Achilles tendon injury.Seattle and Dallas, who meet Saturday night in Texas, are 10th and 11th in the poll. The

NEW YORK (AP) — Guaranteed payments for unrestricted NFL free-agent contracts this month make up just over half of the total money to be paid Khari Willis Jersey , down a bit from 2018, when Kirk Cousins signed a fully guaranteed $84-million deal.For the first 148 deals reached in March, the players’ union says $1.116 billion is guaranteed. That’s 50.15 percent of the nearly $2.227 billion in total values. Take out Cousins’ three-year deal, the 2018 total drops from 52.56 percent to 48 percent.Teams also have spent far more so far in free agency this year. There were 120 contracts worth $1.836 billion at this point in 2018. Total guarantees in 2018 were $965,479,118.The average amount per contract in this free agency period has been $15.04 million, of which the guaranteed dollars reached $7.54 million; the larger monetary agreements, such as quarterback Nick Foles‘ deal with Jacksonville for $88 million over four years, $50.125 million guaranteed, skew the average somewhat.Eighteen veterans signed contract extensions that totaled $226.725 million, of which 41 percent ($93.17 million) was guaranteed.Contracts in Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL are fully guaranteed for the length of the deal.“Obviously we are trying to figure how to improve that to 100 percent,” says Giants safety Michael Thomas, a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee. “We know it won’t happen overnight, but with best practices from the players, the agents and the agents of the union working together, we can get closer to the 100 percent.”The current 10-year labor agreement expires in March 2021. All player contracts are negotiated individually and the CBA does not specifically address them, so other mechanisms are needed to boost the guarantees.The fact the salary cap has risen substantially each year of this CBA since 2014 has helped the players get higher pay overall. There also are regulations requiring the 32 teams to spend at least a certain amount of their cap space each season.And, of course Josh Allen Jersey , there is (or should be) the competitive desire of each club.When Cousins received that megadeal from Minnesota last year, the NFL lagged far behind in guarantees. It still does.“No other league has that mandate,” 12-year veteran linebacker Lorenzo Alexander of Buffalo said. “It comes down to making that a norm. Whether in the CBA maybe we move toward it, or what the NBA has done where the select stars go out there and are demanding certain structure of their contracts. We need to look to our elite players, our quarterbacks who have that type of leverage. As they create that culture, they can make it a norm within the structure of football.“We have to collaborate as players,” added Alexander, also a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee. “Owners always will fight tooth and nail” to avoid guarantees.Both players make salient points about how the current CBA — which often, particularly in the early years of the deal, was perceived as a loss for the union — has helped them and their peers.Alexander notes the health and retirement benefits in the agreement. Thomas cites the elimination of two-a-days in training camps and the curtailed hitting allowed in practices.“The biggest difference in CBAs, and you notice as a player, is from the safety area, because I have been able to elongate my career and get more earning power and playing multiple years,” Alexander said.Most annoying to any player you ask is the perception that pro athletes negotiate a guaranteed paycheck and then become too comfortable to fully apply themselves. Both Alexander and Thomas get riled up when they hear any of that.“It is an excuse … a terrible excuse,” Thomas said. “A player getting guaranteed money would not change who he is as a competitor, and he will go out there and be the best he can be and try to be the best player ever. I do not think that will ever change.“If (an owner) feels like you got the right person, then invest in him,” he added. NEW YORK (AP) — The chase to Atlanta is on.The regular season is over and there are 12 teams remaining in the run to the Super Bowl.And at the top of the AP Pro32 poll, the new year starts right where the previous one ended.The New Orleans Saints Parris Campbell Jersey , Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, the top three seeds in the NFC, retained their top three spots in the final AP Pro32 poll of the season.New Orleans received 11 of the 12 first-place votes for 382 points in balloting Wednesday by media members who regularly cover the NFL. New Orleans will open the playoffs at home in the divisional round on Sunday, Jan 13.“The Saints lost in Week 1 and Week 17, both at home,” said Ira Kaufman of Fox 13 in Tampa, Florida. “In between, Drew Brees and company established themselves as the team to beat in the Super Bowl chase.”The Rams, who also finished 13-3 in the regular season, will start their postseason at the Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 12.The Bears will close wild-card weekend when they host the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles on Sunday.The next six spots in the poll are all taken by the AFC’s playoffs teams.The Chiefs, who have the AFC’s top seed, are No. 4. Kansas City, which received the remaining first-place vote — from John Czarnecki of Fox Sports — has won the AFC West for three consecutive seasons.Patrick Mahomes, who finished with 5,097 yards and 50 TD passes, will try to get Kansas City its first home playoff win since the 1993 season.“MVP front-runner Patrick Mahomes finished a brilliant first season as a starter with 50 touchdown passes,” said Newsday’s Bob Glauber. “With home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs, is a Super Bowl berth next?”The Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots finished in a tie at No. 5 in the poll.The Patriots http://www.coltsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-bobby-okereke-jersey , who won the AFC East for the 10th straight season and 15th time in the past 16 seasons, are the No. 2 seed in the AFC. They are trying to reach their ninth Super Bowl in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era. They are also trying to become the first team since the 1990s Buffalo Bills to return to the Super Bowl after losing it the previous season, and the first since the 1992 Bills to make a third successive trip to the big game.The Chargers, despite finishing with the same record as the Chiefs at 12-4, lost the tiebreaker and are the No. 5 seed in the AFC. They will head to Baltimore to face the AFC North champion Ravens on Sunday. The Ravens are No. 9 in the poll.AFC South rivals Houston and Indianapolis are Nos. 7 and 8 in the poll. Those teams will open the postseason in Houston on Saturday when they meet for the third time after splitting their previous meetings.“Just wish they had another WR,” Czarnecki said of the Texans. Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins finished second in the NFL with 1,572 yards, but the depth took a hit when Demaryius Thomas was lost for the season with an Achilles tendon injury.Seattle and Dallas, who meet Saturday night in Texas, are 10th and 11th in the poll. The Seahawks and Cowboys both finished 10-6. They met in Seattle in Week 3, when the Seahawks won 24-13.The team that made the biggest climb from the first poll, which was released before the season started, was the Bears, who started out at No. 28 and finished at No. 3. And the team that had the biggest drop was the Jacksonville Jaguars, who began at No. 7 and ended up at No. 28.The Arizona Cardinals, who finished with the worst record in the NFL at 3-13 and have the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, were a unanimous choice for last place in the poll.