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Not sure getting 18 year olds will end up making sense, but maybe they could get involved with the "transfer" game. Rather than sit out a year, potentially put up tape immediately that spring and then declare the next year. I think there are a decent number of high school players who would gladly skip college and start making money at age 18 The top ones are peobably gonna get much better coaching at high level college programs. Doubt the XFL is gonna drop much money on some 3 star 18 year old.

I think they'd have to do something extreme like allow 18 year old players to join. That would generate some round the calendar buzz, much in the same way that college recruiting does now. Yup. The NFL will start paying attention to them if they start poaching guys before they ever go to college (though the end result may be the XFL turning into an NFL Developmental League) Not sure getting 18 year olds will end up making sense, but maybe they could get involved with the "transfer" game. Rather than sit out a year, potentially put up tape immediately that spring and then declare the next year.

If hey're going this big of a change, why hold onto divisions, really? Or possibly if expansion is on the radar, at least go down to 2 divisions.

I probably would have liked to see Portland, San Antonio, San Diego and other towns that lost their NFL teams or aren't considered big enough to support an NFL team have a crack at the XFL. Maybe in future seasons, they can expand to those towns. San Diego would have been a great market this year as the entire town is now ready to walk away from the Chargers now that Philip Rivers will be somewhere else. Only the faithful stuck around that long. I could see this league being successful to those towns that don't have NFL, assuming that ticket prices don't soar to NFL levels. And I could see this as being a nice farm system for the NFL, at least for undrafted players that might have been overlooked in the draft. I didn't watch much this weekend, but I am married and she's a football widow during NFL season, so I'm not going to be one of those that embraces another league. I loved the kickoff rule from the few times I saw it. Still a chance to run one back. Less full speed collisions causing injuries. The touchback in the NFL is so prevalent these days, that it's just boring. I find it worse that the touchback doesn't even make a guy get the ball and down it. It used to be that if you didn't recover the kickoff before the kicking team got it, they could turn that into a touchdown. Now the ball bounces into the endzone and the ref blows the play dead. Boring! Yea, StL was the only NFL vacant market they targeted. Obviously way ahead of ourselves, but SD would be a good target if they actually stick around and ever expand. They probably can't get too big if they want to survive. Arena league got as high as 19 teams but couldn't sustain that. It the XFL is still running in 5 years though, maybe they could get as high as 12 and be sustainable with a mix of large NFL markets and non-NFL markets. They ran about 17k in attendance for week 1. AFL ran a lot of years less than that.

I tuned in, mostly as background. The quality of play obviously was meh, but almost everything they added the NFL/college needs to adopt ASAP. If they can make a great fantasy app around it, I'd end up a lot more hooked. I was pretty indifferent to it before, but I hope it actually sticks.

Same guy is saying the Bears are offering Khalil Mack in a trade for multiple 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd round picks. And now are talking with the Redskins about moving to the #2 pick. I mean it's pretty far fetched, but seems like he's doubling down on the original rumor because the only way the Bears have the ammo to move up to 1 is if they move Mack for anything close to what they paid for him. Trading Mack to try to get up to 1 would be the boldest move in the history of sports. Well just for fun, the Rams trade for Goff was one of the only ones I could think of that was a trade for a top 2 pick where the team moved up from outside that top 10. That was the the 15th, 2 2nds, a 3rd and a 1st and 3rd from the following year. And neither Goff or Wentz were the prospects Burrow was. So the Bears are lacking the mid first and the 3rd this year, plus whatever else extra it would cost. I guess Mack could maybe get you that, but they'd be eating an additional 4m in cap just to move him and would probably have the worst pass rush in the league after the move. So, I still feel pretty comfortable this is lol crazy.

Early odds on Trestman being the first XFL coach fired.

Obviously it's gonna be Andrew Luck who signs first.

Lol, gotta love the dead period between SB and combine. "What [expletive] sense rumors can we throw up to get done clicks?"

I'm just upset that the lack of blood to my brain made me totally miss the kids in cages political statement. You can't do that right before you're gonna try and make a big point!

But they're gonna demote Gar and let Pax hire a new GM this offseason. Everything will be swell then!

He should start a handball channel for his new team on their quest for Olympic gold.

Jay Cutler is in talks again about a media career. Possibly in the booth or maybe a studio gig with ESPN.

Whew, glad to know Mitch is gonna try super hard.

I have a 9 day old so I get to come empty handed. Arrive when I want, leave when I want.

