Lots of moves happening in the first few hours of free agency. Among other things, Jason Witten's last three backups (Anthony Fasano, Martellus Bennett and John Phillips) all signed free agent contracts with new teams today. Witten, of course, remains with the Cowboys.
But perhaps the biggest news for Cowboys fans so far is the deal former Ravens edge-rusher Paul Kruger signed with the Cleveland Browns today. According to multiple reports, Kruger's contract is a five-year, $41 million deal with $20 million guaranteed. That's a pretty generous contract for a 27-year old former second-rounder who has 15.5 career regular season sacks in four years in the league. But he did get 9 sacks in the regular season last year and added 4.5 more in the playoffs.
The relevance for the Cowboys obviously is that Kruger's contract will help set the market for a possible extension of Anthony Spencer. And if Kruger's $8 million per year is the going price for a free agent defensive end (the $11.2 million franchise tag value for DEs notwithstanding) that could be good news for the Cowboys.
Spencer signed his franchise tender, worth $10.63 million, earlier today, and the Cowboys will have to sign him and/or extend Tony Romo to free up cap space if they want to be active in free agency this year.
And in other free agent rumors, NBC4 Sports Anchor Dan Hellie out of Washington tweets:
Yes... Dallas is interested in DeAngelo Hall's services..... as a Free Safety. #cowboys #Redskins
— Dan Hellie (@DanHellie) March 12, 2013
Of course, that rumor didn't last particularly long:
Crushing another bogus rumor: @cowboys source says he 'has no idea'where DeAngelo Hall idea came from. @1053thefan
— mike fisher (@fishsports) March 12, 2013