Signed by Cowboys Jaylon extension

[AmericanCowboy]

I'm rooting for Jaylon, I really am.

I know he was hurt, and he has a great story- but he was terrib

You’d be surprised. I mean, the Cowboys are paying Jaylon top five money, and I keep reading how it’s a steal.

I don’t get it either.

Jaylon was great last year.

However the fact is the year before that (as he worked his way back from injury, I know that) he was about the worst player on defense. I mean he was really bad. He was getting pushed 10 yards back on plays!

So here is what we got:

The man didn’t play, and then was bad. And then he was great! I’m not sure how we got this awesome deal off of one great year and ended up paying the guy top 5 at his position.

 

[AmericanCowboy]

When you look at the whole picture, it easy to see a steady upward trajectory in performance out of Smith. That improvement correlates very obviously with his recovery from nerve damage. Add into that he is 24, 2 or 3 years away from his athletic peak, and it should be similarly obvious how he projects.

His injury history is one injury of note and a remarkable recovery from it. There is no reason to believe that he is any more likely to get hurt than any other LB and at the same time he projects to recover from any injuries well and ahead of expectations. He's done it before.

The next 5 years project to be his best years as a pro given his age. Of course that is why they are paying him and that is as it should be. Paying for past performance in the Not For Long is bad business.

As for his 2017 season, he was slated to be brought along slowly in a backup role. Lee and Hitchens got hurt and he was forced to play more than i think anyone would have liked. That being said it wasn't all bad.

I get it, working back from a devastating injury. But Jaylon was awful in 2017. It really was all bad that year.

 

[Swagger]

Credit to Jaylon.

Just shows that he is the true leader on the team.

I.e. willing to take a hair cut on salary and sacrifice a bit of personal benefit for the good of the team.

Leader.

No brainlessness of trying to claim $35-£40 million a year without even previously being named on an All Pro team.

An individual would surely be delusional to think that...

 

[Toomany10pins]

Per rapoport

Great move by your team. A very good player with great potential, a team first guy.
Might be sending a message to the other guys who negotiations are rocky currently.

 

[4lifecowboy]

I'm rooting for Jaylon, I really am.

I know he was hurt, and he has a great story- but he was terrib


I don’t get it either.

Jaylon was great last year.

However the fact is the year before that (as he worked his way back from injury, I know that) he was about the worst player on defense. I mean he was really bad. He was getting pushed 10 yards back on plays!

So here is what we got:

The man didn’t play, and then was bad. And then he was great! I’m not sure how we got this awesome deal off of one great year and ended up paying the guy top 5 at his position.

Pretty simple. The character he displayed to get back to full strength. He fulfilled his potential.

 

[Stash]

Great move by your team. A very good player with great potential, a team first guy.
Might be sending a message to the other guys who negotiations are rocky currently.

I think the timing of this deal definitely factors into a message being sent. And the comments about "the pie" at the press conference made that clear to anyone who didn't pick up on it at the very beginning.

These players are all listening to their agents too much. Agents focused on one part of the picture - the money. I get that it's the biggest part of their job, but I also get that agents work for players, not the other way around.

There comes a point where the player tells the agent what to do regarding the contract. The agent wants to get the most money not only for the player, but for their own cut, and for their reputation for their other clients. They have a selfish, vested interest in getting the most money that they can, and nothing more. So that's all they care about. Not that the player might be damaged in the court of public opinion, not that the player might get traded or not signed at all.

There's a bigger picture at work than simply "give us the most money", and I think the Joneses have tried to communicate that several times now. And this deal reiterates that message.

 

[Clarkson]

what i love about this deal is that NO ONE is questioning whether Jaylon is worth top 5 money after a single great season. I like the bet on him but still.

To review. Jaylon, top 5 money after one great season. Zeke can go to hell after three great seasons. And don't even start with the "going about it the right way" garbage.

there's massive differences here.
RBs wear out very quickly, very early. paying one big money is a huge mistake, IMO.
also, Jaylon is being paid way less than the top guy at his position. Zeke would not be (he's getting closer to top money than Jaylon did).
nuance is hard, but don't ignore it here.

 

[HungryLion]

I get it, working back from a devastating injury. But Jaylon was awful in 2017. It really was all bad that year.

Contracts are about what you project a player will do in the future.

You don’t pay a player money in the future for what they have already done.

It’s easy to see why Jaylon is projected to be worth that money. He played at an extremely high level last year and he was a complete stud before the injury.

