2016 NFL Free Agency QB Market Reshaped As Three Names Now Available Headlined By RGIII

With the legal tampering period beginning today opening the 2016 NFL Free Agent market (officially not until Wednesday at 4pm ET), three names hit the Twitter wire today ready to shape the QB market.

When we looked at the QB market last week, we were mainly looking at Philadelphia Eagles QB Sam Bradford (who recently re-signed with the Eagles on a pretty sizable deal), San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, Denver Broncos QB Brock Osweiler (who recently got offered a re-upped deal from the Broncos, though he didn't sign it) and Washington QB Kirk Cousins (who was franchise tagged last week).

Today though, we've got three new names hitting the market. Given the Rams' trio at QB in Nick Foles, Case Keenum and Sean Mannion, expect the QB market (and draft class) to be linked to the Rams throughout.

Robert Griffin III

RGIII was released by Washington in the last hour or so (or at least that's when reporting hit Twitter).

There's certainly going to be a push for RGIII as a FA option, and clearly the inside track believes the Rams could be a landing spot for the #2 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft:

Rams, Cowboys make sense. Not buying the Texans. https://t.co/XIXyOG3Inp

— Marc Sessler (@MarcSesslerNFL) March 7, 2016

For me though, the underlying storyline here revolves around the 2012 NFL Draft trade between the Rams and Washington that sent RGIII to the nation's capital while the Rams stocked up draft picks without ever improving on the bottom line in the win column. You can certainly argue the Rams won that deal since RGIII didn't even make it through his fifth-year option. But with RGIII having led Washington to the playoffs in his rookie year and the Rams yet to produce a winning season since the 2012 NFL Draft (while Cousins, who was picked in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, led Washington back to the playoffs in 2015), there's an easy argument to be made that Washington, for all of their dysfunction, is actually in a better position overall than the Rams regardless of the trade impact.

For all that, RGIII is making a bit of history on the way out:

RG3 will be the 1st player that had a 5th year option picked up under rookie wage scale cut before his 5th year salary became fully GTD.

— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) March 7, 2016

Ryan Fitzpatrick

News of his release dropped on Twitter this AM pretty unexpectedly:

This is a surprise: #Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick is expected to hit the free agent market, sources say. Sides are far apart on a potential deal

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 7, 2016

Fitzpatrick has now played on six teams in his 11-year NFL career, starting of course with the Rams who took him in the 7th round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Bate took a long look at whether he'd make sense for the Rams last week.

Complicating things for the market is that Fitzpatrick is coming off of (a) his best year statistically and (b) his first winning season as a starting QB having led the Jets to 10 wins missing out on a postseason berth due to a tiebreaker with the 10-win Pittsburgh Steelers.

Josh Freeman

No, Freeman's release isn't an earth-shattering move. But he's got starting experience...and that's about it.

Perhaps most interestingly since the Colts announced they wouldn't be re-signing Matt Hasselbeck is the Colts QB depth chart which currently consists of Andrew Luck and Stephen Morris. That's woefully thin given that the club reportedly is worried about Luck's long-term shoulder health.

So keep an eye on the QB market. The Rams are sorely in need of roster change...even if Fisherball is a black hole for the most important position in the sport.

That system works for no quarterback unfortunate enough to back into it. https://t.co/gqPAd5i1y1

— Doug Farrar (@SI_DougFarrar) March 7, 2016