Tier 1: “She cheated on me by having a threesome with Earl Thomas and his brother… And gave me syphilis…” These teams have to find some kind of answer in the trade market or early in the Draft: -CAR -WAS -DEN -PIT Tier 2: “She got wasted at my nephew’s bar mitzfah and called my 74 year old uncle a pussy for not skinny dipping… The sex is good, but not that good. Except when she does that thing...” These teams should really find another answer but could possibly talk themselves into holding off if there is no good answer available: -PHI -HOU -NYG Tier 3: “I kind of want to break up now but maybe I should wait two months until the joint lease runs out” These teams will inevitably need something different but there are some reasons to justify being patient. -MIN -DET -ATL -CLE -IND Tier 4: “Maybe she could be marriage material, it’s hard to say. Or maybe she has a rich friend that looks like her?” This team could justifiably take another shot with Winston, or look elsewhere. -NO Oh yeah this is Jets related because we should trade back with one of them. Which one?
I think Atlanta moves up in these tiers. I can’t imagine they’re going to piddle around with Matt Ryan for much longer. I feel bad for him because he’s definitely a fighter but he’s run his course in Atlanta to the point where they’re never going to be bad enough to get a top 5 pick, but never good enough to make the playoffs. He also has dreadful arm strength at this point when he’s not in the dome. I can see Detroit staying the course and waiting one more year. The most confusing team to me in all of this is New Orleans. Their roster is ready to go, but they’re always teetering on being in cap hell because the roster is so damn loaded. I can’t imagine Payton wants to wait too much longer to try to win one more time, but they can’t really afford any of the big names unless they move heaven and earth on their roster. Cleveland and Indianapolis are relatively stuck for next year, but why wouldn’t they take a crack at adding a first round rookie to sit for a year? I think Philly, Houston and the Giants all stand Pat unless the Giants pull a rabbit out of their asshole and get Russell Wilson and a big time coach. Very interesting outlook. How willing is Rhule going to be to admit he’s been a disaster at handling the position and draft someone? He might have to be to save his job. I know the owner loves Tua, but Miami might fall into that last tier.
Atlanta is in a weird spot since moving Ryan leaves a $30+ million in dead cap on their books, so I can see why they don't want to rip the bandaid off, especially if the market for him is limited. Assuming the Saints can wiggle their way out of their cap woes for another year, the best route feels like to try to run it back again with Jameis (5-2 in games he started) with Hill waiting if Jameis isn't ready for the start of the season. I'm guessing Philly stands pat, but tries to roll over one of their 3 picks into a 2023 #1 in case Hurts doesn't progress next year and they have to enter the QB pool. I would add the Raiders to the last category since Carr is in the last year of his deal. I think he's underrated as a QB, but I understand if a new coach/GM would prefer to trade him now rather than hand over a $25+ million a year contract that takes him into his mid-30s.
The thing about Atlanta is Matt Ryan’s contract. He has a $40 million dollar dead cap hit even if he is traded, and they’d have to make a trade before Free Agency even starts otherwise that hit goes up $7.5 million because they have to pay him a roster bonus. So he is going to be there in 2022 most likely. Then you look at their roster, they need OL, RB, WR, and Pass Rushers. Seems premature to draft a QB with so little to help him. If one falls maybe, but it seems like their desperation level would be low, and I doubt they’d really want to give up assets to move up. They seem more likely to be early 2nd round QB hunters. As far as the Saints, they are also limited financially. It’s probably easy for them to want to roll with Winston considering the success they had with him before his injury
I wasn’t implying that Atlanta moves on from him this off-season, but that they’d get ready to. If they draft a QB in round one they can sit him for a year behind a guy who gives me the feeling that he’d actually help the kid. As far as the Saints - maybe. But I think they might be active in trying to upgrade. I know a wins a win but they had some really fluky wins early in the year and he was less than average. He just didn’t turn the ball over.
