No Ceilings, No Floors

The free agency period has been a active one but not as busy as some would expect considering the lack of a salary cap for the upcoming season. One would assume that without a salary cap everybody would just begin spending as much as they wanted without regard to price as long as the owner could front the money. 


Instead it seems that a majority of the NFL is looking ahead and cleaning up their cap space in anticipation of the eventual return of a cap. Which brings up one of the little talked about aspects factored into this uncapped year: in addition to their being no ceiling limiting the amount of cap space for a team, there is also no minimum that the teams must meet. Going into this season we may see a trend of non-contending teams cutting some of their older players in favor of saving some money in the long run and getting younger. That is not to say that the free agent season has been lacking in action for teams trying to win now. So far we have had 35 players resign with their team, 35 players sign with a new team, and 7 trades.


At the end of this free agent period I'll come back and give you guys a breakdown of the most prominent moves of each of the 30 NFL teams as well as what direction each organizations seems to be headed in.


Here are the most significant players left on the market:
QBs: Jake Delhomme, Derek Anderson, Troy Smith (RFA) and Dante Culpepper
RBs: LaDainian Tomilson, Brian Westbrook, Leon Washington(RFA), Pierre Thomas(RFA), Willie Parker, Jerious Norwood (RFA)
WRs: Terrell Owens, Josh Reed, Steve Breaston(RFA), Brandon Marshall,
TEs: Randy Mcmichael, Alge Crumpler, L.J. Smith
OTs: Jared Gaither (RFA), Mike Gandy, Chester Pitts
DE: Paul Spicer, Derrick Burgess, Adewale Ogunleye, Tyler Brayton, Charles Grant, Ray Edwards
DT: Dwan Edwards, Jimmy Kennedy, Cory Redding, Alfonso Boone
LB: Keith Bullick, Jason Taylor, Antonio Pierce, Larry Foote, Joey Porter, Pina Tinoisamoa Elvis Dummervil
CB: Dre Bly, Deshea Townsend, Rod Hood, Phillip Buchanon
S: Darren Sharper, Roy Williams, Jermaine Phillips, Gerald Sensabaugh