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We are now well over two weeks into the free agency signing period of 2013, and the pace of breaking news has slowed down quite a bit. This makes it a good time to step back, take stock of what the Saints and their NFC South rivals have done so far, and see who's winning it in free agency this year.
First, let's take it alphabetically, team by team...(for purposes of simplicity in this exercise, I have just split it into two components, signings/re-signings, and losses. I did not include any unsigned FAs as losses.)
Atlanta Falcons
Signings/Re-signings: OT Sam Baker, TE Tony Gonzalez, RB Steven Jackson, SS William Moore, OT Garrett Reynolds.
Losses: C Todd McClure, CB Chris Owens, CB Dunta Robinson, DE Lawrence Sidbury, OT Will Svitek, DT Vance Walker.
Carolina Panthers
Signings/Re-signings: QB Derek Anderson, DT Dwan Edwards, CB Drayton Florence, WR Ted Ginn, Jr., SS Mike Mitchell, CB Captain Munnerlyn.
Losses: TE Gary Barnidge, WR Louis Murphy.
New Orleans Saints
Signings/Re-Signings: LS Justin Drescher, CB Keenan Lewis, DE/OLB Junior Galette, LB Will Herring, LB Ramon Humber, WR Courtney Roby, TE Benjamin Watson.
Losses: OT Jermon Bushrod, LB Jonathan Casillas, QB Chase Daniel, DE Turk McBride.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Signings/Re-Signings: LB Jonathan Casillas, TE Tom Crabtree, LB Jacob Cutrera, LS Andrew Economos, FS Dashon Goldson, WR Kevin Ogletree.
Losses: DE Michael Bennett, CB E.J. Biggers, DT Roy Miller, OT Jeremy Trueblood.
(My main source was NFL.COM's FREE AGENCY PAGE, which has a table with sortable columns I went team-by-team through to get this info. I also used some local team sites. That CSC one is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, good, BTW.)
Some big names have come and gone, some small names have come and gone.
I've gone on record with my worry of Steven Jackson being a big future problem for the Saints defense, and unless the Saints score a pass-covering expert LB, I'm also not looking forward to seeing TG lining up at TE again for the Falcons.
See, even though we don't know who will actually pan out on the field yet, there's no problem with filling our days using prescient speculation to assess who is winning or losing so far in free agency, so get to it.
And if you're aware of anything I missed, or have incorrect, please let me know and source it with a link so I can check it out and update the post.
At the very least the discussion will be lively, and provide lots of good material for the Accountability Index, which I am quite excited to see in updated form soon (hint, hint...I can be so subtle sometimes.).
So, here it is, your de facto Sunday Free Agency Open Thread.
All are welcome!!