MMQB: Top Free Agent Deals

5. I think my British friend Neil Hornsby has done the fans of the hidden game of football a good service with his deep analysis of players on profootballfocus.com. The site tracks every player's plays in the league, and its finding of who actually is playing well and who isn't is often a surprise. On Sunday, after the Eagles signed an invisible guard named Evan Mathis, Neil came out with this gem: Mathis has played 724 snaps over the past two years and allowed zero sacks. I asked Neil to give me his best deals of free agency so far. Here are his top five:

Nnamdi Asomugha, Eagles (5 years, $60 million). The Eagles haven't just picked up a great player; they got him at a great price. The simple fact of the matter is the NFL is low on shutdown corners, which Asomugha is. In three years he's been thrown at 87 times; 25 cornerbacks were thrown at more than that in 2010 alone.

Ray Edwards, Falcons (5 years, $27.5 million). It's a mystery why the market for Ray Edwards never developed. He's young and consistently productive at defensive end. Edwards is getting half of what Charles Johnson got in Carolina, and while Johnson does have a higher ceiling, Edwards was one of the most productive pass rushers in the league last year with 69 combined sacks, hits and hurries on 416 pass rushes. (Johnson had 81 on 481).

Josh Wilson, Washington Redskins (3 years, $13.5 million). How did the Redskins pull this one off? They've upgraded on Carlos Rogers (because like Rogers, Wilson can also play outside and move into the slot in sub packages) and done so without shedding a lot of money. Wilson's excellent play last year got lost playing with names like Lewis, Reed, Ngata and Suggs, but he was superb once he cracked the starting lineup. He allowed just 46.9 percent of passes to be completed, intercepted three balls and had nine pass breakups.

Takeo Spikes, San Diego Chargers (3 years, $9 million). You know, even if Spikes only plays one year he's nearly worth that amount. The surest tackler in the league (he's missed just four in three years), he's been playing in the shadow of the excellent Patrick Willis so long most people have forgotten how good he is. He's also one of those rare inside linebackers that not only can get off blocks and make plays, but also is effective dropping into coverage. He's an upgrade on both Stephen Cooper and Kevin Burnett.

Quintin Mikell, Rams (4 year, $28 million). Mikell has long been one of the best safeties in the league no one has heard about. He can play the run, as evidenced by his safety-leading 27 defensive stops (a tackle Pro Football Focus considers a defeat for the offense). He can play the pass too, with his 11 pass defenses being more than any other safety last season.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/08/01/camps/index.html#ixzz1TmP71mLf

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