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So, a surprisingly large number of NFL stories are going on for this time as we get set for NFL training camps. People are figuring out who their Super Bowl contenders are. Hot seat coach lists are already happening. But one thing that is transfixing me. is the money that is going on Going on right now, the money that is really being thrown out right now in the NFL is something the likes of which we've never seen before.
Now, the mistake that you and I make is we just assume that. that it's inflation.
Okay, this is why there's more money now than there's ever been before. Do you know that J.J. Watt, in his 12-year career, made $129 million? TJ Wadda, his brother, in three years. Just sign for 123.
And JJ Watt quipped. I better never have to reach for my wallet again when I go out to eat with my little bro. That better never happen.
Well, I'll tell you this. The highest paid player in the NFL in 1986 was Jim Kelly. He made $1.4 million.
So you're saying, okay, well, inflation, you know, yada, yada. You know what inflation does to that number? 1.4 million dollars. It makes it four point one million dollars. Any good quarterback today is making more than 10 times that amount.
This has nothing to do with inflation.
So What is it? You know, in 2000, the NFL salary cap was $65 million. Adjusted for inflation, you know what that would be? It would be 119 million. Guess what the NFL salary cap is this year?
$279 million. How did we get here? Is there any end in sight?
Well, joining us right now on the show is Odyssey NFL Insider Jason Lockanfora, host of the Odyssey Original podcast, In the Huddle. Make sure to check out In the Huddle on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.
So good to catch up with you, Jason man. Truly do appreciate it. How do you make sense, Jason, of how we got here? This is so far and away. This is ten times over.
the rate of inflation with where we've arrived today. But you didn't Help me there is um What did Jerry Jones buy the Dallas Cowboys for? And what did they have today? Right. Exactly.
And imagine what NFL players would make if the owners weren't colluding. That's what I would say. Like, that's the real question for me. Like, imagine if Lamar Jackson, when he was. Essentially An untethered, unrestricted free agent, because that's what happened when they put the non-exclusive franchise tag on him.
Imagine if someone actually made him an offer. What he might be making now. Imagine if everyone just didn't systematically pretend he wasn't available so that they could try to. you know, pound down the union and make sure that that Deshaun Watson contract. look like an outlier.
Um I mean, these guys get what What they deserve, if anything, I would say they get less. And they deserve because the salary cap is an artificial fake mechanism that allows billionaires to basically engage in corporate socialism. Is there is there a salary capital CEO? The salary, capital, and CEO salaries. I'm not aware of any in any industry.
Have you ever heard anyone put a cap on earnings? Like, hey. Hey, Jerry, you you you made, you know. $750 million the last three months.
Now you got to pay more in taxes and give some of that back. Like, hey, there's a cap, right? You've made a billion dollars in the last 18 months. Gotta stop. We don't even really know.
what they make, right, or what they pay all their family members.
So, I mean, that that's sort of more how I I think of it. Um But yeah, I mean the NFL I mean, in 1986, if you would have told people we're about to go to 18 games, and between week three and week. 15. In perpetuity, the NFL is going to be playing a game on another continent. You just said, what?
But that's what we're, you know what I mean? That's what we're on the cuffs of. If you would have told people in 1986, Right. Um the NFL is going to add in Friday games. early in the season on top of Thursday games.
Um there it is. What? Right? That's where we are.
So, I guess, as you know, a former and current Washington Post employee, I would just say follow the money and trust me, none of those players. None of those financial examples you gave for a player. would be happening. to any degree. If the owners weren't making exponentially more.
So Jason, is the difference then between 1986 and today that players are just getting a larger share of the pie, they are getting less screwed over than they were in 1986? I don't know about that, but the pie the pie is I mean, the the pie is grown. In ways that weren't even imaginable. Again, like no one would have believed you in 1986 that you were going to play football. days a week.
Like, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, oh yeah, Saturdays are totally in play. Uh-huh. Thursdays are part of the schedule on top of Mondays, which did exist then.
And we're going to start sprinkling Fridays. You know what I mean? Like they wouldn't. Oh, yeah. Or Christmas Day, Christmas Day, whenever it falls.
