the pinjockey

Culpepper to the Fins for a 2nd rounder, pending physical (a big pending the way they have seemingly hid Culpepper from the Miami doctors). http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5411538 Has to be considered a good deal assuming he passes the physical as they desperately need a QB and he has the ability to be a top QB. That said there are some big risks even throwing out the injury. He did blow last year before getting hurt. How much did Moss fluff him? Amusing fact (to me of course): The Eagles got more for AJ Feeley from Miami than Culpepper brought in. Reggie Brown for Feeley will end up as one of the best couple trades, if not the best, in franchise history.

What I don't get is why sign all of these middling FAs? Granted it isn't a great FA market, but if you are going to sink a ton of assets into WR you might as well make a play for TO. You put TO and Moss together with Cooley and Portis, and that is sick. Take the money they gave ARE, Archuleta and will probably end up giving Lloyd and that will get you TO with a big enough contract to feed his ego enough to where you might get two years out of him. In the short term, that could put them in the SB. These moves just do nothing short or long term, IMO.

I think it is questionable that they have made great moves. Wasn't huge into Randle El to start and at $30 mil it's nuts. Brandon Lloyd is inconsistent and to give up a 3rd and a 4th (two cheap assets they are going to need eventually), plus reportedly getting ready to do a new deal is giving up way too much Archuleta is a joke at that money and now they have two safeties who are better towards the line of scrimmage, you do have to cover people downfield eventually. Looking at his stats Carter seems to be a signing with some upside, but not seeing many Niners games I don't know if his sacks came from DE or as a stand up rusher in a 3-4 scheme. People who see Niners games would know better there. Are they improvements? Sure. Is Washington turning into something special? I just don't see it. And it will fit under the cap the same way they got under the cap. You only need $10 million in real cap room to give out $50 million dollars in bonuses this offseason by prorating it for 5 years. Spend up to the brink and when it appears time for the cap reaper to come around another labor dispute will bail them out.

Time for a bump. If the teams aren't filled up by next Monday we can open it up to having multiple teams.

He wouldn't be a bad pick for them, he would be a nice compliment for Muhammad and at the rate he is rising there isn't any chance that Chad Jackson is still around for them to jump on. Moss seems to be the consensus third best (at worst majority third best) WR in the draft.

You can get a return man in the middle rounds of the draft. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Also, Archuleta at 5 mil per with a 10 mil SB is downright asinine.

Some Eagle fans complaining? Wow, that's a shocker. Must be a day that ends in Y. Maybe they haven't learned that signing for the sake of signing isn't what wins you the title in the NFL. To be fair though, with all the new money flying around you are going to have to overpay to get people and they do have some holes to fill. Granted 6yrs/$31 w/ $10SB for Randle-El is completely insane, but it does mean they might have to increase their given "value" for a player to get a Moulds or Givens done (which IMO is absolutely necessary, one of those two is needed now). Or maybe where a Ryan Pickett was worth 3-4 mil before, now you might have to pay 5 mil to get it done. They might actually HAVE to overpay people for the sake of it to get over the salary floor, so it might as well be for someone who can help while they're available. Bashing them for Bentley is stupid, bashing them for "gawd worst offseason ever" two days in is retarded, but bringing up the problems about an inflexible philosophy isn't invalid IMO.

Which is the main reason why I don't want the Eagles to sign him. Did they up him to the franchise tag? Last I saw he was just tagged with the "transition" label, so they wouldn't give up picks if they signed him.

Jamaal appeared to be a very good run blocker, but I have questions (mostly due to his inexperience) about calling the passing game from center (blitz pickups, line shifts, etc.). Putting Hutch next to him would help out in that giving some more experience there where it isn't all on him to recognize the situations. Plus maybe Hutchinson could remind him when to snap the ball.

Due to the fact I am fan of Todd Herremens, I don't see OT as an issue. I think he will be, at worst, a good OT this season. The issue I have with the middle of the line is that Hicks blows as a guard and that is the weak spot of the line. Jamaal Jackson I have questions, but put Hutch and Andrews next to him and most of those issues clear up. That is why I would be willing to pump huge money into that weak spot. Now if D'Brickshaw falls somewhat and you don't have to mortgage a ton of assets to get him then of course, but if they have to trade into the top 5 and end up paying him huge money anyway I would just save the picks and put the money in Hutchinson.

LeCharles Bentley signed with Cleveland. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2364025 The shit is about to hit the fan in Philly. There are two lines of thought going around right now. 1.) Bentley backed out of a deal with Philly, which the FO will still be blamed for since they should have "doubled Clevelands offer immediately, god the FO is sooooo cheap" 2.) The media was blowing most of the smoke, which in that case they absolutely BURIED the Eagles FO by pumping everyone up for Bentley, when he wasn't even a name being thrown around a month ago. If it was option 1 and they wanted interior line help, they HAVE to go get Hutchinson for whatever it takes now. With their cap situation they could find a way to make his contract a poison pill for Seattle. If it was option 2, hopefully they make a big signing at a different position pretty quickly or else it is going to be a nightmare.

