Huge day, the first is always big. The top 5 spending teams were all out of the playoffs last year, except for the Texans who look like they are trying to make a strong push into the playoffs.
3.Raiders $135.5M 4.Texans $126M 5.Eagles $101.5M The Giants and the Texans had the best first day at Free Agency. The Giants signed a lot of players, the biggest signing happened early yesterday Janoris Jenkins from the LA Rams. Solid young corner who can solidify one side of the field. He is not a lockdown guy and I would not put him in the top 5 corners in the league but he has talent and the ability to start and compete on most teams and against every NFL team. They also picked up Oliver Vernon who had a break out year for the Miami Dolphins last season. He had 7.5 sacks and 61 tackles. He should help a ailing Giants pass rush and maybe help out Jason Pierre Paul get him more one on one blocks. The last guy they signed was Damon Harrison, Harrrison is another young player at the age of 27 he is right in his prime. He is a run stopper in the middle recording 72 tackles last year and starting every game. The Giants only signed 3 players yesterday but they signed three young, talented, players on the defensive side. The addition of Harrison, Vernon, and Jenkins should really elevate their defense. The Giants now need some help at safety and linebacker. The linebackers are thin this year but there are some good safeties left like Eric Weddle. The Texans really did well yesterday and that was made clear by one transaction. The signing of Brock Oswieler immediately makes this team a couple wins better than last year. Now that they actually have a quarterback, the rest of free agency and the draft they can focus on rebuilding the defense. It is not easy to know whether a young Quarterback like Oswieler will become good or not but I beielive in Brock. Once he gets more starts under his belt, I think we will be able to see his full skill set. Especially in Houston, where they have a very good #1 wide receiver and a couple of good depth/role playing backs. The Texans also got Lamar Miller to replace Arian Foster. That is a immediate upgrade, Arian Foster can not stay healthy and that is why he finds himself without a job. Lamar Miller is a good young back. I like his agility and accleration. He has great speed but needs to work on the inside the tackles running if he wants to be a workhorse back, which I do not think he can be. He is small and underwieght to be the one constantly carrying the rock. He is going to need a sidekick in the backfield to make him really effective. We shall see if the Texans have someone like that on their roster (They don't) or if they go out and get one. The final two signings locked up Offensive Linemen, Jeff Allen and Tony Bergstrom. A major problem coming from this offseason for the Texans is they lost their starting center Ben Jones. Jones was versatile young player who fit perfectly into their offense. To me it is mindblowing that they let him walk then sign a guard for $28M and I am expecting Tony Bergstrom's contract to be right around $15M. Jones signed 4 years $17.5M, I do not know the disconnect between the two, but something must have happened behind close doors. Ben Jones grew up in Alabama so he could just be moving to get closer to his family, who knows. Deep down, the Texans low balled him. That is definitely what happened. Allen (Guard) and Bergstrom (center), are two good pick ups. Allen is a better linemen than Bergstrom but still two good o line pick ups to fill some wholes. The Texans need more help, they should be going after a few more players in Free Agency.
On day two I except teams to go after wide receivers, defensive linemen, and linebackers. Low end running backs will be swallowed up pretty as well. Comments are closed.
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