Free agency isn't the way to build sustainable success in NFL

[fisi]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...ustainable-success-in-nfl-20150130-story.html

Here's a look at how the Dolphins have done in free agency since 2007, which should help provide some perspective.

2007: kicker Jay Feely, WR Az-Zahir Hakim, TE David Martin and safety Cameron Worrell.
results 1-15 coach fired. Feely and Martin were decent starters for a while, but both were released.

2008: lbs Regie Torbor and Charlie Anderson, safeties Keith Davis and Chris Crocker, cornerback Nate Jones, quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Josh McCown, offensive guard Justin Smiley, defensive tackle Randy Starks, and receiver Ernest Wilford.
Pennington helped out a bit, but Randy Starks was a great FA pick up.

2009: the Dolphins signed Jake Grove, Joe Berger, Eric Green and Gibril Wilson to get them back to the playoffs. That recipe blew up in the team's face quickly. Wilson, Grove and Green might be Miami's worst free agent signings EVER


2010: the Dolphins traded for Brandon Marshall, then signed him to a big deal that guaranteed him $24 million. And Bill Parcells' final offseason with the Dolphins also featured the signings of Karlos Dansby and Richie Incognito. All three were solid signings. Two of them - Marshall and Incognito - turned into Pro Bowlers while with the Dolphins, and Dansby was an above average starting linebacker. He was overpaid, but good. But none of those three free agents made the Dolphins a winning team in their two or three seasons in South Florida.

2011: Miami traded for Reggie Bush, then signed him to a two-year extension, signed linebacker Kevin Burnett, quarterback Matt Moore, pass rusher Jason Taylor and special teams ace Jason Trusnik as free agents. But again, they didn't turn Miami into a winner. That 2011 teams finished 6-10. Coach fired again.


2012: Enter the reign of error, the Dolphins signed Richard Marshall, and six other free agents - Chad Johnson, Gary Guyton, Artis Hicks, Tyrell Johnson, Legedu Naanee and Jamaal Westerman - barely worth mentioning because none lasted a month into that season. That offseason the Dolphins were setting up to have a big offseason in 2013 by not using the team's cap space.

2013: The was supposed to be the dream season for the Dolphins, they had tons of rooms under the salary cap plus many draft picks to go along and they didn't disappoint as they shopped till they dropped in free agency, signing receivers Mike Wallace and Brandon Gibson, tight end Dustin Keller, linebackers Dannell Ellerbe and Philip Wheeler, cornerback Brent Grimes, defensive tackle Vaughn Martin and offensive guard Lance Louis.The result, 8-8 season. Dolphins fired their GM Jeff Ireland.

2014:TThe new GM, Denis Hickey pulled no punches either as he was aggressive in free agency, he signed offensive linemen Branden Albert, Shelley Smith, Daryn Colledge, Samson Satele and Jason Fox, tailback Knowshon Moreno, defensive tackle Earl Mitchell, cornerback Cortland Finnegan and safety Louis Delmas. Results was another 8-8 season.

Some of those free agents - Albert, Moreno, Delmas - had their season cut short by injuries, and some of them - Satele, Colledge and Finnegan - were stopgap options signed to hold the team down for a season. So it's hard to say Hickey's offseason spending in his first year as the team's GM was wasted money.

2015: But the question you need to ask yourself when debating the Suh decision, discussing the Dolphins' free agency approach moving forward is whether spending big money on another team's discarded player is worth it?

I believe Miami's recent history speaks for itself.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...ustainable-success-in-nfl-20150130-story.html

 

[royalshank]

You are right. FA is not the way to build sustainable success in any sport. FA really should be used to fill complimentary positions and round out your nucleus of players you drafted and developed. I think the Chicago Blackhawks are a GREAT example of this the last 5-6 years. They have a core group of studs they drafted and every time they win a championship (3 in last 5 years) they gut all their complimentary players because they can't pay them what they are now "worth" - eg, ellerbe-style, and they go and plug in new FA players and don't miss a beat. I guess NE is kind of like them in the NFL. Problem is so few franchises in any sport can get this right - you need some key players to build around, some luck, continuity, good drafting, good coaching, good player development, good leadership - you know, all the things Miami hasn't had in a very long time.

