Washington does it one way, 31 teams the other
NEW YORK (AP) — When free agency began more than a decade ago, teams desperate to fill holes overpaid for ordinary players and went nowhere.
Thirty-one teams have learned from that, most of them waiting for a player who fits their needs AND their budget.
Not Daniel Snyder and the Washington Redskins, as they’ve once again demonstrated during the first 10 days of free agency 2004.
The other teams are much more careful with their cash.
“I’m very biased for Warren Sapp,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden said after his seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle suggested he would test the free-agent market. “At the same time, there’s a business side of pro football.”
In other words, the Bucs will take Sapp back, but won’t pay superstar money for a 31-year-old whose All-Pro years probably are behind him.
The Redskins, who paid $50 million in bonuses the first three days of free agency, are doing it their way: identify a player as the best available at his position and outbid everyone — even though the money far exceeds the player’s value.
“When you do that, you end up with B players getting A money because of the paucity on the market,” agent Leigh Steinberg says.
Exhibit A of a B player: Cornelius Griffin, whom the Redskins paid $8 million up front to sign.
Griffin might have been the best young free agent defensive tackle available and Washington badly needed one. Overall, though, Griffin might be in the top two dozen at his position, but certainly not in the top 10.
That didn’t stop Snyder from paying Griffin far more than he’d have received from any other team, including his old one. Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi laughed when he was approached with Griffin’s demands.
Then there is cornerback Shawn Springs, who got a $10 million bonus.
Springs was the third overall pick in the 1997 draft, but has been injury-prone, was suspended in 2001 for a steroid violation, and spent most of last season as Seattle’s nickel back behind rookie Marcus Trufant and Ken Lucas. He’s not close now in skill to Champ Bailey, who Snyder traded to Denver.
“Superstar players by and large never get to free agency,” says Steinberg, who negotiated a $43 million, seven-year deal with the Redskins for 34-year-old quarterback Mark Brunell, definitely on the downside of his career. “Most teams pre-emptively sign their superstars prior to free agency.”
That’s what this year’s free-agent period has been about, starting with Peyton Manning, who re-signed with Indianapolis and got a record $34 million signing bonus in return.
The only “superstars” available when the signing period began were Sapp (aging) and Jevon Kearse, whom Tennessee declined to designate its franchise player in part because he has been bothered for two years by foot problems.
The third was supposed to be wide receiver Terrell Owens.
But Owens’ agent missed the Feb. 21 deadline to void the final years of his contract. The 49ers then traded him to Baltimore, but the deal is on hold while an arbitrator rules on an appeal filed by the players’ union asking Owens be declared a free agent.
Even if Owens is turned loose, his feuds with coaches and teammates and his on-field showboating will drive away a lot of teams.
Philadelphia, the team Owens says he wants, already has signed Kearse to a $66 million, eight-year deal that included a $16 million signing bonus. After losing three straight NFC title games, that was almost a necessity for the Eagles to appease their fans.
But Philadelphia also is following the policy that has kept it on top.
Last week, the Eagles picked up linebacker Dhani Jones in what was essentially a trade of linebackers with the Giants; New York signed Carlos Emmons from the Eagles.
And they’re continuing the policy of not throwing money at their own older players, even good ones like cornerbacks Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent, and running back Duce Staley, who signed with Pittsburgh.
Then there are the champions.
The Patriots were ravaged by injuries early last season and lost their only high-paid free agent, pass-rushing linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, in the second game. But six rookies played major roles as they won their last 15 games, including the Super Bowl.
A typical signing this year: restricted free agent Rodney Bailey, a defensive end who was a backup in Pittsburgh and cost the Patriots only a sixth-round choice. A no-name, he is a perfect signing because he fits Bill Belichick’s 3-4 defense.
Carolina, the NFC champion, is led by a core of draft picks on defense: Julius Peppers, Kris Jenkins, Dan Morgan, Mike Rucker and Ricky Manning Jr. The Panthers added two key free agents last season in quarterback Jake Delhomme, who had been a career backup, and running back Stephen Davis, released by Washington.
That’s another characteristic that makes the Redskins different from anyone else. Snyder, football’s version of George Steinbrenner, tends to get disillusioned with his own players and falls in love with outsiders.
So he cut Davis last year and traded Champ Bailey, the NFL’s best young cornerback, to Denver for running back Clinton Portis and a second-round draft pick (nobody is sure why). Then he signed Portis to an eight-year, $50.5 million deal.
No one doubts Portis’ credentials — he rushed for 1,591 yards in 12 games last season, his second in the NFL.
But he missed four games and parts of others, and running backs often have a short shelf life. Terrell Davis, the first in a long line of standout Denver runners who preceded Portis in the last decade, rushed for 6,413 yards in his first four seasons. Then he tore a knee ligament and never really came back.
Because of the salary cap, teams that sign players to huge contracts early in their careers can get trapped with what’s known as “dead money” if players are hurt or fail to perform. That’s because most contracts are backloaded with big payouts at the end.
Mike Barrow was cut by the Giants this week because he will be 34 next season and would have made more than $4 million this year. Tampa Bay is letting five-time Pro Bowl safety John Lynch go, and Carolina released left tackle Todd Steussie this week.
It’s something the Redskins may learn the hard way.