The annual bonanza known as the NFL Draft is complete. The biggest intrigue of the weekend, outside of Laremy Tunsil’s smoking preferences and Connor Cook’s precipitous drop, revolves around a handful of veteran quarterbacks and the few QB battles that need to be settled.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on at the most important position around the league:
¦ The defending champs made two of the more surprising moves of the weekend. The Broncos traded up to the 26th pick to select Memphis QB Paxton Lynch, then announced that they wouldn’t pursue Colin Kaepernick, Brian Hoyer, or any other veteran quarterback, and instead will give every practice snap to Lynch and Mark Sanchez, who enters the season as the early favorite to win the starting job.
One of these moves I like a lot, one I don’t.
The Lynch move may ultimately not work out. He’s a long-term project who played inferior competition in college and might not be ready to play in 2016. But I love the Broncos’ decision to choose Lynch over Brock Osweiler.
Lynch and Osweiler are pretty much the same quarterback — lanky 6-foot-7-inch slingers, and unproven at the NFL level. Osweiler started all of seven games last year, and while the Broncos did go 5-2, when it came to playoff time they sent Osweiler to the bench.
The Texans paid Osweiler $37 million guaranteed over the next two years. The Broncos chose not to match, and instead traded up to get Lynch, who will sign a contract that will guarantee him about $8 million over three years. If Osweiler bombs, he will cripple the Texans’ salary cap and set the franchise back a couple of years. If Lynch bombs, no harm, no foul. On to the next quarterback.
The only way this move doesn’t work out is if Osweiler blossoms into a star in Houston. The Broncos had Osweiler for four years and have more information on him than the rest of the world combined. If they didn’t believe in Osweiler, I defer to their judgment, for now.
The move I didn’t like, though, is the Broncos’ decision to stick with their quarterback depth chart — which also includes Trevor Siemian — and go into the season with Sanchez possibly as their starter. Why they have chosen Sanchez to be their seat-warmer, and not Hoyer, Josh McCown, or another veteran, is a head-scratcher. Unless Sanchez clicks with coach Gary Kubiak and lights it up in the preseason, the Broncos should probably just ride with Lynch this year and get him some valuable playing time.
¦ The only explanation I can come up with for Sam Bradford and his crybaby act last week is that he wanted to go full heel on the Eagles and the people of Philadelphia, making himself so unlikable that the Eagles have no option but to trade him.
But the move may have backfired on Bradford. He’s still stuck in Philly, has the No. 2 overall pick (Carson Wentz) breathing down his neck (not to mention Chase Daniel), and he may have torpedoed his image. Not only will he face the ire of Philly fans, but what NFL team is going to want a quarterback who sulked and demanded a trade when given a little competition?
Bradford is crazy if he thinks a team is going to invest in him as a long-term starter. That’s why he signed a two-year deal with Philly, right? The Eagles were one of the only teams willing to even give him a shot to be a starter in 2016 — which still holds true despite the Wentz pick — and Bradford should be grateful that he got $22 million guaranteed, a handsome sum for a QB with two torn ACLs and not much on-field success.
The Eagles shouldn’t rule out a trade if they can find one that makes sense. Yes, they already gave Bradford an $11 million signing bonus, but that is a sunk cost at this point, and a trade would still save them up to $7 million in cap space. I’m surprised that the Broncos aren’t showing interest.
¦ The Jets gave themselves even more leverage against Ryan Fitzpatrick over the weekend by drafting Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg at No. 51 overall. Coach Todd Bowles said Friday that Geno Smith is the presumptive starter right now, with Bryce Petty also on the depth chart, but the Jets still intend to negotiate with Fitzpatrick.
The right move would be to re-sign Fitzpatrick for $7 million-$10 million this season, cut Smith, and let Hackenberg “redshirt’’ for a year or two as the backup. But these are the Jets, so you never quite know.
As for Hackenberg, have the Jets learned nothing from the Smith experience about drafting quarterbacks in the second round? They still come with first-round expectations, but with second-round baggage. Good luck.
