That came a bit out of nowhere.

Good to hear, especially given the agent.

A little bit off-topic, but it seems to fit here: First round contracts, especially for picks 1-10, don't seem to be fitting with the actual value for the pick. It seems as though every team with the first three picks every year is desparately trying to trade down because of the high risk associated with the contracts. And who could blame them? The #! pick represents a huge portion of your cap space, and look at the #! picks for the past 15 years:

Drew Bledsoe
Dan Wilkinson
Ki-Jana Carter (!)
Keyshawn Johnson
Orlando Pace
Peyton Manning
Tim Couch (!)
Courtney Brown (!)
Michael Vick (!?)
David Carr (!)
Carson Palmer
Eli Manning (!?)
Alex Smith
Mario Williams
JaMarcus Russell

Almost every pick, post-Manning, has been a bad one. Even some of the earlier picks turned out pretty poorly for their draft slot: players like Wilkinson, Bledsoe, and Keyshawn never lived up to expectations. And the contracts are only getting bigger at the top. At what point will the market begin to correct itself? And will we soon see a day where teams are deliberately letting their pick lapse so as top pick up a guy at #4 or #5 so as not to pay #1 money?

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Fire Phil Emery

The only thing I hate about the NFL is the rookie salary structure. These guys - 1st round picks - are getting huge bonuses without playing a down. I do like the NBA structure a lot better for rookies, and you'd think the Union would look to implement a structure where the veterans see some more of that.

Great news - the Bears did an excellent job last year with this as well, and I guess it shows that the Bears don't have an issue with signing all Drew Rosenhaus players. Now, we only have the 2nd rounder DE left.

Great job, Jerry Angelo in getting these done as early as possible. I never understood why team wait until camp is so close to start getting these guys in camp - you'd think with all the money out there for the 1st rounders that they would not want to do anything to retard their progress.

I hope this is a good sign of things to come for Olsen.

I would guess that most good GM's in the league would agree with you. Unless you have the number 1 or 2 pick and a game changing RB or QB is available, it isn't worth it. Calvin Johnson was the best player in this years draft, but I doubt he will be that much better then Roy Williams for the Lions while he gets big money.

Even offensive lineman that high are no guarantee. Take a look at Robert Gallery.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Low blow - he went to the Raiders. He has been bad, but alot of that has been how they handled him - they started him at guard, then to right tackle and then to left tackle. When they settled him at right tackle, he was serviceable last year.

He was awesome in college and I would have made the same pick. He was as can't miss as there can be. I believe that the Raiders had to mess him up. There has to be something that happened though for him to drop off like he did.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I had strong feelings at the time and still do today that when you draft a 'franchise' left tackle 2nd overall, you put him in the starting lineup day 1. The Raiders were too tied to Sims at the time to move Gallery there so they started shuffling him around the line and his performance suffered. He'll be seen as a bust overall but I hold both the Raiders and Gallery responsible for it.

Perhaps the timing is just PR to counter some of the NFC ring shitstorm.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/co ... umnist-hed

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“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”