With the free-agency period less than a day old, the market is like the Christmas sales...with a lot more cap money available, teams have gone from muttering about not being able to answer the phones to installing more phones...already a lot of players have walked off to pastures new with their moves being cushioned by large sums of guaranteed moeny.
The leading players are adopting one of three approaches:

1. The Drew Brees approach - meet all of your leading suitors (Miami, New Orleans) as quickly as possible to see what deals are being offered. Expect Brees to sign with another team by midweek.
2. The Edgerrin James approach - publicly sound laconic and laid-back, making noises about "taking your time", finding "the right situation" ec. (Meanwhile, that sound in the background is your agent's cellphone catching fire...)
3. The Daunte Culpepper approach - hole up somewhere, demand a trade and then send a snarky email to the media once a week, hoping that you don't have to adopt the Drew Brees approach in 2 weeks' time when the money has all been spent.

Daniel Snyder is apparently piling on the charm in an attempt to woo free agents, with the likes of Antwaan Randle El and Adam Archuleta being offered courtside NBA seats this weekend as part of the free-agent schmoozefest.
One of the quietest clubs thus far is the Cowboys, matched by the Patriots (whose name might just have been the inspiration for the Patriot Act, judging by how little information gets revealed by them). The Cowboys appear to be taking things slowly, operating almost under the radar. Money and cap room is not a problem for that club. The main rumor swirling around in the air in Dallas is that they are still very interested in Terrell Owens, who most likely will be released by the Eagles just before his roster bonus payment is due. The Eagles appear to be unable to trade Owens, since prospective suitors know that they will release him anyway. I just hope that Bill Parcells is prepared to beat the crap out of T.O. the first time he pulls his me-me-me routine. The omens are good, in that Parcells appears to have been able to handle Keyshawn Johnson. However, T.O. seems to be a whole level above (or is that below?) Keyshawn in terms of preening, egotistical narcissism. It is at times like these that I wish they would resurrect the Leon advertisements...

On the subject of Drew Brees....the end of his relationship with the Chargers has been marked by some unseemly squabbling today over what contract terms Brees was offered to stay with the Chargers. Brees' agent Tom Condon claims that the Chargers withdrew the incentive offer portion of the contract in the last 2 days. The Chargers claim that never happened, although they admit that they did warn Condon that if Brees delayed accepting an offer from the Chargers, they might be forced to modify the incentive terms in the contract because that money would have been committed to signing or rewarding other players.
The spat is amusing but somewhat moot, because Drew Brees will not be playing for the Chargers next season. The Philip Rivers experiment is about to commence. (For the sake of the Charger supporters' blood presure, let us hope that Philip Rivers does not become the Second Coming of Rob Johnson...).

Elsewhere...the Packers McKenzie saga of 2 seasons ago, is repeating itself over again with Javon Walker. Walker is so unhappy that he has stated in recent days that he would rather retire or give back signing bonus money so that he does not have to play for the Packers again. The problem for the Packers is that Walker is not even 100% fit yet after tearing up his knee at the start of last season, and he may yet turn out to be permanently affected by the injury (Jason Sehorn of the Giants was never the same player after he tore his ACL on a kickoff return). However, Walker has seemingly grown tired of being short-changed on his contract when he has the best recent numbers of the Packers receiving corps, and if the Packers learned one thing with the Mike McKenzie affair, it is that a highly pissed-off player tends to stay pissed-off, to the extent that the club would be better off without him. The problem for Green Bay is that Walker currently has zero trade value, because of his knee injury, so they either keep him (and hold him to his contract) or cut him. The biggest contributor to the current mess was the personal criticism of Walker by Brett Favre, who really should have said nothing. By publicly slamming Walker, Favre pretty much ensured that Walker would become permanently disaffected. Both Favre and the Packers could have handled the situation much better. They ended up throwing fuel on the fire of the dispute, and the relationship between Walker and the Packers is probably irreperably damaged as a result.

Next season will be interesting since a lot of "marquee" players will be playing for different teams. However, remember that one of the key determinants for success is continuity. Teams that acquire a large number of free agents may yet hit problems in fielding balanced, cohesive teams. An additional factor that may also cause problems is the number of free agents who will net large amounts of guaranteed money during this free-agent period, then playing alongside team-mates who find themselves to be much less well-rewarded. With the cap scheduled to rise to $109m in 2007, players who become free agents at the end of next season may also do well. The challenge will be if you are a player whose contract does not expire next season and you are on a rookie contract or a contract with little or no guaranteed money (the new CBA conspicuously did nothing about forcing clubs to guarantee player contracts, unlike the NBA, MLB or NHL). I expect to hear a lot of mutterings next season from the agents for some of those players along the lines of "Fred is outperforming his contract....need to renegotiate...fair market value...." etc. etc.