"The Stack" 3-10-17
Washington fired Scot McCloughan on Thursday citing issues with alcohol according to reports. The situation regarding this team is an absolute disaster.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The Houston Texans traded Brock Osweiler to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday and that was perhaps the craziest thing that happened on wild day to open NFL free agency.
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The Stack seriously thought about not doing a blog today. Really, I did. There are no conference tournaments starting today and no championship games. However, there is plenty of news to get to regarding NFL free agency officially starting so we have to talk about that. Let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Friday, March 10th:
NFL free agency kicks off
So many “wink-wink” deals were taking place prior to the official start of NFL free agency yesterday at 4 PM ET and we covered a few of them. There were many players moving yesterday and plenty of teams spending a lot of money. We won’t get to all of them, but here are some of the more notable ones:
Philadelphia is really giving some weapons for Carson Wentz. The Eagles signed wide receivers Alshon Jeffrey and Torrey Smith.
Cleveland bolstered their offensive line by signing center JC Tretter and guard Kevin Zeitler. They also signed guard Joel Bitonio to an extension. More on the Browns in a moment.
Tampa Bay got a deep threat for Jameis Winston. The Buccaneers signed wide receiver DeSean Jackson.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore is headed from Buffalo to the New England Patriots. We’ll see if the Patriots deal Malcolm Butler or not. There is talk that they may try and trade him to the New Orleans Saints for wide receiver Brandin Cooks.
The Jacksonville Jaguars continue to be aggressive in free agency on the defensive side of the ball signing defensive end Calais Campbell from Arizona and cornerback A.J. Bouye from division rival Houston.
The Chicago Bears have a new quarterback…at least for now. They agreed to a deal with Mike Glennon and cut Jay Cutler.
Several teams helped themselves along the offensive line. The Minnesota Vikings signed offensive tackle Riley Reiff. The Los Angeles Chargers got offensive tackle Russell Okung before the Vikings could snag him too. And Seattle signed offensive tackle Luke Joeckel.
Finally, the San Francisco 49ers mean business. They signed linebacker Malcolm Smith and kicker Robbie Gould. This team is already significantly better, at least on paper, than they were last year.
There are of course many other deals that have gone down. Check out PFT, the football bible, espn.com and nfl.com for the latest moves and news.
Brock Osweiler traded to Cleveland
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a trade rocked the NFL Thursday and made major headlines. The Cleveland Browns of all teams traded for quarterback Brock Osweiler from the Houston Texans, but not only did they get Osweiler, but they also got a 2nd round pick in 2018 and a 2017 sixth round pick for a 2017 fourth round pick. The trade allows the Texans to get $16 million guaranteed off of the books for this year because they traded him and save $10 million in the salary cap. That is worth giving up a second round pick. Did they give up on Osweiler too fast? Perhaps, but they only have themselves to blame for the situation they were in after giving him $72 million over four years. The Browns helped absorb some of that contract, but Osweiler may not even put on a Browns uniform. The Browns may trade Osweiler or flat out release him. This is an amazing trade.
What this trade also does for Houston is put them in the mix for Tony Romo. The Dallas Cowboys are looking to trade Romo rather than flat out release him and it sounds like Romo will go to the highest bidder. The two teams who most are looking at him are the Texans and the Denver Broncos. There may be another team in the mix, but the Texans had to have made the Osweiler trade with their sights set on adding Romo. Who else is out there? Colin Kaepernick? Perhaps. We’ll see if they can land Romo.
Scot McCloughan fired
The Washington Racists have had some bad publicity lately. Their public relations team has had some difficult times trying to find some way to explain just what in the hell is going on with the team regarding general manager Scot McCloughan. Last week, team president Bruce Allen said that McCloughan would be back and that he was dealing with some family issues. Well obviously he is not back because Washington fired McCloughan on Thursday attributing it to “problems with alcohol” according to an unnamed source. McCloughan has a documented history with alcohol, but that is not the reason why he got fired and a lawsuit is sure to follow this one. Washington has absolutely made a mess with everything regarding this situation and this will not help them lure free agents or keep a quarterback like Kirk Cousins for more than this season. Apparently Cousins requested a trade and owner Daniel Snyder said no way. It could be easy to make a political joke right now between the team and DC, but I won’t, but it would appear that the team could not handle things worse than they have and they have a major mess to clean up. Things will only get worse for this franchise. This is a franchise in disarray. They are an embarrassment.
Kansas goes down
No number one overall seed or number one seed has ever lost their opening game of the conference tournament and gone on to win the NCAA Tournament. That doesn’t bode well for Kansas. The Jayhawks lost to TCU 85-82 in the Big 12 opener for the team. TCU had won in their opener over Oklahoma. They had never beaten the number one team in the country before. Now they have. Jamie Dixon has done some marvelous things in year one. We’ll see if he can do enough to get the Horned Frogs to the tournament.
There were some other notable results from Thursday. Duke came back from 12 down with 13 minutes and change left to beat Louisville 81-77. Luke Kennard had a big game as Jayson Tatum and Grayson Allen. They combined for 67 of Duke’s 81 points. When they are on, Duke is a very difficult team to beat. Don’t dismiss them as a Final Four team. Michigan, after their travel difficulties and scare on Wednesday arrived in Washington D.C. three hours before tipoff against Illinois and had to play in their practice jerseys, but that didn’t matter as they thumped Illinois 75-55.
Plenty of teams helped their bubble status as well. Xavier beat #18 Butler 62-57. They were previously on ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s “Last Four In” and could very well have missed the tournament had they not won. They will be in now with this win. Kansas State is probably in now after taking down Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament 70-64. That was a rather unexpected win. California is still alive, albeit barely, following a 78-75 win over Utah in the Pac 12 Tournament. Still don’t believe they will make it. Indiana and Illinois both lost. Any talk of them possibly getting in now is done and that’s a good thing. We’ll see what else happens today.
Coming up Saturday: Championship game picks plus an Ivy League Tournament preview (first of its kind).
Listen to this week’s “The Sports Block” podcast here.
