Head scratchers

Let me start this off with a caveat: Free agency by it's nature is a fickle beast.  You're taking a guy coming off a contract year, in which he was likely at the peak of effort/motivation, paying a big pile of guaranteed money, plugging him into a completely different situation, and hoping that everything else remains status quo. 

Beyond the motiviation issues that can crop up once players get paid, and no longer fear their place on the team, it's just plain hard to tell how much of a guy's success is due to the system/personnel he played with versus his own talent.  My favorite example will forever be Dana Stubblefield, the 49ers defensive tackle who won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 1997 after collecting 15 sacks.  He promptly signed with Washington for a dumptruck full of cash, then proceeded to notch 7 sacks over the next 3 years and get benched.  Turns out, playing alongside Bryant Young, the true star of that defense, was the determining factor in his success.  The two did not come as a package, to the Redskins great regret.

The whole process of free agency is a bit like The Force actually, when used correctly, to plug the holes in a lineup built through several years of savvy drafting an personnel moves, it can put a team over the top.  When used irresponsibly, it can bury teams under bad contracts for years, resulting in perpetual mediocrity and the possibility of disgruntled fans firing proton torpedos into an exhaust pipe on your stadium.

NFL free agency this year is a crazy mishmash of two months of activity crammed into a week.  Yesterday the flurry of news was almost enough to make your head spin, and it's not stopping anytime soon.  Most of the stuff happening makes sense, teams are cutting veterans to get under the cap, losing unrestricted free agents to the highest bidder, maybe waiting things out for bargains to emerge, all very normal stuff. 

However, there are some things that just aren't making a ton of sense here, and those are always the first to catch my eye.  It's always dangerous to judge a work in-process, and any judgment should probably be withheld until all the dust has settled (at least that's what David Kahn keeps telling us).  But that doesn't sound like any fun at all, so let's take a look at some of the curious stuff going on so far, moving in order from perplexing to downright WTF? territory:

• Carolina bringing back all the same guys - Because, you know, when you have a roster coming off a 2-14 season, you've gotta keep that puppy intact!  It has to be acknowledged that Carolina has upgraded at QB (impossible not to) and will be getting back some key players from injury, but why hand DeAngelo Williams all that guaranteed money?  The Panthers have shown over the years that their line, not their backs, made the difference in the running game.  Over the past decade, names like Stephen Davis, DeShaun Foster, Nick Goings and Mike Goodson, none of them exactly NFL luminaries, have managed to produce quite nicely for this team.  Throw in the fact that they've got Jonathan Stewart already on the roster, and the many other holes, and I just don't get the redundancy here.

• Albert Haynesworth to the Patriots - If I'm a Pats fan, I expect to see law enforcement descending on the team headquarters at any moment, because they just pulled off a heist.  Throw in a you-just-know-he'll-be-rejuvenated OchoCinco, and they've once again managed to turn another team's trash into their treasure.  My issue in this case is not with them, but with the teams who continue to deal with them.  Washington allegedly had multiple teams interested, why choose to deal with New England over ANYONE else in the NFL?  You know they're savvy, you know they won't overpay, shouldn't they be the trading partner of last resort?  This would bug me if I was a Skins fan.

• The Kevin Kolb trade - I'm far from the only one to be a bit confused by this, and it might be that Arizona just got their QB of the future, but let's ask one question first: What would it have taken to get Kyle Orton?  I think that 2nd-round pick on it's own would've got the deal done quite nicely, no reason to throw in a budding defensive star in Rodgers-Cromartie to boot.  Not to mention that Orton would be unlikely to require the huge extension that Kolb demanded.  Now if you think that Kevin Kolb is leaps and bounds better than Orton, the point is moot.  But if you think he's only slightly better, then getting a capable QB for a third of the price, keeping a young defensive asset and drafting your QB of the future next year is a far better move.

• Atlanta signs Ray Edwards - Apparently somebody should've locked the Atlanta coaching staff and front office in a room last weekend, with the Packer playoff game on a loop.  Remember that one?  You guys gave up 48 points and 366 yards passing?  5 offensive TDs, including 3 through the air and another one where the QB walked in because you were so scared of him throwing?  28 first downs, 18 of them through the air?  And your response to this was throwing big money at Ray Edwards?  It's true he plays on the defensive side of the ball, but after watching him play on a line with three Pro Bowlers for a couple of seasons and rarely stand out, Vikings fans are greeting his departure with a collective shrug.  Edwards is a nice player, who's solid against the run, and can collect a few sacks.  But if they're thinking he's going to be enough of a force to shore up what was a brutal pass defense, then Aaron Rodgers is going to be one happy guy come this January.

• Tarvaris Jackson, Starting Quarterback - This is by far my favorite development of the offseason, and will not be topped.  When I heard that T-Jack had not only fooled another NFL team into giving him a paycheck for the next two seasons, but was going to be in the running to start (!), I was filled with glee.  Filled.  With. Glee.  Seahawks games, which should normally be avoided like Spanish cucumbers, are now must-see TV.  The idea that you would let Matt Hasselbeck go in order to set up a QB competition between T-Jack and Charlie Whitehurst defies all logic.  Then you compound things by making a WR your big free agent pickup, even though his presence will now be completely nullified by the guy under center.  I'd be perfectly willing to accept the "receivers make quarterbacks as much as quarterbacks make receivers" argument if Seattle had an NFL QB on it's roster, but as of now, I don't see one.  Of course there's always the (likely) possibility that Brad Childress was the worst coach ever, and T-Jack may flourish now that he's away from him, but the chances of that are about the same as some large-breasted Eastern European heiress arriving to cart me away to a life of luxury in the Swiss Alps.  In other words, not f*cking likely. 

But yeah, if it happens, I suppose it goes without saying that I'd have to kill myself.