Friday, March 5, 2010

A worthless free agency class in 2010

It is free-agency Friday 2010... and what a worthless one it is too! More than 200 players who should have been unrestricted free agents--including Brandon Marshall and Jayri Evans--are now restricted due to the death of the CBA. You might argue that the moment the owners opted out of the CBA, this free agency class was fucked to the gills. However, they still might have worked out a new deal by March 1. No such luck. When the clock struck 12:00:00 on March the 1st, this free agency crop was plowed under.

If you are a Ram fan, there is not much reason to get excited about this moment in history. The best we can possibly due is to sign two veteran free agent guards in the 30s: Stephen Neil of the Patriots and Bobby Williams of the Bengals. That is as good as it gets. There is no reason to get excited about A.J. Feely. He's going to be bench-rider unless somebody gets hurt... which is an eventuality unless we sign Stephen Neil and Bobby Williams.

What happens if we get these two veteran guards? You will see my nature rise, that's what. I am cautious by nature. I don't like to exaggerate the value of a couple of free agents. However, there is good reason to believe that our line may suddenly harden like slag-aggregate concrete if we add these two gents. We will have two competent, mature and profession men at the guard positions for the first time since our quality years between 1999-2002.

The right or the left tackle will still be a problem, depending upon which one Jason Smith IS NOT playing. However, if we go through with our plans to make Jason Smith the LT, Adam Goldberg can hold down the right, as he has for many of our games lately.

Speaking of which, what about Alex Barron's fate? We are dangling him in front of the league for the price of a 2nd round draft pick. I am pessimistic on the notion that anyone will take the bate. If so we are in luck. If not, I guess he will be back with the team in 2010. If he is back at Left Tackle we better hope we have two southpaw QBs who look to that side of the field. Vick would not be too concerned about Barron at the LT. A.J. Feely would be a dead meat.

Looking down the list of players, there isn't much there that we might get. The receiver class is utter and abject shit. We don't really need a running back. We are pretty set at the linebacker position. There are a couple of nice DBs on the list but they are almost sold. I did like Aaron Kampman, there are medical concerns about his knee, and it seems very likely that we will draft Ndamukong Suh (or Gerald McCoy), sharply reducing our need for defensive linemen. Further, reports indicate the Eagles are moving quickly to close a deal with him.