New Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian had the chance to have lunch with Matt Ryan this week, his first opportunity to really connect with the MVP.
What did Sarkisian take from the conversation? He compared it to another chat he had years ago with a top-caliber quarterback.
“I went to coach quarterbacks for the Oakland Raiders in 2004 — I was 29 years old — and I inherited Rich Gannon, who was two years removed from the Super Bowl and his MVP season,” Sarkisian explained, “and Rich was really focused. He was very driven. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he liked.
“I heard a lot of similar things coming from Matt at lunch: a guy who has had some success throughout his career, has been part of really good offenses, and then really saw it all come together this year. And then ultimately really saw it come together as a team getting to the Super Bowl. So I think the guy I saw and what I felt from him was he’s still very hungry and he wants to keep going and he wants to see this thing through, and he’s willing to put in the time and effort, whatever he needs to do to make that happen.”
Sarkisian said he didn’t get a chance to dig too deep with Ryan just yet. They’ll have plenty of time to connect during the offseason.
“As we get into specifics of the offense moving forward — this was somewhat of an introductory meeting of just things we believed in or liked and styles, and coaching styles — but more importantly, my takeaway was that this guy has a real fire in his eyes right now that he can’t wait to get back to work,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian has been a quarterbacks coach throughout his career but envisions the Falcons hiring someone else in that role to assist. Regardless, he plans to have a hands-on approach with Ryan as he becomes accustomed to the offense former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan implemented, an offense Ryan mastered this past season.
“There’s no question my relationship with the starting quarterback — in this case, Matt — is one that is critical to our success,” Sarkisian said. “And it will be a point of emphasis here all offseason and then into the season.”
Ryan didn’t necessarily connect with Shanahan in Year 1 of the offense, which led to a rocky season. But the two improved their relationship and communication going into this past season, which led to Ryan having the best season of his career. Now he’ll look to maintain the momentum while working with Sarkisian.
FRISCO, Texas – The dire reports happen every year: The Dallas Cowboys are in salary-cap hell and won’t be able to do anything in free agency.
Yet somehow they get under the cap and sign a free agent or three.
It’s not necessarily “fake news,” but it is “incomplete news.”
The Cowboys are anywhere from $11 million to $13 million over the projected 2017 salary cap. Gulp.
The Cowboys easily could save about $10 million in cap space by restructuring center Travis Frederick’s deal. Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire
With an email that will take quicker to read than this sentence, the Cowboys will go from over the cap to under the cap.
Through the magical world of contract restructuring and a release or two, the Cowboys can go from being well over the cap to more than $40 million under the cap, and that does not include doing anything with Tony Romo.
Before you let yourself get carried away about the highest of high-end free agents, you should know the Cowboys won’t create that much room. The Cowboys do not believe free agency is an effective way to build a roster. Over the last few years, they have used it as a supplemental tool, getting players at their prices while others pay big – too big, in the mind of the Cowboys – to get better.
A cynic will say the Cowboys operate this way because they always have to restructure contracts and have done a poor job planning. Maybe, but having cap room doesn’t solve all of the problems.
Let’s not digress.
The point of this column is to point out how easily (and likely) the Cowboys can get under the cap and create room to sign players.
The first two moves are the easiest: Restructure the deals of Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick.
Frederick’s deal, which was signed in August, was designed in a way to be restructured. He has a cap figure of $14.871 million. A simple restructuring can gain the Cowboys a little more than $10 million in room. With Smith, the Cowboys can create roughly $7 million in room.
That puts the Cowboys under the cap with $17 million in savings.
(And just to clear this up: The Cowboys rarely create the maximum available to them on restructured deals.)
Is there a worry about pushing out larger cap figures on Smith and Frederick? Sure, but Smith doesn’t turn 27 until December; Frederick turns 26 in March. Age matters.
Sean Lee hit on his escalator by playing in more than 80 percent of the snaps in 2016, which will take his base salary from $7 million to $9 million. As a result his cap figure stands at $12.45 million. A simple restructure with Lee would save the Cowboys a little more than $5 million.
Name
Age
Cap figure
Tony Romo
36
$24.7M
Dez Bryant
28
$17M
Tyron Smith
26
$15.8M
Travis Frederick
25
$14.871M
Sean Lee
30
$12.45M
Jason Witten
34
$12.262M
Tyrone Crawford
27
$10.35M
Doug Free
33
$7.5M
Ezekiel Elliott
21
$5.671M
Orlando Scandrick
30
$5.281M
What about age? Lee turns 31 in July. In the salary-cap world there is no such thing as black and white. It’s always shades of gray.
Now let’s talk about Romo’s deal and how that could affect what the Cowboys do with the contracts of Tyrone Crawford and Dez Bryant.
If the Cowboys release or trade Romo, he will count $19.6 million against the cap in 2017, saving them $5.1 million.
(We’re now over $30 million in savings.)
If the Cowboys designate Romo a June 1 release, they will save $14 million against the cap in 2017. Instead of counting $19.6 million, Romo will count $10.7 million against the 2017 cap and $8.9 million against the 2018 cap. The one caveat is the Cowboys don’t get the cap credit until June 2, so that won’t help them land free agents in March. It would, however, give them room to sign their draft picks and enough room to deal with in-season issues (injuries or signings) as well as carry over money to the 2018 cap.
Is it better to have Romo’s dead money count against the cap in 2017 and ’18 or restructure the contracts of Crawford and Bryant and add to their salary-cap figures on the back end of their deals? My argument would be to spread the Romo hit over two years and don’t touch the contracts of Crawford and Bryant unless absolutely necessary. Crawford is coming off a second straight offseason in which he needed surgery, and Bryant has missed games the last two years with leg injuries.
