Has this type of activity in Free Agency ever translated to success?

[JustInFudge]

I've been trying to think of an example when a team has been this active in Free Agency and it actually paid off for the team and it translated to wins.  

 

There are plenty of examples of where the winners in FA have failed:

The Redskins

The Eagles (dream team)

The Broncos last year got worse

The Dolphags a few years ago

 

Any examples of where it's actually paid off?

 

Most successful teams win with by building through the draft, obviously the Jets dont have that luxury and I'm excited to not enter the season for a 3rd straight year with the worst roster in the league but will this work?

 

They've basically signed a bunch of 30+ year old's.  So this window is going to be small to begin with but will it really help turn things around? Historically this type of behavior in Free Agency hasnt been kind to teams.  Will that change for the Jets?  

[Jetsfan80]

Free agency in 2015 is of the unprecedented variety.  Never before have so many teams been FORCED to spend to meet a cap floor.  You can pretty much throw history out of the window.

 

As I've argued in other threads, you have to contend for the playoffs before you can contend for a Super Bowl.  No Super Bowl winning team in the last 10 years has gone worse than 8-8 the year before they won it.  9 of those 10 teams made the playoffs the season before.  And if we want to entice a franchise QB to play here OR have a nice roster to surround some draft pick, it's nice to have this talent already here. 

 

None of the moves McCagnan made are going to put us in cap hell down the road.  In 3 years we can start from scratch, if need be, with some nice cap space once again.  Not to mention, I think all the moves he made are for guys we know can produce.  Revis and Marshall are very well known quantities.  We didn't, for instance, go out and overpay for Suh, who is one more bad decision away from a lengthy suspension, and will financially strap the Dolphins for a long time.

[Ex-Rex]

I've been trying to think of an example when a team has been this active in Free Agency and it actually paid off for the team and it translated to wins.  

 

There are plenty of examples of where the winners in FA have failed:

The Redskins

The Eagles (dream team)

The Broncos last year got worse

The Dolphags a few years ago

 

Any examples of where it's actually paid off?

 

Most successful teams win with by building through the draft, obviously the Jets dont have that luxury and I'm excited to not enter the season for a 3rd straight year with the worst roster in the league but will this work?

 

They've basically signed a bunch of 30+ year old's.  So this window is going to be small to begin with but will it really help turn things around? Historically this type of behavior in Free Agency hasnt been kind to teams.  Will that change for the Jets?  

The Jets themselves have failed in FA more times that not. Neil O'Donnell anyone? Ronnie Lott? I think what this FA period did was to shore up some obvious deficiencies and is a short term fix for sure. I think Revis gives us two solid seasons before tailing off. Cromartie much the same. Carpenter could be a keeper as could Gilchrist. There is no doubt the Jets are better now than they were and they HAD to spend the money anyway. Just wish they had resigned Wilkerson with some of that dough. Harrison also. 

[JustInFudge]

Free agency in 2015 is of the unprecedented variety. Never before have so many teams been FORCED to spend to meet a cap floor. You can pretty much throw history out of the window.

As I've argued in other threads, you have to contend for the playoffs before you can contend for a Super Bowl. No Super Bowl winning team in the last 10 years has gone worse than 8-8 the year before they won it. 9 of those 10 teams made the playoffs the season before. And if we want to entice a franchise QB to play here OR have a nice roster to surround some draft pick, it's nice to have this talent already here.

Doesn't mean you have to depend it the way they are in FA. You could spend internally too or more money to 1 player, etc.

So you think the Jets are a playoff contender from this frenzy?

[Jetsfan80]

 Just wish they had resigned Wilkerson with some of that dough. Harrison also. 

 

We can always tag Wilkerson next year, and I'd be OK with some team coming along and giving us a 2nd round pick for Snacks.  We can always match the deal they offer, too.

[Jetsfan80]

Doesn't mean you have to depend it the way they are in FA. You could spend internally too or more money to 1 player, etc.

So you think the Jets are a playoff contender from this frenzy?

 

Far moreso a playoff contender than we would have been had we "spent internally" or spent more on one player (like Suh).  Wilkerson was the only guy we'd be re-signing.  Where are you spending the rest of that coin?

