"Building through the Draft" is the motto of losers

[TheOracle]

Grow up, Panthers. The big boys add depth through the draft, and make smart offseason decisions that ensure that they compete year after year.

If you are fortunate enough to get a high draft pick because you were unfortunate enough to LOSE a lot on the field, and if that's the position you're in every year, then of course you're going to talk about building through the draft, but one of the reasons you're losing every year is because there are no guarantees in the Draft, and most of those guys won't pan out.

Your future success is at the mercy of a "guessing game".

No one builds a championship team "through the draft", definitely not a team that's always in the mix. If you luck out one of those years and get a chance to draft a player who ends up being a "game changer" or potential "hall of famer", then you still only added one important piece, but it's not "building your team through the draft" because you'll still lose more often than not. You'll almost always be waiting for guys to develop.

What that player can do is make your team more attractive to free agents, unless you're so stubbornly fixated on "building through the draft" that you miss it because you don't understand that how you take that next step to truly becoming a franchise that's too big in name to fail (on a long-term basis) is by managing the offseason well.

The Panthers can take that step, next year, if Hurney makes free agency a priority, even though it's more work, and not as easy as just drafting a guy. Regardless of what draft pick they end up with, they can compete next season if they make smart offseason moves on Defense by going after some guys in the league who you already know can contribute to a team because you've seen them do it. Build the Defense through means other than the Draft.

FYI: I don't need to "list" players who they should go after for this to be a fact. You're "closer" than many think, because one offseason can change a team's fortunes just as much and often more often than one draft does.

Market where the team is heading, pick up some key names/players who can help you compete "right now", and when you win (instead of waiting for draft picks to "get it", many of whom never will), you'll always have guys who are willing to sign with you when those older vets are finally washed up or choose to move on.

Marketing your City and Team to attract guys is how good GMs make their money and consistently put a winning product on the field. "Building through the Draft" is lazy thinking, and it keeps you losing.

[Dex]

Eagles looking hot this year.

[Jesse]

The best idea is to make smart draft choices and pick up reliable no-BS free agents. Until we consistently do that we'll be talking about "next year".

[jtnc]

It sure kept Green Bay losing

[CatMan72]

Someone forgot to tell the Packers and Steelers this...

[Lumps]

FA has it's place.

FA should be looking more appealing with our unbalanced preformance, ie. We just need to fill holes in the defense. You probably shouldn't try and draft your defense while your offense is in its prime, though Cam is young.

We had many FAs starting in the 2003 super bowl season. In fact you could say they were why we were there. Hurney just thinks he is better at drafting than he is.

Hurney wants to draft our core and that's fine but sometimes I think he thinks that all of our great players need to come from the draft and the FAs are just hole fillers. Good FAs usually get overpaid too but that doesn't mean much when we go and 'overpay' our core.

[CatMan72]

FA does have it's place, it should be used to compliment the draft... Charles Woodson signing in GB is a good example.

It's not like we're totally adverse to signing FA's, we signed Ron Edwards to fill a need at DT and he's actually a very solid player, we also brought in guys like: Applewhite and Naanee to address needs.

Building through the draft is the only way to build long-term, sustainable success.

[panthers55]

As others have said many great teams are building through the draft and supplementing through FA rather than the other way around. When we tried going primarily with FA over the years we never got enough value for the guys we picked up. It isn't hard to see that our biggest stars were from our draft and not free agency. FA is great for filliing in gaps where we don't doo a great job drafting like with TE right now. Both Shockey and Olsen are examples where a trade or FA is working out for us.

But the reality is that you really need to do both, draft well and have guys succeed in free agency as well. No team has enough cap to be able to pick up 10 or 15 guys in free agency every year so you have to build with the draft and use journeymen and cheaper players in some positions while supplementing with key free agents as needed.

As for the title of this thread, seems a pretty silly premise with no documentation to back it up.

[csx]

A brief examination of the current state of the NFL and it's history disagrees with you. Name a good team or organization that hasn't taken this approach. Name a team that has accomplished anything trying to "buy" their way.

[TheOracle]

Eagles looking hot this year.

Idiotic response.

The Eagles just SLAPPED big names together, and didn't have the offseason necessary to build chemistry.

To even act like that example disproves anything I said is stupid when there are more than enough successful franchises out there that ALMOST NEVER HAVE HIGH DRAFT PICKS that prove it's so.

[Gin and Juice]

Bad enough we over paid for our own "B" rated players! But now you say a successful franchise is built around over paying for another team's "B" and "C" players?

I agree we need to dip our cracker in the cheese of Free Agency, but drafting our own stars is the best way........ always!

[TheOracle]

A brief examination of the current state of the NFL and it's history disagrees with you. Name a good team or organization. Name a team that has accomplished anything trying to "buy" their way.

Show me where I said anything about "buying" your way, then I'll play along with your stupid request.

You have had dynasties and teams that are always drafting near the end of the first round that almost always have winning seasons and make the playoffs. They do make trades to get draft picks in other rounds, but like I said, I'm all for using the draft to BUILD DEPTH with talent in places where you need it, but it's stupid if you think you're going to draft notable starters at all of your key positions.

The Panthers used to do well in free agency. I remember when they were bringing in guys like Ken Lucas (who did well most of his time here), and some of those other guys who's careers were on the tail end but still were better than most of what they had (e.g., Sam Mills, Reggie White, Kevin Greene) but recently, probably because of pinching the books, all they talk about is "building through the draft".

Regardless of what you think, this team can win NEXT YEAR, if they make fixing the defense through more than the draft a focus.

[Gin and Juice]

And I only want two, maybe 3 "solid" players in Free Agency! No Vjax or Djax. Just soild, fundemental defensive players! I want this team to draft its defensive star!

[TheOracle]

Bad enough we over paid for our own "B" rated players! But now you say a successful franchise is built around over paying for another team's "B" and "C" players?

I agree we need to dip our cracker in the cheese of Free Agency, but drafting our own stars is the best way........ always!

That's not what I said, duh.

Anyone who thinks I'm talking about just signing free agents just for the television cameras (e.g., the Eagles) is a fool. I had teams like the Patriots that are always at the bottom of the 1st Round in mind when writing this. That's a team that's managed in a "smart" way. I'm sure I used the word "SMART".

I also thought about the Steelers and even the Cowboys, as franchises that can usually get guys to look at them just for their "names" (history) alone. But these days, almost everything is about "right now", so if you can put together a good season, add a few wily, talented vets who mesh with the other guys and buy into the system (unlike in Philadelphia), barring any unforeseen injuries, the Panthers can win NEXT YEAR. The young guys would learn more from those guys, and with the young nucleus, then you'll be building something.

THIS TEAM. That's what I think it needs to get there.