The NFL's own March Madness

Times have changed. Gone are the days of the NFL where free agents spent days, even weeks traveling to different teams' cities in order to gauge their interest in joining that franchise. Today, we are blessed with insider's tweets and knowledge of behind the scenes action taking place, minute by minute. The frenzy that is the free agency period in the NFL is just that, craziness. For instance, within a five minute span on Tuesday we saw Jimmy Graham traded to the Seahawks, Haloti Ngata traded to the Lions, and the Eagles and Rams swapping quarterbacks Nick Foles and Sam Bradford. Yes, we're still trying to figure out the Foles/Bradford trade.

Now, we have seen in the past where teams get a little crazy and spend way too much money on players that were washed up or overpaid based on actual talent. One would guess the reasoning for this to simply be that GM's are searching for those "special" players that can elevate their teams to the Championship level, or if you're the Jaguars/Titans/Bucs/Raiders, back to relevancy. The spending has increased over the years, with the salary cap rising consistently over the years allowing for clubs to pay players even more money for essentially the same talent. One study showed that an $8 million/year player last year is a $9.2 million/year player this year. While signing quality free agents is a boost to your team, almost everyone in the league will tell you that you win championships through the draft.


Let's recap the biggest moves in free agency so far:

Jimmy Graham to Seahawks/Max Unger and 1st round pick to Saints

Analysis:
    The Seahawks get their first threat in the passing game since Steve Largent (circa 1980's).
The Saints gain an underrated center in Unger In the 7 games that Unger missed last season, the Seahawks ran for a full yard less per rush compared to the 9 games he did play. Conclusion: Lynch will miss running behind him and Ingram is grinning ear to ear.

Haloti Ngata to Lions/4th and 5th round pick to Ravens

Analysis:
   The Lions find a replacement for Ndamukong Suh, while the Ravens avoid a holdout/contract dispute from Ngata, with whom they could not agree on an extension.

Speaking of Suh.. Suh takes his talents to South Beach.

Analysis:
  Hey, it worked for LeBron, right? Not this time. While his presence will drastically help improve the Dolphins defense, the team itself is still far away from competing for a championship. Even Suh admitted "I would say money was the most important factor" in making his decision. Well, at least he's honest.

Sam Bradford to the Eagles/Nick Foles to the Rams

Analysis:
  Who knows. This is one of the screwiest trades the NFL has ever seen. Experts can speculate but no one really knows what either team is thinking in the long run here. Good news for Bradford, he gets to play under his former offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur while handing off to his old OU roommate Demarco Murray. Foles saves the Rams cap space, which means nothing because no big time free agent is going to sign with the Rams. This leads us to think that they either really believe in Foles, or they're tired of dealing with underachieved Bradford. I'm going with the latter.


Demarco Murray and Ryan Mathews to the Eagles:

Analysis:
 Right now,  both running backs are expected to sign with Philadelphia. I've been there twice, nice city with a great American historical culture. But i'm not playing for fans that threw snowballs at Santa. Plus, at what point does someone walk up to Chip Kelly and be like "Uh, what the hell's going on around here?" They've let go of rare talents DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy, as well as letting Jeremy Maclin walk in free agency this year. It seems to many that Kelly is out to prove his system will work in the NFL, no matter who the players are in the scheme. He better hope he's right, or he'll be back to college quickly.

LeSean McCoy to Bills/Kiko Alonso to Eagles

Analysis:
   McCoy provides a feature back for Rex Ryan's ground and pound game while the Eagles clear cap space and get a very talented, albeit injured, linebacker. Winner: Eagles, but I can't explain why.


Frank Gore/Andre Johnson/Trent Cole to the Colts

Analysis:
  The Colts signed three big name veterans this week, hoping to put the pieces in place to propel themselves to championship status. Gore provides a very reliable, 1100 yds/season the last four years, running back that can get the short yardage needed to be effective on fourth down and the goal line. Johnson will be used as a big target, posession receiver. His tutelage to fellow receivers T.Y. Hilton, Donte Moncrief, and newly acquired Duron Carter will be key in developing the Colts' weapons of the future. Cole provides an elite pass rusher from the linebacker position that can flourish in their scheme. Great additions, but is it enough?


My favorite section of the blog so far:

Big name signings that mean nothing.

Brandon Marshall traded to the Jets. Does not matter until they find a reliable quarterback.

Darelle Revis signs with Jets. See line above.

Suh signs with Dolphins. It's all about the benjamins.

Julius Thomas signs with Jaguars. Well, come on. It's the Jaguars people.

Jeremy Maclin signs with Chiefs. Chiefs wide receivers had zero touchdowns last year. Yes, zero. None. Not one. Not by accident, not on purpose.


The NFL has become the Wild West as of late. But really, who's complaining? Have you ever played Madden in franchise mode? Well if you've kept up with the NFL this week, that's a pretty good summation. Teams wheeling and dealing players, signing free agent hopefuls, all for a chance to improve their team. If you're a fan of a franchise, you can not complain. Unless you are a Raiders fan. Well, actually, even you can complain. Go ahead. We understand.

  *Disclaimer: Every player mentioned in this blog may/may not be traded/released by the time I hit publish. At which point I will write another column.