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It’s coming up in a few days . . .
The NFL annual league meeting starts on Sunday.
It runs from March 26-29 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.
All the NFL owners, GMs and coaches under one roof. There are other meetings, but this is the big one, and it’s a good place to get things done between teams.
A lot of news always comes out of this event, like rule changes, proposed by the teams and the competition committee. There are 17 rule changes proposed this year, including the following one by the Jets:
“By New York Jets; amends Rule 12, Section 2, Article 6, to expand the crackback prohibition to players who go in motion and go beyond the center to block (“split-flow block”) a defender below the waist.”
But the reason I bring up the league meetings is related to the Aaron Rogers situation.
I thought maybe the Jets and the Packers would be highly motivated to get a deal done before this meeting, and it could still happen, so the team officials wouldn’t have to answer myriad questions from the assembled media, and the league meeting has a lot of media in attendance.
This is perhaps the only time all year, reporters get a chance to talk to the owner, GM and coach in one place over a couple of days. It’s one-stop shopping for reporters.
Do you think Woody Johnson, Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh, and their counterparts, Mark Murphy (team president who represents the public trust that owns the team), Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur, want to get bombarded with questions about the unsettled Rogers to the Jets situation? That could be tedious.
So perhaps they could be motivated to get this out of the way before the meeting starts, and their press conferences come to pass.
Surely this is on the minds of the team’s brass.
Now that doesn’t mean either side will cave due to this factor, but it is certainly on their minds, how ideal it would be to get this out of the way before things get underway at the Biltmore.
We will see if this gets done in the 11th hour before the league meeting gets going.
Or maybe, just maybe, they actually get it done at the league meeting, a chance for all the powers that be to be in the same room. The negotiations have been going over the phone.
Perhaps sitting down, together, in a room, instead of talking on the phone, could help get a deal done.
The Jets now equipped with an extra second-round pick, after trading Elijah Moore to Cleveland, now have more ammo to make a deal, and avoid giving up a first-round pick, which they are clearly trying to do.
“If I’m the Jets, I’m getting him for as little as I can, and I am absolutely not putting a one at risk, no matter what,” said wrote former NFL executive Joe Banner for “The 33rd Team” website. “Why put a one on the table when all you’re gaining is getting him a little bit sooner maybe? The Packers have to cave at some point.”
I would say a fair offer would be a second, a third and either Denzel Mims or Corey Davis. And both picks should not be in the same year.
March 24, 2023
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Monday (from Phoenix).