Difficult Truths About Free Agency

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Dream teams.

That path has been trod several times since unrestricted free agency began.

It doesn't always work. Honestly, I've probably seen it not work more times than I've seen it work.

It very rarely works, TBH.

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, kungfoodude said:

It very rarely works, TBH.

But this time it will

[Khyber53]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

But this time it will

And that's the mantra that keeps the wheel cycling through.

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

And that's the mantra that keeps the wheel cycling through.

Yeah, pretty much

And to be fair, it has worked once or twice before so it's not unprecedented.

Even in those cases though, it wasn't sustained success. It was a year of glory followed by a lot of years of suckage paying for that one year.

That's why I've never been in favor of us going that route.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Mr. Scot

[Panthero]

2 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

1. If you aren't a solid starter, you're at risk of getting cut to make room. A seven year player even at vet minimum is more expensive than a UDFA rookie. 

2. FA guards are always over-priced, especially if you've ever heard their name mentioned before.

3. The good tackles stay on teams, even when there is a cap crunch. The tackles on free agency/trades you know of are probably sporting some long term injuries or have some locker room issues. If there is a unicorn OT out there, particularly a left tackle, you can't afford him without losing a lot of your future cap space.

4. If a player has been in the league for more than three seasons, particularly if they saw the field regularly, chances are they have some lingering injuries. All vet players have lingering injuries, some worse than others, some more able to cope with it than others. They all have hard miles, but its the quality of the maintenance that often matters.

5. Some teams have bad position coaches and they can ruin some players beyond redemption. More importantly, some teams have terrible trainers/conditioning coaches and those teams often spin out players with lingering issues that will spring up. It wasn't that many years ago that the Bengals facility had MRSA issues that spun out with almost all the free agents that came from that team.

6. If the average fan knows a free agent player's name, you can believe there is an entire hype machine out there working to gin up interest in them. Some are legit, many aren't and some are just looking for one more good paycheck before they pack it in and call it a career.

7. Beware of guys coming from a team that had a "players' coach." These vets are often used to just rolling up to the trough and feeding while not being required of much. Giving one of these guys a big contract can produce a whale you're stuck with.

8. The draft is still the best building tool out there. There's a whole legion of agents, bloggers and Twitter artists that want you to think otherwise.  Many of them are happily paid to lie.

9. There are always a handful of bad players who blossom into something great with a new team. It's worth it to try and snag a couple of them on the cheap.

10. Top quality scouting departments are very rare (maybe only four or five in the league right now). Really bad ones can cripple a team for a decade or more as their bad evaluations are often blamed on the players and then the coaches. (We may be suffering from this.)

One of the best posts ive seen on here and why its so important to build from within and have an accountable culture. You poo around, youre gone. You do well and you get rewarded. No favorites, no crying ass vets wanting another contract (yall know the ones). 

[Khyber53]

2 minutes ago, Panthero said:

One of the best posts ive seen on here and why its so important to build from within and have an accountable culture. You poo around, youre gone. You do well and you get rewarded. No favorites, no crying ass vets wanting another contract (yall know the ones). 

Thanks, man.

[Panthercougar68]

This post isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

[Snake]

4 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

The history of big free agency spenders isn't very promising, despite what Tampa did this past offseason.

KC has gone out and spent and it worked. So has NO and PHI. Now long term no it doesn't but when you smell the ship you better spend or you end up like us every Super Bowl. 

[Sgt Schultz]

Excellent post, Khyber.

To add (or detract), I see my favorite news source has interviewed Marty Hurney.

https://sports.theonion.com/report-most-nfl-teams-just-1-or-2-overpriced-free-agen-1819576251