NFL Unrestricted Free Agent List: It's Okay to Look

The Daily (ahem) Redskin 2/19/10

The NFL has released the list of players scheduled to become 2010 unrestricted free agents on March 5 when, as of this writing, it appears the league will head into an uncapped season. 

Redskins fans bring a unique mindset to the opening of the free agency period in 2010. For years in Washington, the advent of FA has proven an exercise in either elation or dismay, depending on ones' personal take, as the Redskins aggressively, successfully (in terms of getting players signed) and often dramatically plunged into the market.

More often than not, within the first 48 hours of the signing period the burgundy and gold have emerged as the NFL's undisputed Big Winner (or Big Loser) in the league.

This year will be more of the same. Only with a twist ...

With a new brain trust (GM Bruce Allen, HC Mike Shanahan) and new direction (Wither Dan Snyder?), there is no way for anyone not "in the room" at Redskins Park to know what kind of approach the team will take.  One thing we do know, however, is that whatever the Redskins do, it will be news.

If they prove to be merely peripheral players, the headlines will read Snyder Reported MIA! ... So is The Future Now or Not? ... Redskins Chart a New Course.

If the Redskins are aggressive players, that too will be news: Redskins Chasing Offseason Championship, Again ... Snyder Still In Charge ... The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same.

And if the burgundy and gold prove to be "just another team" in terms of FA involvement, that will be spun in some quarters as news as well:  Shanahan/Allen Slow to React ... Signs of Front Office Dischord? ... Redskins Adrift.

So you might as well go through the list.  The press most assuredly are. We better hope the Redskins are.  I know I am ... but more on that later, it's a long offseason.

No matter what else happens, come March 5 we will get our first real taste, our first substantive indicator, of what the New Ashburn Paradigm is really all about. Or at least some will claim we have.  And it will be based on what names from The List are, are not, are rumored to be, or even rumored not to be, scheduled to swing by Redskins Park for a social visit.   

T minus 14, ladies and gentlemen.