Aaron Rodgers lands record-setting contract plus winners and losers from Day 1 of NFLs tampering period
Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!It's the Ides of March, which is kind of fitting for today, because it's definitely backstabbing season in the NFL. The lead-up to free agency can be one of the most brutal stretches on the league calendar for players and that's because dozens of them generally get released before the official start of free agency, which will be coming on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET.Today alone, we've that the are going to cut four-time All-Pro punter , the with linebacker and the will be moving on from cornerback Janoris "Jackrabbit" Jenkins. I would say I'm surprised by the Jack move, but let's be honest, the Jaguars had to cut SOMEONE to make the salary cap work after going out and spending nearly $250 million in free agency yesterday.Hopefully the Jags will let a few other Jarrett Culver Jersey teams sign some players today. As the tampering period heads into Day 2, deals will be happening all day Tuesday, so to make sure you stay on top of all of those, you're definitely going to . If you're too busy to be following a live blog, you can .As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. All you have to do is. Alright, let's get to the rundown. Also, with NCAA Tournament tipping off this week, I'd like to formally invite everyone to join the Pick Six Podcast bracket challenge. It's free to enter and if you somehow win, you'll take home a $100 gift card to Paramount Plus. You will likely destroy me in this pool, but unfortunately, there's no prize for destroying me (there's also no prize for destroying men, which is what I think I wrote yesterday). Just . 1. Today's show: Recapping Day 1 of 'free agency'The unofficial start of free agency came on Monday and as expected, things got kind of crazy: The Jaguars spent nearly $250 million, the finally got some protection for and the are apparently building a super team out West, at least from a defensive standpoint.After a wild day, Will Brinson, Ryan Wilson and I sat down to record a podcast together to discu s every single move that was made and since there were a lot of moves made, the podcast lasted more than an hour, which is arguably impre sive, because with all the deals that happened on Monday, this thing could have easily gone on for nine hours. As a matter of fact, we probably could have done a separate nine-hour podcast on just the Jaguars, who went on a huge spending spree. Here's a look at what Jacksonville did on Monday:WR agrees to a four-year, $72 million deal (that's worth up to $84 million)WR intends to sign a three-year, $24 million deal gets a three-year deal worth up to $52.5 million (including $30 million guaranteed)LB Jake Layman Jersey agrees to a three-year, $45 million contractDT gets a three-year, $30 million dealTE lands a one-year, $9 million dealIf you're scoring at home, that's $229.5 million. During the podcast, we talked about why was a big winner on Monday (he got a new offensive lineman and three new receiving targets), but we also felt that the Jaguars were losers for blowing so much money in free agency. (The Jags have blown money in free agency before and it never seems to work).Unfortunately, the podcast for today was recorded at 5 p.m. ET on Monday, which means there were several deals from Day 1 of the tampering period that we didn't get to talk about (Basically, any deal that happened Monday night didn't make it in the podcast). The good news is that we'll be covering those deals and today's deals for Wednesday's podcast. Does all of that make sense? I hope all of that makes sense. To listen to today's episode -- and to subscribe to the podcast --. You can . 2. Free agency winners and losers for Day 1 of tamperingThe only person busier than the Jaguars on Monday was our very own Jordan Dajani, who was in charge of putting together CBSSports.com's list of winners and losers for Day 1 of the tampering period.Here's what Jordan came up with:WinnersJaguars:Chargers:Bengals:Losers:: (Bonus loser from the podcast):For a more in-depth explanation on each of those choices, be . 3. Grading some of the biggest free agency dealsThe only thing better than making a winners and losers list for the first day of the NFL tampering period is to grade each one of the deals, so that's exactly what we had Profe sor Bryan DeArdo do (I'm not sure if he's actually a profe sor, but I'm giving him that title for the day).Here's a look at the grades DeArdo handed out for five of the biggest deals from Monday:Mitchell Trubisky agrees to terms with the Steelers (two years, $14.25 million): B. J.C. Jackson agrees to terms with Chargers (five years, $82.5 million): B. Christian Kirk agrees to terms with Jaguars (four years, $72 million): D-. agrees to terms with (three years, $31.5 million): B-. Teddy Bridgewater agrees to terms with Dolphins (one-year, $6.5 million): B+. If you want to see the rest of . 