Let’s take a look at the fallout of, and reactions to, yesterday’s trade that sent Ryan Clady and a seventh-round draft pick from the Broncos to the Jets in exchange for a fifth-round draft choice:
- A number of writers have pointed out that the trade, which saved the Broncos $8.9MM in salary cap space, creates room for the club to add a quarterback. However, as Mike Klis of 9News.com writes, the deal has no impact on whether Denver acquires current 49ers signal-caller Colin Kaepernick. Klis says that cap room had nothing to do with the Broncos offering Kaepernick a reduced 2016 salary of $7MM, and that they are offering him that salary because that is the current market value for elite backup quarterbacks (although Kaepernick would undoubtedly be the favorite to win the job as Denver’s starting QB, there would be an open competition between him and Mark Sanchez). As such, the most recent reports surrounding the Kaepernick-to-Denver rumors–that a deal is not dead, but is not likely at the moment–remain valid. Klis observes that the next deadline for a Kaepernick trade appears to be April 28, the first day of the 2016 draft, as any potential swap figures to include draft picks.
- Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com says there is, of course, reason for the Jets to be concerned about the deal. After all, they are replacing the recently-retired D’Brickashaw Ferguson, one of the most durable players in recent history, with a player who has missed 30 of the past 48 games because of severe foot and knee injuries. On the other hand, Clady, when healthy, is a superior player, and just like the Brandon Marshall trade last year, this deal looks like a low-risk, high-reward move that could pay major dividends for second-year GM Mike Maccagnan. As ESPN’s Field Yates tweets, over the past two years, the Jets have turned a pair of fifth-round picks into Marshall, Clady, and two seventh-round picks.
- Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com says that the Clady trade should not preclude the Jets from selecting a tackle in the draft. Instead, he believes that, if the team has the opportunity to draft a tackle they like, they should pull the trigger and have that player begin his career on the right side of the line (Twitter links).
- With Clady no longer available, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times points out that there are no longer any difference-making left tackles who the Seahawks could target (barring, of course, any potential cuts). Although Clady was unlikely to end up in Seattle anyway, it is now a near certainty that the Seahawks will head into the 2016 campaign with Garry Gilliam and Bradley Sowell battling for the left tackle job, with the team likely adding more competition in the draft. ESPN’s Sheil Kapadia tweets that the Seahawks did not pursue Clady more strongly because of financial reasons, not because of the draft choice they would have needed to part with.
- Similarly, the Lions–who were connected to at least some degree to many of the left tackles on the trade and free markets his offseason–now have no other choice but to deploy Riley Reiff at left tackle to open the 2016 campaign, as Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Pres writes. The team could target a LT in the draft, but outside of Laremy Tunsil–who is not falling to the Lions–no first-year players project to be immediately better than Reiff.