NFL Players Who Need Big 2016 Season to Earn 5th-Year Contract Option – Bleacher Report Under the current collective bargaining agreement, NFL teams have to make a decision on whether they will pick up their first-round pick’s fifth-year option during the offseason following the third year of the player’s career. Last May, 12 first-round picks of 2013 had their options declined, while Bjoern Werner was already released from his contract and Dion Jordan was suspended for a full year, pushing back the option’s due date a season. When looking at the 2014 class, there are some names that stand out when considering if these draft picks are on good terms with their franchises heading into the 2016 season. First off, two of the 32 picks have already been released by their original teams, as former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel is on the open market and former New England Patriots under tackle Dominique Easley is now on the Los Angeles Rams’ roster. Heading into this year of NFL football, five prospects—two of whom were top-10 picks two years ago—need to make big strides in their pseudo contract seasons. We’ll go over their playing history and why that has led them into a danger zone so quickly after coming off the board as high draft picks. In 2014, Greg Robinson was drafted second overall by the St. Louis Rams to be their blindside bookend of this era. Robinson, then only a 21-year-old, came out of a run-heavy option offense at Auburn that rarely had him drop into NFL-style pass protection. In many ways, he was an absolute project. At the same time, though, he was a road-grade run-blocker for the offense which found itself in the BCS National Championship Game. The thought was that Robinson was already a factor in the run game, but his pass-protection issues could have stemmed from either his youth or inexperience in any sort of NFL system. With professional coaching, many thought he could evolve into a Trent Williams-like left tackle for a franchise. At the combine, he ranked in the 91st percentile or higher in the 40-yard dash, the 10-yard split, the bench press and the broad jump for offensive tackles, per Mock Draftable. He was an explosive athlete, comparable to two-time Pro Bowler Andrew Whitworth and D’Brickashaw Ferguson, a three-time Pro Bowler, according to the site. Two years into his career, though, he has failed to fill those shoes. Last season, his Pro Football Focus grade of negative-36.2 was fourth to last in the league for NFL offensive tackles, behind only injured rookie Ereck Flowers, undrafted bookend James Hurst and Jason Fox, a reserve tackle forced into a starting lineup. The year before, Robinson was the seventh-worst NFL offensive tackle, according to the site, only behind players like Justin Britt, a rookie tackle who was quickly converted to guard in Seattle. In two seasons professionally, Robinson’s pass-blocking grade has been negative-39.9, a horrible mark. At this point in his career, he’s as raw as he was in that portion of the game as he was coming out of college. The now-Los Angeles Rams just mortgaged their franchise by trading up several picks to get the top pick in this past draft, which they used on quarterback Jared Goff. If Robinson doesn’t step up this year, he may find himself like Luke Joeckel, a 2013 second overall pick who had his option declined and is fighting for his NFL livelihood in 2016. In 2014, the Cleveland Browns made two first-round selections. One, Johnny Manziel, is one of two 2014 first-round picks who have already been released by their original teams, and the other was Justin Gilbert. From an on-field perspective, though, Manziel, who can’t be called more than an average project based on his time with the Browns, might have been a better NFL talent than Gilbert. To make sense of this selection, you need to remember where the NFL was two years ago. The Legion of Boom and Richard Sherman were just reaching their peaks. Sherman was coming off of his first Pro Bowl just three years into a fifth-round career, and the Seahawks had just won their first Super Bowl in franchise history, led by a defense with lengthy cornerbacks. This led to an overcorrection on long outside corners. In two years, Gilbert has only three starts to his name. Why? At Oklahoma State, he played almost exclusively Cover 4 or Quarters coverage against Big 12 opponents. Essentially, he was only asked to follow a receiver up the sideline. At 6’0″ with arm length and a 40-yard dash time that ranked in the 93rd percentile for the position, per Mock Draftable, it’s easy to see how he’d flash as a vertical-only defensive back. The problem is, NFL teams aren’t playing that coverage much, as it only allows for seven run-pass conflict defenders. He was a spread cornerback who wasn’t suited for the NFL’s game right away. The New Orleans Saints, who drafted Stanley Jean-Baptiste in the second round, made a similar mistake. Jean-Baptiste was a 6’3″ cornerback but was released after just five games with the Saints. He’s now on his third NFL team, ironically the Seahawks. Gilbert, the former eighth overall pick, has one year to change his NFL trajectory, or he’ll soon follow Jean-Baptiste. First, he needs to get on the field. According to Pro Football Focus, Gilbert played just 51 snaps last season, the 25th player on the Browns’ defense and the 11th defensive back in terms of volume. That’s a significant drop from his 373 snaps as a rookie. The arrow has been trending down for Gilbert since he left Oklahoma State, and he