Philly Front Office

After getting Jessie Bates and Davon Godchaux earlier in the day, the Jags send a 2027 1st and a 2029 2nd to Philadelphia for Jordan Davis. Here is the full breakdown

The Jags are sending a 2027 2nd round pick and a 2028 5th round pick to the Falcons in exchange for the All Pro safety. Bates was in the last year of his 4/$64m free agent contract he signed after leaving the Bengals and is 29 years old. There is word that the Falcons are picking up much of the remaining base salary in the form of a pre-trade restructure, but no details yet.

This is a great haul for the Falcons and better than what the Colts received for Quenton Nelson who is guaranteed to land a bigger payday in free agency (and therefore a better comp pick (as high as a 3rd)). The worst thing that could have happened was that the Falcons would fool themselves into thinking they could contend thanks to their terrible division. In that scenario, Bates would have stayed and likely left in the offseason anyway. To get an immediate 2nd round pick instead is a fantastic job by Marr Ryan and company (especially compared to the previous dufus, Terry Fontenot).

As for the Jaguars, they are clearly of the “fuck them picks” philosophy when it comes to team building. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it is a lot to give up for 9 games of a safety. He now joins a secondary with Travis Hunter and Antonio Johnson who happened to be the highest rated safety in the NFL according to PFF last year.

One cool development in this is that because the Jaguars have already had their bye week and the Falcons have not, Bates could realistically play 18 games this season.

After being demoted to 3rd string, Brissett is going to Baltimore to be the short term starter with backup Tyler Huntley out for the season and Lamar Jackson on IR. Terms of the deal have yet to be released because it will not become official until after Baltimore plays Thursday. Brissett has a base salary of $9.7m, meaning a pro-rated amount of that will go to Baltimore with him. It will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $5m, though the Cardinals could (and probably will) take on more than that.

After writing up how the Ravens should/would be sellers at the deadline, they go out and get Brissett from the Cardinals. I still stick by my predication, but they simply needed a starter for the rest of the season.

Chicago sends two 1st round picks and a 2027 4th to Tennessee for the All-Pro Simmons who will be counted on to single handedly clean up the Bears bad run defense. He’s that good.

Despite recently signing an enormous extension, Simmons was always likely to be traded. Why? Because his deal came with a comparatively small signing bonus of $20m. Along with some residue from his previous contract, that is the only part of his new contract Tennessee will be responsible for going forward. It comes to around $21m. For a team with zero chance of contention next year, getting two first round picks is worth the dead cap hit. They also happen to save $8m from what was already earmarked for this year. Anything you don’t spend in the NFL rolls over to next year, so that takes some of the sting off that hit.

As for Chicago, for this season, they inherit the remaining game checks from his $13m salary which will come to around $8m which will also be his cap hit. That’s nothing for one of the best players in football in his absolute prime. Going forward though, they have options on how to deal with his increasing salary. He is signed to high annual salaries of $21.5m (2027), $27m (2028), $22.5m (2029), and $30.75m (2030) but only his 2027 and 2028 salaries are guaranteed for the most part. The Bears will have the option of restructuring these salaries if they choose to get cap relief when they need it.

All in all, for the Bears it is a high cost but low risk and high reward trade for a stud defensive player to complement their amazing offense. For the Titans, whatever rebuild they tried recently, it failed miserably. At least they had the foresight to build the Simmons contract into something that could eventually help them.

The All-Pro Guard goes from Colts legend to defending Super Bowl champs for a 2027 3rd round pick and a 2028 5th. This is something like what the Eagles gave up to get Darius Slay back in the day. Why was this the price? Because he will be a free agent this offseason. Nelson is expected to get another record setting extension.

The strangest part of this deal is how it came and went with no real care. Nelson has been nothing but great for the Colts and they threw him away. This tells me that they had extension talks that went nowhere and new ownership decided to move on (or are secretly intent on bringing him back as a free agent). Instead of waiting on a 3rd round comp pick in 2028, they get a 3rd rounder now. For what it’s worth though, the Seahawks are now in position to get that comp pick.