Mike Reiss lit into Felger and Mazz, BTW. Listen to the first ~3 minutes of this:
View: https://twitter.com/IAmJamesStewart/status/1821278130797253038
49ers, Aiyuk, and where he will play in 2024 (not NE)
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View: https://twitter.com/IAmJamesStewart/status/1821278130797253038
Where is the part that Felger and Mazz get stuffed, i think James Stewart and others in this thread should take more time than 3 or 4 minutes and listen to the entire conversation. I think all sides made valid points, certainly no stuffing of body bags occurred here though.
I did listen to the entire conversation and yes I think Mike Reiss pushed back very well against the asinine insinuations that Felger put forth against the reporting on the situation. Reiss said his piece, Felger and Mazz both were held accountable for stirring the pot, and actually Felger got exposed for being someone that let the team use him.
Yeah, I mean, Reiss went very easy on Felger, especially when Felger admitted to the bolded - Reiss could have simply told him that he's a second or third rate "journalist" by operating that way and that Reiss' standards are way above Felger's.
Yeah, Reiss really went after Felger's asinine insinuation that Reiss was just reporting what a team source told him when it came to Aiyuk's contract offer. And both Felger and Mazz really tried to change the topic when it was clear they were called out.
I think we can safely put the bed the notion that the Pats offer was mostly "fake" money.
I think we can safely put the bed the notion that the Pats offer was mostly "fake" money.
I never listen to F&M but ran out of podcasts for my commute home on Tuesday when the Aiyuk stuff was happening and it's the dog days of summer and I'm jonesing for some football.
Never again. I flipped them on for 2 segments and the first segment was them ripping and mocking the Patriots because the Steelers were a more desireable destination for NFL players than "you." During commercial the Reiss SportsCenter bit must've dropped and upon returning for commercial they immediately pivoted to ripping the Patriots for being cheap because Reiss only reported on APY and not guarantees and surely they're just messing around with non-guarantees to dress up the APY because that's what they always do.
With the Reiss thing blowing up yesterday I did watch that clip and thought Reiss handled it well. Back to podcasts...
Never again. I flipped them on for 2 segments and the first segment was them ripping and mocking the Patriots because the Steelers were a more desireable destination for NFL players than "you." During commercial the Reiss SportsCenter bit must've dropped and upon returning for commercial they immediately pivoted to ripping the Patriots for being cheap because Reiss only reported on APY and not guarantees and surely they're just messing around with non-guarantees to dress up the APY because that's what they always do.
With the Reiss thing blowing up yesterday I did watch that clip and thought Reiss handled it well. Back to podcasts...
Underrated part of that clip was that I thought Reiss kind let Felger down kind of quietly once he'd made his point that he felt insulted. The last half of that segment was Felger arguing about the guarantees thing--which Reiss admitted could be valid--and shifted the conversation almost entirely to the "ownership being cheap" theme Felger loves to hammer away on, which sort of de-escalated things. But less of a mensch wouldn't have let Felger pivot.
I agree with Reiss that I’m not sure the team would want this out there. If they weren’t really in on Aiyuk but were just trying to make it seem like they were what does that get them? A couple of days of headlines and then a whole bunch of disappointed fans that they didn’t get a difference maker at WR? And if they actually did offer him a huge guaranteed deal and he turned them down that’s even worse, a confirmation that they are a bottom 5 destination for NFL free agents right now.
Either way it sucks for Pats fans (unless you think Aiyuk would have been an overpay, but I think even fans who think that would have been excited to see him in a Pats uniform).
Tl;dr: Felger fucking sucks
Either way it sucks for Pats fans (unless you think Aiyuk would have been an overpay, but I think even fans who think that would have been excited to see him in a Pats uniform).
Tl;dr: Felger fucking sucks
I assume the only reason they are hammering away on the guarantees is because calling the team cheap drives ratings. Guaranteed money never leaks at this stage and there is no evidence to support that it was low.
The Krafts are cheap narrative has traction, I think, because of how Brady left (obviously not the whole story but it caught on) and was given some gasoline in the off-season by Mayo having to walk back his "burn some cash" comments and the Pats subsequently spending very little on any external players. It's uninformed but until the team lands a big free agent and, more importantly, puts a competitive product on the field, it's going to be one of the things sports radio harps on to wind up the fanbase. Reiss is the ultimate no nonsense reporter, and it's nice to have him to shut these other guys up occasionally.
It's not completely uninformed. They ranked last in cash spending the last 10 years. Whether more cash = better results is debatable but they have objectively spent less than every other team over the last 10 years.
Here's the year-by-year. It varies significantly. No idea how it compares or the context but I found the below more interesting than the 10 year number.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Patriots/comments/1b0najn/oc_patriots_cash_spending_during_the_robert/
https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2024/02/08/robert-kraft-new-england-patriots-nfl-football-offseason-belichick/#:~:text=NBC Sports Boston's Phil Perry,the league-leading Baltimore Ravens.
