Who is Louis Rees-Zammit?

Edition #600

Good morning ☕

The NFL has returned to a little slumber with the majority of high-profile free agents finding new homes. We did see a notable trade this weekend with the Chiefs sending CB L’Jarius Snead to the Titans for a 2025 3rd-round pick, in addition to a 2024 7th-round pick swap, while Snead will sign a new contract. That's not a lot to pay for a guy like Snead. Anyway, today we’re looking at Louis Rees-Zammit who visited the Jets over the weekend, and we have some quotes from Robert Saleh.

• We finally received some updates on the Jadeveon Clowney visit which took place last Wednesday. Jordan Schultz and Josina Anderson both reported similar things. The visit went well, and the two sides are keeping in touch, Clowney knows his value and things will go at his pace as a savvy veteran. Neither side is in a rush and both are comfortable letting this play out. We'll keep you posted if we hear anything else.

• Mike Williams's contract is in and it's another incentive-laden deal. $8.3 million is fully guaranteed and there is another $6.7 million of incentives. So he could earn $15 million based on health and production. He can earn $1.7 million for staying healthy and $5 million for production. That's a great deal for JD considering the boom in the WR market and how good Williams is. He's also put some protections in place due to the risky nature of the deal.

• Jerry Jones commented on losing Tyron Smith stating the Cowboys simply couldn’t afford the deal he signed with the Jets: “You know how highly he’s thought by us. (But) we can’t afford that. He makes all of his incentives & things like that, we would be really wrecked.”

• It's the NFL owners meeting in Florida this week and the AFC coaches are set to meet the media this morning. So we'll have some quotes from Robert Saleh at the bottom of this newsletter. But here is tidbit - 'I think [general manager] Joe [Douglas] has done a really nice job adding some really cool pieces to the football team, but, yeah, quiet,' Saleh told NFL Network's Steve Wyche at Sunday's league meetings in Orlando. 'Last year was a little loud. We welcome a little bit of quietness.'

• This was a great note by Cimini over the weekend. The Jets landed Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses, John Simpson, Mike Williams, Tyrod Taylor, Jacob Kinlaw, Leki Fotu and Isaiah Oliver for a similar amount of guaranteed money $40.6 as they gave Uzomah and Tomlinson. Credit JD for the 2024 off-season, but he's had some stinking free-agency additions over his time here.

Over the weekend we had confirmation that Louis Rees-Zammit had visited the Jets. Considering it got a lot of coverage from the UK accounts, I received a lot of questions over the weekend asking who he was exactly.

Although he’s not well known in the US, he’s very well known here in the UK. Even if you’re not a rugby fan, you’ve probably heard of him.

Rees-Zammit was an international winger in Rugby Union, appearing at the highest level for Gloucester in the English Premiership and Wales at the international level and was even selected to tour South Africa with the British & Irish Lions in 2021. That’s one of the highest honours you can achieve for a rugby union player on these shores, with only the best of the best being selected for the tour.

He has 14 international tries to his name including a hat trick against Georgia in the 2023 World Cup. At just 23 he’s still developing, but he was renowned as a quick and elusive winger with bags of talent and potential. Because of his skill set, it’s likely that he’ll find a role in the NFL as a wide receiver or potentially a tight end, his statute at 6’3 and 194lbs less itself to those positions as well.

In January 2024 he made the shock decision to rip up his contract with Gloucester and turn his back on international rugby by joining the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. What followed was an intensive 10-week program at the IMG Academy high school campus in Florida which led to his pro-day last week. Following that pro day, the Jets and Browns immediately invited him for a visit, and it’s expected that more teams will follow this week.

The International Player Pathway program is something the NFL want to encourage and they’ve introduced an additional 17th practice squad spot for each team specifically for international players. So there is a better route for these players to stick, Rees-Zammit is one of 16 players to take part in the program this year and he’s one of five British players hoping to stick next year. None of them have the sporting pedigree that Rees-Zammit brings to the table, or the experience playing under pressure in world cups.

He ran an official 4.43 at his pro-day but he commented later that he was very disappointed with that time, and having watched him over the years I thought he’s definitely be in the 4.2s or at worst the 4.3s…considering his nickname in Rugby was ‘Reese-Lightning’. If there is one thing I wouldn’t be concerned about with Reese, it’s his speed. Praise Olatoke, a Scottish prospect ran in the 4.3’s and is worth remembering.

Despite the slower-than-expected speed, we’ve heard that NFL scouts were extremely impressed with his ability and spent a lot of time talking to him off to the side. In total 51 NFL scouts attended the Pro-Day with 31 teams represented, the LA Rams were the only team not in attendance.

According to the reports from his pro-day, his catching ability impressed most scouts in attendance. His hands were strong, he high-pointed the football and his ability after the catch and the transition from catch to run was excellent, considering he was a winger in International rugby and did things like this…that’s not overly surprising.

The challenge for Reese is learning the intricacies of the game, the route-running, the timing, understanding what a defence is trying to do and reacting accordingly. Right now he’s a premier athlete with bags of raw tools, but you can’t learn everything you need to get to the NFL in 10 weeks, regardless of how good of an athlete you are. But the NFL understands this as well as anyone, which is why they’ve adapted the rules to give international players more time and NFL teams more space to carry them.

Robert Saleh was talking to NFL.com and he had a few good things to say, first on the offensive line improvements.

"All the young guys that were forced to play a year ago were really excited about the direction they're going," Saleh said. "But at the same time, to bring in some veteran presence, to bring in some leadership, to bring in guys who know how to play the game -- who have played the game at a very high level and who really have the capability of achieving and matching the standard which we're trying to create.

"You look at a guy like Morgan Moses who played on a torn pec last year. Just an old-school soul in the sense that he just shows up to work, works his tail off, and is a guy who's going to pull people with him. Tyron Smith has played at a very high level for a very long time, and John Simpson at guard, I mean, he's like the definition of strain. The way he works and kind of his story. He's kept battling to prove he belongs in this league. Excited about the mental makeup of the room. Obviously, we've got some really good football players, but we've also really added to the mental makeup of that room."

On Aaron Rodgers

"Aaron, he's on a mission," the head coach said. "He's doing his rehab. He's out in California, I believe. Obviously, he's taking some time for himself. He was ready to go last year, man. So I know he's getting ready. We speak to him often. I don't want to speak for him, but I am going to speak for him and say that he's really excited about attacking this season."