Football NFL NEW YEARS

[sliqwill]

holy crap...free agency opens with a BANG

Jimmy Graham to Seahawks for Max Ungar and 2015 1st rounder
Sam Bradford to Eagles for Foles and assorted picks
Haloti Ngata to Lions for not yet mentioned...

 

[Mike]

Yeah, the Bradford/Foles deal is the one that has me scratching my head the most. The only thing I can figure is that they're trying to get more picks to make it easier for them to move up for Marcus Mariota. If that's not what's going on then, once again, I gotta be happy as a Cowboys fan because evidently someone in Philly has lost their mind!

 

[sliqwill]

on facebook I have a few friends out in philly, one of them had a comment about the eagles were swapping picks in the 1st, but I haven't seen anything on Roto about it...if that is the case #10 is way easier to move than #20, but it makes no sense at all to cut salary of McCoy and spend it on Bradford

 

[Mike]

it makes no sense at all to cut salary of McCoy and spend it on Bradford

From what I've heard they had a deal all but done on Frank Gore before he up and left to go talk to the Colts. Now they're going after Demarco Murray.

 

[sliqwill]

yeah the initial talk was Gore to Philly, but the scheme in Indy is closer to SF, and apparently is doing a 'package deal' with Andre Johnson, but if they want to do a Miami connection it isn't right because they cut Wayne

Gore definitely worked the 'legal tampering' system, thumbs up to him, say you are signing somewhere and it gets others interested because they KNOW you didn't sign anything, they know roughly the money it will take, all that stuff from the 'leaks' that made it out...

not too many FA RBs that one would want to start still out on the market...I would guess Murray goes either Philly (which I said when they dumped McCoy) or Jacksonville...

 

[natehaselby02]

I heard that initially they were going to swap 1st rounders but that fell through. Kind of seems pointless now for Philly.

 

[captkirk42]

Yeah the Rams/Eagles Bradford/Foles one irritates me anyway you look at it. As a Rams fan, yes been one life-long since Roman Gabriel was in command with guys like Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen yadda yadda. As a Redskins fan a Healthy Philly Bradford would suck. Bradford was the Rams version of RGIII a young promising QB that is made of glass and very accident prone. He would be good IF IF IF he ever STAYS healthy. I think the Rams got the better deal unless those TBD draft picks stink.

 

[Mike]

Well, doesn't look like I have to worry about Murray going to Philly this year now that they've signed Ryan Mathews. I didn't think Murray would be a good fit with their offensive style anyways, but glad to see it's not going to happen now. Now it looks like Dallas and Oakland are the leaders. From what I've read, the Jags are already out unless they up their offer significantly in the coming days.

 

[sliqwill]

"Yahoo's Charles Robinson reports free agent DeMarco Murray's "top choice" is to play for the Eagles.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported this afternoon that Murray personally reached out to the Eagles, perhaps with designs on facing the Cowboys twice per year. Murray feels slapped in the face by Dallas, which rode him into the ground in 2014 on a career-threatening workload, before offering him a deal worth just $5 million per year. The level of Philadelphia's interest is not known, but Murray might be willing to go there on a cost-friendly deal to spite the Cowboys.
Source: Charles Robinson on Twitter
Mar 11 - 4:43 PM"

don't breathe so easy just yet...

also the 1 game where Latavius Murray was healthy he put up like 100 yards and 3 TDs in under a half...

today was much slower than yesterday, as expected, and to me, if a guy hasn't signed by Monday its pretty much 'game over' until after the draft

 

[Mike]

According to a writer who works for the Cowboys, talks between Murray and the Cowboys began to "heat up" today, and Murray has still made no visits with other teams (although he did personally call Chip Kelly today). He did go on to say, though, that the Cowboys and Murray are still far apart on price as Murray is looking for a contract similar to what McCoy got from the Bills (which he deserves, imo). I look for the Cowboys to bump their offer to him slightly within the next 48 hours, but as you say it might be too late now if he feels like he's been slapped with the Cowboys' initial offer. That said, so far no other teams have offered him any more.

I also saw a report on ESPN today that said that it's unlikely that any remaining teams would want to spend the money that Murray is looking for (over $8 million per season) on a running back. The one team they mentioned that could afford to try it is the Jags, but they already have Denard Robinson and Toby Gerhart so that might lessen the chances that they'd spend that much.

It's clear that nobody still knows what's going to happen with Murray, but I wish whatever it was would happen quick so I could quit reading about it. Dallas just needs to pony up the dough to keep this offense in tact, and worry about the defense with remaining money and the draft. At least that's what I'd do.

 

[Mike]

I just received an NFL Mobile notification letting me know that Murray is scheduled to meet with the Eagles tomorrow (Thursday). The article also said that the remaining teams feeling is that Murray wants to stay with the Cowboys but is trying to use competition to drive up his own price tag. That doesn't mean he won't still sign with the Eagles, but the fact that they signed Mathews (and cut McCoy because of his bloated salary), lead towards them not wanting to pay huge money.

The report also said that, as of now, the Raiders have made the highest offer.

 

[sliqwill]

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports free agent DeMarco Murray "is expected to" sign with the Eagles.

Which now begs the question of whether Ryan Mathews will back out of his contract. With Murray going to Philly, Mathews will have a much harder time earning built-in incentives. We'll wait to make the Murray deal official until he signs on the dotted line, but the Cowboys appear to be moving on, too. Reports indicate they've begun reaching out to other free agent running backs.
Source: Adam Schefter on Twitter
Mar 12 - 12:20 PM

 

[Mike]

Yep, I just received another alert that says Mathews hasn't actually signed his contract yet and it does, indeed, now look like Murray will be in Philly next season. That's a bit of a bummer, for sure, but I don't think he adds anything extra to their team from last year. In fact, I'd argue that McCoy was a better fit for their style of offense than Murray will be. The problem now, though, is that Dallas' running game just got worse. Now they'll need to find a back who can get those tough yards because Dunbar and Randle won't be able to get it done, for sure.

 

[natehaselby02]

The draft is deep at running back. Dallas won't have any problems getting a new back.

 

[franklinguy52]

I like Gurley from Georgia, he is coming off an injury but is a big back. very similar to Murray