HEADLINES

J. J. Watt

J.J. Watt, Texans Agree To Contract Extension

September 7th, 2014 at 8:21am CST by Luke Adams

SUNDAY, 8:21am: Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk adds a couple of final details on Watt’s extension. In addition to setting forth Watt’s base salaries and roster bonuses for each year of the deal, Florio notes that, starting in 2016, the contract contains an annual $500,000 de-escalator, which will be triggered if Watt fails to complete offseason workouts. Based on that arrangement, Florio predicts that Watt is likely to remain a Texan until at least 2017, at which point the team can go year-to-year with him. Of course, what Jadeveon Clowney has accomplished–and how much he is being paid–at that time will have a significant impact on Houston’s decision-making.

TUESDAY, 8:28am: According to Andrew Brandt of TheMMQB.com (via Twitter), about $30.9MM of Watt’s new money is fully guaranteed at the time of his signing. The $51MM+ initially reported will all be fully guaranteed by the start of the 2016 league year — presumably, it’s guaranteed for injury only at this point.

TUESDAY, 12:47am: Watt’s six-year extension is worth $100MM, with $51.876MM in guaranteed money, tweets McClain. Again, we’ll have to await the specifics, but assuming it isn’t being artificially inflated, that’s a pretty massive figure.

TUESDAY, 12:30am: It’s been a productive long weekend for J.J. Watt and the Texans, who have agreed to terms on a new contract for the star defensive lineman, reports John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. According to McClain (via Twitter), after negotiating for weeks, the team and agent Tom Condon worked on a deal until late Monday night before reaching an agreement.J.J. Watt

According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Watt’s new contract will be for six years and will be worth in the neighborhood of $99MM, including $51MM in guaranteed money. We’ll have to wait to see how much of that money is fully guaranteed, and how exactly the contract breaks down, but Mortensen’s report suggests Watt’s deal will surpass Mario Williams‘ six-year, $96MM pact, and will make him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive lineman. It should also keep him locked up through the 2021 season.

Because he was a first-round pick in 2011, Watt still had two years remaining on his rookie contract. The Wisconsin product had been set to earn a base salary of about $1.9MM in 2014, and the Texans also exercised their fifth-year option for 2015, worth $6.969MM. Considering the team could have had Watt for two more years at a bargain price and then would have had the option to use the franchise tag on him twice, the 25-year-old didn’t seem to have a lot of leverage. Still, it seems the club was motivated to lock up the league’s best defensive player rather than letting the situation drag on.

Since entering the league as the 11th overall pick in the 2011 draft, Watt has been a dominant force on the Texans’ defensive line, averaging more than 12 sacks per season, including 20.5 in 2012. Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics (subscription required) paint a clear picture of the sort of elite defender Watt is, with the Texans lineman recording grades of +94.2 in ’12 and +99.8 last season. By comparison, the only other two 3-4 defensive ends to grade higher than +30.0 in a season during that span were Muhammad Wilkerson (+37.2 in 2012) and Calais Campbell (+34.1 in 2013).

By agreeing to a new deal before the regular season gets underway, Watt avoids having to wait until after the season to revisit the topic, since the Texans have a policy about not discussing extensions during the season. The former 11th overall pick had suggested a couple weeks ago that it would be “great” to get a new contract done before the season began, and it appears his camp and the club worked hard to make that happen.

With the deal, Watt becomes the third 2011 first-rounder to sign a long-term extension. Patrick Peterson of the Cardinals and Tyron Smith of the Cowboys also reached agreements on new contracts with their respective clubs.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

South Notes: Titans, Watt, Jags, Bucs

September 3rd, 2014 at 4:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Let’s round up a few Wednesday items from out of the NFL’s two South divisions….

South Notes: Watt, Colts, Baker, Newton

August 19th, 2014 at 10:13pm CST by Dallas Robinson

While J.J. Watt would like to hammer out an extension with the Texans, he hasn’t considered holding out in order to get a larger payday. Speaking to Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston (multiple Twitter links), Watt said he wouldn’t use his leverage against the team. “[T]hat would cause me to miss time with my teammates,” said Watt. “I want to practice. I want to be out here with these young guys. I want to teach them the things that I know. I want to better myself. It hasn’t really come to to that. I want to be a Houston Texan. I want to be the best I can be and I can’t do that by sitting on my couch.” More from the NFL’s two South divisions:

