NFL Free Agency 2012: Who Will Be Will Be This Year's Philadelphia Eagles?

You should know by now that the Philadelphia Eagles went out and cornered the market—literally and figuratively—during the post-lockout free-agency frenzy. You should also know by now that the Eagles remain one overhyped, overpriced mess and currently look like "paper champions."

It remains one of the most tiresome arguments in team sports: Can you buy a championship?

This article is not necessarily about that question, but the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles have proved the naysayers correct, once again. The question should be, why do NFL teams repetitively fall into this trap?

The article's title begs to know, as we move into the second half of the NFL season, who will be the Philadelphia Eagles of 2012?

This remains a simple question so let's not deviate from the straight forwardness of the question at hand. Who will be the big spenders in the 2012 offseason?

A number of factors play into the inner workings of finagling with an organization's salary cap. You have to account for coaching salaries, veteran salaries, rookie salaries, franchise tags and the list goes on and on. With that in mind, let's focus on two aspects that will entice teams to look into the free agency market: cap room and needed positions.

Predictably, the majority of teams that top the list with cap room are smaller market teams and/or teams that have consistent blackouts. Essentially, all the teams that cannot afford to spend all of their allotted cap.

The seven teams with the most cap space are as follows: Kansas City Chiefs $32.9 million, Tampa Bay Buccaneers $29.9 million, Jacksonville Jaguars $28.1 million, Cincinnati Bengals $27.7 million, Buffalo Bills $26.2 million, Denver Broncos $24.3 million and Cleveland Browns $23.9 million.

Two of the seven teams above have winning records through Week 10, which means they certainly could spend some money. However, none of these teams jump out at you as a future threat in the free agency market.

Maybe Denver pushes all of their chips in and buys Tim Tebow some weapons to work with on offense. Doubt it.The same could be said for Cleveland and Colt McCoy.

Tampa Bay, Buffalo and Kansas City do not need to spend money, but they could and probably won't make any marquee signings. Jacksonville can't sell out their stadium even with advertisement banners stretched across the seats of their upper deck, or they simply buy their own tickets to create the illusion they actually did sell out. Cincinnati will be doing their shopping in the draft, courtesy of the Oakland Raiders. 

So, if it's not any of the aforementioned seven teams, who is it?

The Chicago Bears will be the most active team in the free agency market during 2012.

Chicago does not need a bunch of player nor will they try to sign every free agent available to a one-year contract like the Eagles. They do, however, need to improve their offensive line and provide Jay Cutler with a legitimate threat on the outside. Devin Hester does not count as a legitimate wide receiver.

The Bears made a splash in the free-agency market a few years ago when they plucked Julius Peppers from Carolina to add a presence at defensive end to an already strong defense. In 2012, the Bears will try to keep Jay Cutler off his backside with a new lineman or two. Cutler was sacked 52 times in 2010 and has already been sacked 23 times in 2011. Mike Martz would also like to have an extra weapon on the outside to scheme against defenses with.

Naturally, their first priority will be to settle things with Matt Forte but that should work itself out in due time.

Who could the Bears target for their offensive line? Outside of Gabe Carimi and Roberto Garza, the entire Chicago offensive line is replaceable in my book. That being said, Kareem McKenzie, Ben Grubbs and Bobbie Williams headline the list of suitable candidates.

The more intriguing prospect lies with who Mike Martz and the Chicago Bears could snag at wide receiver. Reggie Wayne, Dwayne Bowe, Marques Colston, Mario Manningham, Vincent Jackson, Steve Johnson and Brandon Lloyd could all be potential free agents after the 2011 season.

The most conceivable move would be a low-cost move for Lloyd. He seems to be playing for his next contract and next destination as he displays his talents in the shop window with the St. Louis Rams.

In the hyper-competitive NFC North division, the Chicago Bears have $19.3 million of cap space to spend in the market and 19.3 million ways to try to keep pace with the Green Bay Packers.