Just because the cap is raising doesnt mean we should just throw away our money. And that could be what we are doing here. In all likelihood Albert is going to be handed a 5 year deal. His play dropped last season and the argument could be made that he is on the decline. Theres a strong possibility that we are only going to get 2 years of quality play out of that 5 year deal. Aside from the fact we will have to go through this all over again in a few years, we wouldnt be getting that great of value for the money we are spending.
People are acting like those of us that arent thrilled about it are suggesting we leave the line as it is. By no means is that true. Not only do i believe it needs to be fixed, i believe it needs to be fixed in free agency. Ive been quite vocal in my opposition towards spending high draft picks on lineman, its an atrocious waste. Even if those picks work out(which they havent thus far), we could find competent players at those same positions later in the draft.
The thing i disapprove of is this specific player. We werent locked into him. The market isnt barren. There are no tags on them, they wouldnt cost us a draft pick. We are one of the league leaders in cap space, we could have negotiated with any of them. And out of the top 4 we chose to deal with the least attractive. On top of that, it looks like we will be paying him the most out of that group. Its insanity.
If we were 1 player away from Superbowl contention, then i could see signing an older player with an injury history to try and get us over the hump. But we arent a player away. We arent a player away from fixing our offensive line, much less this entire roster. Ireland screwed us something fierce, missing on entire draft classes years ago is effecting our roster today. Even if we use all of our resources in the best way possible this offseason(which it doesnt look like we are) we would still need our younger players to gain experience. Time is not in Brandon Albert's favor. He is not the long term solution to our problem, and there are players available who could be. This isnt about filling a need, this is about filling a need in the most efficient way possible.