NFL free agency, and a cautionary tale
NFL free agency starts in less than a week.
But the reports have surfaced and some trades have already been accomplished. Let’s start with a couple of trades that happened Wednesday.
The Seahawks sent Michael Bennett and a seventh-rounder to Philadelphia for some wide out and a fifth-rounder. Of all the things Philly did well on its way to the Super Bowl, it was mediocre in sacking the quarterback. (The Eagles finished tied with Dallas for 15th in the league with 38 sacks last season.) The Eagles return their top five defensive linemen from last year, will be a read-made replacement (and improvement) over Vinny Curry, the lone Eagles starter not signed for 2018, and could rotate among ends Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Chris Long and Bennett. Rich getting richer. We’ll discuss more on this from the Seattle side in a moment.
The Giants acquired Alec Ogletree from the Rams for picks in round 4 and 6. Ogletree, a former Georgia star and first-round pick, is an athletic specimen. And new Giants GM Dave Gettleman came to the Big Apple from Carolina, which has been built defensively on athletic linebackers named Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis. Plus the Giants were dreadful covering opposing tight ends, something Ogletree has excelled doing in his career. That said, it’s understandable why the Rams tired of Ogletree’s immense potential and limited production. According to ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell, Ogletree was in on 16.1 percent of the tackles against running plays; that figure was 60th in the league among players with at least 200 snaps. As free agency approaches, this deal was addition by subtraction for the Rams, who have created enough cap space to potentially resign Mark Barron and Sammy Watkins now.