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In my post the other day I said the NFL free agency period would begin and leave many of us scratching our collective heads. Well the past few days has either proven me to be a prophet or old enough to know how this works. Let me start with some examples, Tommy Kelly, a 6″ 6, 300 LB DE in the Oakland Raiders 3-4 defense got 7 yrs and $50mm from the Raiders. Many of you may ask, who is Tommy Kelly? The problem is that I can’t tell you either. Granted, this may be because he plays on a team in Oakland that seems to have 4-12 all to itself the past 4 or 5 years, however I looked at this numbers and tried to read about him and found that he has “potential” which as the great SS Ozzie Smith once said, “is a nice way of saying you haven’t done a damn thing yet!”.
Here is another example of reaching for straws, the Philadelphia Eagles had two good corners in Sheldon Brown (29 yrs old) and Lito Sheppard (27 yrs old). Matter of fact, if you asked an objective person what the Eagles needs were coming into this off-season, corner would probably not be in any person’s top three. What does Philly do, they go out and hand Asante Samuel (yes the guy who dropped an INT that could have won the Super Bowl for New England), 6 yrs and $57mm. Samuel is an excellent corner, however, with today’s “touchy, feely” pass interference rules, corner play has been somewhat diminished. I mean the NY Giants just won a Super Bowl without a guy who could cover me for 5 seconds, they did it by getting to the QB which is the formula in today’s NFL game. My point is that Philadelphia tied a ton of money up in a guy who probably isn’t going to make their defense appreciably better than the two guys they had playing there last season.
Ultimately, one must ask this question, why did New England not care too much about retaining this guy? Perhaps they realize that their system allowed him to be a bit better than he is. Keep in mind, Samuel was a 3rd round pick the same year Philadelphia selected Lito Sheppard in the first round. I guess I am just a bit puzzled by the huge signing when the Eagles really need a WR. Hell, I would have preferred them throwing this much money at Randy Moss if they wanted to make a splash.
One team that has stood out to me thus far as doing a nice job is the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland retained Derek Anderson their QB, which I thought was crucial because Brady Quinn cannot schedule Army, Air Force and Navy in the NFL. Cleveland then went out and got Donte Stallworth, a speed WR, to team with Braylon Edwards and TE Kellen Winslow JR. On defense the Browns traded their starting corner Boudin and a 3rd round pick to Detroit for a run stopping DT in Shawn Rogers. If Cleveland can keep Rogers out of Burger King, this guy can be a disruptive force on defense. Lastly, the Browns send a 2nd round pick to Green Bay for another imposing DT in Cory Williams. The only problem with all this is that Cleveland doesn’t have a draft pick in the first three rounds this year as they sent their #1 pick to Dallas for Brady Quinn last April and now Green Bay and Detroit have their second and third round picks.
I am sure more madness will be forthcoming in the next week thus keep checking back and let me know your thoughts on this crazy time of year called NFL Free Agency.
3 responses so far ↓
1 LauderdaleLegend // Mar 2, 2008 at 10:05 am
Well CEW, you continue to be prophetic. How about my New York Jets? Alan Faneca gets 40 million and he’s a….Guard? That’s not an Alan Iverson type Guard, either. They also go out and get Kris Jenkins from Carolina (which I thought was a good move) to solidify a front line that didn’t help the NY rushing game at all this past season. Lastly, they sent Jonathan Vilma packing (a Miami U grad) for a draft pick from New Orleans. Maybe his injury was a little more serious than I thought as he was a pretty good MLB for the Jets.
They need to trade Chad for some picks or a good pass rusher if possible. If the offense could keep the ball longer, I believe their defense would have performed better. Wouldn’t be surprised to see them back in the playoffs this coming season as they will have a favorable schedule, also.
2 hash // Mar 3, 2008 at 8:00 am
Well Emil, NE is definitely sticking to its guns as Randall Gay has left to go to NO…I’ve not been one to notice much for the off-season activity but these blogs have generated enough curiosity from me to scan the transactions page to see what exactly is transpiring in the off-season.
3 Emil Calomino // Mar 3, 2008 at 9:08 am
No offense to the Jets fan but they must be smoking crack to give a 31 yr old guard, albeit a good one, 5 yrs-$40mm. Keep in mind, you develop guards normally and we’re not talking about Hutchinson here or a young Larry Allen. Faneca was a very good player who is now good.
Last year, this type of move worked out for Dallas when they signed Leonard Davis but Davis was 28 at the time and can play LT along with being the #2 overall pick in his draft class. Davis went on to make the Pro Bowl this year but again, a bit different of a circumstance. Not to mention, Dallas is the league’s 3rd youngest team and on the upswing. The Jets are rebuilding thus the move really makes little sense to me??
As for New England, Chad is completely right. They won’t break the bank for any player other than Brady. Corners in today’s game need to be good not great because the rules don’t allow the great ones to play thus the difference between a great corners Bailey, Samuel, Trufant, Newman…and really good ones like Sheppard is not noticeable. Further making New England’s decision smart and Philadelphia’s dubious.
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