DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Jordan Akin ...not talked about enough n

Elijah Moore and Zadarius Smith have dominated
The conversation regarding off season player acquisitions
But the guy many is sleeping on is TE Jordan Akin
His TD to catch ratio was very impressive last year
As a Texan.
Akin is that perfect weapon that is ultized on a play action
In the Red Zone. Njoku will get alot of the attention.
Akin will be a after thought to the defense
Advantage Browns

I agree.

I like what Adkins adds to this team. He is another solid weapon for the Browns. A weapon Watson has a history playing alongside.

Milk shared a link before, and I don't know what thread it was in, but it broke down the offensive personnel packages for teams. I'd be curious to see the % of 2 TE sets Stefanski used in 2022, but also the snaps % of the #2 TE in 2022. The latter is not in the link Milk shared but would be interesting to know.

Jordan Nikemian Akins is an American football tight end for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He played college football at UCF.

Well neither post spelled his last name the way Wikipedia spells it ^.

I agree he could be a force.

This offense would be Bangin with real coaching,
Like coaching applied by the teams you go up against every week.

He is better than Njoku.

This starts Njokes 7th season and he is a very average TE, yet we keep hearing how this is going to be his breakout year. Enough already.

He is the 5th highest paid TE and the reality is we could replace him with just about anybody and get similar results.

I'd agree if it were put that the coaching is not using Njoku's abilities correctly.

He's way better than Friermuth, but look what the spitting team gets out of Freirmuth.

I had high hopes that Njoku would be a stand out TE. And God knows this FO put out enough money it's obvious they felt he would. But from the standpoint of return on investment, which is a building block of business, the Browns fell far short on gaining any dividends. At this point it's a matter of sunk cost. That's the thing about potential. Potential only matters if a player can ever reach that potential.

This forum cracks me up. I've been the poster child for Njoku being grossly overpaid and that he should have been let go 2-years ago. Ah, but a last, I got nothing but grief from this forum with BS like he's only 24, look who's been throwing to him, he has a lot of POTENTIAL, and this will be his breakout year. Now the Browns are paying the guy 8.3934M in 2023 and is scheduled to make 18.393M in 2024 due to Berry's crazy contract setup. The Browns can't even cut him in 2024 without getting hit with a 16.279M in dead cap charge and no team in their right mind would ever trade for his hugely inflated contract. Just another below average player Berry holds on too long like Schwartz and Elliott among others. Red Alert: the next one up for an extension who hasn't earned it is Wills - has Berry learned anything yet?

Another 1st round bust.

In my best Tony Montana voice...... "Salary cap!? We don't care bout no stinking salary cap!"

Of course, they don't care - looking at almost 60M over the proposed 2024 cap and that includes 25 players making the league minimum. Team FA's next year include DPJ, Walker, Delpit, Bryant, Elliott, Takitaki, Phillips, Bojorquez, Harris, Dunn, and Dobbs just to name a few. In fact, the Browns have 25 UFA's in 2024 off its current roster.

Lolz.

I like a lot of the TEs we have.

Njoku
Akins
Bryant
Forristall

Our TE room is solid.

I like Jordan as well. I think he's an undervalued receiver

I don't know if you are speaking directly towards me or not, but most people around here know I have been down on Njoke for several years. Last year Joke had a decent season, but lot's of people could have decent seasons if given the same opportunities as Joke.

I don't really care about the money we pay or worry about the salary cap the way you do. I don't care how much players get paid as long as their production is somewhat on par with their production. With Njoku, it isn't even close.

No direct shot at you at all - just an opinion toward the post. Unfortunately, money and the cap have a direct reflection as to what the team can do. Grossly overpaying Njoku has had a direct correlation between getting a high value LB, DT or WR which would have paid higher dividends this year. Next year with his cap skyrocketing to 18.393M not only contributes to the fact the Browns are already about 60M over the proposed 2024 cap but will definitely have a bearing on retaining Chubb and addressing or replacing 25 scheduled FA's. To make matters worse, the structure of his contract (the cap), makes it nearly impossible to trade Njoku with a base salary of 13M in 2024 and a base salary of 14.25M in 2025 still leaving the Browns with dead cap hit of 16.279M whether traded or cut in 2024.

To take it a little further, in 2022 - Kelce had as much production as Njoku has had in the last 4-years.

2022 Kelce stats - 110 receptions - 1338 yards - 12 TD's
4-years Njoku stats - 118 receptions - 1357 yards - 11 TD's

Yet in 2024, Kelce's cap hit to the Chiefs is scheduled to be 15.552M compared to Njoku's 18.393M to the Browns. That has Njoku scheduled to have the 2nd biggest cap hit of all TE's in 2024 for the poor production he's displayed. The Browns already have added 2 void years to Njoku's contract from "kicking that can down the road."

Imagine writing this out thinking it is a legit argument.

Your comment would only lead me to believe that you believe the Browns have gotten a return on their investment in Njoku and that he's more than worthy of the 2nd highest TE cap hit in the NFL in 2024. When you believe your player is deserving of the top pay at the position, it shouldn't take 6 plus years to get a return on that investment. Yet it's taken Njoku his 4 most recent seasons of work to equal the current best TE in football, Kelce's, production in a single season in 2022. I actually believe that legitimizes the argument that he's grossly overpaid. Obviously, you think not and have some excuse for Njoku's continued failure to give a valid return on investment. So now we are entering year 7 and still waiting for that same BS story of Njoku's potential and the same old, continued adage - "this will be his year."

I would have thought that he would understand basic business principals such as return on investment and sunk costs.

I think in fairness to Njoku , Stefanski has never made him
A focal part of the offense. Travis Kelce has been the
Number 1 or 2 option in their passing game since Mahomes
Has been running the offense
Stefanski for whatever genius reason implemented a 3 TE
Offense and all that did was dilute Njoku's targets.
If Njoku was in Andy Reids offense his numbers would look
Much better.

I am saying you "stat comparing" one of the best TEs in the history of the NFL having one of his best seasons in his career playing with arguably the best QB in the NFL (perhaps one of the best ever when his career is over) naturally getting more targets because Tyreek Hill was traded and became THE #1 target, to four years of Njoku playing with QBs like Baker Mayfield, Jacoby Brissett, Case Keenum, and Watson who hadn't played in 2 years is ridiculous. Further, two of those years playing behind Austin Hooper (talk about a bad contract), one year when he only played in four games (because of a season ending injury) and who finally had the opportunity to get the lion share of the TE snaps within those four years, just last year. When he got those snaps, he ranked fifth among all TEs in receiving grades from PFF since you lean on those grades more than most. He was top 10 in targets, receptions, yards among all TEs-- with a career back-up and Watson in six games back after a 2 year absence.

I don't know why you are skipping all the way to 2024 when so many things can happen with a player's contract in terms of perceived value as we've seen countless teams restructure contracts over and over again. I'm happy to address 2023 which, again, has yet to be played.....he's 11th among TEs in cap hit. His guaranteed contract money overall (which is what people claim to be the most important) is currently 8th which will go down as other TEs signed extended contracts.

I'm more than happy to have a reasonable argument regarding Njoku's value on this team and his rank amongst all TEs, but it's an absolutely ridiculous comparison to Kelce and leap frogging to 2024 cap when (1) contracts adjust all the time, and (2) other signed TEs could change that ranking seems meaningless and silly.

“Your comment would only lead me to believe that you believe the Browns have gotten a return on their investment in Njoku and that he's more than worthy of the 2nd highest TE cap hit in the NFL in 2024. “

What in the actual bs hell. Did you just come back from the future? The rest of us are currently in 2023 with the 2023 season ahead of us. 2nd highest in 2024…Talk about cherry picking.

One question, will 2024 off-season be the third year in a row where we won’t sign any FAs because of cap hell?

Problem being Njoku doesn't even rate in the top 5 TE's. I think you're right that comparing him to Kelce alone may be a reach, but PFF ranked a total of six TE's as better than Njoku in 2022 which was Njoku's best year to date.

7. David Njoku, Cleveland Browns

Overall Grade: 73.7
Snap Count: 816

2022 was a career year for Njoku, who set new highs with a 73.7 overall grade and a 78.7 receiving grade. He saw the second-highest snap total of his career and continued to be a solid blocker when asked to occasionally pass protect. Njoku ranked ninth among tight ends with an average of 1.53 yards per route run, with his 14 explosive plays tying for the ninth most and his 36 catches resulting in either a first down or a touchdown the eighth most.

Njoku isn’t asked to pass block much (44 snaps in 2022, 25th most among tight ends), but he also finished the season with a 76.3 pass-blocking grade, his third consecutive year of surpassing 70.0 after earning sub-60.0 marks in each of his first three seasons. Thirty-six tight ends have tallied at least 100 pass-blocking snaps over the past three seasons, and Njoku ranks first among them with a 77.9 pass-blocking grade. Over that stretch, he’s pass-blocked 136 times and has allowed a sack or quarterback knockdown just once.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-final-2022-tight-end-rankings

That certainly means he's a very good TE. It also means his pay compared where he is ranked isn't justified.

PFF Grade Ranks him 7th in 2022 heading into 2023.


2022 TEs
Cap hit was 24th
His base value was 38th
Overall guaranteed was 7th at the time
Average Annual Value is 7th

2023 TEs
Cap hit is 11th
His base value is 14th
Overall guaranteed $$ is 11th
Average Annual Value is 7th

So going from your direct correlation and need of a PPF score/rank to his contract numbers (whether 2022 or 2023) in terms of value.....what are you talking about?

Good points.