Free agency kicked off at 12:01 AM Friday, and already a handful of teams have jumped into the pool and make some big splashes. My early thoughts on the early action: Thumbs Up --To the Chicago Bears, for making the biggest waves by signing Julius Peppers and Chester Taylor. Faced with no first or second round draft picks, GM Jerry Angelo and a beleaguered (to be kind) coaching staff acted swiftly and aggressively to fill two major needs with two major talents. Peppers was the biggest fish in the free agent waters, a multi-time Pro Bowl defensive end noted for big sacks and freakish athleticism during his eight years in Carolina. Peppers couldn?t ever agree to a long-term deal with the Panthers, and he has had bouts of inconsistency, but he has a chance to make the Bears defense special once again. Taylor plugs a long-standing hole that not a lot of people realized the Bears have had for awhile now. Backup RB has been a sore point for years, but to label Taylor as a ?backup? doesn?t do him justice. He is a great receiver, an excellent blocker in pass protection, and he?s a low-mileage hard runner that notched over 1200 yards in his one season as a feature back. He?s a perfect fit for Mike Martz?s offense. The team also brought in TE Brandon Manumaleuna, a Martz favorite. --To the Detroit Lions, for a series of moves that greatly upgrades the overall talent level of a team that badly needs to do just that. Coach Jim Schwartz staked out Kyle Vanden Bosch?s home to personally recruit the veteran defensive end to Detroit. Though he?s not an elite sack master, Vanden Bosch fits the scheme perfectly and will greatly help against the run. He will also be a welcome leadership presence in the locker room. Trading for DT Corey Williams from the Browns brings in a more dynamic interior presence; Williams led the league in sacks by a tackle the last year he played in a 4-3 front. And a trade for Falcons CB Chris Houston is all but a done deal. The team also went out and reeled in wide receiver Nate Burleson from Seattle. He didn?t come cheap, but his skill-set blends perfectly with what the Lions want--a legit #2 wideout to take attention away from Calvin Johnson and sustain longer drives. These moves are more than the band-aids Lions fans have grown accustomed to with their free agents. VDB and Burleson are legit NFL veteran starters that represent real upgrades with a sense of permanence, and Williams is a fantastic low-risk, potential high-reward acquisition. One thing that makes me like these moves for these two teams: Check out the offensive lines in the NFC North. The left tackles are Jeff Backus in DET, Bryant McKinnie in MIN, Chris Williams (maybe) in CHI and insert your guess here for the Packers, and the only right tackle known right now is the Vikings? Phil Loadholt. When Jeff Backus is unarguably the best tackle in the division, you know veteran pass rushers like Peppers and Vanden Bosch can make huge impacts. --Without going into great detail, I also give a thumbs up to the Miami Dolphins for signing the player I believe to be the best player on the market, LB Karlos Dansby. Jacksonville did well too, signing DE Aaron Kampman and WR/special teams ace Kassim Osgood, both of whom fill major voids. Thumbs Down --To the two big-name movers at cornerback. Dunta Robinson left the Texans for greener pastures in Atlanta, while the Jets traded a couple of picks to bring in former Charger Antonio Cromartie. The casual NFL fan probably recognizes those names and thinks, ?Hey bud, what?s your problem with that?? My beef is that neither guy is anywhere near the player he thinks he is, or that the new teams believe they are getting. Heck, the reason the Chargers were so quick to part with Cromartie involves the Jets. Remember the playoff game where Cromartie played so poorly in coverage and completely whiffed on a tackle that led to a Jets TD? That was the final straw for the Chargers coaching staff, which had seen that movie way too many times before. Trust me, no other Chargers players are shedding a tear for a player they felt quit on them. Cromartie can be an exceptional cover corner when duly motivated, but those days have been fewer and farther between, and his pathetic tackling effort scared away the Lions for the same asking price. Robinson remains perhaps the most overrated player in the league in my opinion. He has managed to parlay a great rookie season into everyone believing he?s been an elite corner for years now. The numbers say otherwise, strongly. Injuries have taken a toll, and his body cannot cash the checks his mouth has been writing anymore. Most Texans fans saw this and didn?t want him back, and once again few teammates bemoan the loss. The Falcons are banking on Robinson being his old self, circa 2006, but Tom Dimitroff should know better. Here?s first-guessing that both these moves fall flat come Halloween. Thumbs Twiddling --To the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore dealt a 3rd and 4th round pick to Arizona to acquire disgruntled wideout Anquan Boldin. The Cards also sent their 5th round pick to make the deal more palatable. This strikes me as one of those moves that Ravens fans will like a lot more now than later. I don?t mean to demean Boldin, who has proven to be one of the most prolific receivers in the league. But he?s 30, he?s missed parts of the last three seasons with serious injuries, one of which is a hamstring injury that sure appears chronic. Part of the deal is that GM Ozzie Newsome had to fork out $25M to Boldin, which Arizona steadfastly refused to pay for years, hence the trade. Frequent readers will note I greatly admire and respect Ozzie Newsome, but I think he erred here. A team like the Cardinals is not going to give up such a talent without a valid reason, and they?ve refused to sign him to a lucrative long-term deal for quite a while now. It seems the Ravens are paying Boldin for what he accomplished in Arizona, and not necessarily what he will do for them. The price is right in terms of draft pick sacrifice for such a tantalizing talent at a position of dire need for the Ravens, but that?s an awful lot of money to hand over to someone who was constantly unhappy in a pass-heavy offense that suited him perfectly. Now Boldin goes to a run-heavy team that plays outdoors on one of the toughest surfaces in some of the worst weather in the league. I know I?m against the grain on this one, but I trust the old adage that a deal that seems too good to be true probably is...even getting a Pro Bowl WR for two mid-round picks. Thumbs Sucking --To the Carolina Panthers. With the removal of the salary cap also came the removal of the salary floor, and many people wondered which teams would take advantage of the ?no minimum required? spending. The most obvious early example is Jerry Richardson?s Panthers. They let Peppers walk away for nothing, ate millions in tearfully parting with Steve Blass-esque QB Jake Delhomme, and also quietly released several veteran contributors on defense. They are in danger of losing starting CB Richard Marshall, whom they tagged with just a 2nd round tender. It sure seems like the team is content to essentially write off 2010 as a lost year, trying to save as much cash as possible and ushering in a youth movement that stands little chance of winning more than about 5 games in a tough NFC South with a lame-duck coach in John Fox. --To Ben Roethlisberger, for being a freaking idiot. In case you haven?t heard, Big Ben is being investigated by Georgia authorities on suspicion of sexual assault. This makes the second incident in one year that Roethlisberger faces the ugly accusation. Normally, I go out of my way to give the benefit of the doubt to athletes in these situations, because I?ve seen women accost athletes in hotel lobbies (my first gig out of college was as a night manager at a prominent Cleveland hotel), throwing their scantily-clad selves at the feet of heroes, hoping to land a big notch in the bedpost and just maybe a fat check to go with it. But this one strikes me as different. For one, Roethlisberger should certainly know better. Considering he?s still facing a civil suit from the last one, you would think he would play it more carefully. But there is a deeper, more troubling trend here. Ask anyone around Pittsburgh and they?ll tell you Big Ben has a big reputation as a big-time party boy. He?s never shied away from cashing in on his celebrity to score drinks, or meals, or apparently women. All that questionable judgment will catch up with him sooner or later, and it looks like sooner. I sincerely hope he?s not guilty of anything other than being vapidly ignorant and setting himself up for crap like this, but with so much background info to draw upon, it?s real hard to believe that?s all it is.