I disagree. There were always 4 o-lineman in this draft who were all going to go in the first half of the first round. There were plenty of disagreements about the relative ranking of those 4, and there were disagreements about which o-line positions that each of those 4 could play or would excel at. But those 4 were always listed in mocks as being early in the round guys.
I wanted the Bears to take Johnson, but he went unexpectedly early to AZ. I thought they would take Jalen Carter at 9. For about 1 minute the screen crawl on ABS showed that the Bears owned BOTH picks 9 and 10, so I was wondering what they gave up for 10. But when they announced that the Bears had flipped with Philly, I knew they were passing on Carter and taking an o-lineman, and I predicted that they would take Skoronski. But Darnell Wright was worthy of the pick at 10.
Happy with the Hawks for getting the #1 CB & #1 WR
Clearly they thought Carter was not a good fit. Guessing he did not impress in team interview.
I do wonder if they would have taken Richardson at 5 if he was on the board.
Hopefully they can get some defensive line help with the three picks today.
Excited to think that the Hawks are looking to have the best starting WR group and best starting CBs (possibly entire defensive backfield) in the league.
The offseason color commentary may have scared some from having an odd dude as the cornerstone of the franchise. I don’t think leaning into eating bananas with the peel on and dumping a quarter cup of mayo into your coffee cup was the best business decision
Andrew Brandt, former Packers exec, confirms that Titans share of the new stadium costs will come from a loan from the NFL and PSL fees. Gross.
The article I linked above hinted at this with this quote:
“The Titans will contribute $840 million in private financing, including roughly $200 million in NFL loans and yet-to-be estimated revenue from personal seat license sales. Recent PSL revenue average for new stadiums has topped $500 million”
As Brandt says, socialize the cost and privatize the profit.
I think my predictions were pretty solid, with one big miss. I predicted they would prioritize iOL, WR, Edge, and CB, and hit on 3 out of 4.
In round 1, I got a few things right. I thought Tyree Wilson would be a target at Edge, and that he would be gone before ATL picked. He was gone, and like I thought he might have been the only remaining Edge worth grabbing that early. I also predicted that if Jalen Carter fell to 8 that the Falcons would pass on him. That was right, and the local UGA fans are in their feelings. I didn’t think Bijan was the likely pick due to positional value, but like I said I am not shocked they had him as BPA and took him. He’ll be fun to watch.
Thought they would go iOL early, and they did with Bergeron in round 2 and even moved up to get him. Didn’t have have him as a specific target, largely due to being listed at OT. Seems like a road grader in the running game. Some of his deficiencies in pass protection should be minimzed by moving inside. I like it. Not without some risk due to position change, but I think he’s got upside.
I thought the Falcons would go edge early, and that it would be a 4-3 guy rather than a 3-4 type guy that so many experts were mocking. I was guessing round 2, but they took their 4-3 style guy in round 3 in Harrison. Perhaps a slight underachiever in college, but has all the traits they wanted. Like I said, I think they wanted a guy that could be a rotational contributor immediately with a plan to start by next year. I think that’s exactly what they got, and we’ll see if the plan works out.
I mentioned CB as a need, and that while taking one early was a strong possibility I though they might wait until round 4. Got this prediction right, although not the specific player. I did not think Clark Philllips would be there that late, and he’s my favorite pick in the draft. He’s a unanimous All American with great ball skills. He was expected to go much earlier, and I imagine he fell due to size. I think he’ll be used primarily inside on the slot, and I think he’ll be a day 1 nickel rotation guy with the possibility of more next season.
I completely whiffed on WR. I think some of this change was dictated by drafting Bijan. I think Bijan will get used sometimes wide, and with Bijan and Allgier in the backfield I think Cordarrelle Patterson will also get used more as a WR again. Coach will still have a lot of fun weapons to play with on offense, and both Bijan and Patterson could be positionless type guys. They’ll roll with Hollins and Scotty Miller as more traditional WR2/3 guys.
Later round guys:
Hellams at S is probably exclusively a special teamer. He’ll probably make the team with decent showings on ST.
Gwyn is a C/G type flexible player. Developmental prospect. I doubt he gets any snaps in 2023 barring a bunch of injuries to other players, but if he develops he could eventually take over at C. Like most 7th rounders, there’s of course a high probability that he doesn’t pan out.
the ringer gave the draft an A for the top tier talent early and the upside of the rest of it. they drafted the “best” kicker and the “best” punter. they likely need both. 3 interior OL who can maul apparently and they have a new Oline coach so presumably he likes them a lot. got some fast guys w special teams accomplishments. they needed a lot more it seemed but IBBWT i guess.
local NBC station had a 1 hour special that discussed the Bears eventual move to a new Arlington Heights facility.
A lot has to happen, but it is going to happen. It was a done deal the minute Churchill Downs listed the property for sale.
