The NFL’s next set of owner’s meetings is in Minneapolis next week, which had both JP Finlay and Nicki Jhabvala ‘thrilled’ to hear to Minnesota – but when WaPo’s Commanders beat writer joined BMitch & Finlay Thursday, she warned not to expect an official announcement of a DC sale at those meetings.
“It’s likely the finance committee will give the owners an update on the process, but don’t expect a full vote,” Jhabvala said. “Even in the cleanest deals, like the Broncos that had Walton money, it takes eight or nine weeks; this is a complex deal, and it’s going to take some time to vet before it goes up for vote, maybe at a special session in July or August.”
The signed agreement in principle means they have an exclusive window to work out details, but right now it comes down to ‘semantics.’
“Josh Harris’ group believes they’re in full compliance, while the finance committee believes a lot of what they’re doing to structure the deal just tacks on more debt,” Jhabvala said. “They could grant a waiver to go above the $1.1 billion debt limit, but they don’t want deals that are significantly above that debt limit. It’s about liquidity, not overall wealth, and the liquidity of that one person who controls at least 30 percent in the structure of the deal.”
There wasn’t as much national coverage of the details of the deal when Rob Walton bought the Broncos last year, but the seller and the size of this deal certainly bring a different element.
Before the owner’s meetings, though, both JP and Jhabvala got a chance to check out Commanders rookie minicamp, which gave them a first look at Eric Bieniemy in his new role as offensive coordinator.
“He was as advertised; he was vocal, and you can hear his voice from 200 yards away,” Jhabvala said. “The thing with this hire is he’s not another typical offensive coordinator; it’s a lot like a second head coach, and he has more control and power than Scott Turner did. He’s really leaving his mark on how they run things day-to-day. I’ll be curious to see how he runs a full OTA practice with veterans involved, which we’ll see next week.”
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Bieniemy seems to have more control over how they are structuring minicamp days as well, which may be a function of installing his new playbook and part of his assistant head coach tag, and Jhabvala noted that he is doing things “the Andy Reid way and making his mark.”
Brian Mitchell can speak to that, having played three seasons with Reid in Philadelphia, and he gave a bit of an explanation about how that worked – and how important it is to get players in shape, which Jhabvala agreed with.
“Watching guys like Gary Kubiak run a practice, those things move, and everything is down to the second. Everybody is moving at all times, and you have to do that and be creative to get guys in football shape, especially if you’re installing a new playbook,” Jhabvala said. “I’ll be interested to see if a Bieniemy practice is more like that than the ones we’ve seen here the last few years.”
Jhabvala also touched on some great play from Emmanuel Forbes in a 7-on-7 drill and other standouts from camp – including undrafted free agent wide receiver Jadakis Bonds, who also impressed JP – so take a listen to it all above!
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