The annual Scouting Combine fired up Thursday, but the focus of the day here in Indianapolis was free agency and the franchise tags. As the collegians aren?t working out yet, the energy and buzz swirls around impending free agent talks, trade talks, and contract situations. That is fairly consistent with my experience on prior trips too. Most of the scouts and coaches didn?t arrive until late in the day, if at all. Hopefully their trips to Indy were better than mine. Normally a pleasant 3 ? hour cruise down US 31, my commute took nearly seven hours of intense, white-knuckled driving through lake effect snow and hurricane-force winds. Thanks to the greatest band in the world, Dream Theater, for providing a stress release soundtrack for my misery. Thursday notes --the loudest noise was the Raiders signing premier CB Nnamdi Asomugha to a 3-year, $45M deal, thus avoiding use of the franchise tag for a second consecutive season. By actually making a commitment to a truly elite-level player, the Raiders have sent the message they are serious about improving and building off the positive momentum that new coach Tom Cable built late in the season. Having signed their second-best player, P Shane Lechler, to a long contract earlier in the week, the perception is that the Raiders are no longer a laughingstock and that Al Davis is finally acquiescing to the modern times. At least a little bit. --Carolina signed LT Jordan Gross to a last-second contract, which allowed them to place the franchise tag on disgruntled DE Julius Peppers. That drew the following reaction from a prominent agent (though not Peppers? agent): ?Are they trying to tell us (fellow agents) to (expletive related to self fornication)? He doesn?t want to be there, they don?t want him there. What the (expletive) are they doing with franchising him!? If they wanted him they would have tried to work out a deal last year, but from what I know they never even tried. Not seriously anyways. If Julius Peppers was my client, he would not accept this. I would have him sit out the six games and then take their money. ...there has to be good faith and the Panthers have lost that faith in my eyes. The Gross deal looks fair enough, but why did they wait? That exact deal could have been done weeks ago. They?re just (expletive) with Peppers now and that ain?t right.? --the same agent on the Titans using the franchise tag on TE Bo Scaife: ?Good for him and for Kevin (Roberson, Scaife?s agent). They have to pay him top-five tight end money guaranteed next year. There isn?t one person in the NFL who would put Bo Scaife in the top half of tight ends in this league. He might not have pulled that kind of money ($4.45M in 2009) over two years if he hit the open market.? My personal observation on the Titans tagging Scaife: This means both Kerry Collins and Albert Haynesworth are free agents. Haynesworth has already indicated he will heavily test the open market waters, which likely means a deal averaging close to $10M per year, probably for 4 years. Collins, the unquestioned savior of their 2008 season, will get $8M minimum from someone (the Jets?) if the Titans can?t work out a deal. They are already paying Vince Young big $$ at QB. They just signed K Rob Bironas to a 4 year, $12M deal, plus the Scaife deal. This indicates to me that either Haynesworth or Collins won?t be back; they simply cannot afford them both. Look for Haynesworth to sign elsewhere, because the players behind Haynesworth are more NFL-ready than Vince Young is to take over for Collins. Three seasons into his career and Vince Young still isn?t close to being ready to take over a playoff-caliber team. Tell me again why any team should burn a first-round pick on a spread/option QB, because Young was better in college than anyone else from that system, with Alex Smith a close second. No thanks. --Arizona chose to tag LB Karlos Dansby for the second consecutive year. What this tells me: They felt he was the most likely key component to leave, and he?s the most irreplaceable with what they have behind him on the roster. This makes getting a new deal for Kurt Warner before next week (when free agency starts) the single most critical move of the next week. If they can convince Warner to come back, the band stays together for another run. If he walks away, the incentive for Anquan Boldin to play nice and stick around is gone, not to mention the primary appeal for the other free agents, notably Antonio Smith, Bert Berry, and Ralph Brown, the veteran glue of the defense. If the Cardinals want to credibly sell to these guys that the team is committed to winning and the Super Bowl run was no fluke, Warner has to return. --Pittsburgh used the franchise tag on Max Starks once again. Overheard from a Steelers beat writer calling into a Pittsburgh-area radio show (I can?t provide a verbatim quote, but this is real close): Last year they knew they had to keep him because there was nobody else to fill his spot. He played his way to the bench again and there is no way he should make the final roster next year, just no way based on his play the past couple of seasons. And they franchise him anyways. Say goodbye to Bryant McFadden and Nate Washington in favor of backup bum lineman Max Starks. ...this says to me they do not want to use an early pick on the offensive line too. Sometimes I wonder how we keep winning. --the Derek Anderson-to-Tampa Bay talks have real legs. Everything I saw and heard yesterday indicates that the Browns are aggressively shopping Anderson and will find a taker who will give them their asking price, likely a 2nd round pick with some strings. Lions talk, for my fellow morons who have yet to abandon the misery: --it was great to see Jim Schwartz being front and center yesterday, doing press conferences and being very open and accessible to the media. This is a fundamental change from the Millen years, where the coaches typically only spoke in a calculated tone after Millen was done talking for the team. Schwartz is bright, articulate, and has a youthful exuberance that should play very well in the locker room and with the fans. --the Lions staff is spending Friday interviewing all the prominent offensive linemen, and I can tell you they have done their homework in advance prep. I?m reading between some lines here, but my educated gut feeling is they desperately want Andre Smith or Eugene Monroe to knock their socks off and convince them to make one the #1 overall pick. --all that I have heard and seen indicates that Dan Orlovsky was 100% on the mark when he said that the Lions have told Daunte Culpepper he will be the starting QB in 2009. Orlovsky will not be back, and Jon Kitna will be cut loose any minute now. The commitment to Culpepper should indicate to everyone they are not serious about going after Matt Cassel. How does this impact their draft plans? My educated gut feeling, part two: Martin Mayhew knows the inglorious history of first round QBs in Detroit and does not want a repeat of Andre Ware, Chuck Long, or Joey Harrington. They like Matt Stafford but they are scared of throwing him to the wolves right away and also of paying him so much money for uncertainty. By keeping Culpepper for one year, and only one year, they hold the fort for a season with a veteran who is desperate to prove he?s got something left to offer and who played reasonably well given the circumstances last year. This means they can focus their search for their QB of the future not with the #1 pick, but rather with the #20 pick or perhaps the first pick of the second round. I do not find it a coincidence that Kansas State QB Josh Freeman is a near physical clone of a younger Culpepper and that the Lions have been observed shaking all the bushes in Manhattan, KS and in Freeman?s hometown of Kansas City. Jeff.Risdon@RealGM.com