Editor's note: The story was updated to reflect the report that Brandon Marshall was accused of striking a woman during an incident in New York earlier this week.

As the NFL picked the first day of free agency to continue its glorification of wide receivers, the Chicago Bears on Tuesday pulled off what might have been the steal of the market by getting Brandon Marshall for two third-round draft picks.

[ Related: Brandon Marshall accused of punching woman ]

On the flipside, this better mean Peyton Manning is going to Marshall's former team, the Miami Dolphins.

Or else.

How desperate are teams for wideouts? Josh Morgan, who barely played last season (15 catches for 220 yards and one TD in five games) and has never had one 700-yard year in four seasons, got $12 million over two years. Or how about the fact that a 35-year-old, fading diva who didn't even play last season (Randy Moss, come on down) got a deal with a serious contender (San Francisco) on Monday.

By comparison, the Dolphins

Randy Moss' return to the NFL is significant. Considering all the dominos that are about to fall around the league when free agency begins Tuesday at 4 p.m. E.T., Moss' one-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers reveals a lot about the open NFL job market – and not just about the 49ers' woeful passing game last season.

The acquisition of Moss is a clear indication of how critical wide receivers in the NFL have become, particularly ones who are tall. As Moss was wrapping up his incentive-laden deal with the 49ers, the New Orleans Saints were working feverishly to get Marques Colston signed to a new contract before he hits free agency.

Once free agency officially begins, look for Vincent Jackson to quickly sign a deal that could be worth in the area of $12 million a year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills are all expected to make a serious push for Jackson, who would still like to stay in San Diego if the Chargers make a remotely reasonable offer. (The Washington

Three NFL sources that have seen medical reports on quarterback Peyton Manning say the improvement of his arm strength appears to be going at a promising pace, although a full recovery is still far off.

"So far, so good," said a source with one of the many teams that is interested in signing Manning. "The question is still where is it going to stop, but the progress over the past month has been steady and that's what you're looking for."

[ Report: Chiefs have made contract offer to Peyton Manning ]

There had been some fear in late January that Manning's recovery had stalled. While that appears to be a subject of interpretation at this point, the progress over the past month has been sufficient enough that any team seeing the information would likely be willing to continue its pursuit of Manning, who was released Wednesday by the Indianapolis Colts.

"This is not a physical and he hasn't taken one with us yet," the source said. "There are still a lot of questions to answer before you

Sadly, the tsunami of interest in Peyton Manning seems to be drowning out Flynnsanity. As the NFL waits for Manning to make a decision on the direction he wants to go, approximately a half-dozen teams have kept Green Bay Packers quarterback Matt Flynn on hold as he approaches free agency.

"You can't do anything until you get a final answer from Manning," one NFC executive said. "Even if you think it's a long shot, you have to wait … normally, you'd be lining up the contingency plan, but this is so unique, you can't even think about it."

[ Report: Chiefs have made contract offer to Peyton Manning ]

And that was from an exec on a team that likes Flynn a lot and sees him as a significant upgrade over what the team currently has at quarterback.

"If I didn't have this situation hanging over my head, I'd be grinding away on Flynn," the executive said. "But the difference is like light years. With Flynn, if you don't get him, you'd be disappointed, but you'd go to the next plan of attack.

As Peyton Manning fought back tears at his farewell news conference in Indianapolis, at least one high-ranking NFL executive had to fight off his owner.

"We were sitting there watching and [the owner] called as soon as they wrapped up and Peyton was walking off the stage with [Indianapolis Colts owner Jim] Irsay," said a junior executive with one of the many teams rumored to be interested in Manning. "[Our general manager] kept assuring him, 'We're going to get a meeting with Manning and we're going to do all our homework.'

"But I'll tell you, if we left it up to the owner, he might sign the guy, sight unseen."

Welcome to the upcoming firestorm of Manning's foray into free agency.

"Just think about the trap you're in. If you sign the guy and he's bad, it's probably going to cost you your job," an AFC general manager said. "Or, if you don't sign him and he's great, it's probably going to cost you your job. This situation is a potential nightmare."

[ Marshall Faulk: Peyton Manning will

Jim Irsay's $28 million decision comes down to 27 seconds of really bad video.

The public relations war between the Indianapolis Colts' owner and quarterback Peyton Manning hit a high note late last week with the release of a video showing Manning making four throws while working out at Duke University under the guidance of coach David Cutcliffe, Manning's offensive coordinator in college.

For what it's worth, Manning looked terrific. Then again, trying to make a decision about a quarterback coming back from disk-fusion surgery based on that is about as intelligent as picking a wife out of a mail-order catalogue.

Here's the problem: After all the volleys between Irsay and Manning in recent weeks, it has become nearly impossible for Irsay to retain the services of the second-greatest Colts player of all time (sorry Peyton, but everybody knows the symbol on the side of the helmet really stands for Unitas). The water is too murky and Irsay has gone too far in his renovation project.

The

So the New Orleans Saints were dumb enough to continue a "bounty" system even after the NFL investigated them once, after owner Tom Benson told general manager Mickey Loomis to have it stopped and, worst of all, long after it had stopped working.

On stupidity alone, the Saints deserve to lose their first-round draft pick this year – except that they've already traded it to the New England Patriots. That shouldn't stop commissioner Roger Goodell from taking a couple of picks this year or taking the 2013 first-rounder as the starting point for punishment.

Yes, that's the starting point. From there, the Saints deserve a $500,000 fine as a team (hopefully that doesn't cut into the Drew Brees contract fund), head coach Sean Payton deserves a $250,000 fine, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, deserves a $200,000 fine and each of the assistant coaches who participated deserve to at least be docked $50,000. On top of that, Loomis deserves to be fined and/or

It took a natural disaster for the New Orleans Saints to be desperate enough to sign Drew Brees in 2006. Six glorious years later, the team is privately trying to sell itself on the notion that Brees is simply a "very good" quarterback.

That was the word coming out of the NFL scouting combine this past week, when Saints general manager Mickey Loomis tried to define Brees as "very good" when the quarterback was called "great," according to three league sources. All three sources were asking Loomis why it was taking so long to sign Brees to a contract extension. Loomis' answer spoke volumes.

It also spoke to the fact that Saints owner Tom Benson is likely going to have to step in to solve the situation. To this point, Benson has left the matter to Loomis.

As one league insider said: "Benson knows where this team was 15 years ago and he sees where it is now. He has to make the call. Mickey is not going to do it."

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As of Thursday,