  • Free agent linebacker Trevardo Williams worked out for the Colts today, tweets Adam Caplan of ESPN. Williams was waived by the Cardinals on August 8, and has also spent time on the Texans’ roster this offseason.
  • Following his season-ending patellar tendon injury, Sam Baker‘s future with the Falcons looks a bit murky. Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap looks at Baker’s unworkable (from Atlanta’s perspective) contract, and goes through the options the team might survey when looking to lower the tackle’s future cap hits.
  • After fellow 2011 draftees Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton received new deals, it’s only a matter of time until the Panthers sign Cam Newton to an extension, writes Ari Nissim of the National Football Post. Nissim notes that because Carolina gave defensive end Charles Johnson a $30MM signing bonus, it might be difficult for them offer Newton a bonus that’s less than $40MM.
  • The Saints have not been clear about the specifics of fullback Erik Lorig‘s injury, but it sounds like they’re getting set to be without the free agent addition when the regular season begins. “Our preparation’s got to be with the idea that, as Erik’s rehabbing, we’ve got to be ready to have a fullback Week 1, with the chance it’s not going to be Erik,” head coach Sean Payton told Mike Triplett of ESPN.com. “And so both [Greg Jones and Austin Johnson] are competing.”

J.J. Watt, Texans Working On Extension

August 19th, 2014 at 4:30pm CST by Luke Adams

J.J. Watt would like to remain with the Texans as long as possible, telling reporters today, including Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle, that it would be “great” to reach an agreement on a long-term extension with the team before the 2014 regular season begins.

“When you look around the league and you see a couple guys from the 2011 draft class get contracts, it’s just nice to see appreciation being shown,” Watt said. “With the new [CBA], I think one of the goals was to make guys earn their pay. No more big paydays up front. … When a team gives a contract after the third year, they’re saying, ‘We think you’ve earned this.’ And so, I don’t know if [the Texans] feel that way or not. But I sure hope I’ve put in all the work and I’ve put in everything I can do to hopefully earn it.”

While Watt may have downplayed the Texans’ interest in getting something done, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link) hears the club has been “very engaged” in talks recently, and is making progress toward a new contract for the star defensive lineman. Having exercised their inexpensive fifth-year option on Watt for 2015, the Texans don’t need to rush to get anything done, but if they can lock up the league’s best defensive player at a reasonable rate, it certainly makes sense to do so as soon as possible. And as Watt noted, 2011 first-rounders like Patrick Peterson and Tyron Smith have already signed extensions, so that door has been opened.

Since entering the league as the 11th overall pick in the 2011 draft, Watt has been a dominant force on the Texans’ defensive line, averaging more than 12 sacks per season, including 20.5 in 2012. Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics (subscription required) paint a clear picture of the sort of elite defender Watt is, with the Texans lineman recording grades of +94.2 in ’12 and +99.8 last season. By comparison, the only other two 3-4 defensive ends to grade higher than +30.0 in a season during that span were Muhammad Wilkerson (+37.2 in 2012) and Calais Campbell (+34.1 in 2013).

Although there appears to be mutual interest between Watt and the Texans in a new deal, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle points out (via Twitter) that the front office has a policy of not negotiating extensions during the season. So if there’s going to be an agreement this year, it would likely have to happen by the night before the team’s Week 1 contest.

Texans Owner Talks Watt, Manziel, Fans

August 8th, 2014 at 12:29pm CST by Luke Adams

As we heard yesterday, it’s been a rough year for Texans owner Bob McNair, who endured a 10-month ordeal in which he battled two forms of cancer under an assumed name at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. However, McNair has been given a clean bill of health by the team of doctors that treated him, and was available to speak to Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com about a few topics related to football and the Texans. Here are some of McNair’s notable quotes from Ganguli’s pair of pieces for ESPN:

On the possibility of using the franchise tag on J.J. Watt when his rookie contract expires:

“You’ve got guys in the Hall of Fame that have been franchised in back-to-back years. The franchise tag is worth something to the team and you can’t be afraid to use it.”

On a potential long-term deal for Watt, sooner or later:

“It’s going to be a big contract. If we can do something with him that makes sense for the team to do it early, we’ll certainly do it. It has to make sense for us. The team comes first. We want to keep all of our players. We want to take care of all or our players, but the team comes first.”

On prioritizing which players to lock up:

“Mario [Williams] is gone; we just couldn’t do that. Some people said, ‘Why didn’t you sign Peyton Manning?’ Well, we just couldn’t do it. We would have had to let go of two or three of our outstanding players to create enough room in the salary cap to do something with him. Those are the decisions you have to make as you go forward. You hope you make the right decision.”

On what would have happened if the Texans opted to draft Johnny Manziel:

“I knew with Manziel it would be a frenzy. And probably even if he didn’t succeed at being an outstanding NFL quarterback for a couple years, the fans would have been frenzied. … Long term, we had questions as to how well he’d fit in our system doing what we wanted to do. At the end of the day, you’ve gotta do what you think is best for the team. If you do what’s best for the team and the team succeeds as a result of it, the fans are going to forget those other things.”

