Quote:
Originally Posted by KCJohnny
Says who? You ascribe to a subjective orthodoxy that you assume all fans must by needs follow. Chiefs fans should note that Lenny Dawson was the equivalent to a FA and he was THE cornerstone of the Kansas City Chiefs to include 2 SB appearances.
If we aren't at the point to add top tier players ($32 mil under the cap) then who is?
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Len Dawson was 40 years ago. The NFL changes. At one point the draft was almost 20 rounds and there was no free agency.
The fact of the matter is that with the increase in the cap and the use of the franchise tag, top tier players don't get away. All the players who hit the open market have severe flaws in their game or huge personal question marks surrounding them with so much associated risk that the increase in the size of the contracts far outweighs the potential reward of signing them.
Draft your core players, let the nonessential guys walk in FA, and collect compensatory draft picks. Use the savings to lock up the big guys.
Look at all the big free agent prizes of the last several years. T.O., Nate Clements, Steve Hutchinson, Leonard Davis, Joey Porter, Plaxico Burress, Justin Smith. All those players either play complementary positions (Hutch, Davis), are complementary players (Smith) and got paid huge cash, or are nutjobs. The one exception is Clements who got a 70 million dollar contract and has done nothing to justify it.
This team has built itself through FA for the last 15 years and hasn't won a playoff game because of it. At least the Chiefs of about 89-94 were built through the draft, save for Saleamua and Montana. Once KC's core draft picks from the end of the Steadman era dried up, so did the team.