Let the NFL Free Agent Madness Begin
You’re Thomas Dimitroff, the new general manager of the Atlanta Falcons. Your team has holes at just about every position. The lone exception is running back, where you have an underrated backup and potential superstar in 
Jerious Norwood. So what do you do? You give $35 million to Michael Turner, the most overrated backup running back in the league.
Apparently it slips your mind that Turner wasn’t even the 2nd best running back on his team last year. It also slips your mind that big money free agent running backs never make an impact. Do you even remember the last high-priced running back who turned out to be a good signing for his new team? Was it Edgerrin James? No. Dominic Rhodes? Ooops. It’s not Stephen Davis, Lamont Jordan, or Duce Staley either. You need to go back farther than that. Back to a time when the names Curtis Martin and Ricky Watters were at the top of everybody’s free agent list.
So will Michael Turner save the Falcons? No. Will he help the Falcons? Probably not. Will the last three years of his contract become an albatross that the team can only rid themselves of by taking a huge cap hit? Probably. On the plus side, either Tim Tebow or Matthew Stafford will look sexy in a Falcons hat on 2009 draft day.