Jaguars receiver Christian Kirk wasn’t able to play the last five games of the 2023 season due to a core muscle injury, but he still feels bitter about the way Jacksonville’s year ended.
The club lost five of its last six games to end the year 9-8 and miss the postseason after starting 8-3. In his Monday press conference, Kirk said that reality has “100 percent” ratcheted up the urgency for training camp this year.
“I feel like I’m a little bit more — not on the edge, but I’ve got a little bit more of a bite to me this year just with my sense of urgency within practice of just not only pushing myself, but everybody else around me,” Kirk said.”Basically saying, we can’t wait. We can’t wait for the opportunity to come to us. We’ve got to go take it.
“It’s just coming out every single day with the vision of what we have for ourselves in mind and also what happened to us last year, having that bad taste in our mouth because what happened last year is unacceptable and it’s not what we want to do here as a team and as an organization. It’s really just having that chip on our shoulder and just taking that and using it in our day-to-day practice.”
Kirk, 27, caught 57 passes for 787 yards with three touchdowns in 12 games last season. In his first season with Jacksonville in 2021, he had 84 receptions for 1,108 yards with eight TDs.
The Jaguars are down to one kicker on their 90-man roster.
The team announced that they waived Riley Patterson on Monday night. That leaves sixth-round pick Cam Little as the only kicker in Jacksonville.
Patterson played 13 games for the Lions last season before being cut loose and then appeared in two games for the Browns. He was 16-of-18 on field goals and 35-of-37 on extra points.
Patterson also played for the Jags in 2022 and he kicked in seven games for the Lions in 2021.
Little was a sixth-round pick out of Arkansas and is now on path to be the kicker for the Jaguars come Week One.
One of the NFL’s mysteries entering the 2024 season is how teams will handle the new kickoff.
Asked about it in his Monday press conference, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said he and his staff are going to monitor teams around the league for the next month. But he doesn’t think teams are going to reveal much before the games count in September.
“I don’t know if we’ll gain a lot from it because I don’t think teams are going to do a lot with it,” Pederson said. “I think you’re going to see, hopefully, we as coaches that are watching it, some different types of kickoffs, whether they want to missile a kick down there, put it on the ground, put it in the corners, down it, or whatever, maybe some of that. But I don’t think, from a scheme standpoint, we’ll see a whole lot, not right now in preseason anyway.
“I’m sure they will [play it safe] because it’s all new and you don’t want to, I don’t think, tip your hand right now, and let teams, especially teams early in the season that we play that can scheme you up.”
Still, Pederson said the preseason kickoffs will tell a little bit about how coaches are thinking about strategy and approach because it’s different for everybody.
“People are going to look up, and if they haven’t been following it, it’s going to be like, ‘Woah, what are we doing?’” Pederson said. “I think each week, as we watch all the games, I think we’ll just continue to learn and grow, and really, I think it comes down to maybe even the types of players that you use on your kickoff team, your kickoff return team. Who’s back there returning the kick? All kinds of things can take place now.”
Patrick Mahomes has seen plenty of items on his cell phone device in recent days about quarterbacks from other teams making more and more and more money. Because the media has generally accepted new-money annual average as the universal currency for ranking player pay, it looks like Mahomes is woefully underpaid.
The three-time Super Bowl winner, whose worst outcome in any of his six seasons as a starter is losing in overtime of the AFC Championship, has a new-money APY of $45 million. Three quarterbacks (Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love) are at $55 million. Five others (Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts) are north of $50 million.
But there are other ways to look at these contracts. One way is to focus on the cash to be paid in the coming years.
And from 2023-26, as well as 2024-27, one player still leads the way in four-year cash flow. It’s Mahomes.
Here’s the four-year cash flow from 2023 through 2026, per a source with access to the numbers:
1. Mahomes: $210.6 million.
2. Lamar Jackson: $208 million.
3. Deshaun Watson: $184 million.
4. Joe Burrow: $181 million.
5. Daniel Jones:: $160 million.
6. Justin Herbert: $157 million.
7. Jalen Hurts: $157 million.
8. Kyler Murray: $153 million.
9. Josh Allen: $136 million.
10. Matthew Stafford: $121.5 million.
With recent deals included, here’s the four-year cash flow from 2024 through 2027:
1. Mahomes: $215.6 million.
2. Burrow: $213.9 million.
3. Jared Goff: $193.6 million.
4. Tua Tagovailoa: $186.1 million.
5. Jordan Love: $186 million.
6. Hurts: $184 million.
7. Herbert: $182.6 million.
8. Kirk Cousins: $180 million.
9. Jackson: $179.2 million.
10. Trevor Lawrence: $155.5 million.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the player will cash every check. Jones, for example, has little chance of making the $160 million he was due to earn from 2023 through 2026. Ditto for Cousins and his $180 million in Atlanta.
It’s still a factor. An important one. Along with other important factors, like signing bonus, full guarantee at signing, practical guarantee at signing, and the number of years until the team can activate an escape hatch from the rest of the deal.
For some reason, the media at large only ever looks at new-money APY.
Yes, Mahomes still lags on that factor. But he was due to make more than anyone from 2023 through 2026. And he’s due to make more than anyone from 2024 through 2027.
And that’s still a bargain for the Chiefs and for the NFL.
Last month, we took a look at the candidates to be the first player to reach $60 million per year in new-money average.
This week, three names exited the list.
Matthew Stafford, Tua Tagovailoa, and Jordan Love resolved their contract issues. The highest-paid of the trio — Love — fell $5 million short.
So who’s next to get paid, and will he become The Six Million Dollar Man, times ten?
The most obvious candidate continues to be Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. The Cowboys have no way of keeping him from the open market in 2025. Prescott has no qualms about holding firm for what he wants. The question remains whether Jerry Jones, who constantly praises Prescott when the audience consists of those who would buy tickets to games, has to decide whether to put his money where his mouth is, when it comes to the player.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy becomes eligible for a new contract after the 2024 regular season ends. While he could get to $55.1 million (leapfrogging a three-year tie at $55 million), $60 million will be a bridge too far — even if he wins a Super Bowl this year.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is two seasons away from eligibility for a new deal. Given that none of this year’s new deals have beaten the high-water mark set by Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow last year, it very well could be that no one will get to $60 million before Stroud signs his second deal.
Then we have the guys who have already gotten paid who might be closing in on another bite at the apple — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Mahomes, at $45 million per year, received a bump in his cash flow last year. He’ll likely get another before he signs a new contract, given that it runs into the next decade. Allen, as previously mentioned, is due to get paid again.
And Jackson, who should have had his second contract two years earlier than he got it, might be thinking about accelerating the timetable for his third, especially since the two-time league MVP has now seen six quarterbacks jump his $52 million per year. And, between them, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert ($52.5 million), Lions quarterback Jared Goff ($53 million), Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa ($53.1 million), and Burrow, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and Packers quarterback Jordan Love ($55 million), have zero NFL MVP wins.
So who’s next? And who gets to $60 million first? Prescott or Purdy will be next. Prescott or Stroud are likely to get to $60 million — unless Mahomes, Allen, or Jackson successfully force the issue.
