- Matt Cassel to the Chiefs. If the Chiefs can upgrade their O-line in the draft the Chiefs could be in business. Yeah they have the Chargers in the division but you just don't know what you're going to get with them this year. The Raiders are still the Raiders and the Broncos do not have a lot of talent outside of a few guys on offense. Give Cassel Bowe and Gonzalez. Sit Larry Johnson down and get him focused somehow. Those are decent pieces. Sure they also need the o-line help but after that they just need a complementary RB and a decent second WR. The defense will be a work in progress but they've got some talent on that side of the ball. Everybody raved about the Chiefs draft last year (well immediately after the draft) and it will be up to those draftees to step it up in year two.
- Fred Taylor to the Patriots. This will work. He's more talented than Sammy Morris and could shoulder the load in the 4th quarter still. And he signed for dirt cheap. This is why non-Patriots fans hate the Patriots. It's kinda like a backhanded-respect thing.
- Albert Haynesworth to the Redskins. My buddy Cesar asked me last night "is Haynesworth really that good?" and I struggled to provide one answer. When properly motivated he's more or less un-blockable. Quite possible un-stoppable. But he hasn't played 16 games since his rookie season and nobody will ever forget this. (This is just going to be a series of "buts" please bear with me, it's Saturday and I drink on Fridays) But he just got PAID. In reality the contract looks to be worth about $48 million over 4 years. But almost all of that is guaranteed. So he needs to be motivated now by money he already has not by his desire for money. And does this sort of thing ever really work out for the Redskins? Shouldn't Haynesworth really be a Cowboy or a Raider? Not that it would work out any better, it would just be more entertaining. But the Titans defense was a completely different unit without him. And by completely different I mean not nearly as good. But maybe he will motivated by the haters. And we are haters. He played well enough last year that somebody felt he was worth all this money. Good for him. It's not his fault that teams tend to pay for past production as opposed to present and future production.
- Kellen Winslow traded to the Bucs. Here's one of those trades that I think will help both teams. Winslow wants a new deal. Has for a while. The Bucs are incredibly flush with cap room and have to spend quite a bit of dough just to get to the cap floor. (Cap floor is the minimum amount an NFL team must spend on salary. The floor will dissappear when the cap does, allowing teams to spend as much or as little as the want on player salaries.) The Browns needed more picks to inject some youth after forfeiting most of their draft picks last year in trades for veteran players. Plus you just knew Mangini and Winslow were going to get along famously. And by famously I mean want to kill each other. In Tampa Winslow should get his money and will have a chance to be once of the new faces of the franchise. Sure he's an injury risk and he overrates himself but he's a player when healthy and properly motivated.
- Lito Sheppard to the Jets. I think this is another good trade for both teams. The Eagles pick up a 5th rounder this year and a conditional pick next year which could be a 2nd, 3rd or 4th round pick. It's not quite as much as they were asking for last year but it's not bad considering everybody knew Sheppard was gone as soon as the Eagles re-signed Hanson for starter money. The Eagles already have 2 first round picks this year so it makes sense to defer the higher pick until next season anyway. The Jets really needed a good cover corner opposite Revis and Sheppard can be spectacular at times. Nice trade really for both sides.
- Kerry Collins re-ups with the Titans. The only surprise here is that he signed before Warner did. The money seems about right but I'm not sold on Collins as the answer for the Titans at QB, even just for next season. I've seen too many of these older QBs pull it together for one season and then just not be able to sustain that success.
- Maurice Morris to the Lions. All this tell us is (A) the Lions will not draft a running back on day one (B) Kevin Smith just tumbled about 10 spots in my fantasy RB rankings if this is any kind of a comittee situation, which I'm sure it is.
- Stacy Andrews to the Eagles. I'm not sure what to make of this one. Andrews was a great prospect. I remember when the Bengals drafted him in the 4th round, he'd basically played a seaon or two of football and was raw as hell. But very talented athletically. And he's about 27 which makes him pretty young for an o-lineman. The question is, why did the Eagles sign him? I'm just assuming that his knee checked out well because Andrews tore his ACL and MCL back in December and just had the surgery to repair the injuries in early January. He was originally projected to be out until training camp but now claims he will be ready to go for mini-camps. I doubt it. Even if he wants to the team shouldn't let him. The other side of the coin here is that Stacy Andrews is the older brother of Shawn Andrews, All-Pro RG for the Eagles. Who missed training camp last year because of depression. And then missed all but 2 games of the season with a back injury. What effect did this have when the Eagles though about signing Andrews? More importantly, will it work? I don't think Stacy Andrews can really play LT which makes him the RT. Ditto Shawn Andrews who currently plays RG but was drafted to eventually play RT. Does this mean that the Eagles are bringing back Tra Thomas or drafting a LT in the first round? I think it actually might mean both.
- Jeff Saturday re-signs with the Colts. A no-brainer for both sides. Saturday would not be nearly as effective in a different system and the Colts o-line looked terrible without him last season.
- Jason Brown signs with the Rams. Brown was widely regarded as the best o-lineman available due to this age, skill set, experience and ability to play center or guard. What interests me were comments by his agent and another reported tidbit. His agent basically said that Brown wasn't interested in any tours or such, implying it was just about the money. Then the Rams came over the top and by far offered him the most money. And Brown went back to the Ravens (and possibly other teams) to try to get them to match the offer. When nobody would he took the Rams money. Does this sound like a guy who wants to be in St Louis? They've been terrible for the past two seasons but this is the NFL and everything can change quickly. I just can't see this ending well.
- Jonathan Vilma re-signs with the Saints. Another no-brainer the Saints had to wait to re-sign Vilma until after free agency started to avoid having to give up a higher draft pick as a result of last years trade to acquire Vilma.
- Bart Scott to the Jets. I've kinda turned around on this one. My first instinct was that linebackers leave the Ravens and never seem to play as well after. Adalius Thomas, Peter Boulware, Ed Hartwell, just to name a couple. All those guys actually got hurt soon after leaving the Ravens as well. To me that means that the Ravens are good at letting go of guys when their past their prime. But Scott is going to play for his d-coordinator from the Ravens Rex Ryan in the same defensive system. Instead of Ray Lewis he plays next to David Harris who is a very good young ILB. I would expect Scott to play at a high level for at least 2 more seasons for the Jets.
- DeAngelo Hall re-ups with the Skins. Hall is a pretty good cover corner when properly motivated. I hope for his sake he gets it turned around and plays at a high level from here on out. But he seems like Haynesworth in that everybody is worried that he'll slack off when he gets paid. Fitting that the Redskins signed them both.
- Brian Dawkins to the Broncos. Probably the biggest surprise, at least for me, in free agency thusfar. It was widely assumed that Dawkins would be back with the Eagles. He said it, the Eagles said it. Yet Dawkins signed a five year deal with Denver with $7.5 million guaranteed. It is believed that the Eagles were offering a 1-year $3 million dollar deal. Dawkins took a below-value deal last time around and wasn't about to do it again. It's hard to believe with all that cap room the Eagles lost their most beloved player over roughly $4 million dollars. I guess when you have 50,000+ people on your season ticket waiting list you can afford to just flip the finger to the fans once in a while.
Props to Scout.com for their Free Agency Tracker. I try to avoid linking to the Worldwide Leader all the time and none of the other major outlets had a good tracker that I could find. Although the blog coverage of free agency has been outstanding everywhere and it's really added a dimension as a fan. No more waiting for a new Sportscenter or breathlessly hitting the refresh button.
