One name that’s unlikely to stay among the free agents for much longer is Eric Weddle, who isn’t going back to the San Diego Chargers, and right now is courted by four teams: The Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens and Oakland Raiders.
The quartet of interested parties are going to be two very soon, with Weddle looking for a number of things: The team’s roster, the situation of schools in the city (he has four children) and where is team in terms of competitiveness: In the next three or four years, are they going to be competitive, are they going to be division winners, are we going to have a chance at the Super Bowl?
Weddle isn’t coming off a rookie deal so he isn’t that desperate to sign a deal right away, but waiting for too long usually takes off money from the potential deal. He had a five-year, $40 million contract he just completed in San Diego, coming with a $10.1 million cap hit in each of the last two seasons. For someone who made five different All-Pro teams and the Pro Bowl three times, it’s weird things ended so badly with the Chargers.
How badly? The sides didn’t really talk to each other all of last season when it seemed that the team, in the middle of trying to break away from the city and move to Los Angeles, wasn’t giving him the extension he was hoping for. Weddle said he has nothing to talk with the Chargers about anymore. He was fined $10,000 by the team for remaining on the field during halftime of a game to watch his daughter perform in a dance ceremony. He didn’t talk about until the Chargers placed him on the IR for week 17 against his wishes, and denied him the opportunity to travel with the team to the season finale in Denver.
From 2007 through 2015, he has missed just 7 games for the team that selected him 37th overall coming out of Utah. He has 19 interceptions and 74 defended passes in his career for the Chargers, playing free safety for almost his entire career, although rarely used as the strong safety instead. He turned 31 two months ago.
In terms of money available, the Raiders, who have made interesting signings so far, still have almost $28 million available. The Ravens are at $10 million which means hoping he takes a back loaded deal, the Cowboys have just under $7 million and the Steelers, who also need to rework some contracts, have less than $4 million under the cap right now.