Okay, yesterday was weird. The
first day of free agency always brings its share of unusual moments, but yesterday seemed to take that to a whole new level. Teams
paid too much for certain players, while other players took far less than they
were worth. Several teams seemed to toss the salary cap out the window. San Francisco seemed to
decide they didn’t really like draft picks.
Below are some of the
transactions that really puzzled me. I’ll try to avoid commenting on deals that
were simply good or bad, sticking instead to those that made absolutely no
sense. It shouldn’t be a problem. I have a feeling that March 11, 2014 will go
down in history as the day the entire NFL lost its goddamn mind.
Weirdness Number 1: The Offensive Linemen
It took only fifteen minutes for the top offensive linemen to find new teams. Guard Zane Beadles went to Jacksonville
on a semi-reasonable 5 year, $30 million deal. Tackle Branden Albert was signed by Miami on a slightly too
large deal of 5 years, $47 million. The other two top tackles available, Jared Veldheer and Eugene Monroe, are both similar
caliber players to Albert, and it wouldn’t have been absurd for them to get
similar contracts. Instead, Monroe resigned with
Baltimore for 5 years, $37.5 million while
Veldheer went off to Arizona
for 5 years, $35 million. It seems strange that they both got so much less money than Albert, but maybe that’s just a sign that Miami overpaid. Maybe it was really hard to
justify giving an offensive linemen more than $40 million in this market.
Which brings us to…
Weirdness Number 2: Let’s all laugh at Cleveland
and Oakland
Rodger Saffold signed a 5 year
contract worth $42.5 million. To play in Oakland.
Where Jared Veldheer had just come from.
For those of you who don’t follow
offensive line play closely (first of all, why not?) Veldheer is a much better
player than Saffold. It’s not even close. Veldheer has played left tackle, the
most important position on the offensive line, with great success ever since he
came into the league. He is a physical nightmare, and quite possibly the best
player on the Raiders the past few seasons. Saffold played right tackle
for the Rams last year before they decided he was better suited to play right guard. And the Raiders
gave him $1.5 million more a year than Veldheer, THEIR OWN PLAYER, got.
In similar news, Cleveland replaced
hard-hitting-All-Pro-safety TJ Ward with
hard-hitting-but-not-really-good-at-anything-else-safety Donte Whitner. They
gave him $28 million over 4 years. TJ Ward, again THEIR OWN PLAYER, went to Denver and signed a 4
year, $23 million contract.
Shit like this is why these two
teams have combined for one playoff appearance since 2002. If you have a good
player on your team, why are you letting him leave in order to pay more money to a worse
player? Yes, I understand there may be mitigating circumstances. I understand
that Ward may have taken a discount to compete for a championship in Denver (not sure what Veldheer’s excuse for going to Arizona is.) I
understand that teams like Oakland and Cleveland may have to pay
a premium to retain good players, but maybe they should just suck it up and pay it. Oakland
had more cap space than any other team in the league. If they were willing to
give $42.5 million to Saffold, why wouldn’t they give $45 million to Veldheer?
And also, why didn’t they resign Lamarr Houston, the only other player on their
roster who was any good last year?
The Vikings aren’t a model
franchise by any means, but it’s days like these when I can at least be glad to
be a fan of a team that isn’t totally incompetent. Because there are teams like
Oakland and Cleveland out there, teams that are just
hopelessly terrible and will probably remain that way for a long time.
Speaking of which…
Weirdness Number 3: Jacksonville
actually did a decent job
Okay, this one may be a bit mean
spirited. But congratulations to the Jaguars on improving their team somewhat
through free agency. The Red Bryant signing a few days back was a solid move,
as was the addition of Zane Beadles today. Those are two decent, veteran pieces
that they added to the trenches. The only way they could have possibly improved
on this day would be to find some way to get rid of Blaine Gabbert at minimal
cost…
Weirdness Number 4: I expect better from you, San Francisco
Why would San Francisco want Blaine Gabbert? Why would
anyone want Blaine Gabbert? I think this is a great deal from Jacksonville’s end, principally because they
never have to worry about Gabbert suiting up for them again. But seriously, San Francisco, what the
hell? Do you not care about draft picks at all? Oh, you just traded a pick for
Jonathan Martin? Okay, I guess.
I suppose it’s not as bad as I’m
portraying it, but it’s still kind of weird. First of all, the deal for
Jonathan Martin is actually reasonable. They traded a conditional seventh round
pick, meaning they only have to send it on the off chance Martin decides he
wants to try football again. Martin played for Harbaugh at Stanford, and if
he’s going to try to expose himself to an NFL locker room again it might as
well be someplace where he has a coach he can trust. He was brutal when he
played last year, but he is still a former second round pick only two years out
of college.
The Gabbert move is weirder, but
I can kind of rationalize it too. For a team as loaded with talent as San Francisco, the
average sixth round pick probably won’t make the roster. The pick is much more
valuable in Jacksonville,
where the average sixth round player would probably be a starter. But I still
see absolutely no upside in having Gabbert on the roster. A sixth round pick
for San Francisco
has nearly zero value. Blaine Gabbert has exactly
zero value.
Speaking of players with nearly
zero value…
Weirdness Number 5: The Running Backs
Does anyone have any idea how
much a running back is worth anymore? Because it seems like right now the
position is almost worthless. As one NFL GM put it, "That position needs
its own union. We treat our equipment people better than we treat our running
backs." We saw this early in the day as Darren McFadden resigned with Oakland on a measly 1
year, $1.75 million contract with only $100,000 guaranteed. Teams believe that
they can just get a running back from anywhere, plug him in, and get solid
production. It looked at first as if no one would be handing out eight figure contracts to running backs
this year.
