Tuna #2- Having Players in Their Prime?

[So Be]

When Tuna took over, he did a fair assessment of the team's talent, and said that there were no good players coming into their primes that teams count on. He was spot on, and had to go to FA to fill in the blanks.

What has changed? This year, our players at or coming into their prime are Hartline, Gibson, Wallace, Clay, Odrick, and maybe Ellerbe. Back to the drawing board in FA, as that seems to be the only place we can find players.

If not for FA, we would be like an expansion team. Will it ever end?

 

[Dr. Phin]

No, it doesn't ever end. You draft players and basically get 4-year contracts. It is only at the end of the contract that most players start to produce...right around the same time they become FA's. The real trick is to hit in the draft with players that produce early and do their second contracts on the same team.

With the way the CBA is set up, FA's are going to be overpriced. Even producing players will be forced out of the league due to price. The key is going to be hitting it big on players that are limited in price due to the draft placement.

For example, you don't think a team would normally cut Sproles if not for the price right now. Do you?

Turn-over in the league is going to be huge compared to when I was a kid...when one player played on the same team his whole career. It already has changed, but I think it is just going to get worse.