Agent gives insight into Josh Allen’s deal, Nick Sirianni talk and more
Josh Allen’s historic contract with the Buffalo Bills sets the young quarterback up for yet another payday, Plus, Aaron Rodgers emerges as a mentor in Green Bay.
The Buffalo Bills made the easiest decision facing any team this offseason, securing burgeoning quarterback Josh Allen to a long-term contract, rewarding the face of their franchise and setting the organization up for what it hopes is long-term success.
When Allen put pen to paper on his mammoth six-year contract extension worth $258 million, — including upwards of $150 million guaranteed — there were two very interested observers in Cleveland and Baltimore.
Allen’s contract is rare in the sense it ties a 25-year-old quarterback, who is still ascending despite already being arguably one of the five most gifted players at his position, to a young team that still has flexibility to continue building around him.
The mammoth contract extension also sets the standard for Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson, the 2019 MVP quarterback of the Ravens, who are next in line for their big payday.
“Lamar Jackson is in the best position,” NFL agent Doug Eldridge tells FanSided. “Because he doesn’t have to do any of the back-breaking ditch digging — from a contractual standpoint, he already did all the hard work to put himself in a position to capitalize.
“If you’re Lamar Jackson, it’s just like scaffolding on a building, I’m just going to stand on top of the levels [Allen] just built, and I’m going to add 10 percent onto my deal. I think the Ravens, as big a bite from the cap space pie as that would be, this is an organization that was really burned by Joe Flacco … For all of the ‘Joe Flacco is elite’ jokes and memes, that guy went on a prolific run and bet on himself, they gave him at the time what was a record contract, and it broke the bank. They were in disarray for many years, arguably until they got Lamar Jackson.”
One NFC Personnel Executive agrees, telling FanSided he’d expect Jackson to have an larger contract than Allen’s in hand when all is said and done.
Allen doesn’t have the MVP on his resumé that Jackson does, but through three seasons has completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 9,707 yards with 67 touchdowns to just 31 interceptions, while leading the Bills to the AFC Championship Game and 14 points shy of a Super Bowl berth last January.
What Allen now has is a contract that carries the most guaranteed money in league history, offers almost unprecedented security, and the ability to cash in on a third contract at a time when the NFL will be reaping unprecedented revenue.
“If we’re talking about a third quarterback contract,” Eldridge says. “Let alone a marquee, best-of-class quarterback, at a time when you’re going to have all of the sports gambling, all of the digital media assets coming in on the NFL’s side, I think Allen’s next contract is going to be an astronomical number.”
According to CBS Sports, the NFL could make an estimated $2.3 billion in addition revenue, from legalized sports betting partnerships alone, and that figure will only rise over the next several years as more states legalize gambling and more teams sign exclusive partnerships with various casinos and sports books.
Mayfield, meanwhile finds himself in a far different situation than Allen and Jackson.
Entering his fourth season, for the first time Mayfield will have stability in general manager (Andrew Berry), head coach (Kevin Stefanski), system, and myriad weapons for the second consecutive season.
Despite being chosen No. 1 overall by the Browns back in 2018, Mayfield has yet to produce an MVP-caliber season that Jackson has nor has he led Cleveland past the AFC Divisional round, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead last January.
His approach, according to Eldridge, will be far different than Allen’s and even Jackson’s to his second contract.
“The person who has the most collateral with the bank right now, who is in the best position to bet on himself … Is Baker Mayfield,” Eldridge says.
Mayfield is coming off a 3,563-yard 2020 campaign in which he tossed 26 touchdowns to a career-low eight interceptions, and led the Browns over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a playoff victory at Heinz Field.
“He’s really coming into his own in terms of maturity, and you’re starting to see that quarterback bellcurve start to go upwards. The game’s starting to slow down for him. I think he’s starting to come into his own. This is the first year, where he can focus solely on the variables he can control, there aren’t musical chairs in a coaching staff, he isn’t in an offense with a dearth of weapons, he has the experience behind center, familiarity with the organization, this is the year he can focus on what he can control.”
