TEMPE, Ariz. -- Not since draft weekend 2006 has Greg Jennings been so un sure as shooting ab verboten his compete destination. But the former green Bay Packers wide receiver, a free mover as the market opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday, is open to a new(a) direction if the Packers don't want him back.
"A lot of guys aren't comfortable with change," Jennings told ground forces TODAY Sports, " but when you're not comfortable, that's when your antennas are up. You're on your 'A' game, because you're unendingly trying to improve. You're al counselings doing e realthing you can do to perform sure you're taking care of personal line of credit.
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"Sometimes change is good. I don't know if change depart come approximately. We'll see."
On Tuesday, NFL players – at least the ones who don't sign immediately -- leave behind take to the air to begin the frenzied free-for-all that is free agency.
Teams will fly free agents across the country, take them on tours of their facilities, introduce them to coaches and maybe treat them to an expensive dinner. By the morning, m whatever a(prenominal) will be gone, on another(prenominal) plane, to another city, for another put d proclaim. It can be equally exhilarating and exhausting.
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By the end of the month, dozens of NFL players will be shake off switched teams, a process that can be life- and career-changing, and not always for the better. These free-agents-to-be don't exact to look too far into the past to see the trump out- and worst-case scenarios of players who conjugated new teams and adapted or didn't.
Last season brought several free-agent achiever stories -- none bigger than the tales of quarterback Peyton Manning and wide receiver Jacoby Jones. Manning was released by Indianapolis bonny in the first place the free-agency period began and seeed five teams forrader ultimately take the capital of Colorado Broncos and signing a five-year, $96 million contract. He immediately became a team leader, revamped the Broncos' offense, lead Denver on an 11-game winning streak and finished assist in MVP voting.
Manning commanded respect immediately, though his longtime teammate and friend Brandon Stokley express Manning certainly earned it in Denver by his work in March and April in slack workouts, and then in the offseason program.
"With the way he left the Colts, you just saw how professional he was slightly the whole situation. It was a business. He didn't take anything personally and he made the best of his situation," Stokley said.
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"I was in that foot storage locker dwell pretty much from Day 1 of the off-season, and he just showed everyone what he was about, with his work outside the weight room early on. Once guys saw that, they saw that's what it is going to take to be a good football player."
Jones, meanwhile, was run out of Houston last year, the scapegoat for the Texans' playoff loss afterwards muffing a punt. He signed a modest deal with the Baltimore Ravens ( devil years, $7 million) and accidental injury up making three of the biggest plays of the postseason – his 70-yard, game-tying touchdown against the Broncos in the divisional playoffs, and two touchdowns (a catch and a kickoff return) in the Super manger. In less than a year, Jones went from goat to nearly Super Bowl MVP.
Both Manning, for all his Hall of Fame credentials, and Jones, were examples of what former NFL quarterback Chad Pennington called " manybody else's detritus." Pennington was that "junk" once – released by the sunrise(prenominal) York Jets after they signed Brett Favre, tho to sign with the Dolphins and take a 1-15 team to the playoffs.
'Will he booster is win?'
Impending free agents can only hope to have such an impact on their new teams, in the locker room and on the business line.
"There's always questions about 'What type of player will he be for us? Will he assistance us win? Will he help us get better?' Those are all questions that you have to prove to your teammates, No. 1 with your work ethic, but most importantly through your production on the field and how you handle yourself," Pennington said.
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"Players respect good guys, but players respect players good guys who make plays, too."
Then there is the cautionary tale of Mario Williams, the former No. 1 pick who was 2012's biggest defensive free agent.
Williams was a standout in Houston, where he played out his rookie contract. Free agency represent a chance to pick a team, make a fresh start and cash in. Williams' first and only visit was to Buffalo, where the Bills convinced him to stay with a $100 million contract, with half(a) of that money guaranteed.
He had 10.5 sacks last season and played every game despite a wrist injury, but hardly had a franchise-changing impact. The Bills won only six games and the coaching staff was discharged after the season. Williams' play was part of the reason.
He could re-emerge as a star under new defensive coordinator mike Pettine, but Williams should serve as a reminder that as players switch teams, sometimes scheme and coaching is as important as the pay check.
