Your “Draft Day Redux” Thursday Evening Open Thread

NFL News:

• Actual good thing: The Steelers converted most of Ryan Shazier’s salary to a signing bonus, so he can get paid for the 2018 season right now.
  • He gets $8.26 of his $8.7 million up front now, instead of in the League’s 18 installments.
  • Aside from the fact he’s on the PUP list & didn’t count against the cap anyway, it helps him out because a signing bonus is taxed at a different rate than salary. “Windfall” versus “income”.

• New hires:
  • ESPN: Jason Whitten, who is 36, has 15 years in, & apparently doesn’t want to catch more DAK! dump-offs over the middle for five yards & a concussion test.
    • He’ll be joining the Monday Night booth, where the only head trauma will come from the quick cuts & the flickering of the super slo-mo.
  • CBS: Bruce Arians, who will challenge Jim Nantz’ fedoras-only policy & take his Kangol into the booth with Greg Gumbel & Trent Green.
  • PFT: Peter King has left SI for the saccharin banality of being Mike Florio’s roommate at NBC.

• Getting paid:
  • Matt Ryan – 5 years / $150 million.
    • Feel free to note this date as the moment the Falcons priced themselves out of Super Bowl contention after the 2018 season.

CFL News:

It’s Draft Day, BAY-BAY!

Now for those of you not in the know, tonight will be an interesting mix of “who’s that guy” combined with “they have football at that school?”, “where is that school?”, and “Qui est cet homme?”

TSN has you covered with their Draft Primer, but long-story short, here’s the first-round draft order:

1. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (via MTL)
2. Montreal Alouettes (via HAM)
3. BC Lions
4. Ottawa Rough Riders REDBLACKS
5. Saskatchewan Roughriders
6. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (via EDM)
7. BC Lions (via WPG)
8. Calgary Stampeders
9. Toronto Argonauts

There are two candidates for the #1 pick:

• Trey Rutherford, OL – UCONN
• Mark Chapman, WR, CMU

Both are attractive candidates as they are both Canadian, and thus fill coveted roster spots in a league that mandates a “Game Rule Ratio” of 44 players on the active roster that must comprise:

• three QBs (no designation)
• a maximum 20 international players
• a minimum 21 Canadian/national players

There are also standards for minimum numbers of Canadian/national starters per game, so having high draft picks fill those slots (phrasing) is ideal.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Capitals at Penguins – 7:00PM | NBCSN / Sportsnet (Game 4; Caps lead 2-1)
  • Predators at Jets – 9:30PM | NBCSN / CBC (Game 4; Jets lead 2-1)
• NBA:
  • Cavaliers at Raptors – 6:00PM | ESPN / Sportsnet1
  • 76ers at Celtics – 8:30PM | TNT / Sportsnet1
• CFL:
  • Draft – 8:00PM | TSN
•  MLB:
  • no national broadcasts

Enjoy yourselves – I’VE GOT NOTHING!