Trevor Lawrence Signs Record $275M Deal with Jaguars
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00:00Big football news and big money for Trevor Lawrence. A five-year, $275 million extension
00:11agreed to last night between Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars. That's $55 million
00:17per year on an annual average basis. That, alongside Joe Burrow, makes Trevor Lawrence
00:23the highest paid player in the history of the National Football League.
00:27If you are, let's just say, because, again, it's all theoretical at this point, a top
00:3110 level quarterback, or let's just call it a franchise quarterback, the team has identified
00:36you as the guy to lead that. This is what the contracts are talking about and how much
00:40they cost at this point. Because I know everybody goes, oh, Patrick Mahomes, you get $80 million.
00:44It's just a matter of when you sign that contract. And typically, yes, you can rework deals for
00:48guys like Patrick Mahomes and give them more money. But it's understanding, like, when
00:52you go get your contract, you reset the market. By the time your contract technically comes
00:57up in two to three years, it looks like you're going to be woefully underpaid as long as
01:01you're a starting quarterback. So nobody should wake up today and say, oh, my goodness, I
01:05can't believe five years, $275 million is the going rate for Trevor Lawrence. Boy, you
01:09overpaid for him. No, you didn't. That's just the price of the brick, as we say, continues
01:13to go up. It's the same thing with the housing market. Guy down the street sells a house
01:16for X amount of dollars. That's your starting point on you selling your house so you can
01:21move. And the guy that's going to do that after you move, the same exact thing. Don't
01:24be surprised by these numbers. Just take a look at the organizations that have drugged
01:28their feet here on some of these big contracts. Dallas Cowboys were looking at you. It's unbelievable
01:33if you would have just got these deals done. I'm not even talking about then years ago,
01:37just weeks ago, how much money you would save. Do you remember when they hit their wow, Jalen
01:41Hurts is going to get around 50 million dollars. That's unbelievably incredible. He's not even
01:45in the top five anymore at this point. Why? Because the Philadelphia Eagles went first
01:49here and knowing the next quarterback is going to make more money, more money and more money.
01:53Don't be surprised by these numbers anymore. It's the dangerous part of the waiting game.
01:59Maybe your natural thought is Trevor Lawrence played for Urban Meyer in year number one.
02:04We'll give him a pass despite 17 interceptions. He was great in year number two, his first
02:09under Doug Peterson leading the Jacksonville Jaguars to come from behind, win the AFC South
02:15and that come from behind playoff victory over the L.A. Chargers. Twenty five touchdowns
02:20to only eight interceptions, more than 4100 passing yards. That was the vision of the
02:26number one overall pick in the prints that was promised well before the 2021 NFL Draft.
02:33But last year was a struggle in 2023, the first time in his NFL career that he even
02:39missed a game. And he was banged up down the final month and a half when the Jaguars stumbled,
02:45lost the division, allowing C.J. Stroud in Houston to take it for the Texans. Twenty
02:50one touchdowns to 14 INTs a season ago. So maybe it's a natural and common sense thought.
02:57Your idea is, well, Trevor Lawrence, three years of his five year rookie deal, the Jags
03:02picked up his fifth year team option under contract for two years. Why wouldn't you wait
03:08at least to see how he performs in twenty twenty four if he truly looks like the face
03:13of the franchise that you want to invest in moving forward? The waiting game is dangerous
03:19for two main reasons. One, the price of the brick going up. Yeah, somebody and I believe
03:26somebody will a quarterback this offseason outside of T-Law is paid north of fifty five
03:32million dollars. Then you're going to have to pay him way more next year if he has a
03:36successful twenty twenty four campaign. And number two, you pay him now that fifty five
03:43million dollars per year and two hundred and seventy five mil total with two hundred mil
03:48guaranteed five year contract extension is actually averaged out over the final two years
03:54of his rookie contract when the per year value is substantially less so that your burden
04:00on the franchise over seven years of Trevor Lawrence is not nearly as bad. It is why you
04:08pay up and it is why you pay now even. And I think it's natural once again, if you have
04:15questions about Trevor Lawrence truly being the guy for Jacksonville for the next five
04:20years plus. And also, let's take a look at what's the theory behind waiting here. Like
04:26is Jacksonville actually so diabolic? Like, look, we're not going to sign you this year.
04:30You know what? We hope you suck next year so we can get you at one hundred million
04:33dollars discount and then we'll sign you. Well, who would do that? Like, why would you
04:37want that? Like, oh, well, thank God he was bad last year. We missed the playoffs. Now
04:40we'll sign him cheaper and maybe he's not a good quarterback. We'll never sign him again.
