The fourth day of the WFA Free Agency Period is the biggest day yet for signings as a total of twenty-four players inked new deals including the largest contract in league history. It is clear that offense is the focus of teams as eighteen of the signees come from that side of the ball (two of which are kickers) but the defensive side of the ball is where we start the day four rundown: CB | Curt McDuffie - New York Grizzlies: The Season 5 Defensive Player of the Year will have to receive his GenBowl V Championship ring at a later date as he will not be with the Ghosts opening night. McDuffie signed a 4 year contract with the Grizz worth a dizzying $42.8 million. With a $10M cap hit plus a $2.8 bonus, McDuffie is a large hit to New York's cap this year but just might be worth the risk with his ability to instantly change the course of a game. WR | Ken Kawaguchi - Tri-Cities Fever: The expansion Fever continue to add targets for their Gold signal caller, Daniel Bryan. They inked a silver wideout to complement Travis Stafford . Kawaguchi spent last season with an underwhelming Omaha Marshalls offense and one can expect him to have much more production as the potential #2 for the Fever. His deal is 2 years and worth $11.5M.
TE | Alan Ruggerio - Chicago GhostR:Ruggeriouggerio Ruggerio signed a 3 year $7.75M deal to become a Ghost. This signing is a bit of a surprise as the Ghosts aren't typically known to use a tight-end, but apparently they are moving that direction with the addition of Ruggerio. Team owner and head coach Logan Foster was ecstatic about the signing saying: "Alan is a big-bodied athlete that has great route-running ability and fantastic ball skills. We went hard after him because we believe that he's so dynamic we will come up with some creative ways of getting him involved in our passing game."
K | Jeffery Davis - New York Grizzlies: This one... is a head scratcher to say the least. The signing itself is not abnormal teams all over the WFA carry Bronze tier kickers, but the deal that the Grizzlies made to sign Jeffery Davis is odd. They signed the accurate footed kicker to a 4 year contract with a $1 MILLION dollar signing bonus, making Davis the highest paid kicker in the entire WFA with a contract worth $5 million dollars. Only time will tell if this big pay day works out for both parties or if Jeffery Davis just pulled off the greatest heists of all time.
RB | Chris Dixon - Portland Cougars: In a historic day of signings and massive contracts the Portland Cougars take the cake! They have emphatically stated that the running game is their priority by signing quite possibly the biggest fish in the Free Agency Sea. Running Back Chris Dixon is coming back from a retirement brought on by injury and signing the biggest contract in WFA history. 4 years $46 MILLION to become the face of the newly dubbed Portland Cougars. The risk is high for the Cougars as Dixon lost a majority of his last two seasons in the WFA with lower body injuries, but the reward could be huge as Dixon showed throughout his career that he has the potential to be a game breaking running back and a franchise defining athlete. Like all of these deals... only time will tell.
Full List of Day 4 Signings:
Ghosts Alan Ruggerio TE 3yrs (250k)
Titans Deshawn Smith WR 3yrs (1.5k)
Titans James Gaston C 2yrs (1k)
Titans Yah Tzee TE 1yr (1k)
Fighters Vernard Pringley DE 2yrs (35k)
Firebirds Nick Fraser K 2yrs ($100)
Grizzlies Chris Colon DT 4yrs (950k)
Grizzlies Curt McDuffie CB 4yrs (2.8M)
Clash Raheem James WR 4yrs (1k)
Fever Ken Kawaguchi WR 2yrs (1.5M)
Clash Mario Luna WR 2yrs
Clash Eduardo Hagan G 1yrs (1k)
Clash Carter Daly G 1yrs (1k)
Clash Randall Alejandro C 3yrs (1k)
Grizzlies Jeffery Davis K 4yrs (1M)
Crabs Tim Miles SS 4yrs (805k)
Crabs Joey Johnson DL 1yrs
Gamblers Shaq Lender WR 4yrs (500k)
Gamblers Virgil Underhill WR 2yrs (1k)
Gamblers Quan Rollins CB 1yrs
Cougars Chris Dixon RB 4yrs (6M)
Wolf Pack Jerry Brown T 2yrs
Wolf Pack Abdul Moss WR 3yrs (1k)
Ghosts Benjamin Maclin WR 1yrs
Day Five of the WFA Free Agency Period will begin at noon eastern today and is sure to bring a bit more velocity of signings as the free agency window begins to close. Stay tuned here for all of the Free Agency news and as always check us out on Twitter @WFASim.