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| The #SFGiants have waded into the nontender pool and plucked a reliever who had a 1.07 ERA last year and threw more sliders than his Minnesota teammate Sergio Romo, if you can believe that. Your newest Giant: Matt Wisler. Quick story: sfchronicle.com/ | |||||
| 12/8/20, 9:51 AM | |||||
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| Last year, the #49ers had 48 sacks, their most since 1998. This season? They are on pace for 28, which would match their fewest in a full season since sacks became an official stat in 1982. sfchronicle.com/ | |||||
| 12/8/20, 8:38 PM | |||||
Moving on from Wentz this offseason would be costly but not impossible. Releasing him outright is a non-starter because it would result in a full cap hit of nearly $60 million for a team already desperate for cap room. Releasing him with a post-June 1 designation would allow the Eagles to spread out the cap hit more but makes little sense from a roster construction standpoint — they’d be better off hoping he regains his form.
The one reasonable option the Eagles have is to trade Wentz before the third day of the new league year (March 19; the league year starts March 17). On that day, $15 million of Wentz’s 2022 contract becomes guaranteed. If the Eagles trade him before then, they would avoid that payment and be out from under all future guarantees. Bitterly, they would still have to eat $34 million of dead money, which is a whole lot of sunk cost but not franchise-crippling if they determine Wentz is beyond saving or they simply have a better option.
What should they expect in return in a theoretical Wentz trade? The acquiring team would have Wentz on a reasonable, four-year, $98 million deal with only two years guaranteed, which, as Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap writes, is on par with something around the 12th-highest-paid quarterback in the league. Given recent precedent — for example, Nick Foles being traded for a fourth-round pick last offseason — it’s probably realistic to think the Eagles would get something like a Day 2 pick with conditions to turn into something higher in exchange for Wentz. Of course, that would require another team to view Wentz as a franchise-level quarterback.
CARR:
John Lynch and Shanahan have proven to be very aggressive with personnel moves in the past, so I could see them making a big move for the right player. Sam Darnold or Carson Wentz would thrive under Shanahan, but the one player the offensive guru should have his eye on is Matthew Stafford. There's been talk of Stafford and the Lions parting ways this coming offseason, and I can't think of a better option than to put Stafford on a team that has a legitimate chance to get back to the Super Bowl (if healthy). The product Shanahan and Stafford would put on the field would rival that of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, and it would be glorious.
STAFFORD DETIALS:
-LIONS HAVE 24.8M DEAD CAP HIT
-CAP # 2021 : 34.9M
2022 CAP: 27.9M
-WOULD HAVE TO RESTRUCTURE THOSE NUMBERS
-FACTS:
74-86-1 CAREER
-ONE TIME QB RATING OVER 100
-WILL BE 33 IN FEB
-PRO BOWL ONCE IN 11 SEASONS
-CAREER COMP % OF 62.5
-FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS HAS HIM RATED THE 17TH BEST QB - SO HES A MIDDLE OF THE PACK STARTER....
-WOULD HAVE TO GIVE UP LIKE A CONDTINAL — 2-3 ??
Remember the tweaks to the playoff structure this year: There are seven total playoff spots per conference — four division winners and three wild cards. Only the No. 1 seeds will get a bye.
SEED | TEAM | RECORD |
|---|---|---|
1 | 11-1 | |
2 | 11-1 | |
3 | 9-3 | |
4 |  Tennessee Titans | 8-4 |
5 | 9-3 | |
6 | 8-4 | |
7 |  Indianapolis Colts | 8-4 |
On the bubble:
8. Las Vegas Raiders (7-5)
9. Baltimore Ravens (7-5)
10. New England Patriots (6-6)
SEED | TEAM | RECORD |
|---|---|---|
1 | 10-2 | |
2 | 9-3 | |
3 | 8-4 | |
4 | 5-7 | |
5 | 8-4 | |
6 | 7-5 | |
7 | 6-6 |
On the bubble:
Washington Football Team (5-7) is tied with the Giants for first place in the NFC East. They currently would lose on head-to-head tiebreaker.
8. Arizona Cardinals (6-6)
9. Chicago Bears (5-7)
10. Detroit Lions (5-7)
11. San Francisco 49ers (5-7)
12. Washington Football Team (5-7)
Right now, your AFC wild card matchups would be:
No. 7 Colts at No. 2 Chiefs
No. 6 Dolphins at No. 3 Bills
No. 5 Browns at No. 4 Titans.
