Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
I hope everyone has their ticket, because the football train is about to leave the station. Starting this week, there is going to be almost nonstop football from now until the Super Bowl. I know, it doesn't seem possible, but it somehow is.
First, we have the Hall of Fame Game this week, which will be coming to you on Thursday, then we have the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, then the first full week of the preseason is here next week and then things won't stop until we hit Super Bowl LIX in February. There will be one week at the end of August with no NFL football (after the preseason ends), but college football will have started by then, so you won't miss a beat.
You also won't miss a beat with any football news when you read this newsletter, so be sure to tell everyone you know to subscribe. To get people signed up, all you have to do is click here. Alright, let's get to the rundown.
1. Jordan Love and Tua Tagovailoa sign: Breaking down their record-breaking deals
The NFL weekend got off to a wild start with Love and Tua both landing new contracts in deals that came just hours apart on Friday.
Both quarterbacks got paid handsomely, but Love got the bigger money, so let's talk about his contract first.
- Love is now tied with two players for the title of highest-paid player in NFL history. The Packers quarterback landed a four-year, $220 million extension, which means the deal is worth a total of $55 million per season over the four years of the contract. That ties him with Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence for the highest average annual value in NFL history. Love's contract also includes a $75 million signing bonus, which is the largest in NFL history.
- Love's reaction to the deal. The 25-year-old said the new contract probably won't make him feel like he's under more pressure because he's always felt like he's under pressure. "Being a first-round pick, there's pressure," Love said Saturday, via ESPN. "Becoming the starter, there's pressure, but there's always pressure. I think that's, you know, part of the job that we sign up for. You've got to find ways to deal with that pressure and handle it as best you can to be the best player you can be every day."
- Aaron Rodgers also reacted to the deal. Not only was the Jets quarterback happy for his former teammate, but he also offered him some financial advice. "I want to give a shoutout to Jordan Love becoming the highest-paid player in the NFL," Rodgers said. "J-Love, don't spend it all in one place. But if you do, I still have a house that's in Green Bay that's up for sale."
You can check out our full story on Love's record-setting deal here.
As for Tua, he also got a pretty solid deal. Let's check out the details.
- Tua gets biggest contract in Dolphins' history. Just hours before Love signed, Tua inked a four-year extension worth a total of $212.5 million, which is an average of $53.1 million per year. Not only is that the biggest contract in Dolphins history, but Tua will now make more in one season than Dan Marino made in his entire NFL career with the Dolphins. Tua's average annual value ranks fourth in the NFL behind Burrow, Lawrence and Love.
- Tua's reaction to the deal. With great money comes great responsibility in the NFL. The 26-year-old knows the pressure is definitely now on him to end the Dolphins' 23-year drought without a playoff win. "I'm the highest paid employee in this in this office," Tua said Sunday "I've got to get my whatever together, I've got to get that right and get our guys moving in the direction that we need to go, to be able to do those things."
If you want to check out our full story on Tua's extension, you can do that here.
2. QB contract breakdown: 2020 QB class breaks the bank, next quarterbacks to get paid
With the Tua and Love deals now done, here's a quick look at the five highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL based on average annual value.
T-1. Joe Burrow (Bengals): $55 million per year
T-1. Jordan Love (Packers): $55 million per year
T-1. Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars): $55 million per year
4. Tua Tagovailoa (Dolphins): $53.1 million per year
5. Jared Goff (Lions): $53 million per year
The QB market is so crazy right now that the five quarterbacks on this list have combined ZERO Super Bowl wins. If you're wondering where Patrick Mahomes ranks, he makes an average of $45 million per year, which isn't even in the top 10 (And despite that, Mahomes said over the weekend that he doesn't feel underpaid).
As for the top five, three of the quarterbacks on the list were drafted in 2020 and based on some quick math I did on the back of my napkin at the Waffle House this morning, there's a good chance that the QB class of 2020 could go down as the richest QB class in NFL History.
With Burrow, Love and Tagovailoa now signed, the top-five highest-paid quarterbacks in the class are now scheduled to make well over $1 BILLION total combined with their deals. Let's take a closer look at this numbers:
- Joe Burrow: Five years, $275 million
- Justin Herbert: Five years, $262.5 million
- Jalen Hurts: Five years, $255 million
- Jordan Love: Four years, $220 million
- Tua Tagovailoa: Four years, $212.4 million
Those five contracts combine for a total of 1,224,900,000.
With Love and Tua now under contract, the biggest winners from the weekend were probably Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy.
- Prescott: If the Cowboyso QB can't reach a deal with Dallas, then he'll definitely be hitting free agency next March and if that happens, there's a good chance he'll become the highest-paid QB in NFL history.
- Purdy: The 49ers QB is eligible for an extension after the 2024 season and you can bet he'll be asking for top dollar after making LESS THAN $900,000 per year in each of his first two seasons. Being "Mr. Irrelevant" doesn't pay well, but Purdy will definitely be getting a huge pay check come next offseason.
The moral of the story here is that being an NFL quarterback pays well.
3. Cowboys news and notes: Dallas makes headlines over the weekend
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" isn't just a movie, it also pretty much describes what the Cowboys went through over the weekend.
