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With one full week of NFL free agency, many of the best players are off the market now with just second and third-tier players left to be had.
More than $1 billion in contracts were signed in the first 48 hours of the signing period, according to the NFL Players Association. Unfortunately for some teams, not all of that money was put to good use.
Articles by Pro Football Focus (via ESPN) and Grantland broke down the worst free-agency signings thus far. Some of them are obvious choices, like the Browns doing Browns things signing another journeyman QB who likely will open the 2015 season as their starter.
McCown has been about the 50th-best quarterback in football for the vast majority of his career. He just finished a season as the starting quarterback on the worst team in football with the worst offense in football despite a pair of pretty great receivers. What sort of certainty are you paying for? How much worse can a guy making the league minimum be than the worst of the worst?
The Browns will surely claim they signed McCown to mentor Johnny Manziel, but that’s a ridiculous sum of money to give for the sake of mentoring.
It's also worth nothing neither article had the Bengals' three-year, $15 million deal they gave Rey Maualuga. That drew a lot of criticism (me included, for the rest of eternity), but they apparently didn't think it was too bad of a deal.
Here's the rest of the picks that Grantland made:
Josh McCown to Cleveland: Three years, $14 million, $6.25 million guaranteed
David Harris Stays With the Jets: Three years, $21.5 million, $15 million guaranteed
Frank Gore to Indianapolis: Three years, $12 million, $7.5 million guaranteed
Byron Maxwell to Philadelphia: Six years, $63 million, $25.5 million guaranteed
LeSean McCoy to Buffalo: Five years, $40 million, $26.5 million guaranteed
And PFF:
Indianapolis Colts: The 2010 Pro Bowl roster (Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Todd Herremans and Trent Cole)
Arizona Cardinals: Mike Iupati, G
Kansas City Chiefs: Jeremy Maclin, WR
Philadelphia Eagles: Ryan Mathews, RB
Jacksonville Jaguars: Jared Odrick, DL