why we don't need to be overanxious to sign every fa (1 Viewer)

[sycamoresaint]

"General manager A.J. Smith has built a powerhouse that should contend for championships for the next several years. Rarely does he use free agency to fill needs. In fact, he understands the dynamics of the draft and places a high premium on compensatory draft choices."

from :
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3252721

we are in dire need of some fa's to come in at cb and lb. that being said, this actually makes a lot of sense to me. compensatory draft picks are basically freebees. so while it's very easy to watch the wires and say, " we need this guy to make us good", quality over quantity is waayyy better. i'd like to see some of our draftees given a shot like the mlb mitchell and please get meacham on the field this year!! rather than grabbing many teams throw-aways for competition at weak positions. our 06 draft was a great one, and 1 or 2 more like that will enable us to be able to play this game to have depth at positions, like rb, and get free draft picks. we could at least get a bone thrown our way and get a 7th for the play of jason david alone

 

[2fya]

AJ Smith and the rest of the organization are just absolute master-minds when it comes to drafting. thats why they dont really need free-agency. over the last 5-7 years, has any other team drafted better than the chargers??

 

[joel morgan]

we have loomis and mueller. FA is our best shot.

 

[mt15]

just to be a devil's advocate: has any other team managed the QB position worse than the Chargers? AJ may have drafted well, but he cost the Chargers a SB in 96 by letting Brees walk, IMO. And it was totally his fault, due to giving up on Brees and drafting Rivers in 2004. Now they had to go through the sophomore slump all over again: QB play hurt them this year, and their star player (LT) seems to be somewhat disgruntled.

For the record, teams like the Pats use FA all the time and seem to get better because of it. I'm not a big fan of AJ and his methods. Could you tell?

 

[sycamoresaint]

read the article and it pretty much debates your devil's advocate theory with your own argument-wrap your noodle around that one! but i like a good devil's advocate, which is why i posted this in the "we need to sign..." hysteria that is sweeping the sr nation

 

[DrudkhFan]

I think everyone on this site wants to sign every player because our defense sucks, but I could be wrong.

 

[Bless U Boys]

What!!! This has "top young defender" & Jason David in the same paragraph. I stopped reading at that point.......

 

[stadanko]

We need both, but I agree that we should not act so desperate, not the FO but this board. I think we could pick up some solid free agents that help contribute. Obviously we haven't done bad with FA in the past. Drew, Fujita, Patten, Copper, and MM are free agents that I'm extremely glad we picked up.

 

[mt15]

Well, I read it, ugh, I hate Clayton! Anyway, it didn't convince me that losing Brees in 2006 didn't cost that team it's best shot for a SB. Merriman is good, Kaeding is ok, and the jury is still out on Rivers. They could have drafted OL in 2004 or a WR instead of Rivers, which is what they really needed, and still accomplished the trade.

Imagine how that team would have performed in 2006 with LT having his best year and Brees having the year he had. Their schedule was favorable, all the stars seemed to be aligned.

Not that it didn't turn out well for the Saints, mind you....

 

[BoNcHiE]

AJ Smith and the rest of the organization are just absolute master-minds when it comes to drafting. thats why they dont really need free-agency. over the last 5-7 years, has any other team drafted better than the chargers??

The Colts. 22 of 22 starters were drafted.

 

[SaintTiger]

I think that adding a free agrent to fill a position or two is great and can work really well, but many free agent signings don't pan out. Just look at the Bronco's the past few seasons. I was amazed to see how many they had signed and now are wanting them to go away? I just hope we find a great corner and LB that will have great chemistry with what we have already and improve more through the draft with hopefully a defensive tackle, safety, LB, and OL? (Nor necessarily in that order)

 

[SunshinePumper]

I think another reason why people get more excited about building the defense thru fa instead of the draft is all the talk about BPA

 

[Torgo]

For the record, teams like the Pats use FA all the time and seem to get better because of it. I'm not a big fan of AJ and his methods. Could you tell?

Well, for the record, when the Patriots were actually winning Superbowls, they were very conservative in free agency. They drafted well and brought in mostly middle-tier free agents that would fit in their system and their locker room. Frankly, I have no problem with the Saints attempting to go that route as opposed to the Daniel Snyder method of throwing money at any big name that's available.

 

[canuckredux]

The Colts. 22 of 22 starters were drafted.

Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison were drafted more than 7 years ago. A Colts team sans-Peyton would not be a contender. A Colts team sans-Marvin... well, they got bounced by the Bolts this year. In fact, San Diego has won their last 3 meetings.

Indy's best draft picks in the past 7 years:

Joseph Addai
Reggie Wayne
Bob Sanders
Dwight Freeney
Antoine Bethea (6th round)
Robert Mathis (5th round)

San Diego's best picks in the past 7 years:

LaDainian Tomlinson
Drew Brees
Shawne Merriman
Antonio Cromartie
Philip Rivers (via trade)
Shaun Phillips (4th round)
Luis Castillo
Marcus McNeill
Michael Turner (5th round; great player, but has to play 2nd fiddle to L.T.; they're not even going to get anything for him. )

Now, on the flip side, LT, Rivers and, technically Merriman, came from draft slots that the Colts, a perennial playoff contender, were nowhere near. The highest pick the Colts had was in 2001, when they took Dwight Freeney at #11. Their next highest pick was Dallas Clark in 2003 at the #24 slot. In 2004, their 1st pick was in the 2nd round and they used it to take Bob Sanders. Again, though, if the Chargers in 1998 had been picking #1 and got Peyton Manning and the Colts had gotten Ryan Leaf... well, that's a whole new can o' worms.

Anyways, whichever way you look at it, both teams have done an excellent job of building through the draft, no matter where they pick. Loomis can learn a lot from Smith and Polian.

 

[St. Pike]

There is no magic formula that can replace the ability to accurately evaluate talent. It doesn't hurt to be a little lucky sometimes.

I can understand why people would want a "quick" fix at the CB position. If I knew nothing about the Saints, and I listen to the game, the only player I would know on defense would be Jason David. MM is very solid player, but do we need necessarily need a shut down guy on the other side to improve at the position? Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt. I wouldn;t want to get into a bidding war unless the front office really think he will be a big impact on defense.

In addition, sometimes it isn;t the big names that have the biggest impact, sometimes other teams understudies can come in and blossom. There are stories of success and failures of every "type" of FO and draft choices,... in the end, it comes down to one thing,... being able to evaluate talent (in everyway--- tangibles, intagibles, chemstry etc,...)



--