[RichardTodd27]

Interesting Thread. Just off the top of my head I can think of 2 teams:

1) The 2007 Giants picked up at least 3 prized free agents in Plax, Mckenzie & Pierce.

2) The 1994 49ers Super Bowl team seem to have a lot of free agents (Sanders, Norton Jr. Plumber, etc...)

[shawn306]

A few examples for what it is worth.

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000146772/article/nfl-free-agency-has-empowered-players-but-ruined-rivalries

 

When Reggie White rumbled his way over to the Green Bay Packers 20 years ago, it signaled the start of a new era.

 

Twenty years.

A lot's changed in the past 20, no? Laser discs came and went. Axl and Slash pulled a Kim and Reggie. The same can be said for three-year rebuilding plans.

The biggest sea change in the NFL over the past two decades has been marked by the impatience -- that most unattractive of human qualities -- that now spills over in nearly every NFL general manager's office, save for an extraordinary few. Teams used to have time to improve; now there's downright jumpiness for 5-11 squads to turn into 11-5 winners overnight. So what precipitated that shift?

 

 

 

Free agency.

Yes, pro football's great flea market celebrates its 20th birthday on March 12.

Which gives us reason to ask: What has been free agency's ultimate impact? Has it made our game -- arguably America's greatest sports enterprise -- better? The NFL is more popular than ever. But was free agency -- which gave subpar teams the ability to make themselves over so that they could compete now -- the catalyst? Did it improve the NFL as a product?

No.

That doesn't mean the pro game is terribly worse, but the changes free agency has induced are both positive and negative.

To be fair, let's look at both angles, the good and the bad. Feel free to make your own assessments (@Harrison_NFL is the dropbox).

THE GOOD

 

» Teams can turn things around quite quickly through the shrewd use of free agency and available cap money. The New Orleans Saints went 3-13 during their Hurricane Katrina-plagued 2005 season. Then they signed quarterback Drew Brees the following spring. In 2006, they went 10-6 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game.

» The year-round news cycle gets fed. Let's face it, free agency has made the NFL relevant in the months following the Super Bowl. That was not the case before 1993. (Of course, the NFL draft has done its part, too.)

» Football RX. Your team needs a decent pass rusher, but one can't be had in the draft? Free agency, baby. In 1994, the Buffalo Bills missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years. They needed someone to take the load off Bruce Smith. Enter Bryce Paup, a free-agent signee (care of the Green Bay Packers) who delivered 17.5 sacks in 1995.

» It's beneficial to the players, who, like the rest of society, can go where their services are most valued.

THE NOT SO GOOD

 

» While being beneficial to the players, it can hurt teams, particularly those whose coaching staffs helped developed a guy's skills, only to see him walk and make more money with a team that has larger cash reserves.

Rosenthal: Top 85 free agents

This year's free-agent crop lacks star power but provides immense depth.Gregg Rosenthal ranks available players. More ...

» It hurts fans, too. What sucks more than rooting for an All-Pro who is part of the backbone of your team, only to see him leave town for greener pastures or for ancillary reasons? (See: Reggie White, Curtis Martin, Nnamdi Asomugha.)

» The divorce rate between players and teams is almost as bad as the real divorce rate in this country. Don't worry, it's still not that bad.

» Huge contracts often de-motivate players and cripple teams' rosters. When one position becomes a financial sinkhole, seventh-round draft picks end up at the others. Albert Haynesworth, anyone? Andre Rison? Javon Walker? Adam Archuleta? Scott Mitchell? T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Alvin Harper? Please don't make me type more.

» Rivalries -- as those of us who grew up in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s knew them -- are almost dead.

That's the killer, if you ask me. Free agency -- along with its oft-ugly offshoot, the salary cap -- has laid waste to NFL rivalries. You can't have hatred between teams when Jeremiah Trotter is playing middle linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles one day and middle linebacker for the Washington Redskins the next. 

If you grew up a Green Bay Packers fan in the 1980s, you hated Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary and Steve McMichael ... everyone on the Chicago Bears' defense. Then one morning you woke up to see that Mongo was playing for your team. What?! Yes, McMichael signed with the Pack the year after Reggie White did. This was after years of blasting Lynn Dickey, Don Majkowski and other '80s-era Packer non-greats into the Soldier Field carpet.

