1964 Free Agency Part 2

1964 Free Agency Part 2

PATIENT WIDE RECEIVERS FIND THEIR NEW HOMES
With several of the top WRs now off the board and teams have made their picks at the draft, the patient WRs would now find their new teams. The first would be WR Ben Roland who would make the decision to officially swap spots with WR Sammy Moss and head to Providence. Sammy Moss of course had signed with the Thunder, Roland’s old team. WR Darryl Duke would also join Sammy Moss in signing a 1-year deal with the Thunder. WR Benedict Spencer was a bit overlooked by a lot of teams with his age and smaller size being a turn-off for some teams. With that, the Royals would be able to slip in a bring in the veteran to provide some leadership to a younger WR core. 

BLUE WINGS ACQUIRE TINT FROM INDEPENDENTS
With the aging TE’s retiring from the Blue Wings, they were in need of a replacement. They would ultimately find their guy in Independent’s TE Tanner Tint. Tint has been with Boston for the last 3 seasons and has been quite food, however, Boston does feel strongly about the development of WR Ellis Lindholm’s younger brother, Tobias, and expects him to take over the starting job this season. In the end, they would send Tint to the Blue Wings for LB Aristofane Zuccaro. Zuccaro was taken 13th overall last season, but with LB Randall Lambert getting picked in the first round this year, they are willing to part ways.  

SALARY CRUNCH LEADS TO SEVERAL TRADES
As the final free agents were being brought in, both Louisville and Toronto were facing some tough salary situations that would force them to make some late moves to get under. Toronto would have a fairly easy task, as they made a couple of small trades. The first was sending their backup TE Emmanuel Dorsey to the Raiders for undrafted DL Russell Lawrence. The Raiders were in need of a TE to back up Andrew Mathias and were willing to make the move. The second move was a pretty even trade with the Royals as they swapped offensive linemen. The Steelheads would send OL Calvin Forman to the Royals for OL David Alexander. The move looks to benefit both teams with the OL both being only 26-years-old.

As for the Thunder they had some tough decisions to make since they had more cap to clear. They would make a couple of moves as well, starting with sending OL Cliff Strautzenberger to the Buffalo Blue Wings for the younger OL Sun Guanyu. Buffalo would retain some salary from Guanyu in order to make the trade work and warrant the higher value. The second would be a tougher trade to make with the Thunder sending over 26-year-old WR Denis Langlois to the Victors for WR LeRoy Krueger and a 1965 4th Round Pick. The interesting part of the trade was Krueger going back since he had only signed with the Victors a few days before the trade. However, Krueger would be okay with the trade since he had not settled in and Louisville would be likely a more competitive spot. 

RARE KICKER SWITCH BETWEEN OTTAWA AND PROVIDENCE
There wasn’t a trade involved in this situation, but both the Royals and Gold Stars would swap kickers through free agency. K Ira Foster was interested in exploring some more options like many of the other players in the league usually do. The Ottawa native was hoping to return to Canada if the opportunity came along. Fortunately, the Royals would end up deciding to move on from K Maurice Lafayette and would target Foster to replace him. Foster was thrilled to sign with his hometown team for the next season. Lafayette would end up taking over the spot with Providence to complete the swap. 

Remaining Free Agent Signings
4 - WR Ben Roland LOU -> PRO 2Y, $22,000
8 - WR Darryl Duke MTL -> LOU 1Y, $15,000
9 - WR Benedict Spencer PRO -> OTT 1Y, $14,000
11 - RB Eddie Thompson LDN -> LI 1Y, $14,000
12 - RB Don Gregson IND -> OTT 1Y, $13,500
17 - QB Terry Bourbon LI -> PRO 1Y, $14,000
21 - S Cal Clemmons IND -> PRO 1Y, $14,500