Free Agency

Free agency is upon us in the NFL. Teams can talk to players and make deals, but cannot officially sign anyone until Thursday afternoon. As if those deals haven’t already been made.

The so-called “legal tampering” period – in which players still technically under contract can, usually through their agents – begin negotiations with other teams. It’s kind of silly. You’re never going to ban deal-making from the realm of the deal.

Some of the numbers getting kicked around in the early going are a bit startling. Football has lagged behind baseball and basketball in bloated guaranteed contracts, but the numbers now seem ridiculous in relation to value.

Quarterback Mike Glennon, almost a former Tampa Bay Buc, is said by various insiders to be in line for a contract worth $14 million a year, quite possibly from the Chicago Bears. The Bucs would like him to stay to back up Jameis Winston but Glennon has more than backup value in a quarterback-hungry league. Glennon is 5-13 as a starter, albeit for bad Bucs teams, with 30 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions.

The Los Angeles Rams named cornerback Trumaine Johnson their franchise player and Johnson quickly signed the one-year deal worth $16.7 million. OK, everybody who knows who Trumaine Johnson is, raise your hand? Ha, thought so.

The biggest deals get done quickly. Cornerbacks will go fast (see above). There will be numbers staggering for the NFL, where the salary cap this year per team is set at $167 million. In 1994, the first year of the salary cap under a new labor deal, that number was $34.6 million.

Remember this about free agency. The team losing a player is more hurt than the team that gains the player is helped. That was former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy’s assessment man years ago. So be wary of the big strike (think Albert Haynesworth to Washington) and hope your team is one committed to building through the draft.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman