Your “Eventually Getting Paid, Again” Thursday Evening Open Thread

NFL Noise:

• The 2022 salary cap has already had its top-end set – $208.2 million.
  • Any excess revenue above that number will be used to pay back the roughly $17 million in 2020 player benefits that were canceled as a result of the pandemic, rather than bump the cap further.
  • The current cap is a COVID-affected $182.5 million per team.

• The Eagles have set a new standard by promoting Catherine Raiche to VP of football operations.
  • She was the Eagles football operations/player personnel coordinator from 2019-2020.
    • Before that, she worked in the CFL for the Argos & Alouettes.
  • This is now the benchmark for hiring women in the NFL, surpassing the Broncos making Kelly Kleine their executive director of football operations.

• The Falcons claim they have an offer of a first-round raft pick for Julio Jones.
  • Of course, no proof is being offered, so as to help generate a bidding war.
  • Jones, whose base salary of $15.3 million is fully guaranteed for this season, is scheduled to cost the Falcons $23.05 million against the cap in 2021 and has cap hits of $19.263 million in 2022 and 2023.
    • If they trade him after June 1, they can spread out the dead-cap money over two seasons.
  • If they had traded him before the draft, they could have gotten a second-round pick in 2022 without paying any of Jones’ 2021 salary.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Habs at Leafs – 7:00pm | NBCSN / CBC / Sportsnet
    • Game 5 – Big Smoke lead 3-1
  • Canes at Preds – 9:30pm | NBCSN / Sportsnet360
    • Game 6 – Not Whalers lead 3-2
• NBA:
  • Bucks at Heat – 7:30pm | TNT / TSN
    • Game 3 – Bucks lead 2-0
  • Suns at Lakers – 10:00pm | TNT / TSN
    • Game 3 – Series tied 1-1
  • Bucks at Trail Blazers – 10:30pm | NBATV / TSN3
    • Game 3 – Series tied 1-1
• MLB:
  • Blue Jays at Yankees – 7:00pm | Sportsnet1

Tomorrow is a Sexy treat, as Joliet Jake will be bringing us* all of the Smackdown, Dynamite & New Japan images** we can handle. So if you like your skin sweaty & muscular, then

make sure to tune in Friday night.

^{*Offer void where prohibited. Prohibited where void. **Offer not available in Quebec.}