Well, that was a fairly eventful first day of the NFL calendar year. Quarterbacks were moving all over the place. One expected to be moving got parked. An unprecedented trade took place. A high level team executive got removed in a coup and roughly a million wide receivers found new homes.
Things started out with the Cowboys deciding they weren't going to release Tony Romo after all and would instead trade him. There's just one tiny little problem with that. They have no trade partner. Both the Broncos and Texans said, "Thanks, but no thanks. We'll just wait a while and see what happens." The Cowboys then claimed they'd never planned to release Romo anyway. (Sure. We believe that. It's not like that's been in the news for a while now with no corrections by the Cowboys, or they told Romo they'd release him.)
The Niners decided not to hang around and wait for Kirk Cousins and signed Brian Hoyer to be their QB. They then grabbed a second Bears castoff in Matt Barkley to let those two compete for the job. If they sign Jay Cutler they'll have grabbed all three of the Bears quarterbacks. And speaking of the Bears, they jettisoned Jay Cutler and signed Mike Glennon from Tampa. Glennon looks a tick fragile to me, but we'll see how he does in Chicago. The Jets are rumored to be picking up a QB from here, there, and everywhere. Jay Cutler, Chase Daniel, Brock Osweiler, and others are mentioned quite a bit as possibilities.
And speaking of Brock Osweiler, he's no longer a Texan. He got traded to Cleveland who immediately put a "For Sale" sign on him and started dangling him around the league. This was an NBA style trade where the Texans traded Osweiler to get rid of his cap hit. The Browns have around $100 million in cap space and got a second round pick in addition to Osweiler, so they could absorb the cap hit easily and got an extra second round pick.
Washington continues to look like a mess. They formally fired Scott McCloughan as their GM. (Sure, it's not like you need a GM this time of year.) They then let it slip (oops!) that alcohol was the reason they were letting him go. Yeah, maybe not so much. Way back in December a reporter covering the team had been told that there was a power struggle going on upstairs and that if McCloughan lost the fight they'd fire him and blame it on alcohol, even though that wasn't a real factor. (Classy! Hey, let's fire the guy and destroy his reputation on the way out!) This seems to have annoyed many/most of the players in Washington with one notable exception, that being Kirk Cousins. Prior to McCloughan's firing he wasn't going to sign his tender and would sit out until September. After the firing he's now saying he'll sign the tender and participate in the offseason program. You get the impression there might have been a bit of tension between McCloughan and Cousins.
The Eagles grabbed a pair of pro bowl caliber wide receivers in Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith, then threw in a former high draft pick at guard in Chance Warmack. He was believed to be a "sure thing" coming out of Alabama, only to not be impressive in the pros. He's reuniting with his old college o-line coach in Philly, so we'll see what happens. Eagles players took over the local Twitter scene raving about the moves the Eagles made which is kind of neat. One of our corners (Jalen Mills) described Howie Roseman as being the GOAT (Greatest of all time) at getting top quality players.
The Jaguars seem to have won free agency yet again with their signing of Calais Campbell and AJ Bouye. At some point the talent on their roster has to finally start performing. I'm thinking Tom Coughlin may have been a good hire for them. He's not an especially subtle team executive and if he feels any of the Jags aren't performing well, he'll let them know about it. If Blake Bortles can perform halfway well this year, they could be a force in that AFC South.
Things should settle down a bit today. Most of the must make moves have been made and the big names are largely locked up. Romo will eventually be released unless the Cowboys decide to keep him and move Prescott. The Browns are said to be still focused on getting Garoppolo from the Patriots. The Patriots are said to not be willing to let him go. The Saints are still dangling Brandin Cooks and the Rams offered up one of their top cornerbacks for Cooks only to be turned down. The rumor is that the Patriots will trade Malcolm Butler for Cooks, but the Saints seem to feel that they can get still more for him. (They do know he's Brandin Cooks and not Jerry Rice, right?) The Jets need a QB and may settle for a castoff. Speaking of castoffs, RGIII will be released by the Browns soon.
The Redskins lost a few bodies (DeSean Jackson to the Bucs, and Pierre Garcon to the Niners) and signed DJ Swearinger as their new safety. I'm not so sure about Swearinger. There's a bit of a red flag in that he's been in the league four years and has played for three different teams in those four years. He was second round pick of the Texans and stayed there for two years then got waived, moved to Tampa, got waived, and then Arizona. As a general rule a second round pick who's good doesn't get waived multiple times in his first four years. They also signed a couple of defensive linemen in Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee. Terrelle Pryor is reportedly heading to a meeting with the Redskins, but hasn't signed with them. The Redskins need to add a body or two to their receiving corps.
Oh well, on to day two of free agency. Things should slow down a bit now. (Things will likely stop for the Eagles as we're pretty much out of money. In fact, we've got to free up around $11 million in total to balance the books and sign the draft picks. Expect a few trades, cuts, or contract renegotiations to take place to free up that cash.)
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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