NFL Free Agency

NFL free agency is a huge deal every year, and teams restructure their futures, and players have a change to reload their already exploding bank accounts. To the outside world this time of the year may seem like complete chaos, where star players may end up on the other side of the map from where they were playing the previous year, and teams make signings or releases that seem completely out of the blue. However there is a method to this madness and just about every signing is made for a particular reason. In the rest of the essay I will outline some of the common moves made by teams, and give the reasoning behind them.



Defensive Lineman Mario Williams
Photo Courtsey of Celebs101

                One of the most common moves that you will see made during NFL free agency is weak teams in strong divisions paying enormous sums of money for defensive linemen, whom used to be regarded as dime-a-dozen players. Many people wonder how an average defensive lineman will get a 100 million dollar paycheque from a team who is generally offensively weak, and playing against stout opponents. The reason behind this is that they figure that the best way to stop an offensively powerful opponent is by shutting down their quarterback, and the best way to shut down a quarterback is to sack him. Generally it is the defensive linemen who get the most sacks therefore making it smart for them to pick up a defensive lineman.

                The second common trend I will address is the frenzy over backup quarterbacks, most people wonder why backup QB’s are such a hot commodity, seeing as they generally don’t come with that much experience, and were usually a backup for a reason. The reason why backups (usually ones who play behind star QB’s) are such hot commodities is because team’s figure that they work with star players on a daily basis, and with that will acquire some of their traits. So by signing say Tom Brady’s backup, you are signing the closest thing to Tom Brady that you can get.

                The last trend to be addressed in the phenomena of signing players, whether they be friends or ex-teammates of a player they are trying to court. The reason that teams do this is to make their environment more appealing and stable for a large name free agent whom they want to sign with them. By having a wide receiver who a QB you are trying to sign played with you make your team much more appealing, because it gives him some consistency, and he has a player who’s characteristics he knows.

                Hopefully with this insight it makes the signings that have already happened and the upcoming ones easier to understand.