Free Agency

It seems like such a great idea. Signing other teams starters to massive contracts seems like it will instantly fix the wholes on your roster. They always seem to an instafix, and yet for some reason it doesn't pan out. The players these teams bring in never truly succeed like they did in the past and the team always ends up in some kind of financial trouble.

Example A. The Washington Redskins. For years the skins were the champions of the off-season. They would bring in star after star, from Deion Sanders to Bruce Smith to Dana Stubbfield, the redskins did everything they could to bring in veteran guys to save their team. They would trade draft picks to bring in guys like Chad Morton, or Lavernues Coles, or maybe even John Hall. All of these guys were bought and brought in, expecting to duplicate their prior success with their old teams. However the Redskins never seemed to get over the hump. They were 8-8 and 8-8 and 6-10 and 5-11. The long exception was 2005 and 2007, each times where the redskins did little to overhaul their rosters. 2005 the biggest player the Redskins brought in was center Casey Rabach from the baltimore ravens. They brought in some role players like Pearson Prioleau and Warrick Holdman, and did a decent job in the draft bringing in cb Carlos Rogers, an immediate starter and now starting qb Jason Campbell. The team then went out in 2006 and brought in Brandon Lloyd, Antwaan Randle El, biggest bust ever Adam Archuleta. Lloyd and Archuleta are no longer on the team, and Randle El has played alright, but has not been the same player he was for the steelers back when he won a superbowl back in 2005. Now while most of these players have been released the cap situation left behind from these failures has been terrible. Only two teams this past year were above the 116 million dollar salary cap, and the Washington Redskins were by far the most over. When the season ended they were roughly 22 million dollars OVER the cap... the next closest team was Indianapolis Colts.

However the skins seemed to have learned from their past mistakes. In 2007 the redskins only brought in 2 free agents of note, one bring London Fletcher, and the other being Fred Smoot, neither were big names and neither demanded gigantic contracts, like Archuleta and lloyd. Then this off-season, the redskins have yet to bring in a single free agent. Vowing to build their team through the draft and not waste money.

Now it seems the the Oakland Raiders and New York/B (Jets) have taken up where the skins left off. The raiders have spent a shit ton of money on fa this off-season, starting with their own franchised player, cb Nnamdi Asomugha, who will be either be signed to a long term deal or will be forced to sign a 1 year tender at roughly 9.8 million dollars (Asomugha cannot sign with other teams as the Raiders slapped him with the exclusive franchise tag). The raiders went from there and signed another one of their free agents 1,000 yard rb Justin Fargas to a 3 year contract worth roughly 12 million dollars. The giants then went out of signed Gibril Wilson, formally of New York/A (Giants) to a contract for 6 years worth 39 million dollars with 16 million dollars guaranteed. They also just recently went out and hired former packer/bronco wr Javon Walker to a RIDICULOUS contract, 6 years at 55 million with 16 million guaranteed. They also went out and signed Tommy Kelly to another RIDICULOUS deal, giving the man 18 million guaranteed. Both Kelly and Walker are coming off TORN ACL's and neither really seem to be worth even half of what they were paid. I can keep going for about 5 more players but i think you get the point. The Raiders have decided to go out and buy a championship and so far have spent over , however if history tells us anything, its that the Raiders are likely looking at a 6-10 season at best.

Then we have the Jets. A team that no veteran player wants to play on. The Jets have gone out and spent almost as much as the Raiders. They went out and bought arizona lb calvin pace, detriot guard Damien Woodly, they traded for aging panthers dt kris jenkins, signed another aging player in steelers guard alan fanaca, signed some random cb in Andre Woolfolk, who was a former first round draft pick of the titans but who didnt play at all in 2007. All of this has lead the jets to spend more than 67 million dollars in guarantees this off-season and they spent a total of 137.75 million dollars over their free agent signees. Its ridiculous money for a team that still does not have a qb with any experience (Kellen Clemons) or arm strength (Chad Pennington), and still has no running game. Mangenius realizes that he is on the hot seat but just cant seem to get it right.

Free agency is a trap, and the raiders and jets have fallen into it. They think they have brought in veterans who will bring their teams back to respectability, but in reality all they have done is screw themselves down the road. They will have massive cap problems in a few years when all these free agents deals hit the middle of end of their length and the teams will be forced to cut numerous veterans and start all over.

It's a vicious cycle that the team can never win. You sign and sign and never seem to get any better. In the end, the DRAFT... once again... the DRAFT is the only way to build a proper nfl franchise.