With 20 to 30 percent of clubs' rosters (and sometimes much more, as we recently saw with theIndianapolis Colts) regularly turning over, fans are increasingly rooting for the decals on their team's helmets and against the decals on the other teams' helmets. The truest loyalty in the player-fan relationship is of the fantasy football variety. You can thank free agency for that.

In the '80s, Redskins fans hated the Dallas Cowboys. They hated their stars. They hated the role players, too: Dudes you've probably never heard of, like John Dutton, Bill Bates and Doug Cosbie. If those three had played today, they would have finished their respective careers in Indy, Denver and probably, well, Washington.

The Top 2013 Free Agents Take a look at the top players that will be available when free agency opens on March 12.

The only rivalry in the NFL that is truly thriving is the one between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. New England Patriots-New York Jets is OK, although Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez can single-handedly make Pats love him with a dropped snap, so that doesn't really count. Cowboys-Redskins got a nice boost in 2012 because those two played for the NFC East title on the last day of the season. But by and large -- save for a decent slugfest between theGreen Bay Packers and Chicago Bears or thePhiladelphia Eagles and New York Giants -- every game in the NFL, every week, has similar juice.

If -- and it's a big if -- the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers can keep most of their core players together, the rivalry between those two teams will turn into the most physical bout this side of Ravens-Steelers. We can hope.

Now, this is not to say free agency has been a total bust. A pretty cool byproduct has been seeing veteran players get a second life and another shot at a ring.

Former NFL safety (and current NFL Network colleague) Darren Sharper is an all-time example of how free-agency capital can be used smartly. Going into his 13th pro season in 2009, Sharper signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Saints. Boy did he deliver, to the tune of nine interceptions and three touchdowns. Put bluntly: New Orleans doesn't win Super Bowl XLIV without Darren Sharper. Period.

Pats fans will tell you their three Super Bowl-winning teams wouldn't have been the same without free-agent acquisition (via Pittsburgh) Mike Vrabel. So would Bob Kraft.

Truth be told, much of the bad weeds that grew out of the fun of free agency have been salary-cap related. The cap was introduced in 1994, and the limitations it forced on teams have led some guys who never would have become free agents otherwise to hit the market.

"Thurman Thomas playing for the Dolphins was, like, the grossest thing I've ever seen," said Bernie Kim, a friend of mine in the business who is, of all things, a Ravens fan. Bruce Smith to the Redskins ... Emmitt Smith to the Arizona Cardinals ... all brought to you in part by the salary cap. Get excited.

 

 

 

Perhaps the most important effect of the past 20 years of free agency has been its non-effect. Basically, it's a bit overrated. If you look at the past 20Super Bowl winners and their top three players -- their core -- you'll find very few big-name free-agent signees, aside from Brees with the Saints.

The 1994 49ers (Deion Sanders), '96Packers (Reggie White), '00 Ravens(Rod Woodson) and '10 Packers(Charles Woodson) would be the other title winners with the most notable free-agent additions -- guys who were top-three players on those championship clubs. Sure, there are those that added major contributors -- like the '07 Giants, who had Plaxico Burress -- but by and large, the best teams of the past two decades have been built through the draft, by signing no-name free agents (like Vrabel or James Harrison) or, in rare instances, through trade (Marshall Faulk).

For all the heavy media buzz about big-name guys on the free-agent market, there's usually an even heavier Haynesworth-esque fall in reality. There are many reasons that this happens. Motivation, age and the issues that can come from trying to fit players into new systems all play a role.

So while free agency has given us all something to talk about -- and while it's sometimes been a bright spot -- over the long view, it has not necessarily equated to a higher-quality game. That's the long and the short of it.

[JustInFudge]

Far moreso a playoff contender than we would have been had we "spent internally" or spent more on one player (like Suh). Wilkerson was the only guy we'd be re-signing. Where are you spending the rest of that coin?

So you're opinion eventhough history says otherwise is that this will pay off for the Jets?

[shawn306]

The Jets signed Martin and Mawae before the 98 season. Turned out pretty good for them as well

[Jetsfan80]

So you're opinion eventhough history says otherwise is that this will pay off for the Jets?