Or think about what it took to make the playoffs in 1986 versus what it takes. Like, if we want to inflate our franchises, then we'll act like we're better at what we actually are.
So, most of these owners aren't very good, but. Many of them Almost most of them every year will go to the playoffs anyway because they keep adding rounds to the playoffs and adding teams to the playoffs. in ways that didn't exist in 86. In 1986, you had three networks to negotiate. T V contracts with.
Right, like in 86, no one would have even taken ESPN seriously enough to do it, like, even. Ted Turner was busy doing wrestling, right? And he had the Braves and he had wrestling. He wasn't. He wasn't on board with the NFL, right?
He eventually eventually we got some Thursday night games on Turner for a while. I feel like way back in the day. But like, think of who you had to negotiate your TV rights with. Oh, yeah. And nobody abroad gave a damn about the NFL in 86.
And now you're making legitimate, now you're seeding. You're ceding the rights. Like, you get the marketing rights to Brazil. You get the marketing rights to this part of China. You get the marketing rights to Spain.
Like, that's unfathomable. They weren't even broadcasting the games.
Now you get to sell the global TV rights. You get to negotiate with not just the three over-the-air people, but every sports network that now exists, digital, right? Amazon and all these streaming, like, Netflix, right?
So I just think, I mean. Go from three channels to infinite channels to go from Pre-internet to now not just internet but the ability to stream and the internet becoming. In essence, YouTube, whatever, those are all basically broadcast channels. I mean, they have basically the same reach that CBS had in 1986. Like, how much the world has changed, how interconnected the world is, how they have succeeded in making their game far more global.
It's only right that players get. You know. what they're getting and they still get crappy Uh most of them. Really crappy. Post-playing tear.
and post playing benefits and it's still really hard to get fully vested. And the games is whatever, despite whatever they want to tell you with their numbers. Don't get just gonna ask anybody who plays and risk their neck every Sunday, like or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday. It's as dangerous as it's ever been. They're bigger, faster, stronger, and they're playing on Newt Rockne's field.
We still have issues with playing surface, like, right? I mean, in the 70s, they want them to literally play on fake grass on top of concrete.
Now they won't give them regular grass, right? We're not playing on infields anymore. But like Go ask anybody who's played at the Meadowlands about that surface or any of these other ones.
So, player health and safety, whatever, I would argue they're underpaid. If there was no salary treatment, what would they make? Right, right, you're exactly right. Jason Lockhan Forah joining us. Jason, will the Aaron Rodgers Steelers experiment go down as a success?
I don't even know how to measure that because I don't think anything less than a Super Bowl, according to the Steelers, qualifies as a success. And I don't think that's feasible with where their roster is right now.
So, how would you define success for them with Aaron?
Well, they haven't been within a country knowledge of a Super Bowl for a long time.
So I don't know that this is the year. Yeah. I I think a success for them realistically for me is to go further Than they have for a while, which would be to win a playoff game or two. And I think that will probably prove to be a stretch. But I think he, at the very least, will keep them at the baseline of where they've been, which is viable through the regular season, playing the final week of the regular season with something at stake.
Maybe already clinching a wildcard or something by then. I do still think they can make the playoffs. The fact you can get plus money on them to make the playoffs, I think. Yeah. something that I've certainly uh Um Are taken in.
It's a strong organization that has guardrails that did not exist for Aaron Rodgers a year ago. They know how to win football games. The defense is a strength. I think they'll run the ball better this year now that Najee Harris isn't clogging things up. They'll get heavy with those two tight ends and spread people out and run Warren.
And I think that'll be successful. I think they'll complete a lot of high percentage passes between five and 15 yards downfield. I think they'll be methodical, but that's fine because it keeps the defense on the sidelines resting. The special teams have been excellent for years. They have legitimate specialists.
The kicking game is a strength. If you have to go and kick in their place, their kicker can do it. Yours probably can't.
