Norwood, Maybin Offered Tenders; A Bunch of Vets Aren’t
With free agency now officially under way, a bunch (15 today!) of Nittany Lions have appeared on the NFL transaction log. As expected, there was good news and there was bad news among Penn Staters in the NFL on Tuesday. So far, it seems the younger Nittany Lions have been faring much better than the vets.
First, the good.
After having breakout seasons in 2011, both Jordan Norwood and Aaron Maybin have been rewarded by the teams that took chances on them. Both were offered tenders by their 2011 teams, and will likely remain in the same spots for the 2012 season.
For those unfamiliar with the free agency process, since both were restricted free agents, their teams now have almost-exclusive negotiating rights with them. I say almost because other teams are allowed to negotiate with them, but if they want to sign them, they must give up a draft pick in order to do so. In Maybin’s case, that would have to be a first round pick. The tendering teams also have the right to match the outsider team’s offer.
That probably won’t end up mattering much, as the fact that they have been tendered means that their teams plan on re-signing them. Those deals should be worked out relatively soon, since neither player is consistently proven enough to have leverage to hold out for a huge contract. At this team last year, it wasn’t even close to a given that either one would be in the NFL at this point, so it’s great to see that they’ll be around for at least another season.
In addition to these two, punter Jeremy Kapinos was also given a tender by the Steelers a few weeks ago.
(I apologize if that was really dumbed down and you know the rules, but I certainly don’t very well.)
And now the bad(ish) news.
A hefty group of veteran Nittany Lions in the NFL were not tendered by their teams today, including a pair of Super Bowl Champions. They will all become unrestricted free agents now, free to sign anywhere their hearts (and wallets) desire. The group includes:
- Kerry Collins
- Dan Connor
- John Gilmore
- Bryant Johnson
- Jimmy Kennedy
- Justin King
- Kareem McKenzie
- Michael Robinson
- Bryan Scott
- Tim Shaw
This list is really a re-hashing of my original free agent list, just without the players who were tendered.
So when I said this is bad news, I may not have been totally accurate. Some of these players will benefit from being on the free agent market, while others may not.
A couple of these players look pretty likely to stay with their current teams, even though they are on the free agent market. For example, the Indianapolis Star is reporting that Tennessee Titans are already working on a new deal for special teams captain Tim Shaw. The Titans didn’t really need to tender to him because there won’t be a huge market for him out there, so it would have been wasteful to burn a tender on him.
As I tweeted earlier tonight, Dan Connor is already in the news, as he is scheduled to visit Dallas this week. If the Cowboys do end up signing him, he would be reunited with fellow Linebacker U product Sean Lee. The Eagles are also reportedly one of the top suitors for Connor, although he has not schedule a visit with them yet.
Also, in case you haven’t been to the home page lately, a few other Nittany Lions were released within the past few weeks, so the following group will also be in the free agent market:
- Anthony Adams
- Levi Brown
- Rich Ohrnberger