"Reach out to people who have been through that situation, got some good advice and really search in your smell for your priorities. It's important to find out the heart and soul of an organization, what they do and how they go about it," former NFL safety John lynch said. "You've got to ask tough questions. Things are moving fast and it's easy to not ask – how are you going to use me, what's load to bringing in other players."
Lynch was an unrestricted free agent only once, when he was told by new management in Tampa Bay that after 11 seasons, and even with a restructured deal, he was no longer in the team's plans. Lynch made plans to visit Denver, New England, Seattle and the New York Jets. He ultimately picked the Broncos and played cardinal seasons there before retiring in 2008.
Now an analyst for Fox, Lynch said he didn't regret choosing Denver (his family chose to remain in Colorado) but he wishes he would have asked more questions about the Broncos' long-term defensive plans and future budget for keeping report players or adding new ones.
Lynch joined Manning and Broncos' executive vice prexy John Elway for dinner at a Denver-area country nightspot last March when Manning made his visit. Lynch said he was impressed by how Manning made his free-agent trip solo – no agent, no married woman, no entourage at all – and how Manning seek answers to relevant questions about how the franchise was run.
"He wasn't going to leave until he had all the answers," Lynch said.
Manning agonized over his decision, and has said that personally calling and turning Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco, Ken Whisenhunt in Arizona and Mike Munchak in Tennessee was the hardest part of the process.
Gut-wrenching decisions
Niners center Jonathan Goodwin knows that feeling, having endured his own should-I-stay or should-I-go dilemma last year as he chose between his old team, the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers.
Goodwin spent a day at the 49ers' facility in Santa Clara and even toured neighborhoods with Niners officials and his wife. He told general manager Trent Baalke he would sign, but then woke up after 4 a.m. in a panic.
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"What I am doing on the West Coast? I can't move out here. It's so far from home," Goodwin remembered thinking before calling his agent, Ben Dogra, to tell him of his change of heart. Then Goodwin began calling some of his Saints teammates to tell them he would be returning.
But before Goodwin could board a plane back to New Orleans, San Francisco general manager Trent Baalke and drumhead coach Jim Harbaugh showed up as his hotel. The three men communicate for an hour, with Goodwin still thinking he would re-join the Saints.
"When they left, Trent left the contract with me and said, 'Just in case, you change your mind, sit around and think about it,'" Goodwin said.
While Goodwin thought, Baalke and Dogra talked. The Niners upped the measuring of guaranteed money in their offer, and ultimately Goodwin and Dogra decided the combination of demarcation security in San Francisco for an over-30 center as well as a bigger pay day made the Niners the even up choice.
Baalke still kids Goodwin about changing his mind twice about changing teams.
"Definitely, I'm a free-agent success story. I feel same I've played great. Last year was the best season of my career," Goodwin said.
But picking the new team is just the start. Just exchangeable any one who relocates for a new reflect, players have to find new homes, new naturalises for their kids and start to figure out their office dynamics. New York Giants tight end Martellus Bennett, who moved to New York after quadruplet years in Dallas, said the locker room surroundings makes it a little easier because the players all have football in common.
"Man, it's just like going to a new school – new uniforms, new teachers, new students, same rules. It's tougher on guys with kids, I would imagine. The uncertainty weighs on everyone in the household. The security is what everyone wants and needs just like any normal working person," Bennett said.
"Making friends playing ball is easy. You already have something in common with everyone there. As a man, you just want to provide stableness for your wife and kids nothing more nothing less really. You think mortal who works at Apple wouldn't take a job at Dell if it paid more and provided more stability?"
Lynch remembered former Denver teammates Jake Plummer and Al Wilson calling him soon after he signed with the Broncos in 2004, and he asked coach Mike Shanahan for the numbers of other teammates so they could connect before practices began. so far though free agency is a reminder for players like Lynch that football is as much a business as it is a game, relationships and chemistry play a government agency in if a player makes a successful novelty from one team to another.
"Even with great players, it's hit or miss," Lynch said. "So go show your teammates the way you work, the way you conduct yourself. You still have to go about earning it, and that is very heightened when you go to a new place. You have to show it to your teammates, your coaches, the effectiveness coaches, the fans. A lot of guys don't know how to handle it and it doesn't work out."
Materials taken from USA Today
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