 

In the short-term it's a possibility.  But really if McCagnan doesn't nail his first draft we're in deep trouble as always.  And again, history doesn't matter, because never before have teams been FORCED to spend like this.  You seem to like ignoring that little tidbit.

 

This thread screams that you're complaining just to complain because we signed three 30+ year olds.  If they end up not being what we'd hoped they'd be they're gone in 2-3 years without much long-term damage to the cap.  That part I like a lot.  My question for you is what should we have done differently when we HAVE to spend up to 89 % of the cap?     What players do you sign if you're GM?

[southparkcpa]

I've been trying to think of an example when a team has been this active in Free Agency and it actually paid off for the team and it translated to wins.  

 

There are plenty of examples of where the winners in FA have failed:

The Redskins

The Eagles (dream team)

The Broncos last year got worse

The Dolphags a few years ago

 

Any examples of where it's actually paid off?

 

Most successful teams win with by building through the draft, obviously the Jets dont have that luxury and I'm excited to not enter the season for a 3rd straight year with the worst roster in the league but will this work?

 

They've basically signed a bunch of 30+ year old's.  So this window is going to be small to begin with but will it really help turn things around? Historically this type of behavior in Free Agency hasnt been kind to teams.  Will that change for the Jets?  

Would you preferred we did nothing???

 

Without decent QB play, any team will lose regardless of FA moves.

[LouisvilleSlugger25]

I've been trying to think of an example when a team has been this active in Free Agency and it actually paid off for the team and it translated to wins.  

 

There are plenty of examples of where the winners in FA have failed:

The Redskins

The Eagles (dream team)

The Broncos last year got worse

The Dolphags a few years ago

 

Any examples of where it's actually paid off?

 

Most successful teams win with by building through the draft, obviously the Jets dont have that luxury and I'm excited to not enter the season for a 3rd straight year with the worst roster in the league but will this work?

 

They've basically signed a bunch of 30+ year old's.  So this window is going to be small to begin with but will it really help turn things around? Historically this type of behavior in Free Agency hasnt been kind to teams.  Will that change for the Jets?  

 

Explain to me how bringing Revis and Cro back is going to be that much more different than if we had kept them these last few years. The only "outsider" is Brandon Marshall and teams like the Seahawks/Pats/Broncos have brought in big name FA WRs in the past to help beef up the passing game. 

[JustInFudge]

Interesting Thread. Just off the top of my head I can think of 2 teams:

1) The 2007 Giants picked up at least 3 prized free agents in Plax, Mckenzie & Pierce.

2) The 1994 49ers Super Bowl team seem to have a lot of free agents (Sanders, Norton Jr. Plumber, etc...)

Cool. Thank you. That was what I was looking for.

[Jetsfan80]

Would you preferred we did nothing???

 

Of course he would.  We fail to meet that 89 % then that money gets distributed to the players anyways.  Great plan!

[Jetsfan80]

Cool. Thank you. That was what I was looking for.

 

Validation is what you were looking for.  Not a discussion.

[JOJOTOWNSELL]

i totally agree that the self high-fiving is premature.  But this site always need an offseason narrative........last year it was "the patriots window is closed"  worked out well

[Long Island Leprechaun]

It should be added that the Jets essentially hired two key players back onto the team. So I don't know how you use old paradigms to explain what the impact will be. With a new general manager and new coaching staff, the impact of FA is confounded anyway. How many teams going through a total management change were SB contenders in the next season? So the question is: what's the alternative? Sit on our hands and hope for the best? The real question is: was the money we had to spend, spent wisely? Did it make sense given the talent pool of FA's? Did it make sense given the talent pool in the draft? Will these FA's be able to mesh well with current personnel? I think, given all the above, the Jets did extraordinarily well so far. Let's see what the draft brings...

[JustInFudge]

In the short-term it's a possibility. But really if McCagnan doesn't nail his first draft we're in deep trouble as always. And again, history doesn't matter, because never before have teams been FORCED to spend like this. You seem to like ignoring that little tidbit.

This thread screams that you're complaining just to complain because we signed three 30+ year olds. If they end up not being what we'd hoped they'd be they're gone in 2-3 years without much long-term damage to the cap. That part I like a lot. My question for you is what should we have done differently when we HAVE to spend up to 89 % of the cap? What players do you sign if you're GM?

