Post by TheShadow on Feb 16, 2007 20:39:44 GMT -5
www.denverbroncos.com
By Andrew Mason
DenverBroncos.com
With the deadline to denote transition and franchise players approaching, the potential free-agent marketplace continues to evolve and fluctuate, and perhaps no area has seen as much activity this week as the defensive line.
Thursday, the Cincinnati Bengals took one of the most prominent names off the open market by placing their franchise-player tag on end Justin Smith after he logged 110 tackles and 7.5 sacks this past season. The franchise designation means that Smith has a one-year contract.
"This move helps us keep our core players together, and it gives us an opportunity to continue negotiating for a longer-term contract with Justin," Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said in a release.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced Wednesday that the Oakland Raiders had re-signed defensive tackle Terdell Sands to a four-year deal. As a six-year veteran, Sands had been set to hit the unrestricted market after posting career-highs in tackles (30) and passes defensed (3) while providing value to their miserly defense as a gap-filling lineman.
At press time, however, a number of other defensive linemen were preparing to step into the murky free-agent waters -- a group that could include Broncos starting defensive tackle Michael Myers, whose contract is up after two seasons as one of the club's first-team linemen.
DEFENSIVE ENDS
DWIGHT FREENEY, INDIANAPOLIS
For the moment, the Colts defensive end and the game's leading sacker in the last five years is set to hit free agency. That could change -- and, in the eyes of Colts President Bill Polian, it will change.
"(During Super Bowl) week in Miami I was asked 100 times if I was asked once, 'What are you going to do about (defensive end) Dwight Freeney?' I said, unequivocally, 'We're keeping Dwight Freeney,'" Polian told Colts.com. "That means one of two things happen: either we get a long-term agreement before it's time to franchise him on the 22nd of February or we do not, in which case we franchise him and continue talking about a long-term agreement.
"We're prepared to do either, but my guess would be -- because the agent is a very reasonable man and a very bright man -- that we may have to franchise him, because he's going to want to see where the market moves. I can't blame him for that. I'm planning on that."
Only two players have more sacks than Freeney in the last five seasons (Miami's Jason Taylor and Tampa Bay's Simeon Rice), but Freeney is coming off the lowest single-season sack production of his career -- 5.5 sacks last fall. He'd never had fewer than 11 in any of his first four seasons and in spite of his total in 2006, is still averaging over 11 sacks a year for his career.
PATRICK KERNEY, ATLANTA
Until last year, Kerney had been one of the league's most durable defensive linemen, starting 105 consecutive games, which was at the time the second-longest active streak in the league among players at his position. That went by the wayside when he tore a pectoral muscle in a game against the Cleveland Browns, ending his season after nine contests.
Kerney has averaged 0.6 sacks per game since 2001, and has a total of 53 sacks in those six seasons, good for an average of 8.8 per year. But he's also proven adept against the run, amassing an average of 48 total tackles per season and 3.2 per game since 2001. He also has seven forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries in the last four seasons.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the team hopes to bring Kerney back for 2007.
"I know that (general manager])Rich McKay has talked to Kerney's agent," Blank said to the Journal-Constitution. "We'd love to see that happen, and we're going try to make that happen. Nothing is automatic. He'd like to stay, and we'd like to have him here."
JARED ALLEN, KANSAS CITY
In just three years, Allen has become a constant on a defense that has absorbed many changes in that time, playing in all but one game of the last three seasons while amassing 27.5 sacks, including 7.5 last year, and 144 total tackles -- with a career-high 64 coming in 2006.
Allen has supplemented those plays with some ball-hawking work, swatting away 15 passes, forcing 10 fumbles and recovering eight in the last two years. However, faces a potential suspension after being convicted of driving under the influence this week.
OTHERS TO CONSIDER:
* David Bowens, Miami (unrestricted)
* Charles Grant, New Orleans (unrestricted)
* Chris Kelsay, Buffalo (unrestricted)
* Dewayne White, Tampa Bay (unrestricted)
* Marcellus Wiley, Jacksonville (unrestricted)
DEFENSIVE TACKLES
CORY REDDING, DETROIT
Re-signing the four-year veteran Redding has become a high priority of Rod Marinelli's second offseason as Detroit's sideline boss.
"Believe me, if there's a band marching, I'm the band director on this one," Marinelli told the Detroit Free Press. "I'm marching full straight ahead on this."
Redding flourished under the tutelage of Marinelli, who previously coached defensive linemen for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After notching four sacks in his first three seasons with the Lions -- all as a defensive end -- he moved to tackle and amassed eight last fall while adding 47 total tackles and a pair of fumble recoveries.
"This guy really had an exceptional year," Marinelli told DetroitLions.com. "If you talk to other coaches around the league this guy was exceptional and sometimes that can get overlooked in losses.
"His film – he really did a great job on tape. You guys know what he about, he's just a man and he works. Every day he goes to work, practices and, to me, he's the full package."
The Free Press reported Friday that if the Lions do place the franchise-player tag on Redding, they will denote him as a tackle, not an end. Because franchise-player salaries are categorized by the average of top players at the position, he would receive nearly $2 million less as a tackle than as an end.
VONNIE HOLIDAY, MIAMI
A teammate of Ebenezer Ekuban's at North Carolina in the mid-1990s, Holliday's nine-season career has seen him hopscotch from Green Bay to Kansas City and, in the last two years, to the Miami Dolphins.
The 2006 campaign represented something of a renaissance for Holliday. His seven sacks and 66 total tackles represented his highest tally since 2001, and he's notched 12 sacks in the last two years after compiling 11.5 in the previous three seasons -- two of which were spent with the Chiefs.
The Miami Herald reported on Feb. 7 that Holliday and the Dolphins have had at least two discussions since the regular season's conclusion about re-signing the 31-year-old tackle, but as Feb. 16, he does not have a contract for 2007, although he has indicated a desire to return to South Florida.
"I want to be here," Holliday told the Palm Beach Post. "I want to be a Miami Dolphin and retire as one."
ROD COLEMAN, ATLANTA
After a pair of spectacular seasons in 2004 and 2005, the 30-year-old Coleman saw his numbers dip last season, as his tackle tally dipped from 40 to 25 and his sacks dropped to six after he'd notched double-digit totals in the two previous seasons and three of the last four.
Nevertheless, Coleman's sack total last season was the sixth-highest in the league, behind Warren Sapp, Redding, Ty Warren, Luis Castillo and Corey Williams. His 44.5 sacks since 2002 are the most for any NFL defensive tackle, some 13.5 ahead of the next-highest total, from Minnesota's Kevin Williams. (Williams has played one fewer season than Coleman in that span, but Coleman's per-season total is still better -- 8.9 a year versus 7.75 per year for Williams.)
Coleman, like Kerney, was coached by current Broncos defensive line coach Bill Johnson in Atlanta.
IAN SCOTT, CHICAGO
All Scott needed was a second chance.
After being benched early last season, another opportunity arose when Pro Bowler Tommie Harris' season ended prematurely in Week 13. Scott jumped back into the starting lineup two weeks later and responded strongly, notching nine tackles, swatting away four passes and recovering a fumble in the last three weeks of the season.
In the last three seasons, Scott has 66 total tackles, two sacks and 13 passes batted down.
OTHERS TO CONSIDER:
* Kenderick Allen, Green Bay (unrestricted)
* Alfonso Boone, Chicago (unrestricted)
* Tommy Kelly, Oakland (restricted)
* Rien Long, Tennessee (unrestricted)
* Robaire Smith, Tennessee (unrestricted)
* Randy Starks, Tennessee (restricted)
* Hollis Thomas, New Orleans (unrestricted)