So, like, I look at all that and say, will Aaron Rodgers be better than Russell Wilson was last year? I think he will. I don't think it'll be exponentially better. I think he'll be better and I think he'll keep his I think he'll he'll understand. At the sideshow, antics have to be reined in.
So, I think they'll. You know, I think they could go in the playoffs and if they get in, maybe the planets align and they upset somebody. um but i think they're more in line with what they've been But that at least keeps them from falling off a cliff for another year. At some point, they probably need to fall off a cliff and reboot, though. Jason, we've seen two teams that played each other in the playoffs have very different offensive offseason philosophies.
When you talk about the Detroit Lions and the Washington Commanders, the Commanders clearly going all in. Debo Samuel, Von Miller, Larry Tunsell, Brad Holmes in the Detroit. What's that? Old guys. Those guys are way to the end in the prime.
Right, right. And Brad Holmes is. Brad Holmes is yeah, you're right. Brad Holmes is certainly more of the measured approach. We would like to maintain competitiveness a year over year, whereas the commanders are pushing all the chips in the center of the table.
Whose offseason did you like more between those two teams? I don't love either. I think the I think the Commanders are overly ambitious and are too much of a George Allen over the hill gang. Get the band together thing, and I don't think the lines have been ambitious enough. You can go back to trade deadlines when.
Hutchinson's playing like the best defensive player in the league. Really needs a robin to his Batman. And they used he saw guys change hands. And I'm not saying Chase Young is the end all be all, but he did end up playing in a Super Bowl. And they might beat San Francisco if he's on their side.
They should have beat him anyway.
So. Like, I don't think they've ever smelled the blood in the front office the way they should and really gone for it. Way they could have in a the last couple of years. And now I think the brain drain is going to make it harder to get back to what they're the regular season terrain they're used to standing on. And I think Washington, even like paying all those guys and having Like McLaren, there's been I mean You can make the case he's Been the best player since Dan Snyder bought the team in terms of what he's endured with.
team having three different names and two different owners and You know, I think he's played with like 13 different quarterbacks, most of whom totally suck. And for him to be that classy and to be. the people's champion and to be that popular in that city. And then to give, bring Debo in and do all this weird stuff with their money. And he's got to sort of grovel about an extension.
Um while they're talking about building a four billion dollar stadium or whatever. I I just think there's something's a little off to me there. The quarterbacks I think generational and he'll. Will keep them from progressing too much. But I think both those teams are going to regress.
I don't think either of those teams is going to attain. and degrees of postseason success in particular that They've been accustomed to in Detroit and that Washington achieved last year. Jason Lockhan Fora joining us here. I am in Detroit. The folks in Detroit are none too pleased with what he said, but I don't disagree with him.
I do not see the Lions as a Super Bowl contender this year. I think this is a year of transition for them. We are seeing Jason, you know. Larger salaries in terms of non-quarterbacks than we've seen: Jamar Chase and TJ Watt and Miles Garrett. What do these salaries mean?
for the likes of Micah Parsons. Is he beneath that of a DJ watt TJ Watt level? Is he at that level? Because it it just doesn't uh no one gets the sense that Dallas is spending responsibly or wisely. Like, if I represented Michael Parsons, I would just go to Jerry and say, look, you're.
You're a star. You you had a star culture here forever. Stars make money. Stars help you sell that star on the side of the helmet. And you're paying your quarterback $60 million, but I'm the guy.
who's selling all the jerseys. I'm the guy who's moving the needle. I'm the guy who is bringing attention. I'm the guy who, you know, when we're all in prime time, they're talking about me and whether this is the year I get the sack record or, or whatever.
So, like, Okay. You make as much money off me as anybody.
So that needs to be reflected. In my annual compensation, I don't care that I'm not a quarterback or. Or whatever. And look, it'll eventually get done. It always does.
It might have to get a little sideways. But like CD eventually got his and took Jerry to the cleaners and back's taken to the cleaners several times now. And so I think Michael will. Um Bye. Look, there's probably a part of Jerry that will even maybe get off on the fact that they get out to Oxnard, California, and there's some drama there, and there's some intrigue, and there's people talking about the Cowboys all the time because when's Micah going to get done?
