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Transcript
I think it's good business for Atlanta.
All right.
Welcome in the Brew Report for Thursday, June 25th.
The NFL summer is upon us, but the NFL never truly stops.
So we do have a few news items to wrap up the week with.
And the first one is Kyle Pitts signing a 3-year, $54 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons.
Couple of things I want to get to on this deal.
Number one, The price is right.
Kyle Pitts, for, for him personally to be in this spot to, to get a deal near the top of the market at his position, pretty incredible, given where he was a couple of years ago.
A lot of people looked at him as an outright bust.
Now I think there'd probably still be some regret over taking him 4th overall in 2021, given.
The Ja'Marr Chase and Pena Sewell, and Jaylen Waddle, and Devonta Smith, and Patrick Sartan and JC Horn all went right after him.
But he's really resurrected his career and had such a good year last year with Raheem Morris and Zach Robinson, and now obviously has proven something to Kevin Stefansky and Tommy Reese and that staff.
So this deal is a win for him.
It's also a win for the Falcons, the way I look at it, at least, what you're paying for at this position, the tight end position.
is somebody who I think can be as valuable as anybody in your offense, but you're getting them in a cut rate.
If you look at, again, that rate of $18 million per year, and the receivers that are in that neighborhood, and these guys are all right under $18 million per , but we're talking about Calvin Ridley, Jerry Judy, Michael Pittman, Wandale Robinson, Romeo Dobbs, Rasheed Shaheed, all guys that I don't think are as as impactful as a top tight end.
And a lot of the smartest coaches in all of football view the tight end position as one of the most important on the field, as a guy that you can use as a queen on the chessboard.
Sean Payton looks at it that way in Denver, Sean McVeigh in LA, Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, Josh McDaniels in New England.
And one of the big reasons why is because the tight end can be the key to disguising what you're doing.
And he can be the key.
Having flexibility in what you do after the snap.
And this is oversimplifying it, but think about it this way.
If you come out in 21 personnel, which is, you know, you've got a great wide tight end, you've got a fullback in there, you've got a tailback, and you got two receivers, you can use that tight end to basically make it as if You have, you have 3 receivers out there, right?
Like, so if they come out in a base defense, all right, well, now I know I can get my tight end matched up on a linebacker, I can, I can check to a, to a, to a throw, right?
But then if they come out in the nickel, you have a really good tight end who's able to block, who's able to do things in the run game.
You know, now, of course, I can check to a run and I can have my tight end blocking a DB.
So he becomes that queen on the chessboard for you.
Um, so Kyle Pitts, I think is a good value at 18 million per.
Um, I think the second piece of this, again, the Stefansky piece of this, Kevin Stefansky is another one of these coaches that values the tight end.
Obviously, he feels good about where he's at, um, after working with him through the 9 weeks of the offseason program or 11 weeks to see a new head coach.
Um, getting the chance to get his hands on him and work with him.
He had David Njoku, of course, in Cleveland.
He had Kyle Rudolph when he was in Minnesota.
He really knows how to use the position and really values the position.
So I think, you know, there's an opportunity for Kevin Stefanski to get the most out of Kyle Pitts.
Um, and then the third piece of it would be kind of where the Falcons are globally right now.
They've got the veteran offensive line, it is aging a little bit, so that is something of a concern.
You know, but then you've got Drake London signed long-term now.
You've got Kyle Pitts signed long-term now, and now you can focus on getting Bejon Robinson done.
That'll be a tricky deal to do, but it's the next one out there for Atlanta.
So I think it's good business for Atlanta to take care of Kyle Pitts as they have.
And interestingly enough, you know, they're, they're Chief executive, now their, their president of football, Matt Ryan, actually played with Kyle Pitts for a year, and you could argue before last year is Kyle Pitts' best year as a pro, was his rookie year.
So he has a bit of an idea and some background on who Kyle Pitts is.
Second piece of news, Jeffrey Simmons signs a monster extension.
He had 2 years left on his current deal.
Um, he winds up getting a massive raise over the next 2 years and pushes the market at defensive tackle to over 35 million per year.
And this to me is another example of A position that I think has been undervalued, um, when it comes to how they're paid, and we've seen that manifest over the years.
And I think part of the reason is similar to tight end, it's really hard to find a great one.
And so, if you have, say, 10 great receivers come through the pipeline in 5 years, and each of them are pushing the market up and up and up and up, but you only have 3 great tight ends, then that's, that's 3 players that can push that market up.
And it becomes harder for it to happen.
I think the same dynamic exists at defensive tackle versus what you see with the edge rushers, where there are a lot of great edge rushers, so that market gets pushed up.
