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National Football League
Draft King Analysis
March 2, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
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Two teams that this site presently projects to take a first-round wide receiver, the Seahawks and Titans, have signed free agent wide receivers. Today Seattle came to terms with former Bengals WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, while Tennessee signed WR Nate Washington, who just won a Super Bowl with the Steelers last month.
 | T.J. Houshmandzadeh has signed with the Seattle Seahawks. (Icon SMI)
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I doubt that the presence of Houshmandzadeh would prevent the Seahawks from drafting Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree at #4, even though Seattle offered Houshmandzadeh a large contract (a five-year, $40 million deal with $15 million guaranteed). As for the Titans? They just lost WR Brandon Jones to free agency (he signed with the 49ers on Saturday), and the team has had serious wide receiver needs going back to when the team lost Derrick Mason in 2005.
The Titans struck twice today, following up on the Washington deal by signing former Buccaneers DT Jovan Haye to a four-year, $16 million contract (no word yet on how much of that is guaranteed). Haye, who played college ball in Nashville at Vanderbilt, has been an important part of Tampa Bay's defensive line over the past two seasons. The Titans had to do something to fill the void left at defensive tackle by the departure of DT Albert Haynesworth to the Redskins mere hours after the start of free agency.
An interesting free agent signing that I haven't commented on yet is Chris Canty, a 3-4 DE in Dallas who is expected to play DT for the Giants in their 4-3 defense. It will be interesting to see how he makes the transition; Canty was a rather productive run-stopper in Dallas. Also worth noting is that losing Canty might prod the Cowboys to look toward the draft to find another 3-4 defensive end, or at the very least look to add depth at DE in the draft.
As a follow to the Jay Cutler situation, Peter King reported yesterday that he heard that Cutler asked for a trade shortly after Broncos QB coach Jeremy Bates left the team to take a job at USC. What does that mean for 2009? It's too soon to tell. But, clearly, things are off to a rocky start with Jay Cutler and the new administration in Denver.
Two late notes tonight: first, the Washington Redskins have cut DE Jason Taylor, who the team acquired in July 2008 from Miami for a 2009 second-round pick (which turned out to be the #44 overall selection) and a 2010 sixth-round pick. Second, the Tampa Bay Bucs (who have tons of cap space) have signed RB Derrick Ward (who had spent his entire career with the Giants) to a four-year deal worth $17 million with $6 million guaranteed.
As for Taylor, this report on ProFootballTalk.com, citing an unnamed league source, indicates that Taylor has been "contacted already by roughly a dozen teams". Taylor is a six-time NFL Pro Bowl selection and, while he turns 35 in August, there seems to still be interest in the league for him. Taylor may also opt to retire, though as of yet there aren't any indications that Taylor is contemplating such a move.
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