needs to do something major this offseason to redirect the route his career is taking. As a rookie, Dee Ford put up 1.5 sacks in 2014, good for a two-way tie for the 21st spot in his draft class alongside Kerry Wynn, an undrafted free agent from the FCS‘ Richmond football program. As a sophomore, Ford notched four sacks, good for a four-way tie for the 12th spot in his draft class. C.J. Mosley, an off-the-ball linebacker, Timmy Jernigan, an interior defensive lineman, and Aaron Colvin, a cornerback, matched his total. In two years, he has 5.5 sacks. Here’s a list of players from his draft class who have posted more sacks in an individual season than he has in his career: Donald and Tuitt don’t even play true pass-rushing positions, as a 3-technique defensive tackle and a 3-4 defensive end respectively, and have out-produced Ford. Lawrence, Lynch, Newsome, Attaochu and Barrett are all edge defenders who were drafted after Ford, and Barrett wasn’t even drafted coming out of school. Pass-rushers are one of the most-turned-down positions when it comes to fifth-year options, because the bust rate for the position is just behind quarterback. In the last two years, Barkevious Mingo, Jarvis Jones, Bruce Irvin, Shea McClellin and Nick Perry have all had their options declined, not including Datone Jones, who is moving to a pass-rushing position this season. When juxtaposed to offensive tackles, who they go against and have only had one declined option in two classes, the make-or-break point is clearly viewed as earlier at pass-rushing positions than others in the sport. Justin Houston, who nearly broke the sack record two years ago, is the team’s primary edge defender, and he may not play this season due to ACL surgery in February. The Chiefs’ starter opposite of Houston is Tamba Hali, who will be a 33-year-old at the end of this coming season. If Ford can make the most of his opportunity replacing Houston in the short term, he can be the team’s long-term replacement for Hali, but he’s currently being lapped by his peers. In terms of landing spots, Darqueze Dennard may have landed in the worst scenario for him to personally get on the football field early on in his football career. Coming out of college, the consensus was that he and Jason Verrett, an undersized cornerback who dealt with some injury issues at TCU, were the most pro-ready players from a talent perspective in the 2014 draft class at the position. Unfortunately, outgoing defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, now the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, loved to load up at the cornerback position, creating depth for reserve players that was rarely seen across the league. When Dennard was drafted, the team still had Leon Hall, possibly the best corner in this generation to never receive a Pro Bowl nod, Adam “Pacman” Jones, who has always been a force when on the field, Dre Kirkpatrick, who was a first-round pick just two years prior, and Terence Newman, who had been to two Pro Bowls with the Vikings. To get on the field in a Zimmer-deep cornerback unit, it’s an uphill battle. This is reflected in Minnesota, where Zimmer has Xavier Rhodes, a 2013 first-round pick, Trae Waynes, a 2015 first-round pick, Captain Munnerlyn, a 71-game starter, and Mackensie Alexander, a 2016 second-round pick, and Newman battling at the position. The Cincinnati Bengals have also been noted as a frugal team, dating back to the USFL era when players like Steve Young elected to not play in the NFL when the Bengals held the first overall pick. Are the Bengals willing to overpay a talented reserve cornerback because they’ve buried him on the depth chart? Two years into his career, Dennard has only started one game—two fewer than proverbial bust Justin Gilbert—and has only played in 24 games total, one more than Gilbert. Only three cornerbacks have had their fifth-year option declined in three years, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Dennard joins the list, especially since the franchise just selected William Jackson III from Houston in the first round this past draft. Marcus Smith has 21 games under his belt in the NFL, and he has zero starts in two years. As a rookie, he didn’t manage to come away with a single sack. The only first-round pass-rushers in a decade to not notch a sack during their rookie season are Jamaal Anderson, Jerry Hughes, Robert Ayers, Aaron Maybin, Dante Fowler, Jadeveon Clowney, and Vernon Gholston. Even when taking that into account, Clowney and Fowler were injured enough to miss major portions of his rookie year. On paper, Smith has a lot in common with Anderson, Maybin and Gholston, busts, Ayers, who outside of a five-game stretch in 2015 hasn’t been considered starter-level, and Hughes, who is a much more fluid athlete than Smith. Smith only has seven tackles in his career. In 2015, 111 members of the 2014 class had more tackles than Smith’s career total, including the like of Orleans Darkwa, an undrafted running back. In 2014, that number was 100. As of now, he’s on the fast track to a declined fifth-year option. Brandon Graham is on the second year of a four-year, $26 million deal. Connor Barwin, a 2014 Pro Bowler, isn’t slated to leave Philadelphia until 2019. Vinny Curry signed a five-year, $46 million contract this past offseason. Those are the names that Smith would have to outplay in the preseason just to get on the field to prove he’s worth picking up the option for. He may have the most difficult path of anyone in his class to earn that honor.
