Land of the free agent

A comprehensive breakdown of the NFC's hired help

AFC team-by-team breakdown

I want to try to catch up on almost five months of offseason dealing for you; I'll try to give the whole thing an overview and decide whether or not the quantity and quality of players departed equal those of the recent arrivals. For some teams, such as Jacksonville, an overload in the departures column was impossible to avoid, given the Jags' hopeless salary cap situation.

Sorry, but rookies are not factored into this equation, since 1) we've already done a draft analysis; and 2) so far the only measure of their credibility is non-contact work in the minicamps, which ain't enough to go on. One thing always bugs me about these analyses of player movement. A guy is replaced through lack of ability and the team is credited with upgrading the position. But then he goes somewhere else, and presto, his new team is also congratulated for upgrading itself. It's as if the writer doing the analysis has frequent memory lapses. I'll try to avoid this trap. I can't mention every player, but here are the highlights, by division. I'll give you the AFC breakdown separately.

NFC EAST

I don't see any real losses here, unless you count TE Jackie Harris. Former Bengal Tony McGee is about as effective. Safety George Teague and center Mark Stepnoski are gone, but the Cowboys had a terrific draft and added three keynote veteran pickups, all on defense: DT La'Roi Glover, LB Kevin Hardy and CB Bryant Westbrook. Everyone predicts a big rebound year for Dallas in 2002. Me, too.

There are a lot of Giants fans where I live, and hardly a day goes by when I'm not asked how they'll be this year -- the Giants, I mean, not the fans, who'll be the same. I look for uppers to give these people. Once I get past a few rookie names, I can't find any. Free agency, I fear, was a total wipeout, a salary cap nightmare. Three O-line starters gone. Granted, two of them were of older vintage, but RG Ron Stone was young and active. Here are some more departures, and I don't want to get you depressed by listing the full roster: TE Howard Cross, FB Greg Comella, WR Joe Jurevicius, OLB Jessie Armstead, K Morten Andersen, SS Sam Garnes. Here are new York's free agent pickups. That's it. You just saw it. Zero and his brother, Nil. All positions must be filled from within. Good luck.

The bleeding continues. MLB Jeremiah Trotter, gone to the hated Redskins. Correll Buckhalter, Duce Staley's backup at RB, out for the year with a knee injury. Center Bubba Miller, gone. Weakside LB Mike Caldwell, likewise, replaced by ex-Skin Shawn Barber, coming back from a torn ACL. SS Damon Moore, a rising young star at 25, gone, replaced by 31-year old Blaine Bishop, who has taken more hits than Mike Tyson did against Lennox Lewis. But this is a team that came six points away from the Super Bowl last year, so you've got to ... uh, you've got to ... what? Somebody finish the sentence for me.

Trotter at MLB makes the act complete. Armstead, the ex-Giant, will go to the weakside, LaVar Arrington remains at strong. That's three starting linebackers from the last Pro Bowl. Renaldo Wynn and Santana Dotson move in for Marco Coleman and Kenard Lang on the D-line. Call it a tie. Looks like the defense is in pretty good shape, but now it gets interesting. Steve Spurrier's new QB -- make that his old Florida QB -- is Danny Wuerffel, who has had one good year out of his five in professional football. That was in 2000, when he threw for 25 TDs. The problem is that he did it for the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe. Here's the breakdown on the rest of the offense: WR: Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green on board. TE: Stephen Alexander gone. OL: Cory Raymer and Dave Szott gone, Larry Moore and Rod Jones on board. I'm not getting a great feel for this unit.

NFC NORTH

The Bears got Chris Chandler from Atlanta for peanuts. So how do they really feel about him? Will they give him a chance to run the team and open up the offense, adding the major piece to the puzzle that was missing last year, as your faithful narrator has predicted so many times that people are sick of it? Or will it be safety first with Jim Miller? That's the major free agency question for me, although filling the LT spot for the departed Blake Brockermeyer is a major concern. Defensive additions are Keith McKenzie at end and ex-Eagle Caldwell at OLB, both for depth value, and another ex-Eagle, Damon Moore, coming back from a broken leg, replacing Tony Parrish at SS. Left corner Walt Harris is gone. Aside from Chandler, whom I seem to like better than anyone else does, they lost a little ground in free agency, but just watch ... if they give him a chance to ... no, I won't repeat it again. Enough already!