Like, Micah's not going to play in the preseason, and nothing matters with Micah until week one. I have a hard time thinking that Micah won't have the same end result, you know, Ezekiel Elliott. He's been down this road with a lot of guys. And if you are that true needle mover, and this young man is. And Jerry's gonna, he understands what that thing is about.
It's a bit of a Ponzi scheme. But as long as he's got enough stars who can sell enough jerseys and attract enough attention and have people on the SPN talking about him this time of year when football's not as much in the news cycle yet, like he gets it. He gets that part of it. And I think he honestly, and some part of him, gets off on the fact. that it becomes a national story before it gets resolved.
Jason, who enters this season coaching-wise under the most pressure, given the fact that now we have as the backdrop that Nick Saban could get back into coaching. And I just was thinking about this fancifully, Jason, because I think he's got such a distaste for the lay of the land in college football. I think he would love to show that, hey man, I would have been great in the NFL too if our physician had approved Drew Brees. Do you look at a certain situation in the NFL and say, man, this guy's on the hot seat. Nick Sabin might be a fit there?
I don't really factor the saving part of it into it. I don't know how. how real you know what i mean that's going to turn out to be and i think that would have to be I mean, a real certain fit, like that Cinderella in the glass slipper, like that, that's. He doesn't have a shot at 32 places. You know what I mean?
Like, there's a really small number of owners. The franchises um that he would ever work for and then they'd have to be in a position where They're ready to move on him.
So I don't I put that aside. But like. I mean The one place that stands out the most is the one he was. Briefly in. I mean, it's Miami.
That that I think is. almost in its own its own tier and then i think like brian dable with the giants sure Um But like, I I d I mean with what's going on there, like I don't see Able like Having to look over his shoulder in September or October, thinking Miami gets off to a slow start. And Tyreek Hill is popping off. And you know. Dylan Ramsey and Jonu Smith are winning football games in Pittsburgh and they're getting woo their asses kicked in the trenches 'cause they spend on dependent positions instead of independent positions.
Like, and and two is getting knocked around. I don't. I don't think he's long today. I wanted to interject here, Jason, and ask your opinion about one situation where elsewhere in the sporting landscape, we saw Tom Thibodeau lose his gig with the New York Knicks despite having objective success. And I'm curious how long Buffalo is going to be patient with Sean McDermott never really kind of taking the next step.
I am s I mean, look, I I I'm pretty high on the Buffalo Bills. I think Buffalo's going to run away with that division. And one of these years, Buffalo or Baltimore is going to break through. I mean, it didn't happen that often, right? I mean.
Tom Brady stood on that AFC mountain, either him or Peyton Manning. For a long time, but like Flacco got through once, Ben got through a couple times, you know, like other people did, and so at some point. That's going to happen there. Um for somebody other than Burrow, right, who to this point is the only one who has other than that it's kind of been brady or or mahomes um But like I I I don't He's really aligned with the general manager. Like, I I don't think that ownership group looks at them as What's holding them back, or has held them back?
They're going to move into a new stadium. Um like Who are you upgrading from him to, you know, like I think it's a real Short list. I don't put him in anything like the tier that I would put, you know. a McDaniel or a Gable or maybe a a few of these other guys who who might be, you know close to on on borrowed time. Um They'd have to have a real I think they'd really have to have a kind of season that I just don't Per C.
Like, I think the Buffalo Bills will be playing. will be one of the four final teams standing. And we'll see, you know, or or certainly eight final teams standing. And we'll see if they can break through this year. Jason Lockhanfora is our Odyssey NFL Insider.
Invite you to get to him on social media on X by the same name, L-A-C-A-N-F-O-R-A. Always enjoy the candor, Jason, and the insight and conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today. Always my pleasure. Enjoy the D.
I love Motown. Thank you so much. Me as well, Jason. That was Odyssey NFL Insider Jason Lockhan Fora, host of the Odyssey Original podcast, In the Huddle. Make sure to check out In the Huddle on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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