Let’s look at a few assorted notes from around the league to close out this Saturday evening:
- Cardinals general manager Steve Keim has made an astounding 178 roster moves already this season, and he’s finding it more difficult to find talented street free agents. “If you’re going to sign stop-gap veterans, you sign guys that have had success,” Keim told Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic. “You want the guys that have a little gas left in the tank and want to play pissed off. You focus on the guys with enough pride and something to prove. But there does come a time when you look at the waiver wire, you look on the street and there’s not much left. The laws of supply and demand tells you at certain positions, there are no bodies. That’s when it becomes extremely difficult.” The entire piece is full of interesting quotes from Keim about the nature of roster-building, and is worth a full read.
- The Cowboys’ defense has been surprisingly competent so far this season, but as Adam Schefter of ESPN writes, the unit could be fielding several star players in the secondary had the 2011 draft gone differently. Instead of selecting current Seahawks Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman in the fourth and fifth round, respectively, Dallas took Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, a Division-II player now out out the league, and Josh Thomas. I would note that every team, including Seattle, passed on Chancellor and Sherman several times in that draft, so it’s not as though the Cowboys made a larger mistake than any other club.
- Within the same piece, Schefter looks at the now-infamous first-round quarterback selections in the ’11 draft, when Jake Locker was taken before Tyron Smith and J.J. Watt. Additionally, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder were selected before stars such as Robert Quinn, Mike Pouncey, and Ryan Kerrigan.
- The 2015 salary cap is expected to be around $145MM, and the Dolphins already have $144MM on next year’s books, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Several Miami veterans, such as Cortland Finnegan, Randy Starks, and Earl Mitchell have contracts that the Dolphins could easily terminate during the offseason, so these players are essentially playing for their jobs.