NFL Offseason Winners and Losers

Many people have commented on every sports site out there about the unfortunate state of the NFL and professional sports in general. I constantly see another athlete under arrest or being charged with some crime or another. I also see players leaving places they've been for years to go to another team for more money (and very often, not much more money).

But aside from the arrests, what's most disturbing to me, particularly this season, is the amount of players who have been flat-out released by teams they've spent their whole career with. Sadly, the reality for sports fans and writers is that there is little to nothing we can do about it. And so, all I can hope to do as a sports writer is show you who has won and lost the numerous battles of trading and free agency this offseason.

Winners

Kansas City Chiefs

Acquiring Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel for the No. 34 pick in the draft is sensational. Yes, Matt Cassel could prove to be not as amazing as everybody seems to think he will be. Yes, Mike Vrabel is getting older. But that is not much to sacrifice when in the previous season the Chiefs gained a billion draft picks from Minnesota for Jared Allen. If the Chiefs are going to succeed in 2009, they need Tony Gonzalez to stay in Kansas City and Matt Cassel to perform at or near the level he did in 2008. They also need their 2008 draft picks to get over their rookie mistakes and start playing football. Keeping Larry Johnson around would also help, but I'm not going to call that an absolutely necessary. L.J. seems to be a bit of a distraction to this team.

Dallas Cowboys

No, I do not think the Cowboys should have released Terrell Owens, but it is a move I can understand. What I fail to understand is why teams are so lazy about trying to trade players who still have market value. Why wouldn't you try to trade T.O.? Somebody would take him, probably even somebody decent, like the Buffalo Bills.

For the Cowboys, though, they've been able to clean up a few things in releasing T.O. and Adam "Pacman" Jones. Those two being gone will undoubtedly improve the locker room. I'm not saying that the clique of Jason Witten, Tony Romo, and Jason Garrett are the good guys and T.O. is the bad guy, but it's far easier to deal with the problem by disposing of one player than of two players and a coach, no matter who is "right." Releasing Brad Johnson was also probably a good idea. I think we saw in that loss to the St. Louis Rams that Johnson no longer has what it takes to be in the NFL. I personally am not sure how safety Roy Williams fit into the mix of being releasable, but I imagine it is another locker room issue.

Losers

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings have tried to make numerous moves. They tried to get T.J. Houshmandzadeh from Cincinnati, but he ended up in Seattle. They've been in the mix on the Jay Cutler talks and far before that, the Matt Cassel talks, but those have amounted to nothing. The worst thing for the Vikings, however, is that they've lost two veteran team leaders to free agency. Pro Bowl Center Matt Birk left the Vikings to sign with the Baltimore Ravens and Pro Bowl Safety Darren Sharper recently signed with the New Orleans Saints.

The only move that the Vikings have made that has any potential whatsoever is the trade they made for Sage Rosenfels and that may honestly prove to be the stupidest move of all. Getting Rosenfels for a fourth-round pick though seems reasonable, even if he is only a backup for two years. This offseason has not been kind to the Vikings and unless they can somehow get Cutler or Torry Holt or both, I don't think it is going to get any better.

Tampa Bay Bucs

The Bucs perpetuated the problems of the NFL more than perhaps any other team this offseason. They released five veteran players, many of which had spent the vast majority of their careers in Tampa and they were very unapologetic about it. I can understand WRs Joey Galloway and Ike Hilliard, but releasing Warrick Dunn, who'd be happy to be nothing more than your third down back, and Derrick Brooks, who has been perhaps the greatest leader the organization has ever seen, is just awful. The organization has brought in good players this offseason (TE Kellen Winslow, RB Derrick Ward), but their attitude toward those veteran leaders is one that would make me not want to play in Tampa. It tells me that as soon as I lose a half a step or turn 35, I'll be gone and that is not something I would appreciate as a player.

You Tell Me

Denver Broncos

The fact that Jay Cutler is upset is enough to take the Broncos out of the category of winners for the 2009 offseason. I believe blame can be spread pretty thickly on all parties for this problem, but the reality is that keeping Cutler happy should have been a priority for the Denver front office and it wasn't. They made every player on the team expendable and hearing that may motivate players on the fringes to work harder, it makes extremely talented players want to find a home where they'll be more appreciated and that's what happened with Jay Cutler.

Denver has signed some interesting players including RB Correll Buckhalter from Philadelphia, RB J.J. Arrington from Arizona, and perhaps the biggest move was signing safety Brian Dawkins from Philadelphia. If, by some miracle, the Broncos can keep Cutler and keep him happy, I think they'll be okay, but losing Cutler will probably mean a rebuilding year in 2009 and that will not make the newly signed free-agents all too happy.

New England Patriots

The Patriots were on the short end of the stick (in my opinion) on the Cassel and Vrabel trade, but they seem to be picking up lots of the veterans that have been released from other clubs. They've signed RB Fred Taylor, WR Joey Galloway, CB Shawn Springs, and CB Leigh Bodden, all released from their previous teams, but who really knows if any of those players will be worth much of anything in 2009 alone. The Patriots may have made amazing signings in those instances and may have made a good trade in Cassel, but it's tough to call them winners this offseason right now.

All in all, the question I keep coming to when I hear about the latest NFL transaction is why are teams releasing players who have tradable value? What was the point of releasing Marvin Harrison, Torry Holt, Roy Williams, Fred Taylor, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, or anybody else that you could add to the list who could clearly still contribute to an NFL team? Did teams try to trade these players and there was no market for them? I doubt that highly; many of them have already signed with other teams.

I think what is most disturbing about these releases is that we are beginning to see less and less of a focus on veteran leadership on many teams, especially teams with young head coaches. Do these young coaches feel so threatened that they have to clear out anybody who the players might look to in a transition? Ultimately, one has to ask, how long will these new coaches last?