The executive thinks if Mayfield puts up the kind of numbers he has the past two seasons, his contract will come close to Allen’s next offseason.
Almost needless to say, though, the iron might never be higher than when Allen gets another chance to strike in 2025. At that point, Allen’s cap number maxes out at $51.8 million, conceivably setting the stage for Buffalo to tear up his deal and write a new contract, for a player who potentially could be among the premier at the most important position in sports by that time.
“When you have a best-in-class quarterback coming up for an unparalleled third contract, the rafters just got moved up two stories,” Eldridge explains. “Not only does Allen have an earlier path to that third contract than Patrick Mahomes does, he’s going to get into that third contract at the peak of his career, at a time when the NFL will be maximizing unprecedented revenues and new revenue streams. The league could be doing $25 billion in revenue by that time.”
Allen certainly has done his part to this point to earn one of the richest contracts in American sports, but if he continues at this trajectory, his earnings might far exceed the $239 million fully guaranteed in career-earnings he’ll have collected by 2026.
Nick Sirianni emerges as Eagles’ culture-driver
Few franchises in professional sports have experienced the cataclysmic fall from grace that the Philadelphia Eagles lived through last season.
Just three years removed from hosting the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy, the head coach who guided that Super Bowl victory was fired and within a month, the quarterback hailed as the franchise’s savior and helped guide Philly to homefield advantage to set up that run, Carson Wentz, was traded to the Indianapolis Colts.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced owner Jeffrey Lurie has perhaps been more overbearing and involved in the day-to-day football operations of the franchise than anyone outside One NovaCare Way had ever imagined.
All of the good vibes that made the Philly Special so special were gone, leaving embattled general manager Howie Roseman as the last man standing, tasked with putting the pieces back together or his belongings in a banker’s box if the Eagles didn’t quickly turn things around.
Enter Roseman’s choice as Pederson’s successor, new head coach Nick Sirianni.
“He’s a great leader,” Eagles safety K’Von Wallace told me of Sirianni, during a recent appearance on FanSided’s The Matt Lombardo Show podcast. “He’s a person that leads by example. He’s all about connecting. He’s all about culture, unity, family, and a team camaraderie.”
Since becoming only the second franchise to ever beat Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl, the Eagles were just 22-25 over the past three seasons, bottoming out with last season’s 4-11-1 nadir of the Pederson era.
Wallace says the vibe around the building has completely changed since Sirianni’s arrival.
“One thing I know, anything that Nick emphasizes is something you get, and I feel like I’m closer to my teammates than I’ve ever been,” Wallace says. “As far as from last year to now, with everyone. It’s different now. The culture is different. Nick has done a really great job of changing it. The unity that I feel going into my second year has been tremendous.”
Sirianni, according to Wallace, has installed basketball nets in meeting rooms throughout the team’s headquarters, gone above and beyond to try to connect to the franchise’s storied history — such as outfitting the entire Eagles’ coaching staff in Harold Carmichael t-shirts for an open-practice at Lincoln Financial Field on the night the legendary wide receiver was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and much more.
“It really reminds me of that brotherhood that we had at Clemson,” Wallace says. “We’re hanging out with each other outside the football field. I feel like he emphasizes that kind of connection, so we automatically do it.”
Now, with a young core of second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receivers Jalen Reagor, DeVonta Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert, and running back Miles Sanders, who Wallace says calls “a superstar in the making,” on offense, and a defense with a mix of veteran playmakers and youth at all three levels, the Eagles are hoping for a bounce-back campaign in an NFC East with no clear-cut favorite.
Wallace believes the Eagles’ ceiling will be as high as Sirianni is able to build it.
“There’s so much he’s doing to help us connect,” Wallace says. “And be more together than ever before, and that’s one of the reason why I feel so strongly about us being special. I can’t wait to find out what we’re capable of this season, and beyond.”
Podcast
Quotable
"“It’s kind of like the Master and the Padawan kind of thing. Just trying to learn as much as I can from him. The biggest thing for me is just being able to watch him… You get that knowledge from a Hall of Famer, in my second year, it’s valuable.”"
– Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love, on Aaron Rodgers as mentor
The Packers agreed to essentially trade Aaron Rodgers following this season, in exchange for the reigning MVP guiding an offense and a roster capable of making one last run at a Super Bowl, but Rodgers might just be going above and beyond his end of the bargain.
Rodgers, after the Packers snatched him like a falling butcher’s knife with the 24th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, famously received little to no guidance from Hall of Famer Brett Favre during the Packers’ legend’s final two seasons in Titletown.
It is no secret that Rodgers was not on board with Green Bay drafting his successor with the 26th pick in 2020, but it seems as though on his way out the door has summoned the ability to be the kind of mentor to Love that Favre never was to him.
No one really knows what Love is or will develop into as a quarterback in this league, but he’ll certainly get the bulk of preseason snaps this summer and a season-long internship behind a future Hall of Famer, which could prove invaluable both to his development and the Packers’ franchise trajectory in a post-Rodgers world.
Final thought
There’s no task in football, or perhaps in sports for that matter, more important than identifying a franchise quarterback.
The Kansas City Chiefs have theirs in Patrick Mahomes, Buffalo believes they have theirs for the next eight-plus years in Allen, the Cowboys are all-in on Dak Prescott, and several other franchises that are the model for consistent excellence have found the passers who they believe can win them Lombardi(s).
For about 10 weeks last season, the Cincinnati Bengals had little doubt that they had found the man to lead them to the promised land, in heralded No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow.
Burrow was a runaway Offensvie Rookie of The Year candidate after passing for 2,688 yards with 13 touchdowns to five interceptions before his ACL buckled under Washington’s Jonathan Allen in Week 10 last season.
Cincinnati is so confident that Burrow can be elite, that the organization passed on All-American offensive tackle Penei Sewell after Burrow “pounded the table,” as one NFL coach told FanSided, for the Bengals to draft his former college teammate, dynamic wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
Fast forward nine months, and reports out of Cincinnati have been less than stellar.
Burrow has struggled making rudimentary throws, and looks miles away from the brilliant player player he was before last season’s debilitating injury.
Meanwhile, 1,126 miles away in South Beach, the Miami Dolphins have surrounded Tua Tagovailoa with a bevy of weapons; free agent receiver Will Fuller, No. 6 overall pick Jaylen Waddle, tight end Mike Gesicki, as Preston Williams also returns to a receiving corps already headlined by DeVante Parker.
Yet, the Dolphins have also accumulated three first-round picks over the next two drafts, with at least one eye trained on trading for embattled Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson or Rodgers, should they become available in the near future, not yet sold on Tagovailoa’s potential.
Why, then, have the Bengals so easily convinced themselves that Burrow can be an elite quarterback yet the Dolphins and the public have a far lower ceiling above Tagovailoa, despite his athleticism and deep supporting cast?
“Tua is viewed differently because of the fanfare surrounding Burrow,” an AFC South scout tells FanSided, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the two young quarterbacks. “Burrow put up a historic college season, was the day-one starter, while Tua was injured coming in and expected to sit behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. Burrow came out and put up big numbers before he was hurt, and Tua was up and down.”
Burrow doesn’t face nearly the pressure that Tagovailoa does entering 2021. Simply picking up where he left off pre-injury will suffice.
For Tagovailoa, the stakes are much higher, given how strongly positioned the Dolphins are to pull the ripcord and mine his successor next offseason. In a lot of ways, that probably isn’t fair, and might not be the best way to build a franchise.
“Personally,” the scout says. “I expect Tua to make a big jump this year because of the players around him, and the game slowing down. But, is he a franchise guy? That remains to be seen. He did some nice things last year, but let’s be patient at let him grow. He doesn’t have to be a franchise guy today. Lots of guys turned into franchise guys after starting up and down.”
The high wire act the Dolphins and general manager Chris Grier must now walk is deciding if Tua’s potential is lofty enough to ride out his growing pains, or if pushing all of those chips in for a proven veteran is the best path to Super Bowls. That decision will likely define the Dolphins’ future.
Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com