Playing Catch-Up

IMMERSION HEADQUARTERS

The record-breaking offseason continues, as more blockbuster deals were made in the past few days.

This intrepid reporter returns from Open House, a high school musical, and the NFL draft (still way behind on that too) to find that a ton of deals have taken place…and not just small deals. To (loosely) quote Joe Biden, these are “big fucking deal(s).”

The Bestine Banthas have been aggressive this offseason. They struck a deal with the Sullivan’s Island Silvertips (@SI_Silvertips) in which they gave up WR Brandon LaFell, DT CJ Mosley, DE Brandon Graham, and a second round draft pick for RB Mark Ingram and CB Lardarius Webb.

The Silvertips turned around and sent a 4th round pick to the Batavia Colliders (@BataviaCollider) for RB Alfred Morris. The Colliders had foolishly signed Morris to a one-year deal, thinking that Mike Shanahan would have a new RB du jour in a few weeks. Morris went on to rush for over 1600 yards. The Colliders had no interest in applying the franchise tag to Morris, since it will most likely be used on fellow running back Arian Foster. The Silvertips, however, welcomed Morris and promptly paid the man – $59.88 for the 2013 season. Thus confirms the meteoric rise of the late round draft pick of the Bounty Hunters, who went from being cut, to being picked up off the scrap heap by the Colliders, to becoming one of the faces of the Silvertips franchise. The Colliders, for their part, got something for nothing, in a way. If Weldin was hell bent on getting Morris, he would have easily outbid the Colliders for him.

The Colliders’ management was feeling pretty good about themselves when,

about a half an hour later, they received an offer that they couldn’t refuse from the Banthas. The Banthas gave a 5th round draft pick this year, and a first round draft pick next year, for young WR T.Y. Hilton. GM Josh Hammond, who is notorious for being unable to lay off first round draft picks (see Russell Wilson deal) immediately jumped on the offer. While Hilton is a rising star, who demonstrated big play ability in both the receiving and returning domains, the first rounder was just too much to pass up. The Colliders are relatively deep at wide receiver anyway, with the likes of Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Mike Williams, and Alshon Jeffery on the squad. Bestine is hoping to build around a young nucleus of talented and inexpensive players. The price was right for them, because Hilton can enter a starting lineup with Adrian Peterson; and his salary of $1.10 is roughly one seventy-second of Peterson’s price tag.

Cap Casualties

The cuts are starting to come as teams make room for new players ahead of the start of the new league year. The North Point Chitons parted ways with running backs Roy Helu, William Powell, and Beanie Wells. They also cut loose WR Robert Meachem. The Colliders cut QB Mark Sanchez and WR Mario Manningham. The Banthas bid farewell to RB Pierre Thomas and WR Brandon Lloyd.

© 2013, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.