He has elite athleticism and strength for the position, a great attitude, tremendous work ethic, etc. He checks all the boxes. The only thing holding him back was the injury, which he has recovered from now.

 

[Clarkson]

He hasn’t. As you guys constantly remind us about Dak and how he’s had only one good tree? Jaylon has had only one good year. He red shirted his first year....second year was terrible and third year was great.

his 2nd year wasn't terrible.
he was coming back from a career-threatening injury and his potential flashed often. obviously his first action back from that kind of injury wasn't going to be great.
then he lived up to it last year. and there's no reason to think he won't keep getting better.

 

[jblaze2004]

Is anyone still mad we picked him instead of Myles Jack who went to the jags?

 

[Alexander]

Very true.

 

[Clarkson]

You don’t pay a player money in the future for what they have already done.

this actually usually isn't true.
most of the time, players get paid for what they've already done. this is why a lot of high-dollar contracts end up bad. the player was paid relative peanuts for their prime years, then get paid retroactively for them.
this is another reason i love the Jaylon deal for the Cowboys. in a year or two his deal will be in the lower portion of the top-10. you're getting him on a bargain based on what you project him to do. his production has a good shot of going up. not super common for FA signings.

 

[ryanbabs]

Quality dude who worked his butt off to recover from what could have been a career ending injury. Glad to see him get rewarded - he's one of the good guys in this league.

Spot on. Wish there were more like him.

 

[BotchedLobotomy]

Quality dude who worked his butt off to recover from what could have been a career ending injury. Glad to see him get rewarded - he's one of the good guys in this league.

Agreed, I do not understand why some here feel that this was a bad move. Unless every person on the planet has been hoodwinked, I don't think we'll ever see his name on the ever increasing list of suspended Cowboys players.

 

[HungryLion]

this actually usually isn't true.
most of the time, players get paid for what they've already done. this is why a lot of high-dollar contracts end up bad. the player was paid relative peanuts for their prime years, then get paid retroactively for them.
this is another reason i love the Jaylon deal for the Cowboys. in a year or two his deal will be in the lower portion of the top-10. you're getting him on a bargain based on what you project him to do. his production has a good shot of going up. not super common for FA signings.

No it is true. As far as it being what you should do.

Some teams don’t follow that rule and That’s why teams that don’t follow that rule make mistakes.

Regardless, the posted is questioning why Jaylon got the money he did and projecting for the future, it’s easy to see why Jaylon got it.

The problem with projecting is, you can make plenty of mistakes in assuming a player will maintain their level of play, longer than they actually will. Kind of like the last contract that Romo got.

 

[CATCH17]

Man oh man.... How times change...

If we could take this board back a few years...

My opinion is still the same.

I hated the pick but it had nothing to do with the player.

We had to wait 2 years before we finally saw a return on an investment that was a huge huge huge risk with a premium pick.


The worst part is over and now we can reap the benefits and thankfully he recovered.

 

[John813]

Need to see the breakdown of the contract/guarantees.

It could be favorable early on, cap hit wise, with options to restructure in years 3+.

Signing him now really made it a 6 year deal.

 

[TDHND]

I’m so happy for my guy! Well deserved!

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Zeke needs to be at least tied for highest paid not just top five. They have offered Dak and Cooper top 5 money already. I don't know what the guarantees are but 30 million is enough. With Dak though I'd be tempted to make it fully guaranteed. The reason being is he is never hurt. The only time he was is when he played Seattle last year when he ran for that 3rd and 14 and almost got a TD and got hit in the knee. He d we deserves more guaranteed money than Wentz does that is no doubt. There shouldn't even be an argument about that if wentz got 107 then Dak needs 115 . Its that simple. That's almost all guaranteed but that's ok. He deserves it but at the 30 million per season rate.

Yeah but the guarantees are important. That’s the only number that matters and thus far we haven’t seen that.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

lol nice reach. He’s still better! you don’t even have anything factual but your admiration. Nothing at all solid that makes him #1besides how great you think he is. He had 66 more touches on the season and the difference was 170 yards? lol that’s not in zekes favor either. Top 3 moneys fair. Highest paid RB is grossly misinformed and overvalued.

Naw it’s not even my admiration. If you want to say Barkley is better than him you won’t get a argument out of me. And is it not factual that Gurley averages 3.2 yards a carry? Is that a lie? And he’s not overvalued when he’s the focal point of the offense.