¦ Kaepernick is still stuck in San Francisco, and the 49ers might end up riding with him for 2016. They didn’t take a quarterback in the first three rounds and still only have Kaepernick, Blaine Gabbert, and Thad Lewis on the depth chart. Barring a surprise cut from the 49ers or unexpected interest from the teams that still need long-term quarterback solutions — Browns, Bears, Bills, Chiefs, and Cowboys — Kaepernick looks like he will be wearing red and gold in 2016.
BOOKING NEXT CAREER
Urschel spending offseason at MIT
Ravens left guard John Urschel is up to the typical offseason NFL activities — you know, researching spectral graph theory and matrix algebra.
“Right now, I spend most of my time thinking about discrete Schrodinger operators, high dimensional data compression, algebraic multigrid, and Voronoi diagrams,’’ he writes in his MIT bio.
Oh, you too?
Urschel might be the most fascinating of the NFL’s 2,000 players. A part-time starter for the Ravens in the fall — he has started 10 games in two seasons since the Ravens drafted him in the fifth round out of Penn State — Urschel enrolled at MIT this spring semester to pursue his PhD in applied mathematics.
While his teammates were training and enjoying warm weather in Arizona and Florida, Urschel spent his winter in Cambridge, taking daily runs along the Charles River and taking classes in random matrix theory and advanced algorithms, among others.
“Mathematicians come in all shapes and sizes,’’ Urschel, who is 6 feet 3 inches and 305 pounds, said in a phone interview last week. “My courses all kind of have an applied math flavor, more on the algorithm side, while also being decently on the matrix theory side, so that’s what I’m doing.’’
We have no idea what that means, but it sounds pretty cool.
Urschel said he doesn’t think too much about what he wants to do with his PhD, but could envision himself becoming a professor after the NFL.
And Urschel put his brain to work this past weekend, working with General Electric to apply physics and math to the NFL Draft. GE gave him the title of “Calculations Correspondent,’’ and in chats with fans on Facebook and Periscope, explained the physics involved in, say, the tailwind needed to turn the slowest 40 time into the fastest 40 time.
“We’re not doing graph dimensions or anything too serious,’’ Urschel said. “Just some basic high school physics, some fun math and physics around the draft.’’
Urschel’s agent, Jim Ivler of Sport-stars New York, said Urschel has been overwhelmed with requests for interviews and appearances this spring, but has had to turn most of them down.
“Educational institutions at every level, seemingly every STEM organization that has ever existed, Fortune 500’s, midsize companies, and of course, nonstop media requests,’’ Ivler said. “Believe me, there has never been a guy like this in the history of the league. Our company has certainly represented many more high-profile football players over the years than John, but none of them has ever gotten even a fraction of the requests for their time off the field as John does.’’
Urschel has two weeks of classes remaining this semester, but has been traveling between Boston and Baltimore to participate in the Ravens’ offseason program. He has no plans on quitting football, and can only take classes during the spring semester, but still has challenged himself to complete his PhD on time.
“A PhD program typically takes 4-5 years. I don’t see why I should be any exception,’’ he said. “I’m not promising that I’m going to be done, but I tend to like betting on myself, so I think I’ll manage.’’
FULL COUNT
Reduced penalty is not expected
A couple of more thoughts about Deflategate:
¦ One lingering question from this saga: Assuming Tom Brady’s long-shot appeal options don’t pan out, does Roger Goodell intend to enforce the full four-game suspension, or is there a chance that, with a firm court victory in hand, his heart turns to gold and he shaves a couple of games off Brady’s suspension?
In short: Yes, and no.
A league source confirmed to the Globe that the NFL Players Association “has not presented any rationale for a modification to the discipline,’’ and that Goodell intends to impose the full four-game suspension. From the league’s perspective, Brady and the NFLPA wouldn’t have offered to take two games had he won in court last week, so the NFL feels no reason to budge from its position.
Neither side has shown any inclination to compromise throughout this ordeal, further proof that Brady is mostly just a casualty in the almost-decade-long grudge match between NFL and NFLPA leadership.
¦ The four-game suspension is too harsh. But please spare us the “watch out, or it could happen to you next’’ rhetoric from the Patriots and their supporters. Brady and the Patriots are hardly the only team to get burned by Goodell’s heavy discipline.
