Da Franchise
Footballguy
Exactly. His leverage is the team isn't winning crap without him. They know it and he does too.I’m sorry but there are some absolutely terrible takes in here. I’m in DC living and breathing it every day.
The team has all the leverage. He’s under contract for this year and can be franchised next year and that totals about $48M.
He’s on PUP with a pretend ankle injury. There is some real debate about whether he can collect game checks during the season by continuing to pretend but whether he could or couldn’t, it’s going to cost him an assload of money if he does. What team is going to pay a 31 year old WR huge money next year after he pulled that kind of stunt? He loses this game 100/100 times.
He wants to be here. He’s meeting up with Daniels at 6am every morning in the bubble to run routes/throws.
The team wants to pay him but his ask is so ridiculously high they can’t begin to negotiate. He has to come down first. And then again to meet them.
This idea of paying him money no other same aged receiver comes close to sniffing is insane. You don’t just throw it away because JD is on a rookie contract. Cap space rolls over and it sets precedent for the new regime in negotiations.
We’ve heard some things about AAV for a potential extension but zippy about guarantees.
He’s going to acquiesce. He has no choice.
My best guess? A deal will get done in the next 2 weeks and It will be closer to Sutton’s deal than Metcalf’s. The team will be able to move on for a reasonable cost after 2026.
Does any of this affect his performance this year? Not after the first couple weeks. Treat it like a two game suspension with the sore left open for zero impact.
It's not like he has NO leverage. If that was the case he'd already have signed something. The team certainly has MORE leverage, but ultimately he can hold out if he wants whether it's a good decision or not.
He isn't the first player to do this and end up "winning" and he won't be the last
@Payne, your comment has some merit, but IMHO, in a different way, and I say that as one of the staunches supporters of this Team. I absolutely adore TMcL, and I'm very grateful for what he's brought to the WFT'skins over his time here, but JD is the straw that stirs the drink, and everything else flows from him. In relation to the back half of your first sentence, this Team is quite likely to regress in 2025, anyway, regardless of TMcL's presence or not, IMHO. While they are headed in the right direction, a # of factors are in play that make the probability of getting to, much less winning, a Super Bowl, during TMcL's 'window of usefulness' (the next 2 years, if he signs an extension) isn't likely. Again, IMHO.
Are they/do they have the potential, to be *better* with TMcL on the field? Of course they do!
...but I'm a big believer in Adam Peters, Dan Quinn and his disciple, Joe Whitt, and Kliff Kingsbury, Larry Izzo and the rest of the Coaching Staff, and that they will squeeze every inch of ability out of the hand they're playing, particularly out of Daniels, who is a unique Player with the skillset to help others play above the level they otherwise might acheive on their own...it's just that this Team, as it's currently constructed, and the development curves of the Eagles, and other competitive Teams in the NFC are in conflict with any Championship aspirations the WFT'skins might have in the short-term, which is TMcL's window (as in, he likely signs a 3-yr extension, but only plays here this season, and next before his ability fades and his time here is over).
Just so no one thinks I'm some kind of blind homer, I'll reiterate my reality/what I've been saying since 2024 ended: the 2024 Team overachieved, big time. They lucked into a number of victories, won others by smoke and mirrors, and while they deserve credit for the playoff road win v the Bucs, they played an absolutely toothless Lions Team in the Conference Semi's that might have lost to any other legitimate playoff contender, that day. While the Conference Championship Eagles game might have been close here and there, the reality is, they got soundly smoked, and deservedly so.
I think the brain trust is very aware of this reality, and that has something to do with speculatively questionable decisions already made on a relatively poor defense - letting all 3 of Jonathan Allen, Dorance Armstrong and Jeremy Chinn walk?
Even with TMcL in the mix, it's *very* likely this Team, even operating at peak performance, will win less games than last Season, and as long as the Eagles are a better Team, in their own window, and further along in it, the WFT'skins road to a Championship is overwhelmingly likely to be via road playoff games, which is a notoriously tough gauntlet to run. If I thought this Team at full strength was realistically able to win 5 out of 10 games vs the full-strength Eagles, I'd be all in on doing whatever it takes to sign TMcL, but IMHO, even with him on board, the Eagles are winning *at least* 7/10. They *are* that much better than we are now, IMHO. TMcL doesn't enhance the Team enough to change my opinionated math in that equation.
The WFT'skins football people are taking a correct, mature, big-picture, top-down, long-view approach to this Team, and I for one, am glad for it - after what I've endured for the 20-years prior to last Season? I'll gladly take success in small doses, one step at a time, with a plan in place for sustained winning over time, like the Team I had the privilege of growing up with.
Dorence Armstrong is still on the team. Chinn is represented by Terry’s agent and it’s quite likely that played a factor in him not returning.
