Few teams are taking liberties with free agency

Sporting News, The, March 10, 1997 by T.J. Simers

Imagine the possibilities: If they can clone sheep in Scotland, then why not the same with losing quarterbacks in the NFL, thereby providing every mediocre-to-crummy team with Chris Chandler, instead of requiring him to pack and move to a new city every year or so.

A year ago, Atlanta was hosting the Olympics; now it's the site of Chandler's decade-long, "Stiffs-R-Us Tour,"which has included previous smashing stops with the Colts, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Rams and Oilers.

Chandler has a record of 30 -57 in games in which he has pitched at least one pass, and while that makes him a natural to play for the Falcons, they still had to give the Oilers fourth- and sixth-round draft picks to get Chandler, thereby earning Houston general manager Floyd Reese THE SPORTING NEWS NFL executive of the year honors before the season even begins.

As for Atlanta fans, they should look on the bright side; based on track records, by season's end Chandler will be hurt or in coach Dan Reeves' doghouse and Tommy Maddox will be compiling the interceptions for the Falcons.

And so it goes early in 1997--not a whole lot happening in the NFL these days unless you're into Lawrence Phillips' offseason audition for Real Stories of the Highway Patrol or looking for Hard Copy details into Todd Kinchen's honeymoon, which ended with the Broncos cutting him.

More than two weeks into free agency, and of the more than 400 available unrestricted and restricted free agents, the NFL has approved the contracts of eight players moving from one team to another.

A year ago at this time, 29 unrestricted and restricted free agents had already made the jump to different teams.

Something's not right here. Nothing's happening. This is the time of the year when the real trashy teams such as the Lions, Giants, Cardinals and Bucs get the chance to raid the rosters of the rich and improve overnight, but to date 23 teams have failed to take advantage of free agency.

Take away Seattle's early rush by Paul Allen, who will know better next year after being initiated into the NFL owners' fraternity, and the NFL Players Association would be demanding an investigation into possible collusion among NFL teams to keep salaries from escalating by not signing the opposition's players.

The most significant news to date in free agency has been the Raiders' signing of quarterback Jeff George, and technically he doesn't qualify as one of the 400-plus unrestricted and restricted free agents who became available in mid-February because he has been unemployed since last season and falls into the special category of crybaby.

There just isn't much happening. Three quarterbacks of little note have been involved in trades, and although there have been numerous Elvis sightings, no one seems in a hurry to crown him king.

That's it, no blockbusters, no team making a bold run for immortality come next January. With the exception of the Bills, who announced they will not try to win next year's Super Bowl after assigning their quarterback duties to Billy Joe Hobert and Todd Collins, the usual suspects remain the favorites to excel again.

The Packers kept defensive lineman Gilbert Brown and signed Falcons safety Brad Edwards at the outset of free agency. Now general manager Ron Wolf says the team has no intention of inviting any other free agents to Green Bay--even for a visit.

"Our whole concentration is signing our own players," Wolf says. "I'm not surprised there hasn't been a lot of activity around the league, but I don't have a reason. Maybe people are evaluating what's available and considering it overpriced."

OK, so the Packers might have one of the deepest rosters in the league and they are coming off a Super Bowl win. But how come the rest of the league isn't making a run at the Packers' roster, overpriced or not? So far the Packers, 49ers, Cowboys and even the Patriots--probably the best four teams coming off last season--have yet to lose a player in free agency.

No money, teams say. In more than a dozen cases, they say, there's not even enough to pay the drafted players they will select in April. If anyone is going to be signed, they say, it will be their own players.

A year ago, teams point out, the salary cap increased $3.7 million a team; this year it increased $700,000. Next year, they say, after the new TV money kicks in, there will be all kinds of money to sign good players.

Nonsense. If you're the Saints, 3-13 in 1996, still saddled with Jim Everett at quarterback and never in the franchise's 30-year history have you won a playoff game, how come you didn't send a limo for the likes of Jerome Bettis, Terry Allen, Paul Gruber, Brad Hopkins, Gilbert Brown, Terry McDaniel, Randall McDaniel or Tony Martin before they ever had the chance to resign with their teams?

The Saints say they couldn't do a thing because they had less than $20,000 remaining under the salary cap. Nonsense. Cut 'em, cut 'em all. Go ahead and name one good Saints player. Heck, just name a Saints player other than Evereth Cut 'em all and start over. Why not? Carolina and Jacksonville started with much less and within two years they were playing in the NFC and AFC championship games.