- The good: Negotiations seem to be going well with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. Both players were given a new contract offer over the weekend and although we haven't seen a deal get done yet, Stephen Jones is feeling optimistic about the state of negotiations. "Right now, I would characterize both conversations as upbeat," Jones said, via the team's website. "We're having good talks back and forth with both Todd (France) and Tory (Dandy). I like we're we stand." Lamb is currently holding out of camp and won't be showing up until a deal gets done, so the Cowboys will definitely want to get a contract worked out sooner rather than later.
- The bad: Cowboys cut former first-round pick. Gareon Conley's bid to make it back to the NFL -- after five years out of the league -- is already over. The former first-round pick, who was drafted 24th overall by the Raiders in 2017, was cut by the Cowboys on Sunday after he informed the team that he's planning to retire.
- The ugly: Cowboys lose Sam Williams for the season. The pass rusher tore his ACL and MCL during practice on Sunday and due to those injuries, he'll be forced to miss the entire 2024 season. The injury is a major hit to the Cowboys' pass-rushing depth. In two seasons with the team, Williams has totaled 8.5 sacks and he was expected to see more action this year after coming off the bench in all 17 regular-season games last season.
The Cowboys will likely continue to be in the news because they're the Cowboys and they're always in the news.
4. Former first-round picks who could still become stars
There's a lot of hype that comes with being a first-round pick in the NFL and not everyone lives up to it during their rookie year. Although some first-rounders struggle during their first season in the league, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be a bust. Some are slowed by injury and some just need some extra time to get acclimated to the NFL.
With that in mind, Chris Trapasso decided to take a look at several former first-round picks who aren't quite stars yet, but could end up becoming a star this season.
- Bills TE Dalton Kincaid. "The Bills have to replace the 152 total targets Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis saw last year in the regular season and the silky-smooth Kincaid is aligned to be one of the focal points of Buffalo's new, more diverse passing attack."
- Texans CB Derek Stingley Jr. "Stingley snagged five interceptions last season, knocked away 14 more en route to an unequivocal bounce-back year for the former No. 3 overall selection. But no Pro Bowl nod yet, so he's eligible for my list. With a bolstered pass rush in Houston led by monster acquisition Danielle Hunter, and presumably the offense giving the Texans ample leads throughout the season, the cornerbacks are going to be in prime pounce mode for much of the year."
- Commanders LB Jamin Davis. "Davis hasn't quite met first-round expectations in Washington, but he's kept a starting role almost by default on some less-than-stellar defenses the past few years. While gradual, there's been progress in his development entering Year 4. ... And now he'll soak up an incalculable amount of knowledge from sage, future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner, right next to him in the middle of Washington's new-look defense."
You can check out Trapasso's full list here.
5. Brock Purdy wants to be like Tom Brady
Brock Purdy has been in the NFL for two years and in each of those two seasons, he's led his team to at least the NFC title game. With those kind of accomplishments, it's easy to get complacent, but it doesn't sound like that will be happening with Purdy.
Purdy was recently interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle and here are a few fascinating nuggets from his chat.
- Purdy wants to be cutthroat like Tom Brady. "With as good of a team that we have, I want to get to that point where we get to the third quarter, there's a couple of drives that are crucial, I'm on top of my stuff, we convert on third downs, and we score touchdowns and the lead just gets out of hand. It's having that Tom Brady kind of feeling. Late in the game, it always felt like Tom was just gonna take over and not make it close. I feel like I can get to that."
- Purdy says his biggest weakness last year was letting himself take his foot off the gas. "There were moments last year in games where I would just -- I don't know what it was in the situation -- but we'd be up and it's, 'All right, be smart with the ball,' or 'Let's just make sure we don't mess up.' I want to break through that and get to this point of just being dominant, for four quarters."
You can read more about Purdy here.
6. Extra points: Lions starting left tackle gets huge three-year extension
It was a busy weekend in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Taylor Decker gets three years added to deal. The Lions are set at left tackle into the foreseeable after giving Taylor Decker a three-year extension. The new deal is worth a total of $60 million and includes $31.83 million in guarantees. The 29-year-old has been in Detroit since 2016 and the new contract will now keep him with the Lions through the 2027 season.
- Chiefs backtrack on unconventional kickoff idea. With the NFL's kickoff rule undergoing a huge change this year, the Chiefs were thinking about letting Justin Reid handle kickoffs, but apparently, that won't be the case. Special teams coach Dave Toub said over the weekend that Harrison Butker will remain the team's kickoff specialist. You can check out his comments here.
- Bengals possibly dealing with two hold-ins. Not only is Ja'Marr Chase "holding in," but it looks like Trey Hendrickson is also attempting the same strategy. When a player "holds in," that's where they show up to training camp, but they sit out of practice until they get a new contract. You can read more details about the Bengals' situation here.
- Patriots defensive tackle hospitalized with blood clots. Christian Barmore is dealing with a serious health scare after he was diagnosed with blood clots over the weekend. Although it's not clear how long Barmore will be out, the 25-year-old wrote on social media that he plans to "be back soon." Barmore started six games for the Patriots last season and you can read more on his situation here.
- Saints backup QB has rare skin cancer. The Saints are also dealing with a serious health issue. This one involves backup QB Jake Haener, who has been diagnosed with skin cancer. According to Haener, the situation isn't "life-threatening," but he is going to have to get a procedure done on his face to fix the issue. We have the full details on Haener's health situation here.
