Very, very interesting nugget on how teams sell players on prove-it one-year contracts. And did Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht use this to help lure Haason Reddick?
Joe is very confident agents know all too well about this tactic. They probably use it themselves.
(Yeah, Joe is looking at you, Drew Rosenhaus.)
Jimmy Kempski of the Philly Voice gets credit for this because he did the dirty work finding it in an NFL podcast.
Per former NFL scout and current NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, an NFL coach told him how high-profile teams (read: teams on network television a lot) have an advantage over lower-profile teams (read: teams rarely on national TV) in landing good players on prove-it, one-year contracts.
What is that advantage?
Players on a prove-it deals bet on themselves. So they’re less interested in a team in the NFC South (Jeremiah wouldn’t out the NFC South team the coach referenced) that appears maybe once a year on national TV and the only eyeballs the players will get are from opposing coaches and maybe some scouts. If you are going to bet on yourself with a one-year, prove-it deal, the coach added, you want the most exposure on a national stage multiple times a year so the entire NFL sees your work.
The coach used the Eagles as an example of such a team.
This got Joe to wonder if this was a selling point by Licht to get Reddick to Tampa Bay?
No, the Bucs are not the Eagles and are not in the NFC East, the division that has network suits, specifically those at NBC, annually pitching a tent. But the Bucs are the mouth of the NFC South. They’ve won four consecutive division titles and won the Super Bowl in the season before that run started.
When Tom Brady was here the Bucs were a regular feature in prime time. Since, the Bucs have had their fair share of network prime time games as well as 4 p.m. games that are often broadcast nationally.
