For the second time in three years, the Detroit Lions have added a multidimensional running back to help aid both the run and the pass game. While much will be said both positively and negatively about the deal, this much is certain: Matthew Stafford has run out of excuses. 

According to multiple reports (including the team's own website), Reggie Bush has signed a four-year deal to bring his talents from South Beach to Motown. The Lions even scheduled a press conference around the event and picked Bush up from the airport in a limo. It's a full-court press both before and after the fact, meaning that the Lions view this as an important move for the direction of the franchise. 

It certainly is. 

The team was just as excited—perhaps even more so—a few years ago when it traded up to select Jahvid Best 30th overall in the 2010 NFL draft. Head coach Jim Schwartz was certainly excited, even going so far as to compare Best's YouTube highlights to watching "adult videos."

So far, I have been unable to confirm if any such adult analogies can be used for Bush highlights. 

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Just over a month after winning the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens' days as a defensive dynasty look to be over...and that's OK. 

Too much doom and gloom for you? I apologize, but think about the situation this way: The Ravens made this bed when they signed Joe Flacco to a contract with $52 million guaranteed. Now, they have to lie in that bed, and there's simply not enough room for a bunch of elite defensive players.

It's like the old nursery rhyme: Flacco rolled over, and a bunch of talented people are going to fall out. 

The NFL could open their own money-printing operation tomorrow, but cash is still a finite resource in the league because of the hard salary cap. Recent cap restructuring since the collective bargaining agreement hasn't helped matters as players continue to get bigger contracts, but there's the same room to work with.

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Why come back, Tony Gonzalez?

What do you have left to accomplish? You're already one of the (if not the) greatest tight ends of all time. You helped re-define the position. You have more than enough money than you will ever know what to do with. A little savvy saving and your family will be set for the rest of their lives as well. 

Why come back to a league that has 4,000 of its former players suing because they felt they were misled on the dangers of concussions and that they were pressured (or even forced) to play through injuries that would risk both the quality and length of their lives? Football is a dangerous sport and it's also a young man's game. One hit could send anyone to the sidelines permanently. That same hit could make it awfully difficult to get out of bed in the morning for years afterward. 

So, why come back?

In the end, Gonzalez is coming back for one final season (or maybe not final, we'll find that out next offseason) because he still wants to play football. This isn't a broke player who needs the veteran's minimum to survive. This isn't an aging has-been chasing down a record that some young kid is destined to break anyway. This isn't a sad legacy-kiling jaunt around the league's worst teams trying to latch on before the inevitable cut. 

This is an elite player near the top of his game, long past his supposed prime who happened to be a major piece of the Atlanta Falcons' success in 2012. Oh, and by the way, this is a player who completely overhauled his training and nutrition regimen late in life finding his own personal fountain of youth. 

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Being able to throw the football is one thing. Knowing where to go with the ball is something else. 

We've seen former Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell get back on the field and sling the football around, but NFL teams are going to want to see more than just a big arm. 

Any general manager or personnel executive will want to not only see where Russell is physically, but also where he is in terms of the many mental pressures of playing the quarterback position.

From recognizing pressure and changing protection at the line to knowing the responsibilities of each eligible receiver to reading multiple coverages, there's a lot on a quarterback's plate every time he steps to the line. 

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The start of NFL free agency is the biggest day on the NFL calendar, and it's finally here. 

The Super Bowl decides the NFL championship—but by the time it happens, the other 30 NFL teams and their fans have already shut it down weeks ago. The NFL draft adds a mostly equal number of rookies to all the teams at the same time, which is important for the future of each team but doesn't really shake up the pecking order.

Only free agency means big changes for every NFL team all at once. No day means more for the fate of all 32 squads' 2013 postseason hopes.

For the past few days, new contracts have been getting signed (and old ones shredded) across the NFL. Trades have been made, deals have been agreed to and the rosters of every team are changing by the minute. How can you tell which teams are getting better and which are slipping behind?

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Come join Matt Miller and myself on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET for Bleacher Report's 2013 NFL Free Agency Google+ Hangout. Just come back here and the hangout will be displayed live at the bottom of this post.

We'll break down all the biggest story lines surrounding the start of unrestricted free agency, give you our takes on all the latest moves from around the league and we'll throw around some predictions regarding where we see some of the top players ending up.  

You can join the conversation live by asking questions via the Twitter hashtag #BRFA.

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No single event has shaped the NFL quite like free agency. 

It happens every year, so our generation doesn't really grasp the incredible weight of it all. Yet not so long ago, the idea of players switching teams was so foreign that even when it was allowed, it never really happened. 

We live in a world where it is rare for a Ray Lewis or a Tom Brady to play an entire career with one franchise. We live in a world where it makes total sense for a Peyton Manning or a Steven Jackson to chase one last ring or one last payday away from their adopted hometown. Heck, in this world, it's fortuitous for teams to get rid of their star players when they become financially cumbersome. 

We've come so far, it's almost impossible to make out the starting gate. 

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For more than a decade, the Baltimore Ravens have been synonymous with Ray Lewis. The iconic inside linebacker has been the beating heart, the praying soul and the screaming face of the Ravens franchise.

Just before the Ravens took the field for Super Bowl XLVII, Lewis stood up to give his last pregame talk. Per Chris Wesseling of NFL.com, Lewis's emotional 11-minute speech moved many Ravens to tears.

The man who led the Ravens deep into the playoffs year after year—and to two Super Bowl titles—is now a full-time dad.

All NFL teams that achieve perennial success have at least a few outstanding players, and many of them are built around one remarkable star—a legend—who serves as the inward and outward face of the franchise.

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