The City of Chicago and the Chicago park district was a terrible partner and landlord for the Bears, and would not even respond to the Bears’ requests for anything, from minor seat repairs to major things such as adding a sports book. The minute the Arlington Heights property went up for sale, the Bears had a better option that they could not turn down.
Somehow, the deal with the Bears, Churchill downs, and perhaps the city of Arlington Heights has some sort of NDA built in, where the Bears won’t even discuss extending the lease with the City of Chicago. This clause may have been the Bears’ request.
Everyone agrees that Soldier field sucks.
To the PSL owners at Soldier Field… be prepared to be really, really sad. Those are NOT going to transfer to the new stadium. Your $20,000 or more per seat licenses are going to depreciate to $0 over the next 6 or 7 years or so. So if you have a 4 pack of PSLs for good seats, that could be a 100k asset hit for you to take. The Bears are counting on 500M of new PSLs as part of their new stadium funding.
Oh, and City and State created something of a co-owned venture to borrow 400M for the stadium renovation in 2002 as a 30 year bond. Thanks to Illinois politics, the payments made so far to pay off that 400M (remember that we are 20 years into a 30 bond/mortgage) have whittled that original 400M balance all the way down to about 650M. Yes, you read that right.
When they were sold to unsuspecting fans in 2001 and 2002, the P is PSL was for “Permanent”
Now, it is clear “Permanent” means “as long as the Bears play at Soldier Field.”
At times, I have looked into whether I thought that the Bears PSL was an asset that would produce a return. I decided that they were not.
So someone may have paid 80,000 in 2002 for the right to buy 4 decent tickets to each and every Bears game at $300 each (in 2003) and now at $600 each (in 2023). And when the Bears move, the value of that license falls to zilch.
Can anyone confirm or deny that the same thing happened to other recently built stadiums over the last 10 years?
SoFi is being thrown around as a business model that the Bears should follow. That stadium seems pretty awesome. The wrench in the gears for that, though, is that the McCaskeys are the poorest NFL owners in the league. They have no assets, businesses, or income other than the team, and they never have. They don’t have 5B lying around to put into building a new stadium the way that Jerry Jones or Stan Kroenke did. I think that their hope is that because the Arlington Heights property is quite big, several times bigger than is needed for just a stadium, they can flip part of it for cash. The McCaskeys want to develop condos and an entertainment district there quickly, and roll that profit into the stadium costs.
I’m pretty sure the Raiders used the Pissed on Seat License when they build the Mr Davis abomination in Oakland. Pretty sure that had zero value when they moved to Legas. But I don’t recall all the details,
That would seem to be misrepresentation, and also a bit naive as no stadium lasts forever. The PSL’s should be tied to the contractual term the team has with the stadium.
I own 2 PSL’s. I did not buy them as an investment, and do not view them that way. I bought them because I like to attend games and that was the only way to secure season tickets. Atlanta stopped selling individual game tickets too.
The club did indeed pitch them as an investment. I decided that was mostly BS. The true part is that in some early PSL funded stadiums PSLs did appreciate. What changed is that the PSL’s went from relatively modest in early stadiums to much larger sums in more recent stadiums, particularly for premium seats.
There wasn’t too much data on the mega PSL’s in more recent stadiums when I was buying, but what data was out there didn’t look great for the high end PSL’s. This older article influenced my decision at the time (I was buying in 2016). NFL PSLs Have Become Very Risky Investments.
There should be a lot more data now, but I haven’t done any research.
The term of my PSL’s is 30 years IIRC (not home now to check). I don’t remember if it’s extended if the team plays there longer, and even if they do it wouldn’t surprise me if they hit folks again for a refurbishment PSL then. I’ll be too old to want to re-up in 2046. The value of my 30 year PSL should start dropping at some point in the term. Didn’t bother to research when, as I bought it to attend games.
PSLs were never “investments”, no matter how they were described. For a team to make someone buy another PSL because the team changed stadiums…shame on you NFL/professional sports. At least the older PSLs were much cheaper than those of newer stadiums.
Happy with Seahawks draft picks. If CB performs well it should be home run. Expect WR to be fine. Not sure if a top edge or DL guy would have been better. Like idea of strong DBs. Expected Seahawks to drop for 3-4 years and now they may be second best team in NFC. Eagles had nice draft. Giants will be tough.
I briefly went down the CHI rabbit hole. I didn’t find an original PSL agreement, but did find a CHI PSL transfer form. That document indicates the PSL rights are tied to the Bears operating agreement with the Chicago Park District.
A quick google did turn up that document. The term of that agreement was set at 30 years ending in 2033 (with some optional extensions). Based on that deal I would guess PSL holders had an expectation of a 30 year term despite the “Permanent” moniker.
If da Bears try to terminate early, I’d guess there will be lawyers
I never thought they were permanent seat licenses. I always heard the term personal seat license. Never thought they would be transferable to a new arena/stadium since (I thought) the PSLs were intended to help pay for the construction.