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All quiet for Rams on first day of free agency
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_53ee169c-a2e6-5905-884d-e8202b505220.html
Apparently, the Rams weren’t kidding when saying they were unlikely to be players in the early going of free agency.
Last year at this time, tight end Jared Cook was in the building. Two years ago, cornerback Cortland Finnegan was being fitted for a Rams jersey.
This year, hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts were shelled out all over the NFL on Tuesday. Within two hours of the start of the free agency period, 13 players on the Post-Dispatch Top 30 list of free agents were gone.
But all was quiet at Rams Park.
The departure of Rodger Saffold, as reported Sunday on STLtoday.com, became official Tuesday. As expected, it turned out to be Oakland. And as expected, it turned out to be for a very lucrative price: five years, $42.5 million.
Saffold gets $16 million in the first year of the deal and will be paid $27.6 million over the first three years.
To put that in perspective, Saffold’s per-year average of $8.5 million equals what four-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Jake Long received from the Rams last year in free agency. Saffold’s guaranteed money in Oakland — $21.6 million — trumps the $16 million Long received. (Granted, Long’s deal was four years compared to Saffold’s five.)
The Rams offered Saffold around $6 million a year, but their proposal included playing time incentives that would’ve bumped the deal to $7.5 million, according to league sources. Coach Jeff Fisher got involved over the weekend, as did general manager Les Snead, trying to persuade Saffold to stay — but to no avail.
There were mixed signals as to whether Saffold would play tackle or guard in Oakland, because the Raiders lost left tackle Jared Veldheer in free agency Tuesday. If Saffold indeed plays guard, the Raiders could be looking to draft an offensive tackle at No. 5 overall.
The offensive tackle dominoes fell as advertised Tuesday. Veldheer went to Arizona (five years, $35 million); Kansas City’s Brandon Albert went to Miami (five years, $46 million); and Eugene Monroe stayed in Baltimore (five years, $37.5 million).
Even in what was a weak class of free-agent guards, all of the top guys found new homes Tuesday: Denver’s Zane Beadles to Jacksonville; Kansas City’s Jon Asamoah to Atlanta; and Kansas City’s Geoff Schwartz to the New York Giants.
(Yeah, the Chiefs’ offensive line pretty much got wiped out Tuesday.)
Of those guards, Schwartz is the only player known to have drawn interest from the Rams. The only guard of note still out there is two-time Pro Bowler Davin Joseph, who was released Monday by Tampa Bay. But Joseph is 30 and missed the entire 2012 season with a knee injury. Joseph did start all 16 games for the Buccaneers last season, but by all accounts his play declined.
Meanwhile, the Rams could be losing two other guards from their 2013 roster — unrestricted free agents Chris Williams and Shelley Smith. Williams, who started all 16 games at left guard last season, has three teams interested, according to a league source. Houston has been rumored to be interested. Smith has had at least four teams express some degree of interest.
The Rams seem more interested in re-signing Williams than Smith.
In the secondary, there was a similar run on safeties, with San Francisco’s Donte Whitner (to Cleveland), Cleveland’s T.J. Ward (to Denver), Indianapolis’ Antoine Bethea (to San Francisco), New Orleans’s Malcolm Jenkins (to Philadelphia) and Carolina’s Mike Mitchell (to Pittsburgh) going within the first few hours.
Contract details on the safeties were largely unavailable early. But Bethea’s contract was for a reported $26 million over four years, or $6.5 million a year.
Those were all of the top safety names — except for Buffalo’s Jairus Byrd, the Clayton High product. And later Tuesday, about 5½ hours into free agency, Byrd agreed to terms on what at face value appears to be a blockbuster deal with New Orleans.
Byrd was considered by many to be the top, or among the top, players available at any position in free agency. The Rams expressed only minimal interest in Byrd all along, perhaps feeling his price would be too high. And according to ESPN, Byrd was way up there, with a six-year contract that averaged $9 million a year and includes $28 million in guaranteed money.
A couple of other free-agent safeties still on the market are Miami’s Chris Clemons and Kansas City’s Kendrick Lewis. But Clemons already has a first visit scheduled elsewhere, and the vast majority of times players end up signing on that first visit.
At cornerback, another highly regarded free agent, Alterruan Verner of Tennessee, agreed to terms with Tampa Bay, where his skills in zone coverage should mesh well with new coach Lovie Smith and his Cover-2 based scheme.
Verner’s four-year, $26.5 million contract averages about $6.5 million a year, which seems very reasonable considering expectations were that he’d be in the $8 million a year area. Plus, Sam Shields and Vontae Davis re-signed with their teams for much more — just under $10 million a year. (Two years ago, the Rams signed Finnegan $10 million a year.)
The Rams were in the mix for Verner, at least as of midafternoon Tuesday. Obviously that changed. There still were a few corners of note available on the market as of late Tuesday night, including Baltimore’s Corey Graham, Miami’s Nolan Carroll, and San Francisco’s Tarell Brown. But like Clemons at safety, Graham has a first visit scheduled elsewhere.
Finally, the Rams cut ties with cornerback Quinton Pointer by not tendering him as an exclusive rights free agent by Tuesday’s deadline.
