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A dive into the free-agent pool: NFC East
Cold, Hard Football Facts for March 13, 2007
Testing the Waters
How NFL teams are flowing as the clock ticks toward draft day
WEDNESDAY: NFC East
LATER FRIDAY: AFC EAST
By the staff of Cold, Hard Football Facts
The way we see it, there are only three ways things can unfold once a team jumps into the pigskin pool that is the free-agency period.
Teams are either sinking ...
... treading water, or they're
... swimming away from the competition.
We'll judge each NFL team here, starting with the NFC East. Couple issues to keep in mind:
ONE - simply signing free agents willy-nilly doesn't mean your team is having a good off-season. Picking up free agents will, of course, be part of a larger strategy of improving your team. And that strategy will unfold quite a bit more once the draft rolls around. Then there's the issue of spending wisely. Teams have a lot more to spend this year with the big jump in the salary cap, but recent NFL history has shown more often than not that it pays to spend wisely across many areas of your team than it does to dump money into a couple high-profile positions.
TWO - It's still pretty early in free-agency. Unrestricted free agents can sign with new clubs up through the start of training camp. The signing period for restricted free agents concludes April 20. So there's still a lot of action to unfold:
- 448 players became free agents earlier this month
- 56 have jumped to new clubs (as of this morning)
- 54 have signed with their old clubs (though one, Miami's Wes Welker, was quickly traded to New England)
- Last year, 154 free agents signed with new teams
We'll have more on free agent trends in the near future, but the NFL issues an updated list of who has come and gone each day. See the most recent list here.
THREE - Most outlets will pass judgement on each team's free-agency efforts based solely upon what they think about each teams efforts. The Cold, Hard Football Facts, as they typically do, judge everything within the context of some concrete, empirical evidence. We judge each team's efforts in relation to their strengths and weaknesses last year. It's basically a free-agency version of our 2006 Fillability Index, which we'll update again after the 2007 draft.
Basically, under each team's heading, you'll find their ranking in various key statistics and their ranking in each of our Quality Stats.
So let's see who's sinking, who's swimming and who's treading water, starting with ...
NFC EAST:
DALLAS (last year's record: 9-7)
How they ranked in 2006
|
Total O |
Score O |
Rush O |
Pass O |
Total D |
Score D |
Rush D |
Pass D |
|
5 |
4 |
13 |
5 |
13 |
20 |
10 |
24 |
Free agents signed:
T Leonard Davis (Arizona)  T Marc Colombo (re-signed)
K Martin Gramatica (re-signed)
Free agents lost:
C Al Johnson (Arizona)
DE Kenyon Coleman (NY Jets)
Free-agency status: Treading water.
 The Cowboys were a fairly prolific but efficient offensive machine last year. Their weaknesses came on defense, and in its pass defense in particular. Oh yeah ... there was that little problem getting off field-goal attempts, too. But we have no index to measure a bright young star getting kicked in the gonads by fate.
To this point, though, Dallas has been mildy inactive in the free-agent market. They did dump piles of cash on former Arizona tackle Leonard Davis ( a reported seven-year, $50 million deal). The six-year veteran was the second overall pick out of Texas in the 2001 draft, but has never quite turned into the impact player the Cardianls expected. Yes, it's a shocker: Arizona blew a high draft pick.
Dallas also re-signed its own tackle, Marc Colombo, to a two-year deal. He must feel a bit underpaid. He started every game for the Cowboys last year but, at right tackle, will earn about half of the underachieving Davis.
Free agent kicker Martin Gramatica will be back in a Dallas uniform, too. He proved more than a servicable kicker in nine games last year, connecting on 7 of 9 field goals and every single extra point that was actually handled properly in front of him.
The other big move was signing veteran quarterback Brad Johnson to hold a clipboard for Tony Romo. Johnson had been released by Minnesota, so he doesn't actually qualify as a free-agent pick-up. He brings 15 years of NFL experience, and a nifty 67-44 career record as a starter, into the Big D.
Too bad the Cowboys didn't have an experienced veteran back-up last year.
Dallas desperately needs help in its pass defense and has yet to address that need in free agency. Look for retread head coach Wade Phillips and his staff to go after defensive backs on Draught Day.
N.Y. GIANTS (8-8)
2006 rankings
|
Total O |
Score O |
Rush O |
Pass O |
Total D |
Score D |
Rush D |
Pass D |
|
14 |
11 |
7 |
19 |
25 |
24 |
14 |
28 |
Free agent signed:
C Shaun O'Hara (re-signed)
Free agents lost:
K Jay Feely (Miami)
TE Visanthe Shiancoe (Minnesota)
Free-agency status: Sinking.
