Chiefs How to not be an insufferable fan during free agency.

Direckshun · 03-09-2014, 01:42 PM

Free agency is soon to be set upon us. There will be a lot of super interesting things that happen in the coming weeks. Some moves will be super aggressive, others will make tons of sense, others will leave your head scratching. Some teams will be super aggressive, other teams will not be.

Since ChiefsPlanet is rarely more difficult to endure than during the first couple weeks of free agency, when, no matter what happens, this place is in full meltdown mode, I'd like to provide a few stock pieces of advice that you can hopefully cling to. Primarily, these pieces of advice will serve to remind you that you are a grown man in a civilized society, not a caveman or 12 year old guy. Nobody cares that your emotions "got the best of you" in a given moment. Act like a human being.

Things to keep in mind for 100% of your future posts:

1. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. We've seen BossChief's breakdowns a hundred times now, but it doesn't matter: the Chiefs have almost no money. They're working to extend Houston, they're going to give Alex Smith a pay increase, and they're not going to restructure anybody this year. They're not going to restructure Flowers because they restructured him last year. They're not going to restructure Bowe because they agreed to his deal a mere 12 months ago. They're not going to restructure Hali because they may very well cut ties with him in 2015 and they don't want to carry any more dead cap space than they have to. And it doesn't matter that you want to extend Eric Berry: the guy is still going to get $8m/year. Cutting Fasano, Daniel, Avery -- those will only net you $1m in cap space each. There is almost nothing short of outright cutting major players on this team that will open up a lot of cap space. So if the Chiefs aren't incredibly active, don't worry about it. They don't have a lot of cap space.

2. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. As much as I admire some of the analyses on this board and other Chiefs sites, the added cap space will not help us very much this offseason. It'll allow us to sign a few more middling or lower-rung players, but it's not going to allow us to sign a ton of premier talent. Why? Because other teams get the same raises. Whatever structured deal people like BossChief hilariously thinks we can provide Byrd, somebody has the same increase in cap space to offer more (no offense to BossChief, just disagreement). The raise in the cap allows us to sign more players, but those players are almost certainly not going to be game changers. So if the Chiefs aren't incredibly active, don't worry about it. They don't have a lot of cap space.

3. NFL Championships are not won in free agency. This rule is subject to certain Peyton-Manning-sized exceptions, but the teams that get to free agency get there through the draft. Hell, even the Broncos of this past year: the best players on their team were drafted: Decker, Thomas, Thomas, Woodyard, Miller, Clady, that defensive linemen from Cincinnati... The Broncos are better than us right now even if they didn't have Peyton Manning. NFL Championships are won in the draft. When it comes to the top free agents, with very few exceptions, it is a Shiny Toy Carousel. The real date to make this team better is May 8-May 10. Not March.

4. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. The Raiders have $70m to spend this offseason. The Browns have over $50m. The Jaguars have over $50m -- or at least they did, prior to signing Red Bryant. The Broncos have more cap space than we do. The Patriots have more cap space than we do. The Seahawks. The Giants. The Steelers. They have more cap space than we do. So that $9m in cap space is no where near the harbinger for success that we think it is -- and it is flatly unrealistic to think we can open up $25-30m in cap space like some on this site believe. So stop expecting the Chiefs to be a big swinging dick in free agency.

5. Don't get emotionally married to a free agent -- you will end up getting angry for no reason. The odds are, the player you are in love with is a very good player, and therefore will be desired by at least a half dozen teams, only a fraction of which we'll ever hear about because 90% of what happens in the NFL happens behind closed doors. The odds are that, even on equal footing with other teams, can land a free agent that five other teams want is a one-in-five chance; I know that sounds too stupid not to know, but you wouldn't know it by listening to certain Planeteers every year. Now, add in our cap disadvantage, and our odds shrink considerably.

6. Not signing a player you like does not mean the Chiefs are cursed. There are always exceptions, but the one exception-proof rule is this: a player can only sign with one team. That means at least a handful of teams are disappointed nearly every time an A-, B-, C-, or even D-level free agent signs with a team. The Chiefs will disappoint every offseason in this regard, because they can't always get the players they want.

7. It is oftentimes better to not sign a good player than to hamstring your cap by dramatically overpaying. There's a reason the Chiefs were so good in last year's free agency, in landing all the players they wanted. There's a reason Dorsey hit on nearly all of his free agency acquisitions: he won the bidding wars, and therefore overpaid. Sean Smith's cap space in 2015 is over $7m. Bowe's is $14m. Mike DeVito, a guy who plays half the snaps, is $5m this year. Fasano came to KC because we gave him $4m/year. We won the surprisingly-intense bidding war for Chase Daniel simply because we are paying him the most. So the Chiefs need to start making smart decisions for the next two offseasons: they need guys that can make the team better without exploding our cap and putting us in Jerry Jones Hell. Because as good as John Dorsey is as evaluating talent, he sucks nuts at negotiating contracts.

8. Keep in mind the Chiefs essentially will have added three new-ish players next year anyway at exactly $0 extra to our cap: Sanders Commings, Travis Kelce, and AJ Jenkins. The health and development of all three players will make us a better team, and will cost us nothing. Commings flashed in his handful of plays in 2013. Kelce is a workhorse tight end who can block extremely well and has good straight-line speed, with NFL bloodlines. He flashed at training camp. And we've all been hearing the buzz surrounding AJ Jenkins.

