Judon signed franchise tag

**00000** · 05-29-2020, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by mmi16

You can 'play for money' AFTER you win the RING! Before you win the RING you have to play to WIN THE RING.

Silly take - these are "professional" football players and the point of a job is to MAKE MONEY - the point of the SPORT is to win. You have to take the money when it's available. I dont see the NFL giving out $20m bonuses to every player to win the SB.

**bacchys** · 05-29-2020, 01:03 PM

Flacco was paid based in his performance to that point, especially the playoff run the SB year. It wasnt even an exceptional contract, getting soon eclipsed by other QB contracts.

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**Iscull** · 05-29-2020, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by 00000

Silly take - these are "professional" football players and the point of a job is to MAKE MONEY - the point of the SPORT is to win. You have to take the money when it's available. I dont see the NFL giving out $20m bonuses to every player to win the SB.

Exactly. Otherwise, guys on bad teams would just take no money just to win...?

**mmi16** · 05-29-2020, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by 00000

Silly take - these are "professional" football players and the point of a job is to MAKE MONEY - the point of the SPORT is to win. You have to take the money when it's available. I dont see the NFL giving out $20m bonuses to every player to win the SB.

Nobody is going broke! Breaking the bank, under the salary cap, also breaks the back of the team.

If me, as one player, commands 20% of the salary cap - that leaves 52 or more players scrambling for the remaining 80% - a real way to build team unity, sense of purpose and 'do your job' mentality.

Joe got paid after he delivered, not before.

**LukeDaniel** · 05-29-2020, 06:36 PM

In order for a team to ascend to be 14-2, you have an abundance of players who either outplay their veteran contract, or overachieve in relation to their draft position.

For the 19 Ravens, they really only had one great "value" free agent contract. Mark Ingram.

Thankfully, they only had one bad contract on the books. Tony Jefferson. The Hurst contract was close, but $4.25m/year for a durable, versatile backup is really not bad value at all.

The Jimmy Smith and Brandon Williams contracts carried salty '19 cap figures, but that was mainly due to earlier restructures. They were very good values at earlier portions of the contract from a cap # perspective. I wouldn't call either a bad contract, as both players still perform at a high level.

The Fort and Bynes signings were mid-season, where virtually every contract is for the veteran minimum, so as helpful as they were, they really dont factor in to the equation.

So what made them so darn good?

It was the overachieving young players on rookie deals.

The Ravens had 6 first rounders on their rookie deals. Jackson was the league MVP. Humphrey, Stanley, and Peters were 1st team All Pros. Hollywood Brown impressed. Hayden Hurst is no slouch either.

Onwuasor, Ricard, Pierce, and Mekari all finished the year as starters and were all undrafted. Skura was another UFA starter until the knee apocalypse. Edwards was undrafted also is a hyper-productive backup. Usually having six undrafted players that knitted in to your rotation is the hallmark of a 5-11 team, but in our case, it was an impressive display of front office diligence combined with talented coaching.

Then we look at the overachieving players in rookie contracts (3rd rounders or later)

ANDREWS (3rd rounder, pro bowler by year 2)
OBJ (3rd rounder, pro bowl in yr #2)
Clark (6th round, starter, played at high level)
Bozeman (6th round, solid starter by year #2)

To me, Judon is the biggest factor in this winning equation. 5th rounder that 99.5% of NFL fans hadn't heard of before draft day. 4 years later he's good enough to warrant a franchise tag from an elite team.

The Ravens deserve credit here, but so does Judon. He was productive as a rookie, and has gotten incrementally better each season. Last year, it was either a) we blitz b)Judon beats a double team or c) the QB has 8 unmolested seconds in the pocket to throw.

It seemed to me that, when he was not doubled, he was in the QB's face with regularity. My fear is that with Wolfe and Campbell to account for this year, Judon can put up sack totals reflective of his talent. That might ultimately price him out of purple, but we've definitely received a great value out of him over the last 5 years!

**Ortizer** · 05-30-2020, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by jonboy79

He was willing to sign the LB tag no complaints(a mil or two less than DE).
He might be pretty reasonable: Just give him Zadarious Smiths deal.

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They actually met in the middle between the de and lb tag

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**jonboy79** · 05-30-2020, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Ortizer

They actually met in the middle between the de and lb tag

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Reasonable and fair.

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**QtR Nevermore** · 05-30-2020, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Ortizer

They actually met in the middle between the de and lb tag

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Does that suggest they do want a long term deal with him?
If they just wanted one more year out of him they could have forced him to accept the lower LB tag but meeting in the middle suggests they want to show good faith.

**Waywatcher** · 05-30-2020, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by QtR Nevermore

Does that suggest they do want a long term deal with him?
If they just wanted one more year out of him they could have forced him to accept the lower LB tag but meeting in the middle suggests they want to show good faith.

To my mind, the organization hasn't made it anything but obvious that they want to sign Judon long-term. But I agree that willingly compromising on the tag without involving an arbitrator is a good faith move.

**WNCRavensFan** · 05-30-2020, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Waywatcher

To my mind, the organization hasn't made it anything but obvious that they want to sign Judon long-term. But I agree that willingly compromising on the tag without involving an arbitrator is a good faith move.

Every indication is that both sides want to get a deal done. So, it's all about determining the contract at this point.

**Ortizer** · 05-30-2020, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by QtR Nevermore

Does that suggest they do want a long term deal with him?
If they just wanted one more year out of him they could have forced him to accept the lower LB tag but meeting in the middle suggests they want to show good faith.

Suggests they didn't want to deal with the grievance I would guess.

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**QtR Nevermore** · 05-31-2020, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Ortizer

Suggests they didn't want to deal with the grievance I would guess.

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It wouldn't have required much effort on the Ravens part to respond to his grievance - there was no way Judon was going to win an argument that he was a DE. He does so many linebacker things each game, and pass rushing is part of an OLB's job anyway, that it would have been one of the quicker, easier decisions.

I think it does show they want a happy Judon long term. If only we hadn't been so tight against the cap we could have signed him cheaper, earlier. He looked good right from his rookie season and he was low paid enough that he'd probably have taken a team friendly deal.