Fall is attributed with many characteristics. Fall is associated with falling leaves, cooler weather, a change in the Earth, apples and daylight savings time where we get to “fall back an hour” and gain an hour of sleep. Sports fans attribute fall with something much more special than fruit and leaves. When sports fans think of fall, they automatically think “football!”

Every athletic team has events going on year round. The sports have a designated playing time, which is denoted as their “season.” The time spent off the field, court, ice, etc. is denoted as the “offseason.” Each sport, team and organization takes part in the year-round activities. The National Football League, or NFL, is no different.

Football starts it off right with preseason. Preseason is valuable in many different aspects. The most important aspect is that it gets the players and coaches fully prepared for what the road ahead of them might contain. It also gives players the chance to get their kinks worked out as a team against many different opponents. It also gives teams to chance to play as one unit instead of scrimmaging against themselves as they would have been doing for months. Of course there is the one last thing that the preseason is used for – the fans. Fans get to watch their teams and gauge how they will do in the regular season even though it really has no effect or output on the matter. Also, fans can use the preseason to decide which players they wish to draft, or add, to their fantasy teams.

The particular part of the year that I will discuss is that of what is happening in the offseason of the NFL. Currently, the NFL is undergoing the process of the free agency. The free agency is a period of time where players can be resigned, traded or released, for different sums of money based upon their years of experience playing professional football.

The specific rules of the free agency vary across the board for each sport, but the NFL has three specific types of free agents. The first type is the Unrestricted Free Agent. The unrestricted free agent is a player who falls under one of three criteria. The first is that they have been released from their club. This could be due to any number of reasons ranging from the player is just not performing as well as the organization simply cannot afford the player anymore. The second is that the terms of their original contract have expired without a renewal from their organization. The third is that they were not chosen in the draft of the amateur players. Generally speaking, these players are free to sign with any team of their choosing or with whatever team will sign them.

The second type of NFL free agent is the Restricted Free Agent. Because teams are only allowed a singular restricted free agent in the NFL, they are often times regarded as the designated “franchise player” of the club, or in lament terms, they have been awarded the franchise tag. This means that the player is allowed offers from other teams for new contracts but, before the player can sign the contract, the current team is allowed to match the other team’s offer, or come within ten percent of it. If the current team does not match the offer, the player is free to sign with the team who proposed the new contract. In return to the current team, the team proposing the offer must trade a fair number of draft picks to the current team as compensation for the player. This is sometimes used as a tactical play by teams who are solid at the position the franchise tagged player is in in order to get a better draft pick or even just more draft choices.

The third type of free agent is the Undrafted Free Agent. This type of free agent is self-explanatory. This is a player who has bypassed the minor leagues, entered the professional draft, and does not get drafted by a team. These players are free to sign with any team that still has cap space to sign a new player.

Every year in the free agency, some teams make huge splashes, while others become giant flops. I am going to point out two teams in both of these categories. These teams are not regarded as the exact splashes and flops, but they are the teams that are currently being generalized and destroying the free agency pool or simply just not benefitting from it whatsoever and my opinion.

The first team to flop is the Seattle Seahawks. Right now, Seattle is football city due to their decimation of the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. The game was a gigantic blowout and a mock news article even came out saying that the Broncos threw the game because of how bad the loss was. Many people, fans and analysts alike, were saying that the Seahawks will once again be the team to beat this year. I strongly disagree. Seattle has been trading away many of their big name, and overall strongest, players. The biggest name, to my recollection, to be traded is Golden Tate. Tate went to the Detroit Lions during the first week of the free agency. The Seahawks have traded away many of their big players and the trades can all be tracked on the official NFL website. The second team to flop is the Oakland Raiders. Oakland was supposed to come out strong in the free agency this year but has fallen short of that thus far. One of the first moves they made was handling their issue at the Wide Receiver position. I am actually surprised that the Raiders addressed the receiver slot in the free agency instead of grabbing other veteran players to fill their other empty positions and wait for the draft to grab a player such as Sammy Watkins. But that is just my personal thought. However, instead of waiting for the draft, the Raiders grab James Jones from the Packers to start at wide-out. This is a bold move, Cotton, a bold move. Let’s see if it works out for them. The Raiders have also resigned Running Back Darren McFadden, who has produced virtually nothing for the organization over the last two years. In short, both the Raiders and Seahawks have traded away valuable players to their clubs in return for some who, quite frankly, will not advance their new perspective organizations forward.

The two teams that I wish to recognize as making the biggest splashes in the free agency both come from the AFC, the American Football Conference. The Denver Broncos, who as previously mentioned were blown out of the water by the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, have made at least four brilliant moves. The four big players they have signed will amp up their defense extraordinarily. Denver made the move to sign Safety T.J. Ward, Defensive End DeMarcus Ware, Cornerback Aqib Talib, and Wide Receiver Emmanuel Sanders. I am not entirely sure how they managed to pull off some of these big moves, but bravo to Denver for wanting to try and take a stab at the Super Bowl for a second year in a row. The second team I wish to pull up is the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins biggest issues this year were their snap counts and protecting their Quarterback Ryan Tannehill. In order to protect him, the Dolphins signed the veteran and Pro-Bowl Offensive Tackle Brandon Albert from the Kansas City Chiefs. Since the Dolphins are such a young team, I can definitely see them drafting more young talent. Other notable signings for the Dolphins is the resigning of Cornerback Brent Grimes and the one-year deal with Running Back Knowshon Moreno.