It's a question. I'm not complaining. Go post in another thread.

[Jetsfan80]

It's a question. I'm not complaining. Go post in another thread.

 

Advance the discussion then if you aren't actually complaining.  What would you have done differently? 

[JustInFudge]

A few examples for what it is worth.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000146772/article/nfl-free-agency-has-empowered-players-but-ruined-rivalries

When Reggie White rumbled his way over to the Green Bay Packers 20 years ago, it signaled the start of a new era.

Twenty years.

A lot's changed in the past 20, no? Laser discs came and went. Axl and Slash pulled a Kim and Reggie. The same can be said for three-year rebuilding plans.

The biggest sea change in the NFL over the past two decades has been marked by the impatience -- that most unattractive of human qualities -- that now spills over in nearly every NFL general manager's office, save for an extraordinary few. Teams used to have time to improve; now there's downright jumpiness for 5-11 squads to turn into 11-5 winners overnight. So what precipitated that shift?

Free agency.

Yes, pro football's great flea market celebrates its 20th birthday on March 12.

Which gives us reason to ask: What has been free agency's ultimate impact? Has it made our game -- arguably America's greatest sports enterprise -- better? The NFL is more popular than ever. But was free agency -- which gave subpar teams the ability to make themselves over so that they could compete now -- the catalyst? Did it improve the NFL as a product?

No.

That doesn't mean the pro game is terribly worse, but the changes free agency has induced are both positive and negative.

To be fair, let's look at both angles, the good and the bad. Feel free to make your own assessments (@Harrison_NFL is the dropbox). THE GOOD

» Teams can turn things around quite quickly through the shrewd use of free agency and available cap money. The New Orleans Saints went 3-13 during their Hurricane Katrina-plagued 2005 season. Then they signed quarterback Drew Brees the following spring. In 2006, they went 10-6 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game.

» The year-round news cycle gets fed. Let's face it, free agency has made the NFL relevant in the months following the Super Bowl. That was not the case before 1993. (Of course, the NFL draft has done its part, too.)

» Football RX. Your team needs a decent pass rusher, but one can't be had in the draft? Free agency, baby. In 1994, the Buffalo Bills missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years. They needed someone to take the load off Bruce Smith. Enter Bryce Paup, a free-agent signee (care of the Green Bay Packers) who delivered 17.5 sacks in 1995.

» It's beneficial to the players, who, like the rest of society, can go where their services are most valued. THE NOT SO GOOD

» While being beneficial to the players, it can hurt teams, particularly those whose coaching staffs helped developed a guy's skills, only to see him walk and make more money with a team that has larger cash reserves.

Rosenthal: Top 85 free agents

This year's free-agent crop lacks star power but provides immense depth.Gregg Rosenthal ranks available players. More ...

» It hurts fans, too. What sucks more than rooting for an All-Pro who is part of the backbone of your team, only to see him leave town for greener pastures or for ancillary reasons? (See: Reggie White, Curtis Martin, Nnamdi Asomugha.)

» The divorce rate between players and teams is almost as bad as the real divorce rate in this country. Don't worry, it's still not that bad.

» Huge contracts often de-motivate players and cripple teams' rosters. When one position becomes a financial sinkhole, seventh-round draft picks end up at the others. Albert Haynesworth, anyone? Andre Rison? Javon Walker? Adam Archuleta? Scott Mitchell? T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Alvin Harper? Please don't make me type more.

» Rivalries -- as those of us who grew up in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s knew them -- are almost dead.

That's the killer, if you ask me. Free agency -- along with its oft-ugly offshoot, the salary cap -- has laid waste to NFL rivalries. You can't have hatred between teams when Jeremiah Trotter is playing middle linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles one day and middle linebacker for the Washington Redskins the next.

If you grew up a Green Bay Packers fan in the 1980s, you hated Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary and Steve McMichael ... everyone on the Chicago Bears' defense. Then one morning you woke up to see that Mongo was playing for your team. What?! Yes, McMichael signed with the Pack the year after Reggie White did. This was after years of blasting Lynn Dickey, Don Majkowski and other '80s-era Packer non-greats into the Soldier Field carpet.

