Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Report: NFL owners vote 29-0 in support of cap penalties

NFL.com reporter Albert Breer just tweeted the following:

NFL owners voted 29-0 this AM to move forward with the $36 million penalty against Dallas, and the $10 million penalty against Washington

... Per sources, one club abstained from voting, and Dallas and Washington weren't part of the vote, for obvious reasons.

This is not at all surprising and it is not likely to be very meaningful. The Redskins and Cowboys will go forward with the arbitration and it will not matter in Professor Stephen Burbank’s decision.

The unanimity against Washington and Dallas could come into play if Burbank finds fault with how the penalties were imposed and calls for a full vote of ownership. But we are a long way from that. 

Update: Per the Washington Post, Tampa Bay was the team that abstained. 

Redskins have seven picks in draft

The NFL has announced the full draft order. Here are the Redskins’ picks:

• Round 1, pick 2, 2^nd overall
• Round 3, pick 6, 69^th overall
• Round 4, pick 7, 102^nd overall
• Round 4, pick 14 109^th overall (from Oakland)
• Round 5, pick 6, 141^st overall
• Round 6, pick 3, 173^rd overall (from Minnesota)
• Round 7, pick 6 213^th overall

Look here for the full NFL draft order.

 

Parsing the NFL's cap penalty statement

All we got from Roger Goodell on the cap penalty yesterday was that we should read the statement that was issued earlier in the day. That might have made sense if the statement had not raised as many questions as it answered.

The full statement was posted here yesterday. Let’s pull a few quotes from it and parse it to see what it really says and what it doesn’t say.

The Cowboys and Redskins have challenged the NFL's recent agreement with the NFL Players Association to set the salary cap for 2012 and to reallocate certain salary cap room from Dallas and Washington to 28 other clubs. 

Let’s start with “the NFL’s recent agreement with the NFL Players Association.” Exactly who in the NFL and in the Players Association agreed to this is unclear. We know that the full ownership of the NFL did not take a vote on it. It has been reported that the NFL Executive Committee, headed by Giants owner John Mara, a prime beneficiary of the penalties against Dallas and Washington, negotiated the sanctions with the union. But Jerry Jones is a member of that committee and he knew nothing about it. 

So it appears that part of a committee made up of part of the NFL owners can change the CBA. And that committee is chaired by Mara, someone who clearly should recuse himself from any decision that would severely penalize two other teams in his division. 

We also don’t know exactly who from the union signed off on this and how this method for making a change in the CBA is authorized in the CBA. The answer for the latter question is that it probably is not and Mara, Goodell, and a few other owners are 

The reallocation aspect of the agreement is intended to address competitive issues from contract practices by those clubs in the 2010 League Year intended to avoid certain salary cap charges in 2011 and later years. 

The NFL (rather, whatever part of the NFL is in charge of this fiasco) continues to ignore the fact that teams like the Bucs, Chiefs, Jaguars, and Cardinals took advantage of the uncapped year, which did not have a spending floor either, to spend under $100 million on players salaries. This affected competitive balance more than the Redskins and Cowboys overspending did (if “overspending” is indeed possible in a uncapped year). Whatever the issue is here, whatever reason the decision to slap the penalty on the Redskins and Cowboys, competitive balance is not it.

The agreement will promote competitive balance without reducing the salary cap or player spending on a league-wide basis. 

This is a blatantly false statement. Taking big chunks of salary cap room away from the Redskins and Cowboys, who generally spend their cap dollars, and parceling it out in $1.6 million increments to teams like the Bengals and Jaguars, who frequently spend well under the cap, will lead to less player spending on a league-wide basis.

By refusing to answer questions about the penalties, Goodell did a great disservice to fans of the Redskins and Cowboys, who have a right to know why the quality of their teams will suffer. This was after putting on a dog and pony show about how the league cares about what the fans thing by bringing in 19 of them for a Q&A session with some of the owners.

Somehow, I don't think that any of those present were fans of the Redskins or Cowboys. 

Draft really starts a month from today

The NFL draft starts for the Washington Redskins one month from today.

Yes, it’s true that the actual draft will start on Thursday, April 26, a month from yesterday. But that day will merely be a formality for the Redskins. Within about 15 minutes of when the draft starts, they will submit the name of Robert Griffin III (or, possibly, Andrew Luck if the Colts do the unexpected and take Griffin) to the table. Their new quarterback will walk onto the stage, give Roger Goodell the bro hug, hold up the Redskins jersey with a 1 on it and that will be it. 

The organization will have done a lot of work to get to that point and they hope that the most important position on the field will be locked down for the next decade or longer. They might celebrate briefly but they will have to get back to work to get the other 21 positions locked down.

They don’t have a second-round pick after sending that to the Rams in the trade up. The Redskins have one pick in the third round, two in the fourth (their own and Oakland’s in exchange for Jason Campbell), one in the fifth, one in the sixth (the Vikings’ pick in exchange for Donovan McNabb; their own went to Arizona for Tim Hightower) and one in the seventh. 

Since the first round pick is spoken for and the second rounder is gone, the draft really starts somewhere around 8 p.m. on Friday, the 27^th. The pressure will be on Mike Shanahan and the rest of the personnel department to come up with home runs in round three and with their two picks in the fourth round. With the salary cap squeezed by the NFL and with premium picks missing in this draft and the next two, the Redskins need to find quality players in the middle rounds.

That doesn’t mean that they have to find players who will start from the first day of training camp and go to multiple Pro Bowls. What the Redskins need to do is find players who can compete for starting jobs fairly soon. That would constitute a home run in rounds three and four.

In other words, they need to do what they did last year. In the third round they drafted Leonard Hankerson. It took him a while to make it onto the field but once he did it looked like he was on his way to a very good rookie season until a hip injury ended his season early.

