First Call: T.J. Watt rated best at his position; Greenbrier to host NFL games?; Eric Ebron deal official

In Tuesday’s “First Call,” the Eric Ebron contract is finally done with the Steelers. T.J. Watt is getting some praise. Can Greenbrier really be a destination for NFL games?

Time for T.J.

Back in January, Stephon Gilmore beat out T.J. Watt for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

But Pro Football Focus gave T.J. Watt an award of a different sort. The football analytics outlet tabbed Watt as the “Best Edge Player” in the league.

T.J. Watt: highest graded edge defender pic.twitter.com/7qpZAbA8qM

— PFF (@PFF) March 30, 2020

Watt finished tied for fourth in the NFL in sacks (14.5), tied for second in tackles for loss (23), tied for the NFL lead (Chandler Jones, Cardinals) with eight forced fumbles, was second in quarterback knockdowns with 19, and led the league with 59 quarterback pressures.

First-and-goal at Greenbrier

Speculation is running rampant about what the NFL may do to accommodate a 2020 season, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio advanced one suggestion, that the NFL “takes all teams to a location free from coronavirus, tests everyone on the way in, and then sequesters the entire league for the full duration of the season.”

Seriously?

Yes, that’s the idea. And one potential destination from Florio is the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

“One possibility would be to find a place literally in the middle of nowhere and build enough fields to play the various games on a given Sunday (and Saturday, if college football doesn’t happen in 2020) and enough rooms to house the players, coaches, trainers, broadcasters, etc. for 17 weeks of football and four weeks of the postseason. Another possibility would be to add to the football facility at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, which currently has 710 rooms.

“More rooms would have to be built, and built quickly. More fields would have to be built, and built quickly. Still, if/when the NFL decides that a normal season is an impossibility, this is the kind of approach that could preserve the TV money — and potentially add to it, if college football can’t be played and if the NFL takes over each and every weekend from the weekend after Labor Day through the Super Bowl.”

I know Florio is from West Virginia, but does he have stock in that place or something?

Ebron official

It took a while.

But Eric Ebron’s contract is official. The Steelers announced the signing of the former Indianapolis Colts tight end Monday.

We have signed TE Eric Ebron to a two-year contract.@BordasLaw TRANSACTION: https://t.co/r6Q3Bf9FX7 pic.twitter.com/BJfvUXZq4C

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) March 30, 2020

The deal was reported back on March 20. But it took a while to complete.

Via Reuters, “The coronavirus pandemic has delayed many deals from becoming official right away, due to the difficulty of conducting physicals, for which players and teams are not permitted to travel. It’s unclear if a physical was conducted for Ebron, who had surgeries on both of his ankles late in the 2019 season.”

Now it’s time to see which Eric Ebron the Steelers get. Is it the one who scored 13 touchdowns back in 2017? Or the one who both Indy and the Detroit Lions deemed expendable due to drops, attitude and injury?

Double dip for Barry Bonds

MLB.com came up with a list of WAR (wins above replacement) leaders for each team over the last 50 years.

Guess who won… twice.

Barry Bonds.

His WAR of 50.3 from 1986 to 1992 with the Pirates led the Bucs franchise. And his WAR of 112.5 from 1993 to 2007 led the San Francisco Giants.

The number with San Francisco was the highest on the list, and he is the only player on the list with two different franchises.

Sid Bream did not win for the Braves. Chipper Jones did.