With 20 to 30 percent of clubs' rosters (and sometimes much more, as we recently saw with theIndianapolis Colts) regularly turning over, fans are increasingly rooting for the decals on their team's helmets and against the decals on the other teams' helmets. The truest loyalty in the player-fan relationship is of the fantasy football variety. You can thank free agency for that.

In the '80s, Redskins fans hated the Dallas Cowboys. They hated their stars. They hated the role players, too: Dudes you've probably never heard of, like John Dutton, Bill Bates and Doug Cosbie. If those three had played today, they would have finished their respective careers in Indy, Denver and probably, well, Washington.

The Top 2013 Free Agents Take a look at the top players that will be available when free agency opens on March 12.

The only rivalry in the NFL that is truly thriving is the one between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. New England Patriots-New York Jets is OK, although Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez can single-handedly make Pats love him with a dropped snap, so that doesn't really count. Cowboys-Redskins got a nice boost in 2012 because those two played for the NFC East title on the last day of the season. But by and large -- save for a decent slugfest between theGreen Bay Packers and Chicago Bears or thePhiladelphia Eagles and New York Giants -- every game in the NFL, every week, has similar juice.

If -- and it's a big if -- the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers can keep most of their core players together, the rivalry between those two teams will turn into the most physical bout this side of Ravens-Steelers. We can hope.

Now, this is not to say free agency has been a total bust. A pretty cool byproduct has been seeing veteran players get a second life and another shot at a ring.

Former NFL safety (and current NFL Network colleague) Darren Sharper is an all-time example of how free-agency capital can be used smartly. Going into his 13th pro season in 2009, Sharper signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Saints. Boy did he deliver, to the tune of nine interceptions and three touchdowns. Put bluntly: New Orleans doesn't win Super Bowl XLIV without Darren Sharper. Period.

Pats fans will tell you their three Super Bowl-winning teams wouldn't have been the same without free-agent acquisition (via Pittsburgh) Mike Vrabel. So would Bob Kraft.

Truth be told, much of the bad weeds that grew out of the fun of free agency have been salary-cap related. The cap was introduced in 1994, and the limitations it forced on teams have led some guys who never would have become free agents otherwise to hit the market.

"Thurman Thomas playing for the Dolphins was, like, the grossest thing I've ever seen," said Bernie Kim, a friend of mine in the business who is, of all things, a Ravens fan. Bruce Smith to the Redskins ... Emmitt Smith to the Arizona Cardinals ... all brought to you in part by the salary cap. Get excited.

Perhaps the most important effect of the past 20 years of free agency has been its non-effect. Basically, it's a bit overrated. If you look at the past 20Super Bowl winners and their top three players -- their core -- you'll find very few big-name free-agent signees, aside from Brees with the Saints.

The 1994 49ers (Deion Sanders), '96Packers (Reggie White), '00 Ravens(Rod Woodson) and '10 Packers(Charles Woodson) would be the other title winners with the most notable free-agent additions -- guys who were top-three players on those championship clubs. Sure, there are those that added major contributors -- like the '07 Giants, who had Plaxico Burress -- but by and large, the best teams of the past two decades have been built through the draft, by signing no-name free agents (like Vrabel or James Harrison) or, in rare instances, through trade (Marshall Faulk).

For all the heavy media buzz about big-name guys on the free-agent market, there's usually an even heavier Haynesworth-esque fall in reality. There are many reasons that this happens. Motivation, age and the issues that can come from trying to fit players into new systems all play a role.

So while free agency has given us all something to talk about -- and while it's sometimes been a bright spot -- over the long view, it has not necessarily equated to a higher-quality game. That's the long and the short of it.

Good article. Thanks! But 1 big name or 2 is a little different than signing 4 guys in the secondary alone.

[bergenjets]

The Jets signed Martin and Mawae before the 98 season. Turned out pretty good for them as well

 

And Vinny, if I recall correctly.

[prime21]

Cool. Thank you. That was what I was looking for.

 

 

Those were pretty good teams though.  We have a whole new secondary and no real QB.

[docdhc]

Revis is the longest committment at 3 guaranteed years and he is 30 but if he stays healthy he is a good bet to perform. Skrine and Gilchrest are both young at 26.  Cro and Marshall can be cut in 2 years without  great cap consequence, and Fitz is clearly a stop gap.  I don't think we've mortgaged the future and we certainly have upgraded the roster.  Only other alternative was to suck for a few more years.