 

[miamiron]

Funny how center Joe Berger was rated the #1 center in the NFL this
past season by Pro Football Focus and Richie Incognito was rated the #1
guard available in free agency. Both would have had a great impact if
they were still on this team this past season

 

[BlueUndertow]

Can't you at least preface this with: Omar Kelly's "If Journalism had Free Agency, No One Would Hire Me!"

 

[DuderinoN703]

Free agency works if the GM has a ****ing clue really.

 

[fininpsl]

Free agency should be supplemental only if you really want to win. Unless you are looking for that last piece or two. But the hard part is you may have to suck for a couple years if you don't want to sign a couple top free agents every year to fill out your roster. When you have between a half dozen and a dozen holes at the top of your roster you simply can't afford to fill them all with top free agents. Drafting well and identifying key young second tier free agents who are ascending players (like when we signed Randy Starks) is the key to building playoff rosters.

 

[Austin Tatious]

Peyton Manning. Louis Vasquez. Evan Mathis. Ryan Harris. Emmanuel Sanders. Owen Daniels. Demarcus Ware. Antonio Smith. TJ Ward. Aqib Talib. Darian Stewart.

Denver has built their team through free agency. They got Von Miller second overall in the draft. He was hardly a tough pick. Thomas was a first rounder. Elway has not exactly presided over phenomenal drafting. Rather, they've used free agency as the key aspect.

I'd rather build through the draft too. But people conveniently forget the free agency successes. Denver has accomplished exactly what the Daniel Snyder or Steven Ross types set out to do. The media forgets this.

 

[tcdrover]

Free agency works if the GM has a ****ing clue really.

I think it's the other way around.

Free agency works for GM's that don't have a fockn clue how to draft for talent.

Anyone can pick a known commodity.

Our problem is more about a franchise without a captain than anything else.

There has not been enough stability to draft and develop a team successfully, there has not been enough PATIENCE also.

The coaching and management NEVER have their watches synced up.

They are operating on two different time schedules all the time.

 

[Ferretsquig]

Peyton Manning. Louis Vasquez. Evan Mathis. Ryan Harris. Emmanuel Sanders. Owen Daniels. Demarcus Ware. Antonio Smith. TJ Ward. Aqib Talib. Darian Stewart.

Denver has built their team through free agency. They got Von Miller second overall in the draft. He was hardly a tough pick. Thomas was a first rounder. Elway has not exactly presided over phenomenal drafting. Rather, they've used free agency as the key aspect.

I'd rather build through the draft too. But people conveniently forget the free agency successes. Denver has accomplished exactly what the Daniel Snyder or Steven Ross types set out to do. The media forgets this.

New England has had a better hit rate via free agency than the draft as well. But no team that changes coaches, management, and playing styles every couple years is going to look good acquiring players.

 

[Ferretsquig]

I think it's the other way around.

Free agency works for GM's that don't have a fockn clue how to draft for talent.

Anyone can pick a known commodity.

Except they aren't known commodities. How many star players have changed teams and suddenly lost all ability to play at a high level? There's always risk involved in placing a player in a different environment with different coaches and teammates and expecting him to replicate the success he had somewhere else.

 

[phinfan40353]

Peyton Manning. Louis Vasquez. Evan Mathis. Ryan Harris. Emmanuel Sanders. Owen Daniels. Demarcus Ware. Antonio Smith. TJ Ward. Aqib Talib. Darian Stewart.

Denver has built their team through free agency. They got Von Miller second overall in the draft. He was hardly a tough pick. Thomas was a first rounder. Elway has not exactly presided over phenomenal drafting. Rather, they've used free agency as the key aspect.

I'd rather build through the draft too. But people conveniently forget the free agency successes. Denver has accomplished exactly what the Daniel Snyder or Steven Ross types set out to do. The media forgets this.

The franchise's ability to develop players, via draft or FA, plays a very large role in any player acquisition.

