NFL Free Agency: Losers From The First Weekend

Now it's time to explore the losers from the first weekend of free agency.

Losers

1. Denver Broncos: Regardless of all of the additions, and some were good and filled holes, Denver takes the cake as the team to have the worst free agency thus far due to their mishandling of the Jay Cutler situation. If you're planning on trading your franchise quarterback, without informing him first, you better hope that it doesn't leak back to him if the deal falls through. Unfortunately for new head coach Josh McDaniels, this is exactly what happened and now there's a rift between the first-year coach and QB, which could be on the point of being irreparable.

Aside from that, safety Brian Dawkins fills a hole, but was paid an awful lot of money for a 35-year-old safety who was consistently beaten early in '08. He raised his game once the Eagles moved him around, so we'll see how the Broncos plan to use him.

2. Baltimore Ravens. Not only did they lose their starting linebacker Bart Scott, starting center Jason Brown, and safety Jim Leonhard, but they vastly overpaid for cornerback Dominique Foxworth (probably a direct result of the ridiculous contract Raiders' CB Asomugha Nnamdi received) and are left quite thin in the secondary.

Today they announced the re-signing of their legendary middle linebacker, Ray Lewis, who found an otherwise hot free agent market to be surprisingly cold for him. But they've lost a lot more in these early days than they have added so they'll probably need to look at the draft as a way to fill some gaping holes left behind in free agency. But with Ozzie Newsome at the helm, Raven faithful are used to this, and they usually find quality football players in the draft (see QB Joe Flacco).

3. Philadelphia Eagles. While they signed offensive tackle Stacey Andrews to take over for Runyan, they still have a huge hole at the other tackle position and from all signals,  34-year-old Tra Thomas isn't coming back. But Reid and Eagles' brass will probably fill that void through the NFL draft.

The one move that is receiving a lot of heat from their fan base is the loss of Dawkins. He's one guy who should never have been allowed to walk but the Eagles are known to show veteran players the door rather than overpaying them late in their career. They overplayed their hand and thought he'd stick around based on loyalty. I guess $9 million guaranteed was enough to trump loyalty. One thing lost in all this was that he was the emotional leader of this team; that's something that's hard to place a value on.

A few other losses were running back Correl Buckhalter and cornerback Lito Shepphard, the disgruntled defensive back who was dealt to the Jets for draft picks. These losses won't be too difficult to overcome however.

But once again, nothing has been done to upgrade the wide receiver position. We've heard this story before.

Washington Redskins. While the moves they made could potentially be excellent, they also have the potential to implode. And if that happens, having so much money tied up in two players leaves very little else for the other quality players on the squad.