NEW YORK (AP) — Guaranteed payments for unrestricted NFL free-agent contracts this month make up just over half of the total money to be paid Ed Oliver Jersey , down a bit from 2018, when Kirk Cousins signed a fully guaranteed $84-million deal.For the first 148 deals reached in March, the players’ union says $1.116 billion is guaranteed. That’s 50.15 percent of the nearly $2.227 billion in total values. Take out Cousins’ three-year deal, the 2018 total drops from 52.56 percent to 48 percent.Teams also have spent far more so far in free agency this year. There were 120 contracts worth $1.836 billion at this point in 2018. Total guarantees in 2018 were $965,479,118.The average amount per contract in this free agency period has been $15.04 million, of which the guaranteed dollars reached $7.54 million; the larger monetary agreements, such as quarterback Nick Foles‘ deal with Jacksonville for $88 million over four years, $50.125 million guaranteed, skew the average somewhat.Eighteen veterans signed contract extensions that totaled $226.725 million, of which 41 percent ($93.17 million) was guaranteed.Contracts in Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL are fully guaranteed for the length of the deal.“Obviously we are trying to figure how to improve that to 100 percent,” says Giants safety Michael Thomas, a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee. “We know it won’t happen overnight, but with best practices from the players, the agents and the agents of the union working together Cody Ford Jersey , we can get closer to the 100 percent.”The current 10-year labor agreement expires in March 2021. All player contracts are negotiated individually and the CBA does not specifically address them, so other mechanisms are needed to boost the guarantees.The fact the salary cap has risen substantially each year of this CBA since 2014 has helped the players get higher pay overall. There also are regulations requiring the 32 teams to spend at least a certain amount of their cap space each season.And, of course, there is (or should be) the competitive desire of each club.When Cousins received that megadeal from Minnesota last year, the NFL lagged far behind in guarantees. It still does.“No other league has that mandate,” 12-year veteran linebacker Lorenzo Alexander of Buffalo said. “It comes down to making that a norm. Whether in the CBA maybe we move toward it, or what the NBA has done where the select stars go out there and are demanding certain structure of their contracts. We need to look to our elite players, our quarterbacks who have that type of leverage. As they create that culture, they can make it a norm within the structure of football.“We have to collaborate as players,” added Alexander, also a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee. “Owners always will fight tooth and nail” to avoid guarantees.Both players make salient points about how the current CBA — which often, particularly in the early years of the deal, was perceived as a loss for the union — has helped them and their peers.Alexander notes the health and retirement benefits in the agreement. Thomas cites the elimination of two-a-days in training camps and the curtailed hitting allowed in practices.“The biggest difference in CBAs, and you notice as a player, is from the safety area, because I have been able to elongate my career and get more earning power and playing multiple years Devin Singletary Jersey ,” Alexander said.Most annoying to any player you ask is the perception that pro athletes negotiate a guaranteed paycheck and then become too comfortable to fully apply themselves. Both Alexander and Thomas get riled up when they hear any of that.“It is an excuse … a terrible excuse,” Thomas said. “A player getting guaranteed money would not change who he is as a competitor, and he will go out there and be the best he can be and try to be the best player ever. I do not think that will ever change.“If (an owner) feels like you got the right person, then invest in him,” he added. DENVER (AP) — Just six days after needling his quarterback for not being aggressive enough, Broncos coach Vance Joseph found Denver’s season on the brink and his job on the line.He backed down.Trailing the Browns by four points in the waning minutes and facing fourth-and-1 from the Cleveland 6, Joseph sent his kicker onto the field to a chorus of boos at Mile High Stadium.Despite his sound logic, the man who’s gone for it on fourth down 21 times, more than any other NFL coach this season — and seen his team convert a league-high 13 of those — chose the field goal that would leave the Broncos trailing by 1 with 4:35 left.