Let's chat about the National Football League. This week's schedule (all times Eastern):
Thu 2024-11-28 12:30PM Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions
Thu 2024-11-28 4:30PM New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys
Thu 2024-11-28 8:20PM Miami Dolphins @ Green Bay Packers
Fri 2024-11-29 3:00PM Las Vegas Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Indianapolis Colts @ New England Patriots
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Arizona Cardinals @ Minnesota Vikings
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Houston Texans @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Tennessee Titans @ Washington Commanders
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cincinnati Bengals
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Los Angeles Chargers @ Atlanta Falcons
Sun 2024-12-01 1:00PM Seattle Seahawks @ New York Jets
Sun 2024-12-01 4:05PM Los Angeles Rams @ New Orleans Saints
Sun 2024-12-01 4:05PM Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers
Sun 2024-12-01 4:25PM Philadelphia Eagles @ Baltimore Ravens
Sun 2024-12-01 8:20PM San Francisco 49ers @ Buffalo Bills
Mon 2024-12-02 8:15PM Cleveland Browns @ Denver Broncos
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Notes -
Re: Daniel Jones cap manipulation, if they benched him for the season and released him next year with a post-June 1st designation they would be able to manipulate his dead cap situation; this is what the Broncos did with Russ, and why they didn't release him until the new league year started in March instead of when they benched him late last year. The downside to that is they would have to carry his full cap hit as if he wasn't released until June 1st*, so it might hamper their free agency plans to do it that way, but it would mean they can split his dead cap over 2025 and 2026 instead of just in 2025. His dead cap isn't insurmountable, though, so it isn't that big a deal to carry it all next year. (For comparison's sake, Russ was designated a post-June 1 cut by the Broncos; this didn't impact their FA since his dead cap this year was exactly the same as a post-June 1 cut as it would have been if he was on the roster, but by cutting him as a post-June 1st in March instead of releasing him in December his dead cap is spread over this year and next instead of taking a full $85MM dead cap hit this year, which would have made it almost impossible to field a competitive team).
The manipulation is that by benching him it makes him drastically less likely to get seriously hurt and activate the injury guarantee, which would guarantee him an additional $23MM next year. This is why they benched him in the first place (and why Russ was benched, and why the Raiders benched Derek Carr in 2022); they didn't want to be stuck paying him even more next year when they want to move on from him. Moving to Tommy Devito instead of Drew Lock, who was the No. 2 all year, makes it even more suspicious that this was not a move based on winning more football games, and the Giants' locker room mostly seems to agree with me (they sure played like it this weekend).
'* - this used to be the case; as far as I know it still is, although they've been changing some of these cap rules in the past couple years so I'm not 100% certain.
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