If they want to redo Crawford and Bryant, while designating Romo a June 1 release, then you’re looking at $26 million more in savings. Instead of $40 million, you’re talking more than $50 million in savings, albeit with $14 million coming to them in June.
(We’re up to $56 million in savings with the June caveat.)
Lost in all of this talk of releases, however, is you would like to have a replacement ready to go before you make those moves. The Cowboys don’t have a ready-made replacement for Free at right tackle. Chaz Green hasn’t shown he can stay healthy. With Darren McFadden and Lance Dunbar set to be free agents, they don’t have a veteran option behind Ezekiel Elliott.
The salary cap is a shell game.
The Cowboys know how to manage it.
The “cap hell” myth won’t be the reason why they don’t sign your favorite free agent.
Atlanta Falcons secondary coach/senior defensive assistant Marquand Manuel will be named the team’s defensive coordinator, a source told ESPN.
Manuel was considered the front-runner after the Falcons decided not to keep Richard Smith in that role. Smith could remain on staff in an advisory position, but he is exploring other options.
Manuel, 37, has the most familiarity with head coach Dan Quinn’s scheme. He was the assistant secondary coach for the Seattle Seahawks when Quinn was the defensive coordinator there. Manuel then followed Quinn to Atlanta in 2015.
Manuel played eight NFL seasons at strong safety from 2002 to 2009 after entering the NFL as a sixth-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals. He also played for the Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Seahawks.
Manuel’s hands-on coaching style was key in the improvement of the Falcons’ defense toward the end of the 2016 season and leading into the Super Bowl.
He helped put Jalen Collins in position to fill the void left when Pro Bowl cornerback Desmond Trufant needed surgery for a season-ending pectoral injury. Manuel also helped develop free safety Ricardo Allen, rookie strong safety Keanu Neal, rookie nickelback Brian Poole and cornerback Robert Alford, who had an 82-yard interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl LI.
Marquand Manuel, 37, will be named the Falcons’ defensive coordinator, a source told ESPN. Manuel played eight NFL seasons at strong safety from 2002 to 2009. Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Quinn took over the defensive playcalling from Smith during the season, starting with the game against the Kansas City Chiefs (Dec. 4). Quinn is sure to have his stamp on the defense moving forward, but Manuel likely will have an opportunity to call the plays despite not having any coordinator experience. He interviewed for the defensive coordinator position with the Jacksonville Jaguars last offseason before the team promoted Todd Wash.
The Falcons will enter the 2017 with two new coordinators in Manuel and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who replaced new San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The Falcons also parted ways with defensive line coach Bryan Cox. Quinn is expected to hire one of his former players, Bryant Young, to replace Cox.
During the regular season, the Falcons ranked 27th in scoring defense in allowing 25.4 points per game and ranked 25th in total defense in surrendering 371.2 yards per contest.
The Falcons primarily started four rookies and three second-year players, and the unit showed vast improvement at the end of the season and into the playoffs as Quinn mixed in more man-to-man with his Cover 3 scheme.
After a fast start in Super Bowl LI, which included helping the Falcons to a 28-3 lead, the defense ended up surrendering 466 passing yards to Tom Brady and 31 points after halftime in a 34-28 overtime loss to the New England Patriots.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Mike McCoy prepares to begin his second stint with the Denver Broncos as offensive coordinator, he finds himself in the early stages of a rather large reconstruction.
McCoy will avoid specifics in public and call what comes next “the Denver Broncos offense” or “our offense,” but his vision of the playbook will be flexible. It’s also not what most of the Broncos players might be used to.
“We are as a staff going to change some things,” McCoy said. “I’ve laid the playbook out with the one I’m bringing with me, but then there is going to be some things that different coaches have called differently. There is going to be flexibility. We’re going to give the players some flexibility also.”
Ultimately, McCoy wants the Broncos to be able to adapt week to week and opponent to opponent. That’s a common goal in any offensive huddle, but the Broncos had a pile of issues in 2016 that need attention if the team is going to return to the postseason with a defense that figures to still be among the league’s best.
New Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy has shown an aptitude for flexibility in his offenses. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Last week in Houston, during the buildup to Super Bowl LI, former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak called the offense’s stagnation his “biggest disappointment.” The failings — the Broncos finished 27th in yards per game, 22nd in scoring and 27th in rushing — combined to derail what the team’s players believed before the season was a Super Bowl contender.
“My first call was to Mike McCoy,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. “Mike, obviously being an ex-head coach, that was important. Being a successful coordinator in the past, that was more important. I wanted a guy who could build a system toward his players, and Mike was that guy. … That was a big hire for us. Mike was a guy that was being chased by four or five different teams, so we’re happy about having Mike.”
McCoy said this week the work has started, but he isn’t ready to say what the playbook will look like. Broncos coaches have met daily since the new staff gathered for the first time Jan. 30, and the group will continue to meet until they attend the scouting combine in Indianapolis at the end of the month.
“I will say this. … We’re going to install our system and go from there,” McCoy said. “There is going to be a lot of changes. They are going to have to leave this building when they get here in the offseason program and take their work home. That’s not just the two quarterbacks, but it is everybody. I think for every player it is going to be a challenge for them coming into a new system.”
McCoy has also said he’ll adapt to the Broncos players, especially the quarterbacks, after he sees them work on the field and talks things over in the meeting room. There is plenty of evidence showing McCoy’s adaptive nature as a playcaller. He worked with Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning in his previous stint with the Broncos from 2009 to 2012.
“We have put things in place for players to succeed, for us to score points and for us to win games,” McCoy said. “But it’s going to be some work to get where we all want to go.”