It's rarer to have a great disruptive.
Like centerpiece of the defense type of defensive tackle.
It's Aaron Donald, it's, I think Dexter Lawrence has become that now.
It's obviously Chris Jones in Kansas City, and Jeffrey Simmons is a great example of it.
And I will give you the best example of what the league thinks of Jeffrey Simmons.
When I was doing my all-pro ballot last year, and I'm making all the phone calls to figure out, you know, how the pro directors, how the coaches see it.
Jeffrey Simmons was probably the most unanimous pick at any position in football, and it was the easiest pick for me to put on my first team All-Pro.
Um, you know, what I heard back from teams, the most dominant player in football, I had somebody in Tennessee say that it's crazy, everybody's throwing everything scheme-wise at him, throwing the kitchen sink at him, and he's still blowing everybody up, um, just playing at a very, very high level, still just 28 years old.
Um, and I think for Robert Salah, this is rewarding a guy who's done all the right things since he's been in the pros and rewarding a guy who has been, you know, front of the room guy for him since he got there back in, in January.
And, you know, now, I think you see the basis of what their defense is gonna become.
It's gonna be built around Jeffrey Simmons.
I think the other thing, you know, again, like the players now, when you, when you, when you have a new general manager come in and Mike Borganzi is now in his 2nd year, when you have a new head coach.
Coming in, Robert Sa in his first year.
Players are gonna be acutely aware of who and what you're awarding.
And I do think Simmons' work ethic, the fact that he's been a captain is a big piece of this as well.
Um, and he's somebody who, you know, again, like last year, he lost 15 pounds.
He got down from about 320 to about 305 and saw the results on the field.
So this is somebody who's been maniacal and taking care of himself, maniacal and trying to make himself better.
And so, this is a, a deal that , that is, that is richly deserved.
Um, he winds up getting up over $35 million a year, which should help defensive tackles down the line.
Again, you look at like the edge rushers, you see the way that that market has escalated.
Miles Garrett takes it to to $40 million per.
Nick Bosa initially reset it about 34 million per Max Crosby leapfrogged that shortly thereafter.
Miles Garrett goes to 40.
Then you have Micah Parsons last summer after he's traded going to 46, Aiden Hutchinson coming in at 45, and then Will Anderson coming in at 50.
So, there have been a lot of great edge rushers that have pushed that market up and up and up.
We haven't had the same sort of market forces at defensive tackle, so it's important when a guy like this gets taken care of that he pushes them.
Market and Jeffrey Simmons certainly did push the market.
That $100 million guarantee, you look at the structure of it, the early vesting dates, which, you know, I'm not gonna bore you with the details, but it basically assures that the injury guarantees will become full guarantees.
He's gonna see $100 million at least in that deal.
OK.
Finally, our third topic, the Buffalo Bills had their ribbon cutting ceremony to open the new Highmark Stadium, um, in, in Orchard Park this week.
It's amazing to think about Buffalo and the journey that they've been through.
I'm very happy for the region.
I'm very happy for the fans.
There's one of the best fan bases in all of football.
You know, and I think when you go back to Ralph Wilson selling the team a little bit over a decade ago now, there was that thought in your head, like, is the next owner gonna come in and move the team.
It's a smaller market.
It seemed like it'd be very difficult to get a new stadium built.
Um, and, you know, uh, a guy with local roots in Terry Pugula comes in and buys the team.
He had already owned the Sabres, and they get the stadium done.
A couple of things I really appreciate about it too, it's open air, which I love.
Um, it's built.
Actually kind of on the model of Tottenham over in Europe.
If you look at Tottenham Stadium with the, with the canopy over the seating area that'll help keep fans dry even when the moisture is getting down to the field , you can see it's very obvious to carry over from one stadium to the other.
And the other thing I appreciated is that it's gonna be unnatural grass, which is awesome.
I hope the atmosphere maintains.
That's the big thing.
I hope the atmosphere maintains.
I hope the fan base, the guys, the people who've been going to that stadium for decades, the old one, which I still have an affinity for because the fans were right on top of the players.
I hope they can recreate the atmosphere.
Obviously, some of that will be on them, um, but it does look like they've taken that into account too, so I can't wait to see what Highmark Stadium looks like.
They'll be opening on a Thursday night against the Lions.
Uh, again, just, just pumped for the people of Buffalo that they get this new stadium.
And they get to keep their team, which again, you know, I think there was a, a little over a decade ago when that team was for sale.
There was a little bit of, a little bit of murkiness on, on what the future would hold for the NFL in Western New York.
Appreciate you guys coming out as always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.
Appreciate all you guys coming out.
Have a great weekend and we will see you next week.
