The Money Pit

At 12:01am on Saturday morning, the NFL's free agency period officially kicked off. And thanks to the extension of the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement, the teams with ample salary cap room made a huge splash.

Despite adamantly denying that they'd pursue a high-priced RB, the Arizona Cardinals threw $30M over 4 years at Edgerrin James, who happily flashed his gold teef grin and signed his name on the dotted line (or put an "X" down, thanks his University of Miami education). Naturally, the Cardinals addressed their woeful offensive line by inking OG Milford Brown, who comes to the desert by way of Houston, who allowed the most sacks in the NFL the last few seasons.

Another big-time RB, Jamal Lewis, re-signed with Baltimore for a 3-year deal, which essentially is a glorified 1-year contract. Baltimore had hoped to retain Chester Taylor, who backed up Lewis a year ago, but he signed with Minnesota. The team signed Jamal Lewis despite already having locked up free agent RB Mike Anderson (Denver) earlier in the weekend.

Minnesota made a huge splash by signing Seahawks OG Steve Hutchinson to a monster offer sheet, which Seattle has 7 days to match. Minnesota has apparently front-loaded this deal so much, and are willing to grossly overpay an interior lineman, in a hopes to get Hutchinson's services. I'll have more on this one later, but it's worth noting that the Vikings re-signed WR Koren Robinson, but placed enough clauses in the contract to protect themselves if K-Rob reverts to being a turd. Minnesota once again spent some money on defense, grabbing LB Ben Leber from the Chargers in a modest signing. They added Ryan Longwell (K, Green Bay), as well.

Cleveland made the biggest opening day splash, as they signed two key free agents from the NFC South to improve their offensive line. C/G LeCharles Bentley (New Orleans) and OT Kevin Shaffer (Atlanta) add instant credibility to the Browns, as does the signing of WR, and Cleveland native, Joe Jurevicius (Seattle). The Browns also added a quality punter (Dave Zastudil) and a monstrous DT Ted Washington (Oakland).

Philadelphia had a verbal agreement in place with LeCharles Bentley, and were reportedly not happy to see him back out at the last minute to sign with Cleveland. Offensively, the Eagles did add TE Matt Schobel (Cincinnati), who gives the Eagles two very good pass-catching TEs.

Today, Philadelphia used some of that money to sign prized DE Darren Howard to a multi-year contract, who when teamed with Jevon Kearse, gives the Eagles a pass-rushing duo comparable to the Strahan/Umenyiora combo the Giants have.

Speaking of the Giants, the team added CB Sam Madison to the secondary, essentially replacing Will Allen, who had fallen out of favor in and around the Meadowlands. The team did lose out in its effort to retain DT Kendrick Clancy, who couldn't resist the money Arizona was offering him. I guess some guys don't mind losing 10 games a season in front of 30,000 people.

The Rams improved their defense by handing $33M over 6 years to LB Will Witherspoon (Carolina), and immediately announced that he'd be moving to the MLB spot. Some bad news for the Rams was the departure of SS Adam Archuleta, who at times, was the best defender the team had over the years. He's had some health issues recently, but that didn't stop Daniel Snyder and the Washington Redskins from tossing some money his way.

The Redskins, despite not being a team thought to have much cap room, made some major splashes this weekend. In addition to Archuleta, the team added 2 high-priced WRs. Brandon Lloyd was had in a trade with San Francisco, where the Redskins gave up a 3rd round pick this year, and a 4th round pick next year, and the team has reportedly signed him to a 6-year deal worth nearly $30M. The same financial package (give or take a few bucks) landed the Redskins Antwan Randle-El (Pittsburgh). Washington now has 3 young, dangerous WRs. Whether or not they realize that there's only 1 football is yet to be seen.

Carolina retained RB DeShaun Foster, and improved their trenches a bit with the signings of C Justin Hartwig (Tennessee) and DT Maake Kemoeatu (Baltimore), who is a 6-5, 350-lb beast in the middle of the defensive line. Carolina's defense did take a slight hit with the departure of LB Will Witherspoon (St. Louis) and S Marlon McCree (San Diego).

SEAHAWKS STRATEGY

Seattle entered the weekend with about $17M in cap room to play with, and not many glaring needs. If Hutchinson leaves for Minnesota, Seattle's cap room will swell to nearly $24M, since the current cap number includes the money set aside for Hutchinson under the transition tag.

Seattle has already lost WR Joe Jurevicius and SS Marquand Manuel, the latter signing a 5-year / $10M deal with the Green Bay Packers. Manuel had a good season filling in for the injured Ken Hamlin, but Seattle didn't view him as a starting safety in the long run. He's a great role player, is excellent in the locker room, but you don't give that type of contract to a reserve.

Jurevicius' departure hurts a bit more, as he bailed the Seahawks out last season when the team lost both Darrell Jackson and Bobby Engram to injuries. Jurevicius responded with a career year, including 10 touchdown receptions. His selflessness, toughness and leadership helped the Seahawks avoid the dropped passes that plagued the team in 2004. With him gone, the opportunity is there for third-year WR DJ Hackett to elevate his status.

The Hutchinson Contract

We really don't know the full details of the contract Minnesota offered Hutchinson. Aside from the contract length (7 years) and total value of the contract ($49M), we don't know some key elements that make deciding whether or not to match the offer worthwhile to the Seahawks.

One rumor has the 1st year cap hit at approximately $8.5M, which is excessive for an offensive lineman, let alone a guard. Seattle already has $6.3M committed to Hutchinson, so in a year where there's not a lot of great players worth spending money on, an additional $2.2M of cap room might be worth it.

Another, more widely reported, rumor has the 1st year cap hit at somewhere between $13-14M, which is just absurd. Minnesota has the most available cap room of any team in the NFL, so that they went after Hutchinson wasn't good news for the Seahawks front office.

There's also a rumor floating around that Minnesota included a clause that stated that if Steve Hutchinson isn't the highest paid lineman on the team, his entire contract is guaranteed. This deal would make Hutchinson the highest paid lineman on Minnesota, but in Seattle, it would fall slighly short of what Seattle is currently paying the league's best offensive lineman, Walter Jones. Minnesota would do something like this to make it impossible for Seattle to match, as guaranteeing $49M is committing cap suicide, as well as has the potential to alienate the player's teammates.

It's worth noting that Hutchinson's agent is Tom Condon, who has the reputation as being the sort of guy who doesn't give a rat's ass about the best interest of his client, so long as he gets his name in the paper for getting record deals.

So what does Seattle do? I'm not really sure at this point. Too much is unknown regarding the contract. I will say that I agree with Hugh Millen, who has repeatedly mentioned how relatively insignificant the left guard position is to the Seahawks offense. Seattle has some depth along the offensive line, so it's not essential to the team's long-term success to overpay for Hutchinson.

At the same time, Seattle doesn't have many holes, has ample salary cap room, and can afford to overpay in year 1 of this contract.