Off season moves, free agent signings, etc. - NFL

[diceisgod]

My favorite part of this story is the talk of a potential move to get TO: The Freak an Eagle

[Galt]

best salary cap manager my ass. Scott Pioli is God.

[diceisgod]

:angry:

[HollywoodJewMoses]

best WR draft in a long time, dont you worry!

[diceisgod]

Ken Dilger was released by the Bucs. The Birds should pick him up and dump Chad Fucking Sucks Lewis.

[diceisgod]

Eagles miss daily double

Friday, March 05, 2004

By MARK ECKEL
Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA - It was a good day or bad day for the Eagles. You be the judge.

Jevon Kearse, perhaps the premier free agent on the NFL market, passed his physical with the Eagles and signed an eight-year, $66 million contract that included a $16 million signing bonus. He will count just about $7 million against this year's salary cap.





Terrell Owens, the premier wide receiver available who the Eagles had a 50-50 chance to acquire, instead was traded to the Baltimore Ravens for a second-round draft pick (the 51st overall selection).

According to two sources very close to the situation, the Eagles had a deal worked out with Owens' agent David Joseph to make him an Eagle and to redo his contract and give him a handsome signing bonus.

One of the sources told The Times that the deal with the Eagles was being done just as the Ravens were making the trade to acquire him.

How did that happen?

According to one source, because the Eagles' offer to the 49ers was a fifth-round pick and a player believed to be wide receiver James Thrash in exchange for Owens. San Francisco opted instead for the Ravens' second-round pick.

However, according to another source, the 49ers and Eagles talked about the deal, knowing that Owens wanted to be an Eagle and had the new contract worked out.

Eagles head coach and vice president of football operations Andy Reid and San Francisco general manager Terry Donahue exchanged names and picks, and Reid left it at a pick and a player for Owens, then waited for a return call from Donahue.

The call never came, and as Reid, Kearse and owner Jeffrey Lurie walked through the NovaCare Complex on the way to yesterday's press conference, they overheard on a television that Baltimore had acquired Owens.

Again, according to the one source, the Ravens and 49ers made the deal without going through Owens or his agent, which is how the league had asked the deal to go down.

Owens, who has not gotten a new deal yet from the Ravens, was not very happy about the way it played out.

"He thought he was going to be an Eagle," a source said. "He thought that's where the trade was headed. He had a deal done. He's not real happy about going to Baltimore."

[diceisgod]

This is getting juicy!!


Eagles cry foul over T.O. deal
By REUBEN FRANK
phillyBurbs.com







PHILADELPHIA - Terrell Owens was an Eagle.

For a few, brief moments yesterday afternoon, the often brilliant, often controversial wide receiver was actually a Philadelphia Eagle.

And then he wasn't.

Two league insiders familiar with the negotiations and speaking on the condition of anonymity said last night the Eagles actually finalized a trade with the 49ers and hammered out a long-term, multi-million dollar contract with Owens, only to see the 49ers - against Owens' wishes - ship him instead to the Baltimore Ravens.

According to a league official, Owens' agent told league officials last night he plans to file a grievance against the 49ers and NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw was already involved.

After the agent, David Joseph, made a clerical error that prevented Owens from becoming an unrestricted free agent, the 49ers granted Joseph permission to negotiate a contract with a team of Owens' choosing.

The 49ers assured Joseph and Owens they would execute that trade, as long as they could reach agreement with that team on terms of a trade.

The Jets, Falcons, Browns, Eagles and Ravens showed initial interest in Owens when the NFL's free agency and trading period began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, but by late yesterday morning, only the Ravens and Eagles were still involved.

And when the Eagles offered Owens a massive contract with a huge signing bonus, he and Joseph accepted.

Eagles president and chief contract negotiator Joe Banner and 49ers general manager Terry Donahue then agreed on terms of a trade that would send the 49ers a fifth-round draft pick and a player, believed to be wide receiver James Thrash.

"Terrell was ecstatic," said a second league insider, an NFL agent who is familiar with the details of yesterday's negotiations. "Philly is where he wanted to go all along. He was under the impression he was an Eagle. It was a done deal."

But before the paperwork was signed, Donahue quietly accepted the Ravens' offer of a second-round pick in this year's draft and filed trade papers with the NFL without informing Joseph or Banner or giving them a chance to match the offer.



The Eagles, the second source said, did not learn the 49ers had shipped Owens to the Ravens until a team employee saw a report on ESPN yesterday afternoon. And Joseph didn't know about the trade until he got a phone call from the Eagles moments later.

The first source, a league personnel official, said Joseph and Owens were furious with the 49ers.

Owens did not have a contract negotiated with the Ravens and as of now, they are simply paying him according to the final three years of his original deal with the 49ers that Joseph was unable to void.

That deal pays him $5.3 million in 2004, $5.9 million in 2005 and $6.5 million in 2006 with no signing bonus.

The second league source said the Eagles' offer included a signing bonus over $10 million averaging over $6 million per year.

So Donahue's maneuver could cost Owens millions of dollars.

Banner did not return a message left in his office last night. Joseph did not return messages left at his office in Greensboro, N.C. Donahue was unavailable for comment.

Owens caught 592 passes for 8,572 yards and 81 touchdowns in eight seasons with the 49ers and would have given the Eagles their first big-ticket wide receiver since Irving Fryar in the mid-1990s.

Eagles head coach Andy Reid's pursuit of Owens, who he coached at two Pro Bowls, is his first concession of the obvious, that the Eagles desperately need to upgrade their wide receivers.

Starters Thrash and Todd Pinkston combined for just three touchdown catches last year and had only one catch for nine yards - plus two drops that led to interceptions - in the Eagles' NFC Championship Game loss to the Panthers.

With Owens a Raven, Steve Smith re-signing in Carolina and Justin McCareins getting the highest tender from the Titans and off the Eagles' shopping list, the only top wide out still available is Darrell Jackson of the Seahawks, and it remains to be seen whether the Eagles will pursue him.

[Galt]

teenweekisgod!

[diceisgod]

If we get TO you can call me Mary. I don't care.

[diceisgod]

:bouncer:

TO says NO!!!

[Keyser Soze]

The Ravens, if the trade is nullified, would have the second-round pick in the upcoming draft, which they sent to San Francisco for Owens, returned to them. At that point, Owens would also become an unrestricted free agent.

[diceisgod]

At that point, Owens would also become an unrestricted free agent.

That might as well read, "TO will then become an Eagle."

[Keyser Soze]

you're probrobly right, but, being a unrestricted free agent changed the parameters of what a team would need to give up to get him. it might allow teams who were not interested in bidding to get involved.

[diceisgod]

Oh I have little doubt the Eagles will get fucked over yet again and perhaps a few more times before this is over. I'm just holding on to the last shreads of hope I have.

[Galt]

Patriots got one of the best pass-rusing outside linebackers in football for next year

[diceisgod]

I submit that the New england Patriots are not a legitimate team becasue they don't play for one city exclusively. They play for "New England" whatever the fuck that includes. There's probably a communist country somewhere in the mix.

[Galt]

But then they are better because they have a larger geography from where to choose their players.

[Rooner]

:5:

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[HollywoodJewMoses]

hahahahha the redskins are a fucking joke.

[Black Lazerus]

yeah even the people oh wait...