Teams making decisions about picking up the fifth-year options on the contracts of their 2023 first-round picks now know how much that will cost.
The NFL revealed the values on Friday afternoon. There are four levels of compensation at each position. Players who have made multiple Pro Bowls as an original selection are at the top followed by players with one Pro Bowl selection and players who have hit playing time milestones before reaching the lowest level.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud were the first two picks of that draft and both of them reached the playing time level of compensation. That will leave them with fully guaranteed salaries of $25.904 million if the teams decide to exercise the options, but longer-term extensions are also a possibility now that they have finished their third seasons.
The full list of 2023 first-rounders — there were 31 that year because the Dolphins were stripped of their pick — and their fifth-year option salaries appears below:
1. Panthers QB Bryce Young — $25.904 million (playing time).
2. Texans QB C.J. Stroud — $25.904 million (playing time).
3. Texans DE Will Anderson — $21.512 (Pro Bowl).
4. Colts QB Anthony Richardson — $22.483 million (base).
5. Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon — $21.161 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
6. Cardinals OT Paris Johnson — $19.072 million (playing time).
7. Raiders DE Tyree Wilson — $14.475 million (base).
8. Falcons RB Bijan Robinson — $11.323 million (Pro Bowl).
9. Eagles DT Jalen Carter — $27.127 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
10. Bears OT Darnell Wright — $19.072 million (playing time).
11. Titans OG Peter Skoronski — $19.072 million (playing time).
12. Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs — $14.293 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
13. Packers DE Lukas Van Ness — $14.475 million (base).
14. Steelers OT Broderick Jones — $19.072 million (playing time).
15. Jets DE Will McDonald — $14.475 million (base).
16. Rams CB Emmanuel Forbes — $12.633 million (base).
17. Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez — $18.119 million (Pro Bowl).
18. Lions LB Jack Campbell — $21.925 million (Pro Bowl).
19. Buccaneers DT Calijah Kancey — $15.451 (playing time).
20. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba — $23.852 million (Pro Bowl).
21. Chargers WR Quentin Johnston — $18 million (playing time).
22. Ravens WR Zay Flowers — $27.298 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
23. Vikings WR Jordan Addison — $18 million (playing time).
24. Giants CB Deonte Banks — $12.633 million (base).
25. Bills TE Dalton Kincaid — $8.162 million (base).
26. Jets DT Mazi Smith — $13.391 million (base) Smith was traded to the Jets by the Cowboys.
27. Jaguars OT Anton Harrison — $19.072 million (playing time).
28. Bengals DE Myles Murphy — $14.475 million (base).
29. Saints DT Bryan Bresee — $13.391 million (base).
30. Eagles LB Nolan Smith — $13.752 million (base).
31. Chiefs Felix Anudike-Uzomah — $14.475 million (base).
Cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian has moved into a prominent role for the Broncos over the last three seasons and the team is moving to hold onto him for a fourth season.
McMillian’s agent Deryk Gilmore told Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette that the Broncos have extended a second-round restricted free agent tender to his client.
The tender carries a salary of $5.853 million for the 2026 season. Other teams will be able to negotiate with McMillian and can sign him to an offer sheet that the Broncos will have a right to match. If they pass on that opportunity, they will get a second-round pick as compensation.
McMillian appeared in every game last seasona nd played two-thirds of the team’s defensive snaps in the regular season. He had 56 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. He also came up with a much-discussed interception of a pass by Bills quarterback Josh Allen to wide receiver Brandin Cooks to set up the winning score for Denver in overtime of the divisional round of the playoffs.
Four weeks ago today, the latest release of the Epstein files implicated Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. Three days later, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL will “look at all the facts.”
Since then, the NFL has said nothing.
More facts have emerged, including reporting that contradicts Tisch’s claim of a “brief association” with Jeffrey Epstein and an item from The Athletic that characterizes Tisch’s behavior as a potential instance of quid pro quo sexual harassment.
Through it all, the league has referred reporters to Goodell’s comments from February 2. That’s the message the league recently repeated to Dan Wetzel of ESPN.com.
The league could be waiting for it to all blow over. Alternatively, the NFL could be hoping that the Tisch family will nudge Steve out of the spotlight as the representative of the folks who own the 45-percent share of the Giants.
Regardless, it’s not going away. As one high-level employee with another team told PFT on Friday, “Steve has to go.”
The league’s inaction makes even more clear the double standard between the Personal Conduct Policy that applies to owners and the one that applies to everyone else. Although the league claims owners are held to a higher standard, that rarely happens in practice. (For more, get yourself a copy of my 2022 book, Playmakers.)
Generally speaking, silence, inaction, and distraction have proven (so far) to be a useful strategy for more than a few of the men whose interactions with Epstein cry out for investigation and, possibly, consequences. Few seem to be buying the notion that it’s a hoax or a witch hunt or whatever other label would be used to dismiss something that should never be dismissed.
Whatever the outcome, the NFL must investigate Tisch. Until it does, it’s impossible for any league investigation of a player or any other non-owner to have a shred of credibility.
The Broncos dipped into the college ranks to find a replacement for Jim Leonhard as their defensive pass game coordinator.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Broncos will hire University of Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston to fill that spot on Sean Payton’s coaching staff. Leonhard left the Broncos to become the Bills’ defensive coordinator.
Livingston has been on Deion Sanders’s staff in Boulder for the last two seasons. He was a member of the Bengals’ coaching staff as their safeties coach from 2016-2023. He was a scout and a quality control coach in Cincinnati for three years before taking on that role.
Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph was on the Bengals’ staff in 2014 and 2015, so this will not be the first time that he and Livingston have served on the same staff.
Broncos coach Sean Payton is back on the Competition Committee. And he’s not afraid to share his opinions about league rules.
During his Tuesday press conference at the Scouting Combine, Payton was asked about last year’s opposition to the tush push, which came within two votes of ending it.
“I don’t think the push sneak — I think if that ever goes away, it’s not a health and safety thing,” Payton told reporters. “We discussed that last year for two hours and we just adopted a thousand more kick returns. Which play do you think is more of a health risk? A thousand more kick returns. So I think if we choose to ever move on from that, it won’t be because of health and safety. It will just be like, ‘We don’t like it.’ Which is OK.”
Why was returning to the rule-recommending body OK with Payton?
“I like the pain,” Payton said with a laugh. “I like our league. I like talking about stuff like that. Like when I bring up that, we literally spent two hours on the health and safety of a quarterback sneak. . . . Literally a half an hour prior, we passed a rule that allowed for over a thousand more kick [returns]. So every once in a while your B.S. meter goes up. I’m passionate about the game and being involved in it.”
He’s referring to last year’s decision to move the touchback point for a kickoff from the 30 to the 35, which resulted in a significant increase in kickoff returns.
And he’s right about the tush push. The opposition came from, we believe, the reaction by someone in the league office to the scene that played out in the 2024 NFC Championship, when Washington jumped offside multiple times as the Eagles tried to use the formation to score a touchdown. It happened so many times that referee Shawn Hochuli eventually warned the Commanders that, if it happened again, the Eagles would be awarded a touchdown under the never-before-used “palpably unfair act” rule.
