Free Agency

Tomorrow - Friday 5th March - is the beginning of the NFL Free agency period. This period is a confusing one most years, but this year, with the lack of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) it is even worse.  I will try my best to keep this as simple as possiable.

There are 2 different types of free agent - a Unrestricted Free Agent (URFA) and Restricted Free Agent (RFA).  The difference between these types is that a URFA can go out and sign with any team he wishes, without any penalty to that team.  A RFA's team may match any offer offered to their player, and if the player decides to move teams, the original team will recieve draft picks as compensation.  Still with me??  OK, here is a list of players that are:

URFA - availiable to everyone without penalty! (Players of Interest)

QB's

Charlie Batch, Kyle Boller, Mark Brunnell, David Carr, Daunte Culpepper, A.J Feeley, Rex Grossman, Josh McCowen, Chad Pennington, Patrick Ramsey, Chris Redman, Brian St. Pierre.

RB's

Jamal Lewis, LaMont Jordan, Dantrell Savage, LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Westbrook, Chris Brown, Kevin Faulk, Samkon Gado, Ahman Green, Justin Griffith, Verron Hayes, Jeremi Johnson, Larry Johnson, Dan Kieder, Willie Parker, Arian Peterson (Bears), Tony Richardson, Aaron Stecker, Chester Taylor, Chris Wilson.

WR's

Tory Holt, Devard Darling, Justin Jenkins, Nate Burleston, Arnaz Battle, Marty Booker, Antonio Bryant, Chris Chambers, Terrance Cooper, Mike Furry, Joey Galloway,  Greg Lewis, Brandon Lloyd, Martin Ruvell, Derick Mason, Sean Morrey, Muhsin Muhammed, Kassim Osgood, Terrell Owens, Josh Reed, David Tyree, Bobby Wade, Kevin Walter, Kelley Wahington.

TE's

Derek Fine, Fontel Mines, Anthonny Becht, Dan Campbell, Alge Crumpler, Darnell Dinkins, Casey Fitzsimmons, Micheal Gaines, Ben Hartstock, Will Heller, Reggie Kelly, Bandon Manumaleuna, Randy McMichael, Billy Miller, Jeff Robinson, Sean Ryan, L.J Smith, Ben Watson, Todd Yoder.

OL

Tyler Reed, Orlando Pace, Hank Fraley, Tra Thomas, Casey Weigmann, Jeremy Bridges, Chad Clifton, Damion Cook, Kynan Forney, Mike Gandy, Brandon Gorin, Conell Green, Rex Hadnot, Ben Hamilton, Artis Hicks, Russ Hochstein, Montrae Holland, Jon Jansen, Levi Jones, Nick Leckley, Kevin Mawae, Damion McIntosh, Seth McKinney, Stephen Neal, Dennis Norman, Tony Pashos, Chester Pitts, Casey Rabach, Tutan Reyes, John Runyan, Ephraim Salaam, Kendell Simmons, Barry Sims, Wade Smith, Mark Tauscher, Ryan Tucker, Keydrick Vincent, John Wade, Langston Walker, Bobbie Williams, Mike Williams, Billy Yates.

DL

Jared DeVires, Jason Babbin, Justin Bannon, Tyler Brayton, Alfonso Boone, Kendrick Clancey, Phillip Daniels, Ryan Denney, Marques Douglas, Nick Easton, Dwan Edwards, Jason Ferguson, Jarvis Green, James Hall, Reggie Haywood, Vonnie Holiday, Tank Johnson, William Joseph, Jervon Kearse, Jimmy Kennedy, Travis Kirschke, Leonard Little, Adewale Ogunleye, Julius Peppers, Corey Redding, Fred Robbins, Bryan Robinson, Ian Scott, Paul Spicer, Hollis Thomas, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Jimmy Wilkerson, Renaldo Wynn, Jeff Zgonina.

LB's

Antonio Peirce, Derrick Burgess, Gary Brackett, Tully Banta-Cain, Monty Beisel, Bertrand Berry, Keith Bulluck, Rocky Boiman, Khary Campbell, Vinny Ciurciu, Danny Clark, Angelo Crowell, Karlos Dansby, Chris Draft, Larry Foote, Ryan Fowler, Scott Fujita, Tony Gilbet, Nick Greisen, Larry Izzo, Aaron Kampman, Paris Lennon, D.D Lewis, Darrell McClover, Chike Okeafor, Brian Scott, Junior Seau, Josh Stamer, Jason Taylor, Chaun Thompson, Pisa Tinoisamoa, Jeremiah Trotter, Jeff Ulbrich, Mike Vrabel, Tracey White, Matt Wilhelm, Sam Williams.

CB's

John Wendling, Will Allen, Dre Bly, Leigh Bodden, Ralph Brown, Verron Fox, Nick Harper, Walt Harris, Anthony Henry, Roderick Hood, Corey Ivy, William James, Todd Johnson, Kevin Kaesviharn, Ty Law, Ken Lucas, Lawyer Milloy, Dunta Robinson, Brian Russell, Benny Sapp, Deshea Townsend, Frank Walker, Matt Ware, Dante Wesley, Brian Williams.

S's

Mike Brown, Tyrone Carter, Ryan Clark, Nick Ferguson, Clinton Hart, Nate Jones, San Jones, Marquand Manuel, Jermaine Phillips, Hank Poteat, Pierson Prioleau, Mark Roman, Darren Sharper, Roy Williams.

P's

Mitch Berger, Jeff Feagles, Chris Hanson, Hunter Smith, Matt Turk.

K's

Jay Feeley, Shayne Graham, Neil Rackers, Matt Stover.

So as you can see from the list it is not the best ever class of free agents.  The reason for this is that without a CBA, players are only eligable to become URFA after playing 6 years in the league (instead of the usual 4).  Therefore alot of players that would have been URFA have fell into the RFA catagory.

I am not going to list all of the RFA here as most of them are likely to stay with their current teams.  If you do wish to see all of the RFA's you can take a look at my 'So you think you could be a GM' post -http://tinyurl.com/yzqqacw and see ALL free agents for all teams.  Here you will be able to look at which players for your team are RFA's, and which you would like to keep.

Heres where free agency gets even more confusing.  In this year without a CBA, other rules have come into play effecting the top 8 teams from last years playoffs.  The TOP 4 teams (i.e Saints, Colts, Vikings, Jets) may only sign a URFA if they lose one of their URFA.  Also, they may only pay the FA they sign less, or equivilant to the salary of the lost FA.  The next 4 teams (i.e Chargers, Cowboys, Cardinals, Ravens) still may not sign a player until they lose one.  But they do have more flexability with the wage structure.  They may pay one player over $5.5m, and one player $3.7m or less.  Hope your still with me!!

So take a look through the list of free agents, Who would you like to see your team sign??  Let me know Email - nflgbview@googlemail.com, Twitter - www.twitter.com/nflgbview, or search nflgbview on http://www.facebook.com/, or leave a comment.

Tomorrow should be an exciting day with players like L.T, T.O, Brian Westbrook and Julius Peppers all likely to be on the move.  Never fear - nflgbview will keep you up to date.