The push on offense was for speed -- not more, just some. So a pair of wideouts who can fly, ex-Packer Billy Schroeder and ex-Ram Az Hakim, step in for Johnnie Morton. On paper it looks great, but Morton at least was productive, and Schroeder without Brett Favre throwing to him ... who knows? And Hakim, well, he could split the seam for Mike Martz, but he's also been a dropper and fumbler. Mikhael Ricks, a former WR who's had a strangely unproductive career, replaces TE David Sloan, who simply can't run anymore. Three defensive positions end up in the minus column. DE Tracy Scroggins is gone, and so are LBs Stephen Boyd and Allen Aldridge, plus Westbrook at CB. The only new arrival is ex-Bucs LB Jeff Gooch. Safety is a brighter picture, where the trio of Tommy Bennett, Ron Rice and Kurt Schulz give way to ex-Dolphin Brian Walker, ex-Raven Corey Harris and ex-Chiefs backup Bracy Walker. So I guess the Lions will be faster this year. Maybe even better.

You never know about Terry Glenn. The receiver and Favre might tear up the league. Or the ex-Patriot might get upset about something or other and walk out of camp. I'm being too harsh, I realize that. He's not going to walk anywhere. It's a good setup for him and he knows it. Schroeder and Corey Bradford are gone. Glenn, after a year in the shadows, is getting another -- probably his last -- chance. The Pack picked up another doghouse resident, RB Jason Brookins, released by the Ravens after his conditioning program was found lacking. He'll compete with ex-Skin Ki-Jana Carter for Dorsey Levens' former role as Ahman Green's backup. The Pack used a ton of of D-linemen last season, and now three of them -- Santana Dotson, Jim Flanigan and John Thierry -- are gone, but the new arrival, ex-Saint Joe Johnson, is a real plus for the club. An aging and battle-weary Hardy Nickerson replaces Bernardo Harris at MLB. I'm not wild about that move. And return man and sometimes DB Allen Rossum is gone. Glenn and Johnson are the serious acquisitions, though, and if the former comes through, then it's a good offseason for Green Bay.

Former Dolphins defensive end Kenny Mixon was a fine pick-up. The Vikes have been trying desperately to find a run-stopper to man the power side for a defense that finished next to last against the run in 2001. I like the other Dolphin they signed, too, DT Lorenzo Bromell. I can't call the LB situation a plus, though, with Kailee Wong and Ed McDaniel gone and Henri Crockett the only new guy. Former Cardinals CB Corey Chavous replaces Dale Carter, and the only safety the Vikes could find to fill in for the departed Robert Griffith and Orlando Thomas was ex-Falcon Ronnie Bradford. Offensively, they'll be without Randy Moss' babysitter, Cris Carter, but they picked up Sean Dawkins and DeWayne Bates, which means that Moss will get enough balls thrown his way to make him happy, assuming that's what he wants. Ex-Raven Kyle Richardson will now be punting in place of former Pro Bowler Mitch Berger, who was cut. It's a tough world.

NFC SOUTH

Michael Vick and Warrick Dunn on artificial turf -- I love it, assuming the Falcons are creative enough to figure out a way to get the opposing defense tired out chasing these guys. Here's a prediction: They'll run for 1,000 yards between them, and first-rounder T.J. Duckett will pick up any loose yardage left over, running between the tackles. As far as the pass-catch game is concerned, well, I'm not sold on the new wideouts, Travis McGriff, Alvis Whitted and Jeff Graham, who replace the departed Terance Mathis. Ephraim Salaam and Bob Hallen are gone on the O-line, Todd Weiner is the new guy. Defensively, John Thierry and Maa Tanuvasa are the new people up front, Allen Rossum, Fred Weary, Keion Carpenter and Keith Lyle join a secondary that's now coached by Emmitt Thomas.

I'm not hearing great reports about No. 1 pick DE Julius Peppers, who's supposed to help fix a defense that finished last overall, last against the run and 28th against the pass, a near-trifecta. Seems that he's been having trouble with the NFL's brand of offensive linemen. But let's cheer up and take a look at the comings and goings of the veterans. Interior D-linemen Larry Chester and Jason Peter are gone, Shane Burton comes aboard from the Jets. Former St. Louis LB Mark Fields and Baltimore backup LB Brad Jackson arrive, Dean Wells goes. Not bad so far, but things get tough in the secondary. Not one, not two, but three, count 'em, three corners -- Jimmy Hitchcock, Rashard Anderson and Doug Evans -- are gone. Not that they were the greatest players in the world, but they all had starting credentials. Their replacements -- Fred Vinson, DeRon Jenkins and Terry Cousin -- were all backups last year. I like Cousin, the ex-Dolphin, the best of this trio. So how does new coach John Fox protect this defense, which certainly won't remind him of his glory days in New York? By running the ball and keeping the defenders off the field, at least for a while. So his prime free agency pickup was a runner, Lamar Smith, formerly of the Dolphins, and to block for him Fox added ... well, nobody. Sometimes progress comes slowly, even in this souped up era of free agency.