4. finally signs his new contract: Here Josh Okogie Jersey are the details of his record-setting dealWhen Aaron Rodgers announced last week that he would be returning to the , it was reported that Green Bay got him to come back by . One week later, Rodgers has and although he did end up scoring a record-setting contract, it's not quite for $200 million.According to multiple reports, Rodgers signed a three-year extension on Tuesday that will pay him $150 million. It had been reported for weeks that Rodgers would be getting $50 million per year, and , that's exactly what he ended up getting, which makes him the highest-paid player in NFL history in terms of average annual salary (The previous record belonged to , who is making $45 million per year).Here are the details on the pay in his new contract () and the cap hits the Packers will be taking (): 2022: $42 million in pay, $28.5 million salary cap hit2023: $59.52 million in pay, $31.6 million salary cap hit2024: $49.3 million in pay, $40.7 million salary cap hitThe most notable number here for the Packers' is $28.5 million, which is Rodgers' salary cap hit for 2022. Under the terms of his old deal, Rodgers was scheduled to have a $46.7 million cap hit, so the Packers just picked up $18.2 million of much-needed cap space for the upcoming season. Thanks to the new deal, the Packers are now inching closer to being salary cap compliant. The team only has a few million dollars more to clear off their books before the NFL deadline of 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.The biggest downside of the new deal is that the Packers will be in a lot of trouble if Rodgers doesn't play all three seasons. According , if Rodgers retires or gets cut following the 2023 season, the Packers will be stuck with a $68.21 MILLION DEAD CAP HIT in 2024, so there definitely could be some drama following the 2023 season. Also, with Rodgers now under contract through 2024, this raises a lot of questions about future with the Packers. Love's contract expires after the 2023 season, so the Packers could hold on to him for cheap for at least the next two seasons, but then they'd have a huge decision to make after 2023 if Rodgers is planning on playing in 2024. On the other hand, they could look to trade Love for some draft compensation so that they can take advantage of the small Super Bowl window they still have with Rodgers. 5. Biggest free agents leftFree agency hasn't even technically started and we've already seen four of the top 10 available players get signed. If your team sat out the first day of free agency tampering, you don't need to worry just yet and that's because there are plenty of good players who are still available.The biggest prize left on the market is definitely , who will be an instant upgrade at left tackle for pretty much any team in the NFL. With that in mind, let's who are still available (they're listed with the team they played for last season): 1. OT Terron Armstead ()2. OLB (Rams)3. EDGE (Cardinals)4. WR (Bears)5. CB ()6. CB (Rams)7. LB (Seahawks)8. FS (Chiefs)9. OT ()10. DL (Bears)The six players from Prisco's original top 10 who are now off the market are: J.C. Jackson, , Brandon Scherff, , and . Davis () and Campbell (Packers) both re-signed with the team they played for last year. Dario Saric Jersey As for Scherff, he's making the jump from Washington to Jacksonville, while Williams is leaving New Orleans for Baltimore and Jackson will be going from the Patriots to the Chargers. The strangest twist was Gregory's decision to spurn the for the Broncos, which you can read more about below.The tampering period will be continuing today and since deals could be going down all day Tuesday, here's another reminder that we've put together a free agent tracker so that you can stay up to date on what has happened so far. If you'd like . We also have a live blog that will cover signings AND trades as they happen and . 6. Rapid-fire roundup: Patriots and pull off Jaylen Nowell Jersey trade, plus latest on Deshaun WatsonIt's been a wild 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impo sible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.Patriots and Browns exchange defensive players. It's not often you see a player-for-player trade that involves zero draft picks, but that's what we got on Tuesday when the Patriots sent to Cleveland in exchange for Browns linebacker . For more details on the trade, .Deshaun Watson meeting with the Browns today, four teams appear to have inside track to landing QB.The trade with the Patriots might not be the last one the Browns pull off this week. According , the Browns are meeting with Watson's camp today in hopes of making a deal happen. Right now, the Watson sweepstakes seems to be down to four teams with the Browns, Panthers and Saints all in the running. According , the have also emerged as a mystery team that we need to keep an eye on. The Colts wanted to be in the running, but the Texans that there's no way they were going to trade the QB to a division rival, so the Colts are now out.Randy Gregory drama in Dallas.The Cowboys are always good for some drama and that was definitely the case on Tuesday. In the early morning hours, it looked like the team had agreed to terms with Gregory on a five-year deal worth up to $70 million, but just hours after that deal was reported, it seems Gregory has had a change of heart. According CBS Sports NFL insider Jason La Canfora, the defensive end has now decided to sign with the Broncos.Cardinals restructure ' contract.The Cardinals have reworked Hopkins' deal in an effort to clear up some salary cap space. The team turned a $10.65 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, which allows the franchise to spread the cap hit over the life of the contract. According , the move will free up $7.1 million in cap space for Arizona.Seahawks star catches pa ses from .Seahawks receiver joined Colin Kaepernick as the QB continues his effort to make an NFL return in 2022. The interesting thing about Lockett being involved is that the Seahawks need a QB AND Seattle was the ONLY team that brought Kaepernick in for a workout during the five years where he was basically black-balled from the NFL.