Here's the year-by-year. It varies significantly. No idea how it compares or the context but I found the below more interesting than the 10 year number.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Patriots/comments/1b0najn/oc_patriots_cash_spending_during_the_robert/
With the way the cap works this type of data is easily manipulated with arbitrary endpoints. Start the year after a team paid big signing bonuses and they are going to rank low.
While that is true to an extent... 10 years is 10 years, I don't have any real issue with that as a sample. The question is always... does it matter?
CLE offer, according to SF reporters: Amari Cooper, 2nd rounder, 5th rounder. Niners agreed. Aiyuk said no.
He just doesn't want to leave SF.
Pitt has little to offer, SF isn't letting Aiyuk walk without a significant return. I think he re-signs.
He just doesn't want to leave SF.
Pitt has little to offer, SF isn't letting Aiyuk walk without a significant return. I think he re-signs.
The last player traded for a first round pick was AJ Brown in 2022.
The last first round pick traded for anything but an upgrade in the first round was for Sean Payton in January 2023.
There has been a major shift in attitude when it comes to first round picks over the past couple of seasons. If you're not getting a potential franchise QB, there isn't anyone out there worth one, according to most teams nowadays.
Diggs was worth a 2025 second rounder and Buffalo had to add a couple of day 3 picks to get that much.
It would have been the best deal SF could have gotten. It'll be interesting to see if and when this gets resolved.
The last first round pick traded for anything but an upgrade in the first round was for Sean Payton in January 2023.
There has been a major shift in attitude when it comes to first round picks over the past couple of seasons. If you're not getting a potential franchise QB, there isn't anyone out there worth one, according to most teams nowadays.
Diggs was worth a 2025 second rounder and Buffalo had to add a couple of day 3 picks to get that much.
It would have been the best deal SF could have gotten. It'll be interesting to see if and when this gets resolved.
WRs age in dog years once they hit 30. Diggs showed signs of decline last year; he’ll be useful in Houston but is nowhere near good enough to put up with the drama he was generating in Buffalo. Cooper has been durable but has maybe 1-2 productive years left; I wouldn’t hesitate to package him with a 2nd rounder for Aiyuk (and the Browns probably needed the Niners to take someone back to make the cap math work anyway).
browns are also arguably the most desperate team in football. They have a lot of talent but are stuck with a very highly paid qb who has been meh. It almost makes sense for them to aggressively try to do SOMEthing to get Watson going
Yeah, the Browns are in a tough spot — built to win now, but probably only the third-best team in their division. They can’t rebuild, so they might as well add talent that can help now. Aiyuk’s not coming, but maybe they can dangle that 2nd rounder and pick up someone else who can help now, and maybe even hang onto Cooper, who probably has at least one more productive year in him.
Great, now let-s sign Williams
I know, I know, but this thread is active and discussing Aiyuk.
It wasn’t a New England thing. He never wanted to leave. He loves Shanahan, he actually loves Purdy. He wanted to stay.
Him and his agent (and the 9ers) made this all unnecessarily dramatic, but the outcome is basically a win-win. Not sure why this was such a complicated deal to get done.
Especially since Schefter reported it's the exact same deal he's been offered all along. The Niners changed nothing.
If there was even a 10% chance of Aiyuk getting a much better deal elsewhere, it made sense for Aiyuk's agent to play the waiting game. Leverage to get a better deal was never going to be higher. NFL players don't have a ton of leverage in these situations, so the agents have an incentive to eke out every last bit of leverage they have.
This doesn't ring fully true to me, but it's the rumor put out there by insiders after this broke:
View: https://twitter.com/DMRussini/status/1829305942925795745
View: https://twitter.com/DMRussini/status/1829305942925795745
Seems like Aiyuk played it right.
He got the chance to see what was out there and still signed the deal he would have signed in SF anyway.
If another team blew him out of the water with money or a contending team made a move, maybe he would have gone.
When he only got 5-10% more than the SF money and a few dud franchises involved, he just went back to SF.
He got the chance to see what was out there and still signed the deal he would have signed in SF anyway.
If another team blew him out of the water with money or a contending team made a move, maybe he would have gone.
When he only got 5-10% more than the SF money and a few dud franchises involved, he just went back to SF.
Hi agent directly said it isn't true.
https://x.com/RyanWilliamsA1/status/1829294178984919055
The thing to remember with Schefter is whatever he posts is directly copy/pasted, he doesn't check multiple sources. Someone in the GM's office told him it's the same offer he had, so he posted that.
I mean, they had a deal with the Patriots apparently in place assuming Aiyuk could work a deal out with them and top-flight receiver Kendrick Bourne was part of the compensation.
Perhaps not. One might speculate that Schefter's willingness to say that had much to do with his getting the story early.
https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/spin-campaign-49ers-reporters-aiyuk-deal-19733268.php