It's hard not to compare the players we acquired along with the coaches and front office we had at the same time. We could just as easily go down the list of coaches and front office members on the team during the acquisitions. Then we would see why we had no business signing most of those names because of the names in the organization tasked to make the decisions or develop the talent.

We might have bright spots of a legit name here sprinkled in among all of the no-names and never-will-be's, but we've rarely had a legitimate staff acquiring and developing legitimate players to make the entire process work together. It is a team sport. It takes an entire team to win.

You speak of the Broncos, simply look at the names walking the halls in the organization. Now realize we have Mike Tannenbaum running the show with a first year GM, first year HC and many first year coaches in new positions. You cannot have this much unchallenged inexperience in an organization and expect to win; no one knows how to win.

This was reason #1 I desperately wanted Tom Coughlin as our coach. We have no one in the building with experience to challenge Tannenbaum, or anyone at any level, with the distinct possibility their ideas are fret with ill-conceived plans, hopes and dreams that have failed before time and time again in this league. People think this all hinges on Gase... sadly, it does. And that in itself is scary. We have to depend on a first year HC to over come every single disaster in the road ahead with limited power and limited experience. He has no one with experience and foresight to guide him through the road ahead.

Everyone knows FA is not the way to build a team; but neither are any of the efforts we've exercised in the past decade. We have no one with the answer leading this organization. Everyone needs leadership, even leaders. We have none.

 

[where's th'fish]

Except they aren't known commodities. How many star players have changed teams and suddenly lost all ability to play at a high level? There's always risk involved in placing a player in a different environment with different coaches and teammates and expecting him to replicate the success he had somewhere else.

That's because of the different systems they are asked to play in, mostly. Who thought bringing Mike Wallace to a team with a terrible OL and a QB who struggled with the deep ball (back then) was a great idea? The Miami GM or the MIN GM? (answer: both). Then you need to overpay him to get him to sign. And then, if he doesn't work out and you want to get rid of him, you only get back a portion of his cost (dead money).

That, in a nutshell, is why you shouldn't go overboard in free agency: it's expensive when it works and even more expensive when you make a mistake. I wish we were fiscally responsible for once. The irony is that we had a GM who was fiscally responsible and he got fired after one year precisely because of it, so not much hope of things changing soon.

 

[where's th'fish]

Peyton Manning. Louis Vasquez. Evan Mathis. Ryan Harris. Emmanuel Sanders. Owen Daniels. Demarcus Ware. Antonio Smith. TJ Ward. Aqib Talib. Darian Stewart.

Denver has built their team through free agency. They got Von Miller second overall in the draft. He was hardly a tough pick. Thomas was a first rounder. Elway has not exactly presided over phenomenal drafting. Rather, they've used free agency as the key aspect.

I'd rather build through the draft too. But people conveniently forget the free agency successes. Denver has accomplished exactly what the Daniel Snyder or Steven Ross types set out to do. The media forgets this.

Let's make one thing clear, the Denver offense sucked this year. The OL sucked. Manning sucked. Don't go giving them credit for that. But let's say Denver was built through FA and the media forgets the FA teams built through FA that succeed. Which would you say was the last team before the Broncos to do this? Not New England, not the Packers, not the Seahawks, not the Giants, not the Ravens... how far back do you need to go to find the next great team built through FA?

Of course it CAN happen, of course it has occasionally happened, but as far as formulas for success go, it sucks balls!

 

[phinfan40353]

Let's make one thing clear, the Denver offense sucked this year. The OL sucked. Manning sucked. Don't go giving them credit for that. But let's say Denver was built through FA and the media forgets the FA teams built through FA that succeed. Which would you say was the last team before the Broncos to do this? Not New England, not the Packers, not the Seahawks, not the Giants, not the Ravens... how far back do you need to go to find the next great team built through FA?

Of course it CAN happen, of course it has occasionally happened, but as far as formulas for success go, it sucks balls!

"The worst thing that can happen from hitting your head against a brick wall is thinking it moved." -- me