On the role that fan pressure plays in the team’s football decisions:

“Ultimately all they want to do is win. Once you win, at that point they don’t care what those decisions were; at that point, they’re happy because you’re winning. If you picked some of those other guys and you didn’t win, their response would be, ‘Why’d you listen to us? You’re losing. We’re unhappy because you’re losing.’ We respect our fans and we listen to our fans, but they don’t study the film that we study. They don’t have the information and knowledge that we have. We’re in the best position to make those decisions.”

La Canfora On Chiefs, 2011 Draftees, Smith

August 4th, 2014 at 10:59pm CST by Matt Feminis

In his latest edition of training camp notes, CBS’ Jason La Canfora provided an update on negotiations between the Chiefs and Alex Smith, saying talks “are ongoing, with the dialogue maintaining on a regular basis and the team looking for creative ways to secure him for the future, according to several sources. To this point, however, they haven’t been able to bridge a few gaps, but the Chiefs are willing to cut into their considerable cap space to strike a deal, and there are no plans to stop exchanging proposals.”

La Canfora adds talks have “remained cordial” and there is mutual desire to find common ground. Common ground would seem to be a “middle-tier” deal that would place Smith’s contract somewhere between the elite passers and the lower-paid, “bridge starters” group. From the team perspective, the Chiefs don’t want to overpay for Smith in the event a younger QB is ready to vie for the job, especially given Andy Reid‘s ability to develop quarterbacks.

More tidbits from La Canfora:

  • The Chiefs have revived talks with Justin Houston, who is also a priority. La Canfora does not expect a deal to get hammered out before the season, however, since the sides are far apart financially playing out the season could make the most sense for Houston.
  • La Canfora publicized first-year tight end Demetrius Harris as a “deep sleeper” and potentially “the next college basketball player to make the jump to tight end.”
  • Do not expect many more 2011 first-rounders to be extended for a while. This group includes Cam Newton, J.J. Watt, Robert Quinn, Cameron Jordan and Muhammad Wilkerson, among others. La Canfora quoted an agent for one prominent pass rusher, who said, “The money is going to be so high, these teams don’t really have an incentive to do it now. I’m not sure any of these guys get new deals this year. If there’s any movement going on I’m not aware of it.”
  • Some agents are outraged over the Cowboys’ eight-year extension to Tyron Smith because “he essentially gave the Cowboys two contracts for the price of one, locked up until age 32.” Those agents believe Jerry Jones might have used his “father figure” relationship with the young Smith to take advantage of him in negotiations.

 

AFC Notes: Groves, Broncos, Watt, Raiders

July 22nd, 2014 at 10:47am CST by Luke Adams

As we look forward to more training camps around the NFL opening this week, let’s round up a few items from across the AFC….

  • Edge defender and special-teamer Quentin Groves worked out for the Jets on Monday, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). Groves has been busy since being released by the Browns in early June, auditioning for the Redskins, Patriots, and Titans, though he has yet to find a home for the coming season.
  • Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas are both extension candidates for the Broncos, but Mike Klis of the Denver Post points out that the tight end figures to be motivated to get a deal done sooner. As a fourth-round pick in 2011, Julius Thomas’ career earnings to date are dwarfed by Demaryius Thomas’, since the receiver was selected in the first round in 2010.
  • The Texans have made a habit of extending their best players well before their contracts expire, and could make a statement with J.J. Watt by becoming the first team to lock up a 2011 first-rounder to an extension, says John McClain of the Houston Chronicle.
  • Citing a repaired salary cap and financial structure, Raiders owner Mark Davis says he feels like the team had a “phenomenal” offseason, as Jerry McDonald of the San Jose Mercury News details.

AFC Notes: Watt, Glenn, Gordon

July 21st, 2014 at 6:14pm CST by Matt Feminis

Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, who will make approximately $3.6MM this year, should be in line for a four-year deal worth nearly $58MM in the opinion of Jason Fitzgerald at OverTheCap.com. Fitzgerald supplements his proposed contract with a thorough evaluation of all the factors involved.

Here’s some AFC news and notes:

  • With the waiving of Brennan Williams, the Texans will get nothing out of two 2013 third-round picks, notes Brian T. Smith in the Houston Chronicle.
  • Bills fans hoping for encouraging news about Cordy Glenn didn’t get any on Monday, as head coach Doug Marrone merely told the media he’s not allowed to go into specifics about the illness keeping his starting left tackle on the Active/Non-Football Illness list. “It’s a medical condition,” Marrone told WGR 550’s Joe Buscaglia. “I’m preparing to go on as if he’s not playing, which he’s not. I’m just waiting for the doctors, and I can’t speak about the condition because it’s something that happened outside of football.”
  • A disciplinary hearing looms for Browns receiver Josh Gordon, and the team does not seem intent on releasing the troubled receiver at this time, writes ESPN’s Pat McManamon.
  • The Titans defensive line is previewed by the Tennessean’s John Glennon, who tabbed defensive lineman Jurrell Casey as the unit’s “offseason star”: “After racking up a career-best 10.5 sacks at defensive tackle in the 4-3, Casey certainly could have been upset about the shift to a 3-4 defensive end – especially in a contract year. But he seems genuinely enthusiastic about the new scheme and new defensive coordinator Ray Horton.” Meanwhile, Jim Wyatt, Glennon’s Tennessean colleague, tweets that the team and Casey are in negotiations for a new deal.
  • Patriots second-year linebacker Jamie Collins “clearly added muscle mass as he prepared for 2014, though he wouldn’t admit how much, and he looks much more the part of an NFL linebacker,” reports Boston.com’s Jeff Howe.

