The trend towards younger head coaches has been all the rage in the NFL this decade, bringing with it quality results.
We’ve seen Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan lead teams to the Super Bowl shortly after taking the reigns for the first time, and Sean McDermott transform the Bills franchise from decades of playoff absences into regular appearances. And, for good measure, we’ve seen a team like the Panthers make a relatively unprecedented tenure and financial commitment to a young head coach Matt Rhule during the offseason who has never coached in the NFL.
And with that success came another relatively new phenomenon in coaching circles; a kind of corollary to the market which has started to occur with increasing regularity. The six-year contract extension is becoming one thing. Something almost regular. When Shanahan first got a six-year contract as a rookie head coach, the heads circled the league. Heck, some executives have had a boost. But after McVay’s immediate success which landed him a five-year extension just two years after his initial contract began, the stage was set for longer-term pacts for other young aspiring head coaches.
The point is, when you hire head coaches in their 30s, you aren’t as concerned about age or burnout or what league is going through them in the near future. There are fewer reservations to locking them up for half a decade or more, and the thought of a guy like that on the open market scares property. After finding a brilliant trainer like this and giving him his first chance, the idea of developing it for someone else (and bringing him the many aspiring assistants that he cultivates with him) is the last thing everyone wants in management.
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Rhule recovered seven years in January from Carolina. Shanahan turned six years older earlier this month. McDermott struck a new six-year deal with the Bills this week.
Even with a pandemic, the market is moving for the best and brightest of the game’s youngest coaches. It should be noted that one man – Agent Bob LaMonte – negotiated the McDermott and McVay deals, and, well , the 10-year record pact Jon Gruden secured from the Raiders two years ago that really reset the training market and served as a foundation. for many of those other long transactions. Expect the trend to continue.
Contracts with tight ends which finally correspond to their importance
Finally, the tight end market changes depending on the import of the position. We are in a time when tight movement has become an essential part of the passing game and a necessary cog in coordinators’ offensive match games. Now they are starting to get paid as such.
The fact that Austin Hooper, at just over $ 10 million a year, wears this coat was simply not true. Elite tight ends deserve more, and now, with George Kittle and Travis Kelce agreeing to new expansions within hours of each other, things are more in line with the reality of the roles these men play. Now we have $ 15 million a year as a new benchmark. We now have $ 30 million guaranteed at signing for a close end. It was time.
And coming 2021, Hunter Henry and Mark Andrews will be the next to benefit greatly from this development. Tagging Henry a second time never seemed like the way forward for the Chargers, and tying him up for the long haul now comes with greater certainty of cost and a higher price tag. Henry would crush him on the free market if he remained healthy in 2020; Consider that Kittle and Kelce were every year from a free agency and couldn’t negotiate with other teams when they signed these expansions, while the open market still brings the greatest tax rewards.
Andrews has been the primary fulcrum in the Ravens’ passing offense since his first training camp, he has incredible chemistry with MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and is a beast in the red zone, and having completed his third season, he will be on the line for overtime. With a host of core players in line for extensions in the next 18 months, the Ravens would do well to start with Jackson and Andrews next January.
More insider notes on the NFL
- Will be interested to see how well the Cowboys player-led attempt to blow bubbles at a local hotel will work. Without all the employees, or those who come and go from the hotel for deliveries etc., have quarantined themselves, there could be issues with the effectiveness of such a plan. But we must applaud the effort and seriousness with which veterans of the Cowboys are taking the pandemic …
- With teams like the Ravens and Bengals trying to revamp their needy linebackers in the draft, and now with a very limited camp / preseason to develop them, I wonder how much of a situation they could be in. with five or more linemen at the start of the season. . With Cincy adding Mike Daniels this week in free agency, they now have more depth up front and Baltimore has also totally revamped its defensive line. Teams like the Steelers were sometimes playing what amounted to a 4-0-7 defense last season and especially with Baltimore’s secondary elite there are ways to hide child linebackers if necessary …
- If you aren’t already preparing for a monster rebound season of Cam Newton, you should be. Everything I hear from New England is overwhelmingly positive about the veteran quarterback both physically and mentally. Josh McDaniels will unleash and unlock the imposing QB …
- It’s weird to see NFL teams making regular updates on what they plan to do with their presence. Kind of like the Big Ten releasing a program a week before canceling the entire season. Continually adjusting your projected numbers and making them public, when you really have no idea what the next month is going to bring, seems like a totally unnecessary exercise to me. And with so many teams deciding not to allow any fans, it seems like an example where the league office could step in and make this uniform. Competitive balance and health and safety and everything.