Also, contrary to some reports, Houston defensive end Antonio Smith is not scheduled to make a free-agent visit to St. Louis.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_53ee169c-a2e6-5905-884d-e8202b505220.html
Apparently, the Rams weren’t kidding when saying they were unlikely to be players in the early going of free agency.
Last year at this time, tight end Jared Cook was in the building. Two years ago, cornerback Cortland Finnegan was being fitted for a Rams jersey.
This year, hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts were shelled out all over the NFL on Tuesday. Within two hours of the start of the free agency period, 13 players on the Post-Dispatch Top 30 list of free agents were gone.
But all was quiet at Rams Park.
The departure of Rodger Saffold, as reported Sunday on STLtoday.com, became official Tuesday. As expected, it turned out to be Oakland. And as expected, it turned out to be for a very lucrative price: five years, $42.5 million.
Saffold gets $16 million in the first year of the deal and will be paid $27.6 million over the first three years.
To put that in perspective, Saffold’s per-year average of $8.5 million equals what four-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Jake Long received from the Rams last year in free agency. Saffold’s guaranteed money in Oakland — $21.6 million — trumps the $16 million Long received. (Granted, Long’s deal was four years compared to Saffold’s five.)
The Rams offered Saffold around $6 million a year, but their proposal included playing time incentives that would’ve bumped the deal to $7.5 million, according to league sources. Coach Jeff Fisher got involved over the weekend, as did general manager Les Snead, trying to persuade Saffold to stay — but to no avail.
There were mixed signals as to whether Saffold would play tackle or guard in Oakland, because the Raiders lost left tackle Jared Veldheer in free agency Tuesday. If Saffold indeed plays guard, the Raiders could be looking to draft an offensive tackle at No. 5 overall.
The offensive tackle dominoes fell as advertised Tuesday. Veldheer went to Arizona (five years, $35 million); Kansas City’s Brandon Albert went to Miami (five years, $46 million); and Eugene Monroe stayed in Baltimore (five years, $37.5 million).
Even in what was a weak class of free-agent guards, all of the top guys found new homes Tuesday: Denver’s Zane Beadles to Jacksonville; Kansas City’s Jon Asamoah to Atlanta; and Kansas City’s Geoff Schwartz to the New York Giants.
(Yeah, the Chiefs’ offensive line pretty much got wiped out Tuesday.)
Of those guards, Schwartz is the only player known to have drawn interest from the Rams. The only guard of note still out there is two-time Pro Bowler Davin Joseph, who was released Monday by Tampa Bay. But Joseph is 30 and missed the entire 2012 season with a knee injury. Joseph did start all 16 games for the Buccaneers last season, but by all accounts his play declined.
Meanwhile, the Rams could be losing two other guards from their 2013 roster — unrestricted free agents Chris Williams and Shelley Smith. Williams, who started all 16 games at left guard last season, has three teams interested, according to a league source. Houston has been rumored to be interested. Smith has had at least four teams express some degree of interest.
The Rams seem more interested in re-signing Williams than Smith.
In the secondary, there was a similar run on safeties, with San Francisco’s Donte Whitner (to Cleveland), Cleveland’s T.J. Ward (to Denver), Indianapolis’ Antoine Bethea (to San Francisco), New Orleans’s Malcolm Jenkins (to Philadelphia) and Carolina’s Mike Mitchell (to Pittsburgh) going within the first few hours.
Contract details on the safeties were largely unavailable early. But Bethea’s contract was for a reported $26 million over four years, or $6.5 million a year.
Those were all of the top safety names — except for Buffalo’s Jairus Byrd, the Clayton High product. And later Tuesday, about 5½ hours into free agency, Byrd agreed to terms on what at face value appears to be a blockbuster deal with New Orleans.
Byrd was considered by many to be the top, or among the top, players available at any position in free agency. The Rams expressed only minimal interest in Byrd all along, perhaps feeling his price would be too high. And according to ESPN, Byrd was way up there, with a six-year contract that averaged $9 million a year and includes $28 million in guaranteed money.
A couple of other free-agent safeties still on the market are Miami’s Chris Clemons and Kansas City’s Kendrick Lewis. But Clemons already has a first visit scheduled elsewhere, and the vast majority of times players end up signing on that first visit.
At cornerback, another highly regarded free agent, Alterruan Verner of Tennessee, agreed to terms with Tampa Bay, where his skills in zone coverage should mesh well with new coach Lovie Smith and his Cover-2 based scheme.
Verner’s four-year, $26.5 million contract averages about $6.5 million a year, which seems very reasonable considering expectations were that he’d be in the $8 million a year area. Plus, Sam Shields and Vontae Davis re-signed with their teams for much more — just under $10 million a year. (Two years ago, the Rams signed Finnegan $10 million a year.)
The Rams were in the mix for Verner, at least as of midafternoon Tuesday. Obviously that changed. There still were a few corners of note available on the market as of late Tuesday night, including Baltimore’s Corey Graham, Miami’s Nolan Carroll, and San Francisco’s Tarell Brown. But like Clemons at safety, Graham has a first visit scheduled elsewhere.
Finally, the Rams cut ties with cornerback Quinton Pointer by not tendering him as an exclusive rights free agent by Tuesday’s deadline.
Also, contrary to some reports, Houston defensive end Antonio Smith is not scheduled to make a free-agent visit to St. Louis.