The entire Bulls roster is on that list I think lol

In before Kyle doom boners. This would be a good thing (assuming the guarantees aren't crazy)

I like the authentic, terrible mobile interface feel, of this startup blog.

I get that, and like I said earlier I hadn't thought that our second second rounder by itself could be traded for a later 2nd rounder AND a 3rd. I'm more commenting on how tight teams would follow that chart, of if they would. I suppose if Baltimore REALLY wanted someone we could draft with#2 2nd rounder, that trade would benefit us. I guess that's a valid argument splendid is making. Realistically, the value chart matters less for the team trading up, they're trading for a specific player they want that they feel is worth outsized value. If Bal had their eye on a guy, they could be calling teams as early as Chicago's 43rd pick. And if teams keep rejecting their offer because they have their own guys they like, it's doubtful that Bal balks too much at a couple dozen points on the chart if that guy is still there at 50 and the deal gets done. Baltimore is actually a great example. They overpaid in 2018 for the 32nd pick of the draft. But they weren't trading for pick 32. They were trading for Lamar Jackson. And as it worked out, it ended up being a steal.

I hadn't considered trading the 2nd 2nd for a later 2nd and 3rd. clearly, I'd prefer the second option but I question why the ravens would give up their only 3rd w/o gaining more then 10 spots. is that an accurate value/value proposition? eta: no its not. The trade would make more sense between Atlanta and Baltimore according to the link above I mean its a guideline not a catalog. For reference the Bears traded down twice in 2016 from 41 to 49 and then 49 to 56, picking up 4th rounders in each trade. As I recall one of the trades was much richer according to the chart. But it all depends who you're trading up for. The Bears did "well" in those trades eventually selclecting Whitehair and turning those 4ths into Deon Bush and White Nick. But if you wanna use total hindsight Derrick Henry and Michael Thomas were two of the picks used between 41 and 49. :dontknow:

Ok. I guess thats a move I wouldn’t make. I would rather have both 2nds considering we have no 1st round picks, with the idea that the first 2nd rounder is my 1st (Im likely picking a pos of need for an athlete who fell out of the first who fits that need). Since we have multiple needs, there should be someone who fits that mold. The 2nd 2nd rounder would, in effect, be my 2nd rd talent pick - or if I got lucky another 1st rd level talent who fell. You’re stuck with 4-7’s after that, but they have 6 picks in those rounds. Id go quantity at that point If you stay in the 2nd you have to go BPA, regardless of position. The bulk of the value in the higher picks is the opportunity to take BPA, not guys you think can fill a certain need, like Adam Shaheen. For reference, the trade value chart. Both 2nds gets you close to mid round value. But they won't really have anything that can get them the value of a backend 1st. So if they did both seconds to move up to the end of the first round, they could expect to get something else back too in a 2 for 2 swap. https://www.drafttek.com/NFL-Trade-Value-Chart.asp

Yea, if there's something getting them back in the first it's both 2nds.

2, 6, and 7 isn't getting a 1sr rounder, even a late one. If anything I could see Pace trading down with one of the seconds, but of course it will all depend how the board falls. If he trades up this year, its probably done with futur year assets, yet again.

It appears that the conditional pick from the Howard trade will stay a 6th: https://www.windycitygridiron.com/platform/amp/2020/1/29/21113467/chicago-bears-philadelphia-eagles-specific-details-of-the-jordan-howard-trade-conditions-ryan-pace There's also a Raiders beat writer who reported on Twitter last week that the conditional Mack pick ended up a 7th. So, seems they're looking at: Rd 2 pick 11 (from LV) Rd 2 pick 18 Rd 4 ??? (projected Amos comp) Rd 5 pick 18 Rd 6 pick 17 Rd 6 pick 21 (from PHI) Rd 7 pick 12 (from LV) Rd 7 pick 19

Call it a 8 year contract, following the year after they're drafted. If a guy is ready to play right away, the team gets 8+ years of service time. Everyone hits FA after 8 years with just different types of FA. Thus much less reason to hold guys down unless you're jockeying for the different teirs of FA. Still have a rule 5 draft for guys who haven't advanced after x years. >6 years service time, full unrestricted FA, no draft comp for lost players 4>6 years, restricted FA (matching rights with minimum qualifying offers required and draft comp). <4 years service time, early restricted FA (not exactly sure how I'd design it, but perhaps a smaller qualifying offer but that's multi year in nature) no open negotiations.