The Patriots stood firmly behind Goodell when he docked Dallas and Washington millions in cap space for violating a salary cap that didn’t exist in 2010. They stood behind Goodell when he suspended Ben Roethlisberger for six games (later reduced to four) even though he never had any charges filed against him. And they stood behind him when Goodell suspended Sean Payton for an entire season and stripped the Saints of a pair of second-round picks for Bountygate, even though bounty pools were common and had quietly been a part of the game for decades.
ETC.
Don’t bet on move to Vegas
Sorry, having a hard time buying the “Raiders to Las Vegas’’ theory as anything more than leverage for the Raiders to get a new publicly funded stadium from Oakland.
MarkDavis has been talking up his interest in Vegas ever since he came in third in the Los Angeles sweepstakes, and met with the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee last Thursday to pledge $500 million toward the building of a $1.4 billion domed stadium in Sin City.
First of all, the NFL has been squarely against having a team in Vegas for decades, given the gambling angle.
Appearing Friday on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike,’’ Roger Goodell said the NFL has “evolved’’ its position on gambling, but it mostly sounds like Goodell doing Davis a favor to create leverage with Oakland.
Davis would still need 24 of 32 owners to approve a move to Vegas, and he won’t have an easy time convincing entrenched NFL families such as the Maras and Rooneys to change their positions on Vegas.
Secondly, it’s hard to see the NFL succeeding in Vegas. It’s the 42d-largest TV market, behind the greater Harrisburg, Pa., and Kalamazoo, Mich., metropolitan areas. Only Jacksonville (47th), Buffalo (51st), and New Orleans (53d) are smaller NFL TV markets. Oakland is considered part of San Francisco and San Jose, the sixth-largest market in the country.
And who exactly will attend these games? People go to Vegas to spend their NFL Sundays watching games at the sportsbooks, not to attend a Raiders game.
Having an NFL team in Las Vegas might create some immediate buzz, but to think that the Raiders will draw 60,000-plus fans each game for the long term seems like a pipe dream.
Extra points
When is it better to be the No. 2 draft pick instead of No. 1? When the top pick has to play in California, with a top tax rate of 13.3 percent. Per sports tax expert Robert Raiola (@sportstaxman), Eagles QB Carson Wentz stands to make a few hundred thousand more after taxes than new Rams QB Jared Goff, thanks to Pennsylvania’s 3.07 percent tax rate. In fact, No. 4 pick Ezekiel Elliott should make more after taxes than Goff, too, given that Texas doesn’t have a state income tax. Elliott should also make about a full $1 million more than No. 3 pick, Joey Bosa, who went to San Diego. No. 5 pick Jalen Ramsey also went to a state with no income tax (Florida), and should make more after taxes than Bosa . . . Former No. 1 overall pick JaMarcus Russell’s quote to Sports Illustrated last week perfectly encapsulates why the future of the NFL isn’t in much danger despite its concussion crisis. “I can be a water boy and work my way into a scout team. It doesn’t matter. I’ll go play for free,’’ said Russell, who sent letters to all 32 teams hoping for one last shot. For every Chris Borland or A.J. Tarpley who retires early, there are likely dozens of Russells who would do anything to play in the NFL . . . New Washington CB Josh Norman got $7 million of his $15 million signing bonus deferred to 2017, meaning he’ll take home $13 million in 2016, or about $952,000 less than he would have made under the franchise tag in Carolina. But he’ll take home a whopping $24 million in 2017, with the signing bonus, $16.5 million fully guaranteed salary, and $500,000 workout bonus . . . Dolphins owner Stephen Ross made billions in real estate development in New York City, Miami, and all over the world. So it was interesting to read an item from the Miami Herald last week that the renovations to Sun Life Stadium — which include installing a canopy over the seating bowl to protect fans from sun and rain — are “running several weeks behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget.’’ The Dolphins plan to play at the stadium this fall while undergoing the renovations, but have a secret contingency plan in case the stadium isn’t ready for the Aug. 25 preseason opener against the Falcons.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
