Free Agents

My brother Rob sent me this email this morning:

"Should the Redskins look to sign one of the big-name free agents? Derrick Brooks, Plaxico, or Marvin Harrison? With Plaxico, couldn’t you look to sign him to something totally made up of incentives, so you haven’t lost anything if he gets indicted?"

In my opinion, no.

Derrick Brooks is 36 years old. He's probably going to the Hall of Fame - and deserves it - but he was cut for a reason. Also, when I get to the defensive position overviews, I will lay out why I am far less worried about outside linebacker than I was going into the offseason. It's just not a position of need anymore.

The Ravens just lost their one reliable receiver - Derrick Mason - to an unexpected retirement, and apparently they haven't even sniffed around Marvin Harrison. A reasonable case can be made that quality receivers is all that stands between the Ravens and a legitimate Super Bowl run, so that probably indicates that among NFL people Harrison is thought to be done.

In purely football terms, Plaxico Burress would be at the top of my wishlist. Perfect size/speed combo to fill the split end position, keeping Randle-El in the slot, and he would draw alot of double coverage off of Santana. However, my understanding is that he is almost certainly going to do real jail time. On the off chance he doesn't, he probably still has a hefty Goodell-imposed suspension coming (I'll save my Personal Conduct Policy rant for another day). Remember that the development of Kelly and/or Thomas is critical to the offense, so I don't think we can afford to take away their training camp reps for someone who will in all likelihood be ineligible to play.

As I wrote previously, the only veteran free agent I'm currently lusting after is Jon Runyan, assuming his knee checks out.

Leave a comment below if you think I'm wrong to shortchange any of these guys, or if there's anyone else we haven't yet thought of who should be brought in for a look.