And then Toby Gerhart and Donald
Brown each received 3 year, $10.5 million contracts. You know Gerhart, he of
276 career carries in four seasons. And good old “God dammit, Donald!” Both
players had reasonably strong seasons last year, but they aren’t worth the
money they were given. Not in the market for running backs that had already
been set.
Weirdness Number 6: The Salary Cap
Teams went into yesterday with
cap space ranging from $2 million all the way up to $60 million. Some teams
with little space, like Dallas,
played it conservative and didn’t sign anyone. A team like Oakland, the league leader in cap space,
spent more money than all but one team (even though the money they spent was
pretty much wasted.) You would figure that this would be a trend, that the
teams with the most space would be the most aggressive.
But then there were the Jets, one
of the league’s masters of doing things that make absolutely no sense.
There isn’t an offense in the league as barren of talent as the one in New York. Their best
skill position player is probably Chris Ivory. It would seem prudent for them
to try to grab a wide receiver, or a running back, or even an offensive
linemen. Instead, they resigned their kicker Nick Folk and let everyone else
have their fun. This isn’t necessarily a problem—sometimes the best strategy is
to wait—but a more troubling concern may be the player that remains on their
roster. Why haven’t they cut Mark Sanchez yet? His cap number is more than $13
million this season, and they can cut off $9 million of that just by releasing
him. So why haven’t they done so? Is there still a chance Sanchez could be a
Jet next season? That thought has to terrify any fan of the Jets, and really
any fan of quality football.
On the other side of the cap
spectrum was New Orleans.
Coming into yesterday they had $2.7 million free with the potential to open up a
little more space by cutting or trading Darren Sproles. But they still appeared
to be in bad shape, a team that would sit out free agency. When it was
announced that they were taking a visit from top free agent Jairus Byrd, most
people rolled their eyes and assumed he would be out of there as soon as he saw
the money they had to offer. When it came out that he had actually signed in New Orleans for 6 years,
$54 million dollars, I’m not sure anyone had any idea how that was going to
work.
We haven’t seen the specific
numbers yet, but I’d guess that New
Orleans dealt with this by backloading his contract.
In his first couple years he likely won’t make much money, playing with a small
cap number so they can afford to keep him and resign players like Jimmy Graham.
It will be two or three years down the road before his cap hit explodes to an
unreasonable value, but the Saints are willing to deal with that when it
arrives. They know their window of contention is entirely dependent on Drew
Brees, and they are going all in while he is still an elite quarterback. It
means that they will be an absolute train wreck in three years with no way to
fix the mess they’ve made, but they’re willing to deal with that if it can get
them another shot at a Super Bowl.
Now, finally, the most perplexing
deals of the day…
Weirdness Number 7: The Cornerbacks
Normally it is easy to gauge a market
for each position. The better players get more money and more years. Two
players of the same caliber and same age usually wind up with the same deal.
Every so often there are minor exceptions, such as what happened with the
offensive linemen I mentioned above, but I don’t think I have ever seen what
happened yesterday on the cornerback market.
Coming into free agency it was
perceived that there were four cornerbacks of roughly equal value available on
the market. Vontae Davis, Aqib Talib, Alterraun Verner, and Dominique
Rodgers-Cromartie (cornerbacks have the best names) are all young, talented
players with the potential to turn into elite defenders. Everyone has their own
preferences among them, but there is no consensus about which is the best. In a
reasonable world, they all would have gotten similar contracts.
Unfortunately (fortunately?), we
don’t live in a reasonable world. The market was set a few days back when the
Packers signed Sam Shields to a 4 year, $39 million contract. I expected the others
to receive similar contracts, so I wasn’t surprised when the Colts gave Vontae
Davis a contract of the same length and value, only with more guaranteed money.
I expected Verner, Talib, and Rodgers-Cromartie all to receive similar deals.
So naturally I was surprised when Verner signed in Tampa Bay
for only four years and $26.5 million.
A quick aside on Tampa Bay:
the Buccaneers are reportedly planning on cutting Darrelle Revis later today.
Revis was the best cornerback in the league a couple years ago, and he was
pretty damn good last season despite coming off a torn ACL. When he signed an
extension with the Buccaneers last year, he agreed to a deal that paid him no
guaranteed money. It was seen as a sign that he was willing to prove that he was worth the investment, but all it really meant was that Tampa Bay could cut him with no
cost if they brought in a coach whose system didn’t match his skills. Wherever
Revis ends up, expect his agent to demand a sizeable sum of guaranteed money.
It was smart of Tampa Bay
to get someone quality to replace him, and it was extremely lucky that they got
such a great deal. There is no reason Verner should be making so much less than
Davis. There
were undoubtedly teams out there that would have paid him more money—the
Vikings, Lions, Jets, and Steelers all reportedly had interest. I don’t know
why he would agree to such a contract.
The final bizarre cornerback deal
of the night went to Aqib Talib, on the far opposite end of the spectrum. He
signed in Denver
for 6 years, $57 million of which $26 million is guaranteed. That’s right,
Talib received almost as much money guaranteed as Verner did total. This is way
too much money, but I understand what Denver
was thinking with it. Like the Saints, they are going all in on their aging
quarterback. Talib gives them a quality player and hurts their chief
competition the Patriots, the team thought to be the favorite for Talib. Is it
an overpay? Absolutely. Are they screwed a few years down the line? Probably.
Do they care? Hell no.
Oh, and I have absolutely no idea
how much Rodgers-Cromartie will make when he signs.There is plenty more madness to come.
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