[JustInFudge]

Would you preferred we did nothing???

Without decent QB play, any team will lose regardless of FA moves.

Did you miss the line where I said I'm excited to not enter the season with the worst roster in the league? Obviously Im happy about the upgrades. It's just I've never seen excessive FA signings work out.

[jvill 51]

The Jets spent pretty big in Free Agency before the 2008 season. Faneca, Pace, and Damien Woody were brought in off the top of my head. Then of course the trade for Favre. The season ended on a down note but the rebuilding of the offensive line set the stage for the deep playoff runs after that. Other key players in that run weren't "home-grown" either, like Thomas Jones, Braylon, Santonio Holmes, and Cromartie.

 

I think they key is mixing the veterans in with young talent. While those Jet teams brought in a lot of outside players they nailed the 4 out of the 5 previous first and second round picks (D'Brick and Mangold in '06, Revis and Harris in '07). The only thing missing, as it always is with this team, was the QB.

[bergenjets]

There wasn't one bad contract in all of them that they handed out. All of them can be off the books in 2-3 years. Maybe they're paying too much, but it's Woody's money so who really cares? Who did they miss out on as result of having blown their wad quickly? Most of the players on my radar got tied up by their own teams before the Jets had a shot. Anyway, they still have some room for depth signings and can cut a couple players if need be to make more space if an ooportunity presents itself.

 

The Jets are in a very good place, save their QB situation.

[JustInFudge]

Explain to me how bringing Revis and Cro back is going to be that much more different than if we had kept them these last few years. The only "outsider" is Brandon Marshall and teams like the Seahawks/Pats/Broncos have brought in big name FA WRs in the past to help beef up the passing game.

It's different because they weren't Jets and you went out and bided against other teams for them. Gilchrist, Skrine, Carpenter, Fitz - are all outsiders too.

[Jetsfan80]

JiF previously praised McCagnan for entering this offseason assuming we have no CB's.  We sign 3 starters and 1 camp-fodder type and all of a sudden that's too many.  lmao.

[JustInFudge]

Revis is the longest committment at 3 guaranteed years and he is 30 but if he stays healthy he is a good bet to perform. Skrine and Gilchrest are both young at 26. Cro and Marshall can be cut in 2 years without great cap consequence, and Fitz is clearly a stop gap. I don't think we've mortgaged the future and we certainly have upgraded the roster. Only other alternative was to suck for a few more years.

Haha - like I said I'm happy about the obvious upgrades. Just posing the question, does it/has it ever paid off? Historically, not really but the Jets were sooooo bad they really didnt have much of a choice.

[bergenjets]

It's different because they weren't Jets and you went out and bided against other teams for them. Gilchrist, Skrine, Carpenter, Fitz - are all outsiders too.

 

That would have happened anyway, even if they were in house.

[JustInFudge]

That would have happened anyway, even if they were in house.

Not if you sign them before they hit the market. Like they could do with Mo Wilk or Harrison or Davis or Richardson in the future.

[JustInFudge]

The Jets spent pretty big in Free Agency before the 2008 season. Faneca, Pace, and Damien Woody were brought in off the top of my head. Then of course the trade for Favre. The season ended on a down note but the rebuilding of the offensive line set the stage for the deep playoff runs after that. Other key players in that run weren't "home-grown" either, like Thomas Jones, Braylon, Santonio Holmes, and Cromartie.

I think they key is mixing the veterans in with young talent. While those Jet teams brought in a lot of outside players they nailed the 4 out of the 5 previous first and second round picks (D'Brick and Mangold in '06, Revis and Harris in '07). The only thing missing, as it always is with this team, was the QB.

Forgot about 2008. I thought Pace was 07 for some reason. That clearly was a big offseason that helped the Jets during the early Ryan years.

[bergenjets]

Not if you sign them before they hit the market. Like they could do with Mo Wilk or Harrison or Davis or Richardson in the future.

 

They'll still end up getting paid market value. Neither Revis nor Cro would be on this team for much less than they are earning now if they had stayed all along.

[Morrissey]

The reason the Patriots didn't win a SB for 10 years is because everyone could pass on them, then they signed Revis and Browner...