Is your head still spinning? Â Well, mine is. NFL transactions will do that to you.
There have been deals upon deals upon deals going around the NFL like transactions at your nearest corner store. Â Big trades and free agent acquisitions as well. Â Football fans all over are already wondering will the big deals mean more for their teams or will the tweaks have the right impacts. Â Some teams deciding not to re-sign certain players and the teams that have picked up those same players. Â The obvious deals people have talked about most include Antonio Brown to the Raiders and and OBJ to the Browns. Â Letâs stop and pause and talk about those two first.Â
Antonio Brown to the Raiders has made a few of us scratch our heads over that deal. Â They had already traded away the younger Amari Cooper to Dallas midseason only to go get the older Antonio Brown. Â Amari Cooper usually is the type of player and at the age that you go get him when you are thinking win now. Â With Gruden having 9 years left on his deal, you often donât think win now. Â Now to the flip-side of it all, you canât be mad at it. Â The Raiders went and got arguably the best wide-out in football and only spent a 3rd and 5th round pick for it. Â The reality is, Brown may have helped in this deal by being the person he is and made the Buffalo deal go away. Â Whether the Raiders keep Carr or go with another QB, they have a weapon to work with.
Now to talk about Odell Beckham, Jr to the Browns. Â On paper, this has become the best Browns team in my lifetime. Â Now that isnât hyperbole either. Â Isnât really hard considering they havenât been good in a long time. Â Heck, they havenât made the playoffs since 2002. Â This Browns team now has Mayfield, Hunt (even with the 8 game suspension), Nick Chubb (heck of a one-two punch), Jarvis Landry and OBJ reconnect (and with Landry as a #2 and OBJ as the #1, that is going to reek havoc on secondary defenses in the AFC North). Â Baker Mayfield may just have the type of swagger needed to corral this offense. Â This doesnât ignore the defense they are building with Miles Garret being the cornerstone as well. Â
The Jets havenât been quiet either. Â I know you didnât think we werenât going to talk about LeâVeon Bell signing for 4 years at $52.5 million (with $35 million guaranteed). Â Their big offseason may have begun with the coaching hires. Â Head coaching hire of Adam Gase was only the beginning. Â We have seen that he can work with QBâs. Â Not to mention coordinator hires of Gregg Williams for DC, and Dowell Loggins at OC. Â The offseason has clearly been about giving Sam Darnold some weapons. Â Going to pick up Jamison Crowder and Josh Bellamy and obviously culminating in the signing of LeâVeon Bell is another NFL team giving young QBâs great weapons. Â
Some teams have been all about the tweak.  The Bears had a formidable defense in 2018.  They werenât going to be able to keep everyone.  Some of it was going to be about teams raiding the Bears cupboard and other things were going to be salary cap casualties.  No one in their right mind thought the Bears were going to be able to keep Vic Fangio (especially when we found out Denver was interested).  Also Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan (salary cap likely was part of it for Callahan along with injury history for the Bears not over-spending) had earned bigger paydays.  Bears seem to have gotten a good DC in Chuck Pagano and he is going to have a lot to work with.  Many Bears fans, felt the Bears should have drafted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix some years ago instead of drafting Kyle Fuller.  Well with the assisted help of recruiting by other Alabama Alum Eddie Jackson, Ha Ha Clinton Dix is now a member of the Bears secondary.  The Bears are working to build a defense that has no holes in the âat all category!â Now we know the release of Mr. Double-doink, Cody Parkey was obvious (Pepsi foreshadowed Parkey moments in the âIce the Kickerâ commercial that Bears fans had to hate).  Will be be saying the Bears âBlewittâ with the signing of Chris Blewitt (his name scares many with so many games being determined by kicks).  Will the Bears draft a kicker in the later rounds, or continue looking on the free agent market.  Oh and for those that wonder why the Bears released Robbie Gould some time ago⌠well all you have to do is look at the contract he had in Chicago ($15 million with $9 million guaranteed).  He was a salary cap issue that the new GM didnât want to have to see as an albatross.  The 49ers were smart to franchise him, because Chicago likely would have done whatever it took to get him back to Soldier Field. Â
In the words about Chicago, We must talk about were some people ended up. Â The Broncos definitely wanted want to enjoy and imagine what Vic Fangio will do with having Von Miller. Â Vic Fangio also reunites with Bryce Callahan as he signed with Denver as of Friday (3/15). Â The Packers scoop up a former Chicago Bears as well. Â With Amos, the Packers picked up a hard worker and a potential coach on the field in him. Â Green Bay tried to grab Kyle Fuller last offseason, but will have to settle for Amos. Â Will he turn out to be to consolation prize or will the Bears regret letting him go. Â Longtime Packers Clay Matthews and Nick Perry will no longer suit up with the team in 2019. Â The Packers signed Preston and ZaâDarius Smith as replacements. Â Oh and they are finally working to get some protection for Aaron Rodgers in signing Billy Turner who had a breakout season with the Broncos in 2018. Â Rodgers was already hard enough to get a hold of, and they are working to make it harder.Â
Other things going on in the NFL transaction market could prove to be very important. Â The Titans picked up Ryan Tannehill and that could be big considering he is joining the QB room of the oft-injured Marcus Mariota. Â Speaking of QBâs, will the Nick Foles free agent signing by the Jacksonville Jaguars prove to a good or bad idea. Â Foles has looked good in spurts, but only in Philly and with the right receivers and the right OC (one way or another, he cashed in after already holding the title of MVP for Super Bowl LII). Â Dee Ford to the 49ers show that John Lynch really may be good at this GM thing. Â The NFC North is really trying to be the hardest division in football with both the Packers and Lions making a lot of deals. Â Matt Patricia reunites with Trey Flowers. Â Versatility is what Patricia needs and and that is what Trey flowers has. The Lions didnât ignore offense with the signing of Danny Amendola and Jesse James. Â Now I know I missed some names. Â Probably the names you all wanted me to mention. Â That only adds to the point about my head is still spinning. Â