Peter King: NFL Free Agency

Monday Morning Quarterback

NFL Free Agency: The Free-For-All Has Begun

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/03/09/nfl-free-agency-ndamukong-suh-dolphins-darrelle-revis-jets/

By Peter King

The headlines this morning, on the eve of the explosive, money-burning-holes-in-NFL-pockets 2015 free market:

• THE DEVIN McCOURTY SIGNING MAY HAVE GIVEN AWAY THE PATRIOTS’ PLAN WITH DARRELLE REVIS. Can the Patriots afford to employ the game’s second-highest-paid safety (McCourty got $9.5 annually, according to Ian Rapoport) and the highest-paid cornerback if they re-sign Revis in the neighborhood of $15 million a year? Not likely, but you never know with New England.

• GO EAST, YOUNG PROSPECT. It’s not the Wild West in the 2015 NFL marketplace. It’s actually the Wild East. The big players so far: Miami, Buffalo, Philadelphia. The big players come the opening of the free market on Tuesday: Jacksonville (likely), New England and the New York Jets (they pray).

• MIAMI MAKES AN ANTI-BRADY MOVE. In agreeing to terms with the best defensive lineman in free agency in the past 20 years, Ndamukong Suh, the Dolphins get the game’s best interior pocket-collapser—which they believe is the best strategy for facing Tom Brady. More about that on Page 2.

• CHIP KELLY HAS DENUDED THE EAGLES. If wideout Jeremy Maclin signs with Kansas City on Tuesday, which appears likely (according to Chris Mortensen), that means in the span of 12 months the Eagles coach will have gotten rid of the three biggest offensive weapons on the team: Maclin, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy. Imagine if Kelly uses Nick Foles in a gigantic package to move up from the 20th spot in the first round April 30 to pick Marcus Mariota. (Hmmmm. Trading up for Mariota.Where have I heard that before?)

• KAEPERNICK IS ON THE TRADING BLOCK? An eyebrow-raising report late Sunday night from the West Coast had the 49ers shopping around quarterback Colin Kaepernick. GM Trent Baalke quickly denied it. No idea what to believe, but if the Niners are nutty enough to trade Kaepernick with no QB currently behind him on the roster, it means 2015 truly is a bridge year. Coach Jim Tomsula could go 3-13 and there would be no heat on him—only on Baalke and Jed York.

WHAT’S NEXT. Wide receiver Torrey Smith, the former Raven, likely headed to San Francisco for $9 million a year … Ditto tight end Julius Thomas from Denver to Jacksonville, for about the same money … The Raiders, with $59 million in cap room, begging any warm free-agency body to take some of it … Haven’t heard of any team willing to pay 2014 rushing champ DeMarco Murray $10 million a year … Terrance (Pot Roast) Knighton is likely leaving Denver for Washington or Oakland … The Patriots wouldn’t actually pay Darrelle Revis his $20 million option-year compensation, would they? I can’t see it.

Which brings us to where I think the biggest news should be made this week. And if it’s not, one owner in Florham Park, N.J., will be quite beside himself.

There are some sweaty palms in Jetland this morning. Owner Woody Johnson has gotten rid of two general managers and one coach in the past 26 months, and now he has neophyte rookies in both jobs who he expects should make major noise this week: GM Mike Maccagnan, who has never been in the spotlight in his life, and coach Todd Bowles, who got a little bit of fame last year in Arizona. Five weeks ago Johnson watched the division kingpin Patriots win their fourth Super Bowl since Johnson took over Jets ownership. In the past five days he’s seen the two other teams in the division get markedly better.

The Bills have agreed to trade for the 2013 NFL rushing champion, LeSean McCoy, and hammered out a $40 million contract; acquired a hold-the-fort quarterback, Matt Cassel, from Minnesota; and moved close to signing one of the best two or three pass-rushers in the market, Jerry Hughes, to a new contract. (Hughes was at the Bills’ dinner celebrating the LeSean McCoy deal, with McCoy and team brass, Sunday night.) The Dolphins got the Suh deal done, tentatively.

The Jets re-signed linebacker David Harris, and dealt a fifth-round pick for 31-year-old wideout Brandon Marshall, and are in play for free-agent quarterback Brian Hoyer. Not good enough, unless you’re competing with Tennessee and Jacksonville for 27th place in the NFL. The Jets enter free agency with at least $48 million to spend, and an owner fascinated with a Revis reunion. “The Jets can’t not be trying to make that happen,” said a source with knowledge of the team’s inner workings.

As one opposing coach said Sunday, “Revis would be the obvious play for them, but at what cost? The hard part for the Jets is they’ve become an organization that has to overpay.” That’s what happens when you go four straight years without a winning season.

This was floated to me Sunday night by someone with knowledge of the Jets’ ideal-world plan: a secondary with Revis and free-agent Antonio Cromartie. They started as a corner tandem for the Jets as recently as opening day 2012—and Cromartie played for Bowles in Arizona last year.

Nothing can happen with Revis until the Patriots cut him. That seems likely this week, because the Pats’ cap situation is precarious, and it was never an actual plan to keep Revis at $20 million for 2015. It was simply a place-holder deal, the two-year contract Revis signed last year that paid him $12 million in 2014. The prevailing wisdom has been that New England would cut Revis and the two sides would find a common ground for him to return.

That’s certainly possible, but Revis has been a mercenary during his career (and who can blame a player for wanting to max out his value?), and if the Jets offer, say, four years and $60 million, mostly guaranteed, that’d be a hard deal for New England to compete with. Especially now that McCourty has signed just below Earl Thomas’ $10-million-a-year deal.

Revis has the one thing Johnson so desperately needs for his adrift-at-sea franchise. He’d bring legitimacy back to the team. Johnson could hold him up as an example of how the tide is turning and the talent is returning. Plus, Revis loves the lights and the pressure. It’d be a great marriage. Now we’ll see this week if the Jets can finally catch a break when it comes to dealing with their big, bad neighbor to the northeast.

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Just the facts.
The key times (Eastern Time) and dates for the NFL’s free market:

Saturday, noon: Teams could start negotiating with free agents. Contracts could not be signed, however, for 76 hours from that time (three days and four hours). But the NFL is going to realize soon—if it hasn’t already—that the only thing NOT getting done in this legal tampering period is teams getting signatures on contracts.

Tuesday, 4 p.m.: 2015 league year begins. Trades allowed. Free agency signing period begins. Will there be any, like, actual news when tomorrow afternoon rolls around?

Tuesday, 4 p.m.: Teams must be at cap number of $143.8 million (with some accounting for money carried over from what was unspent in 2014).

Tuesday, 4:01 p.m.: The first signing will be announced, certainly to be accompanied by words to this effect from the signee: “I left money on the table elsewhere.”