The Saints collapsed at the end of last season, and four big names are gone, Ricky Williams, Willie Roaf, Joe Johnson and La'Roi Glover, but the Saints aren't sitting around wringing their hands. They're making moves. Ex-Raider Grady Jackson steps into Glover's spot, which will take away some of the pass rush but will add muscle to the run defense. Victor Riley arrives from the Chiefs to replace Roaf. The loss of another OL starter, Chris Naeole, will be covered by Bubba Miller and Kendall Jacox, former regulars with the Eagles and Chargers, respectively, and Spencer Folau, a starter for Miami. Jerome Pathon, a former Colt, is a new wideout. David Sloan, slow but at least healthy, steps in at TE for Cam Cleeland, talented but often injured. Keith Mitchell is gone at MLB, Bryan Cox arrives. So does former Vikings corner Dale Carter. It's a juggling act, but when a team nosedives as badly as the Saints did last year, you shake things up.

Jon Gruden's job, when he was hired earlier this year, was to assemble an offense that the defense would be proud of -- something the Bucs have been trying to do for years. Well, losing Dunn didn't help, although ex-Cardinal Michael Pittman is durable and talented. Wideouts Anthony and Green are gone, but the new guys, Jurevicius and Keenan McCardell, should help keep the heat off Keyshawn Johnson. Ex-Jet Kerry Jenkins is a decent enough replacement for retired LG Randall McDaniel, and TEs Ken Dilger and Marco Battaglia will help ease the loss of Dave Moore. It's not a bad situation and what makes it better is that the D remains basically together, although Donnie Abraham and starting MLB Jamie Duncan are departed. Punter Mark Royals has been replaced by Tom Tupa, the ex-Jet, and this is a move I flatly don't understand.

NFC WEST

The Cardinals have been trying to find a TE for years and they might have one now in former Charger Freddie Jones. That's the first bit of good news. The second is the arrival of ex-Ravens starting LCB, Duane Starks. And thus we come to the end of the good news on the free agency front. Gone are Pittman, the featured runner, starting corners Chavous and Tom Knight, and SS Pat Tillman. And I guess you thought I'd never get around to the defensive line and the pass rush, which last year recorded an anemic 19 sacks, worst in the league. Well, that's why they hold a draft, to fix broken things. The Cards selected pass-rushers with their first- and third-round picks, and if that doesn't work they're in trouble -- again.

For the second straight year the talented Rams got tweaked in free agency but not really whacked. Hakim departs from the 4x100 Olympic wide receiver relay team, but the guy who replaces him, ex-Colt Terrence Wilkins, a flyer and effective return man, might turn out to be even better. Losing London Fletcher at MLB is a tough one, but ex-Buc Duncan played for defensive coordinator Lovie Smith in Tampa and knows the system. Two right tackles, Ryan Tucker, and Rod Jones, are gone. Martz promises that the position will be adequately filled from within. We'll see. Elsewhere, the free agency losses involve backups, except at punter, where Berger, the former Viking, steps in for John Baker.

Now I'd guess that some of the have-nots around the league must be asking, How come we lose so many people and a good team like the 49ers doesn't? The answer is that people like to play for the Niners. The Bay Area is a nice place to live, especially when you're drawing your paycheck from a contender. Thus LG Ray Brown, who ended a long and illustrious career, will be adequately replaced by ex-Giant Stone, and the loss of SS Lance Schulters will be easier to bear because of the arrival of the talented Parrish from Chicago. DE Sean Moran, a functional backup in St. Louis, is now a Niner, and so is DT Flanigan, a cat-quick interior pass-rusher lost in the mix in Green Bay, but who'll give San Francisco flexibility and spirit inside. All in all, it's been a pleasant offseason for Steve Mariucci's forces.

The Seahawks picked up two players of note, well, possibly three, but I'm saving the third one for the end of this little capsule. Warning to Seattle fans: neither of these first two names is going to thrill you. Brandon Mitchell was an occasional starter at DE and DT for the Patriots; CB Doug Evans was a struggling starter on a bad Carolina defense. And here are the departures: KR Charlie Rogers, TE Christian Fauria, RT Todd Weiner, DE Michael Sinclair, CB Ike Charlton. No, I don't believe that Seattle finished on the plus side. Well, what can you say? Maybe the draft and Mike Holmgren's coaching will get the Seahawks past last year's 9-7 record, which means a playoff spot. And here's our third name on the acquisition list -- Ryan Leaf, who may be the team's third QB, and then again, may not. It's his fourth team in three years, and at 26 he has become a football gypsy.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. To send a question to Dr. Z's Mailbag, click here.