Linky Links

 Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- This is the way. It's a good start.

- Government says money isn't property - so it can take yours. Wrong on so many levels.

- Speak softly and carry a big tariff.

- Cool Matthew Stafford story.

NFL Trades

Growing up there were two monster historic NFL trades against which all others were judged; the 1990 trade of Hershel Walker from Dallas to Minnesota and the 1999 trade that allowed New Orleans to draft Ricky Williams. The number of draft picks in both trades seemed crazy at the time but now it seems NFL trades often include similar numbers of draft picks but aren't considered as historic at all.

Hershel Walker was traded to Minnesota for three 1st round picks, three 2nd round picks, plus a 3rd round pick and a 6th rounder. They gave up Herschel, two 3rd rounders and a 5th and a 10th. Dallas used that 1990 1st rounder to draft Emmitt Smith and to lay the groundwork for their championships of the 1990's (they already had Troy Aikman). New Orleans traded their entire draft from 1999 plus 2000 1st and 3rd rounders to Washington - all for the rights to draft Ricky Williams. In both cases the teams getting the draft picks were judged over time to have gotten the better ends of the deals.

Consider that in just 2021 Detroit traded Matthew Stafford to the Rams for Jared Goff  and two 1st round picks and a 3rd rounder. And San Fran traded three 1st rounders and a 3rd rounder for just the rights to draft QB Trey Lance.. In 2022 we've seen Russel Wilson (and a 4th rounder) traded from Seattle to Denver for three decent players plus two 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders, and a 5th. Then you had the Deshaun Watson trade from Houston to Cleveland for three 1st round picks, a 3rd and a 5th all for a player facing 22 sexual misconduct civil suits. Crazy.

For people brought up on the Hershel Walker and Ricky Williams trades (and the aftermaths of those trade) the recent complete disregard of 1st round picks seems crazy!

As an aside - Emmitt Smith ended up having more 1,000+ yard seasons (11) than Ricky Williams (5) and Hershel Walker (2) combined! Really surprised that Hershel only had 2 1,000-yards seasons in his NFL career.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Amusing that an athlete as wholesome and "aww shucks" as Tom Brady has a motto of "let's fucking go!"... A cute way to describe the GameStop situation... I guess that the Rams REALLY wanted to get rid of Jared Goff and his contract. They traded Goff and two first round picks along with a third round pick to the Lions for Matthew Stafford. This was a salary dump as much as anything... What is up the the Japanese?... Spherical Bastards would be a good name for a band (bastards no matter what angle you look at them)... My biggest disappointment of the Trump Administration is that he never follow through on the purchase of Greenland... 

Russell Wilson and the NFL's Top Paid Players

Now that Russell Wilson has signed a new contract with the Seahawks - Albert Breer tweeted out a list of the last 8 highest paid players in the NFL (including Wilson). All 8 players were QB's which was not surprising. Also not surprising  is the lack of winning their teams have done after the contract was signed.

Andrew Luck signed in June of 2016 for an average of $24.6 million per year. He then missed all of 2017 and last year "led" the Colts to a 10-6 record.

Derek Carr signed in June of 2017 for an average of $25 million per year. Since then he's "led" the Raiders to a 10-21 record.

Matthew Stafford signed in September of 2017 for $27.5 million per year. Since then he's "led" the Lions to a 15-17 record.

Jimmy Garoppolo signed in February of 2018 for $27.5 million per year. Since then he's "led" the 49ers to a 1-2 record before getting a season ending injury.

Kirk Cousins signed in March of 2018 for $28 million per year. Last year he "led" his team to a 8-7-1 record on a team some had pegged to go to the Super Bowl. Instead the Vikings missed the playoffs.

Matt Ryan signed in May of 2018 for $30 per year.  Last year he "led" his team to a 7-9 record and the Falcons too missed the playoffs.

Aaron Rodgers signed in August of 2018 for $33.5 million per year. Last year he "led" his team to a 6-9-1 record and the Packers also missed the playoffs.

Now Russell Wilson has signed a contract that will pay him $35 million per year. The previous 7 QB's that held the title (however briefly) as the highest payed player in the NFL have gone a combined 57-71-2 a less than 45% winning percentage. Only Andrew Luck was able to even lead his team to the playoffs after signing the mega-deal. Vegas has Seattle's over/under at 8.5 wins next season which doesn't exactly scream playoffs.

Meanwhile Tom Brady never ends up on one of these highest paid lists yet the Patriots have been to three straight Super Bowls and Vegas has New England's over/under at 11.5 wins next season.

Just saying.