Quote:I think that Thomas is a quantum improvement at TE over M. Lewis (as far as the passing game is concerned). I'm hoping that Odrick will be more successful than Red Bryant was at dealing with the run. I also hope that Parnell will be a quantum improvement for us at offensive RT. At the least, he couldn't be worse than what we had there last year. Along with the other f/a acquisitions, I think we did pretty good so far. We didn't go out and just throw cap money away chasing names (although one wonders at the size of the contracts for some players like Parnell).

 

I think that the goal of 'building through the draft and supplementing through f/a' is a good one and worth sticking with, even though it doesn't give overnight results. It is possible via f/a to turn a team around virtually overnight, but I'm inclined to view those kind of results as having very short term payoff with long term debt. I still think we are wise to try to follow the example of those older successful teams who've built via the draft. It just makes sense that if you want success you follow the example of successful teams.

 

The best teams draft well.   They don't use free agency to build their team because they can't.   Their draft picks are good enough to warrant a second, higher-priced contract, and that doesn't leave much room under the cap for high priced free agents.   We have all this cap room because of all the bad drafting under prior regimes.  

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