AFC Links: Texans, Jets, Ravens, Titans, Bills

July 7th, 2014 at 11:55am CST by Luke Adams

The Texans and Jets may have added their starting quarterbacks for 2014 in free agency this offseason, with Houston inking Ryan Fitzpatrick to a two-year deal and New York signing Michael Vick to a one-year pact. Fitzpatrick sits atop the depth chart for the Texans, and Vick figures to push Geno Smith for the starting job in New York. However, both teams made more under-the-radar signings that Lorenzo Reyes praises in his most recent piece for USA Today, with the Texans adding running back Andre Brown and the Jets landing cornerback Dimitri Patterson. According to Reyes, while these moves didn’t receive the same sort of attention that other offseason transactions did in Houston or New York, they could ultimately pay major dividends.

We examined Houston’s offseason activity last night, and will be shifting our focus to the Jets and the rest of the AFC East this week. In the meantime, here are a few more links from across the AFC:

  • Albert Breer of the NFL Network takes an in-depth look at the reasons why players should (or should not) hold out, using J.J. Watt of the Texans and Justin Houston of the Chiefs as a pair of examples. As Breer outlines, Watt may have the leverage this offseason to hold out for a new deal, though there has been no indication that he’ll do so. Meanwhile, Houston’s situation is more tenuous, since he could potentially forfeit an accrued season and a chance at future unrestricted free agency if he misses too much of Kansas City’s training camp.
  • The NFL shouldn’t punish the Ravens along with Ray Rice by continuing to delay its announcement on a suspension for the running back, writes Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com, who wonders why the league is taking so long to make its decision.
  • A pair of offensive linemen receive best and worst contract honors in Jason Fitzgerald’s look at the Titans‘ books at OverTheCap.com. In Fitzgerald’s view, Michael Roos is playing on the most team-friendly deal on the roster, while recently-signed tackle Michael Oher has the Titans’ worst contract.
  • As Mike Rodak of ESPN.com details, the Bills are using less than $4MM in cap space on their quarterbacks this season, meaning that even if there are no above-average signal callers on the roster, at least the team isn’t overpaying anyone at the position.

Watt’s Contract Status Highlights Controversial Fifth-Year Option Issue

June 28th, 2014 at 10:14am CST by Matt Feminis

Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has established himself as one of the premier defensive players in the game. By any measure, Watt is a dominant force and he’s recognized as such. He’s still playing on his rookie contract, however, and will make $1.9MM in base salary plus another $1.67MM in prorated signing bonus. From the team’s perspective, Watt is the ultimate bargain, but Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio says, “the Texans arguably are treating Watt like a chump by not rewarding him now for his contributions and potential.”

For perspective, Watt’s newest running mate, No. 1 overall pick Jedeveon Clowney will make $4.05MM in 2014. Together, Watt’s and Clowney’s combined 2014 cost is $7.62MM, which is less than the Vikings will pay Everson Griffen ($8.2MM combined base salary and prorated signing bonus), who has started one game in four years.

While Watt is deserving of a deal commensurate with his status, Florio isn’t just taking up for him. Instead, he sees Watt as a poster child for a bigger issue, one USA Today’s Jarrett Bell detailed on Friday: the implementation of the fifth-year option, a new contract element introduced as part of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, effectively penalizes first-round picks. While 2011 draftees Richard Sherman (fifth round) and Colin Kaepernick (second round) have already landed mega second contracts, first-rounders like Watt can be controlled by their team and kept off the open market for an extra year. From a player’s perspective, that’s a tough pill to swallow given football’s inherent injury risk.

Florio concludes his editorial by saying, “Watt’s case arguably is the most glaring for a league that has yet to sign any of the 2011 first-round picks to second contracts. In a year featuring plenty of holdouts, none of them have taken a stand. It will be interesting to see whether the patience demonstrated by Watt and others will run out if the offseason clock expires without new deals being given to any of the guys picked at the top of the first draft that, thanks to the rookie wage scale, paid them a lot less than they would have earned a year earlier.”

PFR kept track of which 2011 first-round picks had their options exercised by the May 3 deadline. Click here for the full list.

Load More Posts