I can't see bringing him in to be a 4-3 end at this point in his career. If they go after a DE, I wouldn't have a problem with Aaron Kampman. He would be a nice compliment to the pure pass rusher in Trent Cole. Those two could turn that second DE slot into a positive as opposed to the joke it has been the last couple years. Looking at this post apparently I have become a Yankees fan. I see a hole and want to spend big money on it, my wish list so far: Bentley Givens Kampman Witherspoon Mawae (move Bentley to guard, a Bentley-Mawae-Andrews middle of the line would be sick)

McGinnest in Philly doesn't make much sense, given that he has been a 3-4 pass rusher for a while now. I will reiterate my desire for David Givens though. I like what they did in getting Shawn Barber for, essentially, the veteran minimum. If he has anything left that have a nice athletic LB (see: first Eagles stint), if he doesn't have anything left no harm no foul.

Pretty much the same on this one. Expand a little though to see a heart of the order of Utley-Abreu-Howard-Burrell. That could be monster this year. Also looking forward to seeing how Madson does as a SP this year. On the minor league front, looking forward to the Reading pitching rotation. Depending on who they send, the Reading rotation could be a preview of the future Hamels-Gio-Mathieson.

Well, this increased cap bails out pretty much every team over the cap. I now have new respect for Dan Snyder. His whole reign all you kept hearing was "eventually they'll have to pay" and "the cap is going to catch up to them at some point", yet it never does. It finally comes to the brink and they're bailed out. Maybe he really was the smartest man in the room and saw this day coming. They should have played this year at the 94.5 million number. There is going to be some insane money thrown around to FAs now though with all the extra cap room, on one Eagles MB someone who always knows their cap status estimated that after dumping TO the Eagles will have around 35 mil in cap room. That is nuts.

At this point I eagerly await Wed. night when they push back FA another three days. It is apparent that the owners do not want to go on without an new deal, so just cave in already and let teams worry about offseason matters and the draft.

Given the way they have played since the AS break, I'd be happy to see the Flyers in the Conference Semis. I am going to have to file a missing persons report for the step that Pitkanen seems to have lost (if his groin is still bothering him, this year is a wash for him with the condensed schedule remaining it won't heal). It was last seen at a restaurant with the three steps Eric Desjardins has lost since coming back from the shoulder injury.

Looks like as soon as FA opens up LeCharles Bentley will be an Eagle. link If this comes to fruition I'll be a very happy camper. Fraley was solid for a couple years, but with the emergence of the 3-4 defenses he was just way overmatched. Jamaal Jackson looked decent in his short run, but let's not kid anyone here you don't pass up a Bentley for him.

I'd like to know what the hell Hitch is thinking with some of his line combinations and try to correct that before I blow up the team. There is no excuse for Brian Savage being on a Forsberg line, there is no excuse for Mike Richards centering a line between Radiojovevic and Brashear when he has been arguably their most consistent forward all year, there is no excuse for continuing to run Savage, Brashear and Turner Stevenson out there period. In the little bit they have worked together, Richards and Knuble seem to have some chemistry. Since that is the case they need to break up the Gagne-Forsberg-Knuble line to try to make a second scoring line. Run a team out there of: Gagne-Forsberg-Carter Knuble-Richards-Acquired forward Kapanen-Handzus-Umberger Radio-Nedved-Stevenson (this line gets two minutes a night) And if they make a move it better be for someone like Jokinen who can make things happen. The last thing they need to do is trade for another slow, plodding power forward who can't create anything for himself.

Just to further mock the Redskins. From an ESPN.com article: What happens if a team doesn't comply with the salary cap? No team has ever gone over the salary cap, so this is a bit of an unknown. Could Commissioner Paul Tagliabue penalize a team by taking away draft picks? Or fines? With some teams in dire cap shape, we could find out sooner rather than later. The Washington Redskins are one team to watch in this regard, since some other clubs which have studied the Redskins' cap closely have suggested Washington cannot mathematically get into compliance.

I think, though, that when you remove the salary floor there are going to be at least handful of owners that decide that money in their pockets is more important than the team on the field. And put that with the fact that in the uncapped NFL, it will take players 6 years to become FAs instead of 4 years, which would likely cause a decrease. An interesting quote from an agent: "It might mean that no rookies get signed because no one is sure of the long-term ramifications," said Tom Condon, the agent for a number of the game's top players. I wonder if this will have any impact on the draft in terms of making signability picks or trades for much less value than expected or if the will draft as usual and hope for a resolution.

Don't overlook the fact that they aren't just losing the salary cap, they are also losing the salary floor. All of the doomsayers are saying how players are going to want huge money in the almighty uncapped year. But for every team willing to increase payroll, you are likely to have a smaller team (the ones that want the revenue sharing) decreasing their payroll. I don't think it is unreasonable to see a scenario where the total money going to players decreases, instead of increasing due to the lack of cap.

The order will be set when the mock draft starts. No need to lock an order down before then.

The Washington Redskins in particular are going to be gutted over this. I am loving the reports that they might have to run 20 rookies out there next year.

Without the new CBA, they did not increase the cap as much as was projected (if it was increased at all). The cap is going to be around 95 mil, where some teams were projecting in the 110 mil range (see: Redskins). So instead of how it usually is, where a couple teams are over and have to cut a couple players, now you have a bunch of teams having to cut between 15-25 million in salaries. Most of the teams don't have that much in bad contracts, so they have to cut the pricier legitimate players as well.