washington was left off the list considering his high grade on PFF.
I have 7 in the top 50 and 8 overall... and obviously a healthy Von Miller who was 4th in 2012 would've made it 8 in the Top 50. Doesn't include a healthy Percy Harvin who was 51st in 2012...... nor Julius Thomas [3rd ranked receiving TE] orStar Lotulelei [2nd best Run Stop Percentage and 6th highest run grade].
You did really well in that area then. I was just going to say if you started with 5 it wouldnt be as impressive. I believe J. Casey is the only one I started with.
If I was running a 4-3 I would have made that earlier deal we had been talking about. I only ended up with 3...but then I did skew young on most positions. 2 of the 3 were in the secondary at least. Can't believe Toby is walking away with FA steal of the year with that pitiful real life contract he got. A RB in this market ;p
The lack of voting is disgraceful. Don't participate in the league if your not going to see the whole thing through.
Seriously. I think Paul should extend the deadline and flood these non voters with PMs until they vote. Threaten to get their wives involved. Blackmail if he must.
yeah, I was out of town all weekend for the holiday, I imagine some of you were too. I'll likely extend at least 24 hours.
I'll vote if ya'll want me to, just really wasnt part of the league this year... Only jumped in to keep the draft moving quicker.
Was FFG the GM of the Jets in '09? Here I thought the historic female presence of the GML had doubled. Looks like Seattle and Cleveland have the best shot at winning multiple awards, and Baltimore with the best Oline is pretty much a lock.
She stated earlier that she wasn't. That she participated in survivor and one of the draft games....but that was it.
She's the only female that has come this far, I remember the other dropping out fairly quick. Maybe the voting should just go back to the old school way, just vote for who you did best without a need for nominations for finalists with a top three for each with 3,2,1 scoring and bam.
It was her. She traded for Brady. I remember. EDIT: Best I could do for proof, 2008 GML must have been at FH where they destroyed our archives.
New category... Best Female GM. And I would go as far to say that FFG wouldnt be the only one to receive votes.