“We were absolutely surprised they went for a field goal,” Browns safety Jabrill Peppers said after his game-ending sack sealed Cleveland’s first win over Denver in 28 years .“I didn’t know what they were thinking,” offered Browns defensive end Myles Garrett. “If it was me, I would have gone for the touchdown.”Joseph explained that he’d rather take the sure points there — Brandon McManus is 37 of 39 from inside 30 yards — than risk coming away empty-handed and then needing a touchdown to win it rather than another field goal.Forty-eight hours later, Joseph offered another impassioned defense of his decision.He said it was a fourth-and-a-long-1, the Broncos had just been stuffed on two runs that didn’t look pretty and he had faith his depleted defense would get a stop.This, even though safeties Dymonte Thomas and Justin Simmons were forced into coverage with cornerbacks Chris Harris Jr. (leg), Isaac Yiadom (head) Dawson Knox Jersey , Brendan Langley (head), Jamar Taylor (ejected) and Bradley Roby (lacerated lip) all out, leaving just one healthy cornerback in oft-injured Tramaine Brock.Left unsaid was the lack of faith Joseph had in his anemic offense led by the lackluster Case Keenum and coordinated by Bill Musgrave, who added to his bucketful of head-scratching calls this season when he dialed up a deep pass on first down moments after the Broncos had lost their fourth and fifth cornerbacks early in the fourth quarter.Keenum’s pass was picked off by cornerback T.J. Carrie — whom Keenum said he never saw — at midfield. The Browns converted that takeaway into the game-winning touchdown on Baker Mayfield’s 2-yard toss to Antonio Callaway with safety Justin Simmons helplessly trailing him in coverage.Joseph’s dice roll on fourth down might have paid dividends had the Broncos not surrendered a 40-yard run to Nick Chubb on first down when his cousin, Bradley Chubb, threw his man into linebacker Todd Davis, and Adam Gotsis missed the tackle.Gotsis atoned for his gaffe when he dumped Chubb for a 2-yard loss just after the 2-minute warning on fourth-and-1 when Browns interim head coach Gregg Williams went for the gusto and came up empty.“We came up here to win the ball game,” said Williams, who improved to 4-2 and burnished his credentials for the full-time gig. “I don’t think anyone was ever worried about me not being aggressive. We came up here to win it. Offensively, we were going to win it right there. If not, defensively we’re going to come back and do it.“That’s the aggressive nature of this team.”It was the Broncos who had been the aggressors all season, and Keenum wanted to go for it on fourth-and-1, although he added, “I can’t complain because I had the ball in my hands with a chance to win the game.”Denver’s desperation drive, however, started at their 13 with 1:49 and no timeouts left.They reached the 50 on Keenum’s 15-yard throw to Devontae Booker on fourth-and-2 Brian Burns Jersey , putting them just 8 yards shy of McManus’ comfort zone. But Keenum rushed up to the line and spiked the ball to stop the clock at 52 seconds rather than getting a few more yards with a quick strike against a backpedaling, winded defense.That breather allowed the Browns to regroup and they subsequently showed two looks the Broncos hadn’t seen all night, forcing a pair of incompletions before Peppers’ sack of Keenum ended it .“It’s just a tough time right now,” said Von Miller, whose team hasn’t reached the playoffs in the three years since he led the Broncos to a win over Cam Newton and Carolina in Super Bowl 50.In other notable calls in Week 15:—Titans cornerback Logan Ryan announced Monday that he broke his left leg in Tennessee’s victory over the Giants, writing on Twitter that he believes a player should release his own injury news .—The Chargers trolled Stephen A. Smith ‘s pronouncement that he was excited about the Chiefs’ matchup with the San Diego Chargers (now in Los Angeles) featuring Spencer Ware (who was out with an injury), Hunter Henry (now on IR) squaring off against Derrick Johnson (not in the NFL anymore).After tweeting their inactives, the Chargers added this tongue-in-cheek update: “LaDainian Tomlinson, Dan Fouts and Lance Alworth are all OUT for tonight.”—After wearing cleats that paid tribute to the history of protest on Monday night, Panthers safety Eric Reid, who was one of the first players to join Colin Kaepernick in protesting racial injustice and police violence by kneeling during the national anthem when both were with the 49ers, tweeted a photo of his latest drug test notice, writing it was his seventh “Random” test of the season.