Their fourth-round pick was Roy Helu, who led the team in rushing and set a team record for receptions in a game. 

If the Redskins can get two or three more players like Hankerson and Helu to add to their quarterback of the future, they will have had a successful draft.

The ceremony starts on Thursday the 26^th, but the work really starts on Friday, one month from today.

You can reach Rich by email at RTandlerCSN@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler.

 

NFL's statement on salary cap challenge

Here is the NFL's statement on the Redskins' and Cowboys challenge to the salary cap penalties imposed on them by the NFL;

The Cowboys and Redskins have challenged the NFL's recent agreement with the NFL Players Association to set the salary cap for 2012 and to reallocate certain salary cap room from Dallas and Washington to 28 other clubs. 

The reallocation aspect of the agreement is intended to address competitive issues from contract practices by those clubs in the 2010 League Year intended to avoid certain salary cap charges in 2011 and later years. 

Under the agreement with the NFLPA, the two clubs will be charged a total of $46 million in cap room in the 2012 and 2013 seasons ($18 million per year for Washington; $5 million per year for Dallas). That room, instead, will be reallocated to 28 other clubs in the 2012 and 2013 season as determined by the Club. (The New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders, which engaged in similar contract practices at a far different level, will not receive any additional cap room. Those two clubs have not challenged the agreement with the NFLPA.) 

The agreement will promote competitive balance without reducing the salary cap or player spending on a league-wide basis. 

The arbitration will be heard by Professor Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania. No date has been set for a hearing. The clubs were advised of the status of the proceeding at today's league meeting. The NFL and Clubs will have no further comment at this time.

Watch what the Colts do, not what they say

We reported a short while ago that Colts owner Jim Irsay said that his organization has not yet settled on which quarterback it will draft next month. Both Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III are in play.

However, team GM Ryan Grigson said on a conference call today that the Colts will have Luck in for a visit to the team facility in the next few weeks. They will not, however, host Griffin.

The visits to the facility can be quite valuable for teams in their evaluation process, especially at the quarterback position. They give them a chance to get to know their prospective team leader in more depth than they can get during the “speed dating” interviews that take place at the NFL Combine. Teams also usually quiz the player to test his knowledge of NFL defenses and quarterback play in general.

While a team certainly can draft a player without bringing him in for a visit, the Colts decision not to bring in Griffin is puzzling if they are truly interested in taking him with the top pick.

While they Colts could change their thinking, if I’m looking for clues as to who they might draft I will look at what they do--or, in this case, what they don’t do--rather than listening to what they say.

 

Irsay says Colts still undecided on QB

Colts owner Jim Irsay says that either Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III could be his team’s pick in the NFL draft a month from today.

"I don't think it's either-or, where only one of them is going to succeed. I think they're both going to be great," said Irsay at the NFL owners meetings today. 

Irsay’s Colts have the first overall pick in the draft and the Redskins have the second. Most believe that the Colts will take Luck, Irsay’s comments notwithstanding and the Redskins will get Griffin.

Irsay did not rule out ending the suspense early and signing the team’s quarterback prior to the draft. 

"If we decided to do a deal early with one of them, that's something we could definitely look into," Irsay said. "But we're still in the evaluation process right now." 

 

Will the Redskins face Parcells in 2012?

Chris Mortensen of ESPN is reporting that Saints coach Sean Payton has contacted Parcells about being New Orleans’ coach for the 2012 season. Payton has been suspended for the entire year due to his role in the Saints’ bounty scandal.

Parcels, 71, coached in the NFC East for 12 years. His Giants were Joe Gibbs’ Redskins’ nemesis as his New York teams won two Super bowls between 1983 and 1990. After stints with the Jets and Patriots, Parcells return to the division to coach the Cowboys from 2003-2006. He has not coached since.

Parcells is far from certain to end up on the Superdome sideline this year. First, he would have to express interest in taking the temporary position and Saints owner Tom Benson would have to approve. Then, since they would be bringing in an outside person to coach, the Rooney Rule would kick in, meaning that the Saints would have to interview at least one minority candidate for the head coaching job before hiring Parcells. 

The Redskins are slated to play the Saints in New Orleans during the 2012 season. The presence of the Big Tuna on the sideline in the Big Easy could add a little spice to the matchup. 

 

Redskins to DC plan 'half baked'

It doesn’t seem like Mayor Vincent Gray’s plan of bringing the Redskins back to the city of Washington is as far along as some may have thought.

“Nobody wants to bring out anything that is half baked to a community,” Gray said to, well, the community. He was speaking to a several hundred residents who gathered to hear about plans for Reservation 13, the area around RFK Stadium. Gray is trying to get those plans to include a new training facility for the Redskins, who currently train in Virginia and play in Maryland.

According to the City Paper, Gray said that he hasn’t even talked to Redskins officials much about the possibility of moving the team’s headquarters to D. C. 

So we have a plan that is not very far along combined with not much conversation with the party that would have to commit to investing millions of dollars to make it happen. 

Sounds like it would need a lot more time in the oven to make it to half baked to me.

 

Redskins, Cowboys, remain silent on cap grievance

Dan Graziano, ESPN’s NFC East blogger, has had some very strong takes on the Redskins-Cowboys salary cap penalty case since it was announced and he had another one this morning. 

Graziano points out that Giants owner John Mara, the head of the committee that imposed the penalties and one of the prime beneficiaries of them, delivered a blustery defense of the sanctions while Jerry Jones said little and Dan Snyder said nothing. 

Who usually talks the most? Someone who is backing an irrational and unjust position. It seems that Jones and Snyder are letting the facts of what happened and how it happened speak for themselves.

It is Mara who needs to try to build some sort of PR offensive to defend the indefensible. It appears that the Redskins and Cowboys are quite comfortable with their own case.