3 takeaways after 3 days of free agency
/As usual, the first day of free agency included some huge moves. Things have slowed down a little bit, but we've already seen some fascinating trends. Here's 3 big takeaways so far:
1) NFL QBs continue to be the most overpaid position in sports and nothing is going to change that.
Brock Osweiler just got a $72 million dollar deal. If that's not overpaying I don't know what is.
The simple fact is that there's about 15 or so high quality QBs, it's just too tough of a position for all 32 teams to have a competent starter under center, and this fact seems to trump everything else. Never mind that since the Ravens overpaid Flacco they have missed the playoffs twice and gone 1-1 in a stretch with a depleted defense that surrendered 52 points. Never mind that one of the worst performing QBs in 2015 just won the Super Bowl (remember that Manning threw 17 INTs to only 9 TDs in the regular season). Never mind that we still see consistently that defense wins Championships (see the Seahawks in SB 48, the Giants in SB 46 and obviously the Broncos in SB 50).
Despite all of this, QBs are still having money thrown at them all over the place. Heck, it even seems likely that RG3 will START for someone in 2016.
2) The NFC East is still the murkiest division in football.
Honestly, all four of these teams could be top notch contenders or the dregs of the league.
The Eagles have a new head coach in Doug Peterson and seem determined to purge themselves of all of "Chip Kelly's players", immediately moving on from Demarco Murray, Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell as soon as they were able to. They could be building towards something or could still be years away from a roster that's fit for anyone but Chip Kelly.
The Giants have been incredibly active in free agency, especially on defense. This bodes well for a team that seems to bottom out regularly and then abruptly turn everything around and win the Super Bowl. That being said, the team has been too inconsistent since 2011 to have much confidence about that.
The Redskins and Cowboys have both been fairly quiet so far. The Cowboys remain a Tony Romo injury away from going 4-12 again, and the Redskins are still...well...the Redskins. Both these teams are total question marks heading into 2016.
3) Free agency has made it almost impossible to repeat as champs
The last team that was able to repeat was the Patriots and it's almost impossible to imagine the Broncos are going to change that this year. Denver's roster has already had some major holes poked in it (seriously, have the Super Bowl champs ever lost TWO QBs?). The same is true for the consistently competitive Seahawks, they're starting to lose players and coaches.