 New York is the city that never sleeps. But it seems Giants management never got the memo. The G-Men have more or less idled away the free-agency period. The team's only free-agent move was to re-sign center Shaun O'Hara, while losing kicker Jay Feely. This is a guy who nailed 58 of 69 field goals (84.1 percent) in his two years with the Giants. Now New York will probably be forced to expend a draft pick replacing him.
The Giants did make something of a splash last week (and by "splash" we mean it in only the least ripple-inducing manner possible) when they traded wideout Tim Carter to Cleveland for Reuben Droughns the other day.
It's a nice little pick up. But Droughns is hardly a player that will make New Yorkers forget the amazing and incredibly productive Tiki Barber, who last we saw was being emotionally serenaded by fans at Giants Stadium before walking off into the sunset of a life in TV.
"Reu - ben"
"Dro - ughns"
... just doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
The bigger problems for the Giants remain on the defensive side of the ball. Their pass defense gave up a lot of yards, though they were at least mediocre in defensive passer rating. Their defensive line will also need help in the draft. The Giants, with big-name players on their DL, ranked just 21st in our Defensive Hog Index.
Back on offense, no team in football shows a greater disparity between passing-game star power (Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, Jeremy Shockey) and actual production (23rd in passing yards per attempt).
So, as shocking as it may seem, this star-studded pass-catch ensemble needs a few additions in the draft.
PHILADELPHIA (10-6)
|
Total O |
Score O |
Rush O |
Pass O |
Total D |
Score D |
Rush D |
Pass D |
|
2 |
6 |
11 |
3 |
15 |
15 |
26 |
9 |
Free agent signed:
DE Juqua Thomas (re-signed)
Free agents lost:
S Michael Lewis (San Francisco)
QB Jeff Garcia (Tampa Bay)
Free-agency status: Treading water
 Like Pittsburgh over in the AFC in past years (and New England until this year), the Eagles have turned a sober, steady free-agent gameplan into unmatched success. Philly has won 10 or more games in six of the past seven seasons, won five of the past six division titles in the rough-and-tumble NFC East, and famously appeared in four straight conference title games from 2001 to 2004.
The Eagles appear content to follow the same path here in 2007: they are quietly keeping its house in order and re-tooling for 2007.
The Eagles re-signed free agent and pass-rushing specialist Juqua Thomas, who racked up six sacks last year in part-time work. They waved bye-bye to safety Michael Lewis and to quarterback Jeff Garcia.
Garcia is a Cold, Hard Football Facts favorite who performed wonderfully last year in relief of Donovan McNabb (just as we had predicted he would) and still appears to have plenty of football left in him. Philly's a big town, but not big enough for two Pro Bowl-caliber quarterbacks. The Eagles smartly chose to send one of 'em packing, and Garcia was nabbed by Tampa Bay.
Philly's biggest need is obvious: the Eagles must shore up their run defense. They ranked 26th in rush defense last year, surrendering 136.4 YPG on the ground. They were also just the wrong side of mediocre on our Defensive Hog Index.
So look for the Eagles to stock up on run-stoppers in the draft. They've yet to do so here in free agency.
WASHINGTON (5-11) 2006 rankings
|
Total O |
Score O |
Rush O |
Pass O |
Total D |
Score D |
Rush D |
Pass D |
|
13 |
20 |
4 |
21 |
31 |
27 |
27 |
23 |
Free agents signed:
LB London Fletcher (Buffalo)
S Vernon Fox (re-signed)
CB Ade Jimoh (re-signed)
CB Fred Smoot (released by Minnesota)
Free agents lost:
G Derrick Dockery (Buffalo)
CB Kenny Wright (Cleveland)
Free-agency status: Sinking.
 The poster boys for piss-poor free-agent signings and salary-cap mismanagement over the past decade, the Chief Troll's beloved Redskins are facing yet another potential disaster of an off-season here in 2007.
The Washington pass defense last year had more holes in it than Al Czervik's golf game, ranking dead last in defensive passer rating (97.8), and 23rd in pass yards allowed (218.2 YPG). They've done little to fill in this gap. They re-signed two DBs from last year's turnstile of a pass defense: Vernon Fox and Ade Jimoh, who combined for a nifty 1 of Washington's total (and totally inept) 6 INTs all of last year.
They also waved bye-bye to CB Kenny Wright, who also registered a thrilling 1 INT last season. Washington did grab former Redskins DB Fred Smoot, who spent the past two years with Minnesota. But the Vikings released him after he picked off just three passes in two seasons.
(All of which reminds us of one of the truly amazing stats from last year: the Redskins picked off 6 passes for a total 25 return yards throughout the entire 2006 season. Remember, this is a secondary with big names on it, including Sean Taylor and Shawn Springs.)
Linebacker London Fletcher was a nice free-agent pick-up for Washington. But this team has a lot of work ahead of it to become competitive defensively.
Where are Dave Butz and Darrell Green when you need them?
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