Right now, your NFC wild card matchups would be:
No. 7 Vikings at No. 2 Packers
No. 6 Bucs at No. 3 Rams
No. 5 Seahawks at No. 4 Giants
- $88 million greater than the Brooklyn Nets' ($59 million)
- Nearly $36 million more than the rest of the top 10 ... combined
- Nearly $100 million more than the Warriors paid in luxury tax in 2018-19 ($51 million)
Burning questions
Will they keep spending?
The Warriors are at a pivotal point right now, with the most expensive roster in the league and yet a team on the floor that will struggle to finish in the West’s top eight. They’re playing in an expensive building that can’t yet have any fans, which was the one thing that was supposed to offset the payroll cost.
Maybe I’m wrong and Curry plays like an MVP, Green has a renaissance and Wiggins discovers a motor. But in the more likely scenario, the reality of Golden State’s situation becomes ever more clear as the trade deadline approaches. Thompson’s injury is an absolute killer here. Not only does he take over the title of NBA’s worst contract from John Wall (he’s owed $157 million over the next four years), but his removal also exposes some fatal holes in the Warriors’ plan for returning to prominence.
Being so wildly far into the tax is a relief in some ways: There is no plausible means of dumping $42 million in one go at the trade deadline. However, this goes way beyond the current season. Golden State is already $30 million over the line for next season and will be just as far beyond in any season in which it employs Curry. If they’re good, fine. If they’re just muddling along in the middle, though, it’s untenable. Speaking of which …
B. WOULD THEY EVER TRADE CURRY? WOULD CURRY WANT TO GO TO A WINNER?
Will Curry get itchy?
We keep hearing about James Harden and Bradley Beal. What about Curry? He has two years left on his deal and then can become an unrestricted free agent. Like Harden and Beal, he’s seeing the tail end of his prime waste away on a team that will have to overachieve to make it beyond the first round of the playoffs, and at 32 the clock is ticking. Curry could also sign a three-year extension after the season that would pay him (wait for it) the ungodly sum of $57 million in 2023-24, when he’ll be 36 years old, but do the Warriors really want to go further down this financial road?
Curry has given no hint that he has any interests in another destination, but he only played three games last year. If his return can’t push the Warriors beyond the middle of the pack, one wonders if he re-evaluates future options after the season.
Meanwhile, the Thompson injury has to force in an internal reckoning from the team side. Does it still make sense to be all-in on this roster? Or is it time to cash out their Curry and Green stock and reload for the next generation?
Outlook and prediction
As much as I may want the old Warriors back … I don’t think they’re coming back. Curry still projects as elite, and I think a more motivated Green can return to something closer to the defensive force he was in 2018-19. Nonetheless, even with a relatively optimistic forecast input for Wiseman, there are too many shortcomings in too many places for this team to rate as elite, and the West is too unforgiving to be optimistic about Golden State’s odds of slipping through the cracks.
Oubre is a good player but, he’s not Klay Thompson. Wiggins, even at his most lethargic, will try more on D than Russell did, but he’s never made any team he’s on better. Green is 30 but looked quite a bit older last year. Behind that is a barely adequate bench and a lot of spare bits and pieces, the residue of having the 30thpick in the draft every year and limited free-agent spending resources.
The question is whether this causes an adjustment at midseason, and what that might mean for the rest of it. Last year was shocking but excusable; this season, if my projections are right, could be much more of an existential jolt to the franchise’s self-image. Even if the Warriors stay all-in on this group and don’t cut salary, they may have trouble making to the play-in tournament, let alone the main draw.
Prediction: 35-37, 11th in Western Conference
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| A day after news broke that James Wiseman and Draymond Green are the two Warriors players who tested positive for the coronavirus, Wiseman appears to be ahead of Green in the recovery process sfchronicle.com/ | |||
| 12/8/20, 3:45 PM | |||
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| A day after news broke that James Wiseman and Draymond Green are the two Warriors players who tested positive for the coronavirus, Wiseman appears to be ahead of Green in the recovery process sfchronicle.com/ | |||
| 12/8/20, 3:45 PM | |||
| New York Post |
| @nypost |
| NBC News |
| @NBCNews |
A massive 9-pound goldfish was discovered during a fish population survey at a lake in South Carolina, park officials say. nbcnews.to/2Ljzb
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