Cutdown day is here, and here’s what we know with the 4 p.m. ET deadline approaching …
• Jonathan Taylor’s situation should have at least some temporary finality (is that an oxymoron?) today, with the Colts planning to shut down trade talks after the 4 p.m. ET cutdown deadline.
So where does that leave everyone?
I think a fair scenario to project would be Indianapolis getting a second-round pick, plus a Day 3 pick (and a relatively high one) for Taylor, with Taylor landing a contract somewhere between $13 and $14 million per year, and about $40 million over the first three years. What’s trickier is finding a team willing to do it. Indy’s looking for a fair price for Taylor and, obviously, hasn’t found one they like yet.
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• There’s a mind-numbing amount of names for teams to sort through on cutdown day, but there are times where you can read into their actions at this time of year, and get an idea of where they think they’re at roster-wise.
Along those lines, the Patriots traded for two offensive tackles Sunday, which is an acknowledgment that an expected trouble area for the team going into camp has become a very real one. Then, there’s the Giants trading for Isaiah Simmons and Boogie Basham, which, to me, are moves to add athleticism and juice to the pass rush around Kayvon Thibodeaux.
• A lot of questions on the Cardinals, and tanking (post–Colt McCoy release), and whether to fire up the Caleb Williams–Drake Maye Photoshops already.
I’ll say this—Kyler Murray, regardless of what happens, is protected, and will be costly to offload should it come to that. Murray has $35.3 million already fully guaranteed next year, so that’d be the cost of letting him go in March. The problem is, if they hold on to him through March, then $29.9 million of his money for 2025 vests as fully guaranteed, and would become the cost for walking away from him a year and a half from now.
This, to me, is why it’s really important for Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon and GM Monti Ossenfort to get as full an assessment as possible on Murray over the next five months, one that’ll be even more important to have if their pick, or the one they got from Houston, is the top pick or second selection. But … complicating that is that Murray has injury guarantees in his contract that stretch into 2026, and he’s coming off a torn ACL.
Fair to say the relationship status here is complicated.
• The Bills using a second-round pick on Basham obviously didn’t work out—but their willingness to more or less give him away to their old friend (and Giants GM) Joe Schoen is a good indication of where their depth is with edge rushers. They have Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa, Leonard Floyd and Shaq Lawson in tow, and Von Miller coming back at some point (of course, whether Floyd or Lawson would be needed if Basham panned out is another question).
Also, while we’re here, putting Miller on PUP to start the season makes all the sense in the world. He’s not there to win games in September. Getting him back to full throttle for the home stretch and the playoffs should be the priority, and shelving him for the first month of the season takes the pressure off in terms of ramping him up to play.
• The Cowboys’ acquisition of Trey Lance falls to me in the category of Jerry Jones taking a quarterbacking swing. And it’s something we’ve seen before, going back to his first year as owner (taking Steve Walsh in the supplemental draft soon after landing Troy Aikman with the first pick in the 1989 college draft), and through a string of minor league baseball players (Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Drew Henson) he brought in.
Along those lines, Dallas liked Lance coming out, and the cost in acquiring him is a fourth-round pick, $940,000 in base salary this year and $5.31 million in fully guaranteed money for next year (with that $5.31 million being what kept a lot of teams from taking a swing).
Of course, if you want to be more cynical about it, you’d also point out that developing Lance could give the team leverage in negotiations with Dak Prescott, with Prescott carrying a cap number of nearly $60 million next year, the final year of the four-year deal he signed with the team in 2021. It also might be a realistic way to look at it.
• I’ve said this before, but defensive linemen are at a premium right now across the league, so it makes sense that the Eagles would dangle Derek Barnett out there on the trade market. And teams that—such as Philly—have depth in that area (Bengals? Jets?) could wind up with a decent return for players that might barely make their teams.