04:43If you identify this guy as your franchise guy and you expect him to play well and nothing
04:48really from his career, it says like, wow, that's going to be a major bust at this point.
04:51We all thought he was a generational quarterback coming in. Now he's the talent
04:55surrounding him. He just has to prove it on the field. But I always love that.
04:58Like, wait, like, wait on what? Like, again, with Dak Prescott and Jerry Jones, you know,
05:03Dak is going to have a very good regular season every single year. So Jerry Jones waiting
05:07on the fact that Dak is going to be terrible and like, oh, you know what? We hope Trevor
05:10Lawrence goes down with a devastating ACL injury so he can save on his contract next
05:14year. It's ludicrous why these teams wait around here. If it's your quarterback, you
05:18feel comfortable in your future with them. Sign them immediately when they're eligible
05:23for an extension. You will save money in the long term. Like, again, if you sign Trevor
05:26Lawrence back in March, you saved millions of dollars on your salary cap. They waited
05:31and look what it cost them now. Yeah, if you're giving somebody a prove it year, a head coach
05:37or a player, namely a quarterback, your hope is right. They would have success. And if
05:43they do indeed prove it, then you're only going to have to pay them more and not a couple
05:47of dollars more, a couple of million dollars more per year. Now for Trevor Lawrence and
05:53Jacksonville last offseason, Donnie, the Jags were the favorites to win the AFC South.
05:58They were the young up and coming team within the AFC. Could they be the team that could
06:04contend for a conference crown? Now that conversation to CJ Stroud of the Houston Texans and the
06:11Jags with a win total of eight and a half and a plus one 24 playoff price or kind of
06:16the forgotten team within that division. What is your expectation for Trevor Lawrence and
06:21Jacksonville this season? I do like them this year. Now having said that, do you like
06:25them to get to the AFC championship game? I don't know about that, but sometimes you
06:29like last year they were the it team in that division and didn't succeed. Sometimes they
06:33take a step back and like, okay, nobody's paying attention to us. There's a lot of talent
06:37on that team. And again, it's balanced on Trevor Lawrence having a productive season.
06:41I think he will. I think they'll do some good things here and make the playoffs coming up
06:44next season. More news around the NFL. Some interesting news in college football and collegiate
06:51athletics up next. The long awaited tampering violations of the potential penalties for
06:57both the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles have been handed down, or at least
07:03in the ATL, the Falcons were found to have tampered in the off season acquisitions of
07:08Kirk Cousins, Darnell Mooney, and Charlie Werner. They have been fined $250,000 as an
07:16organization and probably most severely lost a fifth round pick for next year's 2025 NFL
07:23draft. Terry Fontenot, the general manager in Atlanta has also been fined himself individually
07:2850 K. However, your birds, the RS, no sufficient evidence that they tampered. Just James Franklin.
07:38Yap in his mouth. But other than that, no official tampering violations for Philly.
07:45Let's get something straight. It was a couple of weeks ago. I believe we were talking about
07:48college football and I told you people out here, kids, look, maybe, maybe you're already
07:54out of school right now and you're listening. I'll tell you right now, you don't everything
07:57you can cheat on your test. She don't every single thing in life because it will never
08:01ever catch up to you. You had a general manager battling for his life down in Atlanta. You
08:06know what he said to himself? I got to cheat and make sure I get Kirk Cousins because if
08:09I don't, I don't think we're going to have a winning season and I'm probably going to
08:12be fired. Let me reach out, break every single rule I can in the NFL regarding free agency.
08:18And you know what they did? They find me $50,000 when I probably make well over a million dollars
08:22per year. And also they took away a fifth round draft pick, which if anybody doesn't
08:25know what a fifth round draft pick is, that is a practice squad backup guard that will
08:29probably never play for your franchise. And instead, you know what you did? You reset
08:33the market, got your quarterback and we'll probably win moral of the story in any part
08:38of life. Just continue to cheat because it pays off. And we're proven by this band every
08:44single day, kids. If you're listening and you're on summer break, just start the cheating
08:49philosophy next year, when the school year school and change your A's for your B's to
08:55A's do it. Cause you know what? They catch you. They'll probably still give you the aid
08:59for initiative there. So there you go. Yeah. Allegedly. Let's not tie anything back to
09:05the early line. That's Donnie right side. Ben Stevens disavows. Listen, draft capital
09:10is valuable. Even if it is a fifth round pick, you never know what that selection could have
09:16been, or could it have been packaged in a deal somewhere down the line who's to say,
09:21but the punishment's not nearly all that severe. And if you think Atlanta and maybe Philly
09:26were the only ones, maybe negotiating before the league year officially begins, you're
09:31wrong. All 32 clubs do it. Just some were dumber to say it out loud, like James Franklin
09:37and like her cousins and his own introductory press conference. Just like kids. If you do
09:43cheat and your parents ask, say that Donnie right side said something, but that was it.
