Threat Level Midnight: 2008 Free Agency

If you haven't heard the recent rumblings that are being thrown around Philadelphia in the last six hours or so, you're in for a treat. Apparently the rumors of Lito Sheppard being on the trade block and the Eagles wanting to sign Asante Samuel may have some truth behind them. Blogs and all the radio hosts on 610 are chattering like crazy that there are some big moves in the making. And the leak last week of Lito being on the trade block could have been a strategic move to gage interest from other teams, and it may have worked. First lets talk about what the Eagles did today. They cut about 230lbs of dead weight letting Jevon "da Turd" Kearse go. They also signed JR Reid and Josello Hanson. But lets get to the good stuff. So if you have not heard, this is what many are speculating that may transpire in the next few days. The Eagles would trade Lito Sheppard and a draft choice to A) the Arizona Cardinals for WR Larry Fitzgerald or B) the Detroit Lions for WR Roy Williams. If you have not been following what has been going on in Arizona. They have a serious problem with their salary cap this year. The problem is that their WR Larry Fitzgerald is due to make $14.6M in '08 and $17.4M in '09. That is crazy money for a WR. What the GM of the Cardinals did, which is kind of funny, he built into Larry's contract a bunch of incentive clauses that they thought were unattainable. But he hit every single one of them. When they drew up the contract they had the option to either give big money to Larry in '08 and '09 or let him be a UFA if he hit them. They chose to go with the big money option, and now they will be paying for it. Now they have been trying to get Larry to restructure his deal and add years to draw the money out over a longer period of time so that their salary cap this year won't be shot. That ain't happening. So with them needing help in the secondary badly, and needing to get rid of Larry and his contract, the Eagles may be able to make this happen. Now the news out of Detroit is that Roy Williams could be available. Earlier this week the Lions parted ways with their starting CB Fernando Bryant, leaving a hole open in their secondary. So some are thinking that Lito could be shipped to the Lions with a draft pick, most likely a third, for Roy Williams. So if either of these deals get done, there is one important thing that has to happen first. They have to sign Asante Samuel. The rumor is that at 12:01 am tonight the Eagles will be on the phone trying to get Asante to come to Philly. They want this to be done fast. With New Orleans, Tampa Bay and other teams lurking with barrels of money, they are going to have to move fast and make great offer quick. Now they are not going to give him the 10yr/$100M deal the Saints are rumored to be offering, but they will instead pay him more per year for less years. A five year deal worth $11M-$12M a year has been rumored. If this deal with Asante does not happen within the first day of free agency it ain't happening at all, and that means no Fitzgerald or Williams. It has to be the perfect storm for them to make this work. Now if this doesn't happen, they might throw a 4yr/$40M deal at Randy Moss. Its going to get interesting in the next day. It's going to be, THREAT LEVEL MIDNIGHT. Please tell me you got that.


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