09:47And don't admit to it. By the way, one thing that the early line as a whole will disavow
09:54is advocating for school children to cheat. One thing, the early line as a whole will
09:59be behind. Can we sponsor a conference in college sports? The early line Mack conference,
10:07the early line conference that features Kent state, Akron bowling green, and so on and
10:12so forth, because that is the future of college football and college sports as a whole.
10:20We got these breaking news reports yesterday from ESPN's Pete Vamill and Yahoo Sports's
10:25Ross Dellinger and Action Network's Brett McMurphy, that the big 12 was in conversations
10:31and conference commissioner, Brett Yormark, pitched to his conference chancellors and
10:35presidents last month in May. They could sell the naming rights, not to just a stadium,
10:42but to the conference as a whole. And Brett McMurphy followed that all state was the main
10:48corporation. The big 12 was negotiating with for a licensing and naming rights deal that
10:54would be somewhere in the ballpark of 30 to $50 million. Do you like the idea, Donnie?
11:00Yeah. And you know what, this, this is such a good idea for college sports that, you know,
11:06the professional ranks are going to take notice of this. Hey, we can sell the NFC and the
11:10AFC to let you say Visa and MasterCard and how much money we can make on top of that.
11:15This is the new realm that we're dealing with in college sports here. It is an arms
11:18race and it's an arms race to make money. I can't even fault him anymore. Like the big
11:2312, like what are they saying? Like the big would go away and then you just put the Dr.
11:26Pepper 12 conference. You know, I mean, that's really what we're getting to. Again, it doesn't
11:30really, yeah, exactly. It doesn't bother me all that much at this point because I understand
11:34where we're going in college sports and whoever can make the most amount of money, go ahead
11:38and make it. So I can't use it in the past. I would get upset. I'm like, I love tradition,
11:42but you know what I would do, Ben? Hear me out on this. If I won Powerball tomorrow,
11:45I would buy the Rose Bowl naming rights, but you know what I would do to it? I just wouldn't
11:49play the game. I would eat the hundreds of millions of dollars every single season just
11:54so they wouldn't play that game anymore. That's the type of stuff I want to invest, invest
11:58in ruining bowl season and we'll be better off for it. How about that? Okay. First off,
12:03buy then a bowl that happens a week and a half before the Rose Bowl, because in the
12:0712-team CFP era, the Rose Bowl is always going to be included in the college football
12:13playoff rotation. So buy something else. To Donnie's point, the bottom line is always
12:21the focus in college football is the main economic engine in collegiate athletics. Why
12:28this all seems like it is happening in such a rapid rate is because the NCAA has lost
12:35the fraudulent business model that has gone in front of the court, even the highest court
12:40in this land, the Supreme Court, and has been slammed down time and again. The facade that
12:46was the amateur business model that has been operating for a century in the past decade
12:52successfully is now no longer a thing. And that is why it every everything feels like
12:59a money grab, but it is a money grab because this idea of the amateur model has given way
13:06to what we always know. It's a business and it's about making money and it's a billion
13:12dollar business model in college sports, mainly led by college football. So they are trying
13:19to make a buck. It makes sense from that perspective, albeit kind of dumb and certainly something
13:27for us to get accustomed to. My favorite thing with Allstate buying the Big 12, potentially
13:34no deal finalized, by the way, is that in the room they're like, hey, can't get rid
13:38of 12. Let's call it the Allstate 12 conference. We don't want to get rid of 12, despite the
13:44fact there is now 16 teams in the Big 12 and they haven't had simply 12 since 2010. College
13:52sports, man, you can't make it up. Yeah, they got to change that. And same thing like the
13:56ACC. Hey, it's the Atlantic Coast, these teams playing. Yeah, you check the new ACC.
14:00Now it's basically a national brand. So why not just do away with the 12 altogether? Just
14:05call it the Allstate conference. Be done with it. I wouldn't have any issues with that.