Which brings me to my final point:

9. You will be underwhelmed by free agency. Primarily because the Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space.

So, the next time you find your emotions swirling fruitlessly, and you absolutely have to rain your thunder down on an online message board because nobody in your family likes putting up with your teenage bullshit anymore, take a deep breath. You are a grown man. You have the power to regulate your emotions. This is not the NBA: it's the Draft that really matters in this league.

Much love, bozos.

03-09-2014, 01:42 PM	Topic Starter
Direckshun __ Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Springpatch Casino cash: $4163447	How to not be an insufferable fan during free agency. Free agency is soon to be set upon us. There will be a lot of super interesting things that happen in the coming weeks. Some moves will be super aggressive, others will make tons of sense, others will leave your head scratching. Some teams will be super aggressive, other teams will not be. Since ChiefsPlanet is rarely more difficult to endure than during the first couple weeks of free agency, when, no matter what happens, this place is in full meltdown mode, I'd like to provide a few stock pieces of advice that you can hopefully cling to. Primarily, these pieces of advice will serve to remind you that you are a grown man in a civilized society, not a caveman or 12 year old guy. Nobody cares that your emotions "got the best of you" in a given moment. Act like a human being. Things to keep in mind for 100% of your future posts: 1. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. We've seen BossChief's breakdowns a hundred times now, but it doesn't matter: the Chiefs have almost no money. They're working to extend Houston, they're going to give Alex Smith a pay increase, and they're not going to restructure anybody this year. They're not going to restructure Flowers because they restructured him last year. They're not going to restructure Bowe because they agreed to his deal a mere 12 months ago. They're not going to restructure Hali because they may very well cut ties with him in 2015 and they don't want to carry any more dead cap space than they have to. And it doesn't matter that you want to extend Eric Berry: the guy is still going to get $8m/year. Cutting Fasano, Daniel, Avery -- those will only net you $1m in cap space each. There is almost nothing short of outright cutting major players on this team that will open up a lot of cap space. So if the Chiefs aren't incredibly active, don't worry about it. They don't have a lot of cap space. 2. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. As much as I admire some of the analyses on this board and other Chiefs sites, the added cap space will not help us very much this offseason. It'll allow us to sign a few more middling or lower-rung players, but it's not going to allow us to sign a ton of premier talent. Why? Because other teams get the same raises. Whatever structured deal people like BossChief hilariously thinks we can provide Byrd, somebody has the same increase in cap space to offer more (no offense to BossChief, just disagreement). The raise in the cap allows us to sign more players, but those players are almost certainly not going to be game changers. So if the Chiefs aren't incredibly active, don't worry about it. They don't have a lot of cap space. 3. NFL Championships are not won in free agency. This rule is subject to certain Peyton-Manning-sized exceptions, but the teams that get to free agency get there through the draft. Hell, even the Broncos of this past year: the best players on their team were drafted: Decker, Thomas, Thomas, Woodyard, Miller, Clady, that defensive linemen from Cincinnati... The Broncos are better than us right now even if they didn't have Peyton Manning. NFL Championships are won in the draft. When it comes to the top free agents, with very few exceptions, it is a Shiny Toy Carousel. The real date to make this team better is May 8-May 10. Not March. 4. The Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space. The Raiders have $70m to spend this offseason. The Browns have over $50m. The Jaguars have over $50m -- or at least they did, prior to signing Red Bryant. The Broncos have more cap space than we do. The Patriots have more cap space than we do. The Seahawks. The Giants. The Steelers. They have more cap space than we do. So that $9m in cap space is no where near the harbinger for success that we think it is -- and it is flatly unrealistic to think we can open up $25-30m in cap space like some on this site believe. So stop expecting the Chiefs to be a big swinging dick in free agency. 5. Don't get emotionally married to a free agent -- you will end up getting angry for no reason. The odds are, the player you are in love with is a very good player, and therefore will be desired by at least a half dozen teams, only a fraction of which we'll ever hear about because 90% of what happens in the NFL happens behind closed doors. The odds are that, even on equal footing with other teams, can land a free agent that five other teams want is a one-in-five chance; I know that sounds too stupid not to know, but you wouldn't know it by listening to certain Planeteers every year. Now, add in our cap disadvantage, and our odds shrink considerably. 6. Not signing a player you like does not mean the Chiefs are cursed. There are always exceptions, but the one exception-proof rule is this: a player can only sign with one team. That means at least a handful of teams are disappointed nearly every time an A-, B-, C-, or even D-level free agent signs with a team. The Chiefs will disappoint every offseason in this regard, because they can't always get the players they want. *7. It is oftentimes better to not* sign a good player than to hamstring your cap by dramatically overpaying. There's a reason the Chiefs were so good in last year's free agency, in landing all the players they wanted. There's a reason Dorsey hit on nearly all of his free agency acquisitions: he won the bidding wars, and therefore overpaid. Sean Smith's cap space in 2015 is over $7m. Bowe's is $14m. Mike DeVito, a guy who plays half the snaps, is $5m this year. Fasano came to KC because we gave him $4m/year. We won the surprisingly-intense bidding war for Chase Daniel simply because we are paying him the most. So the Chiefs need to start making smart decisions for the next two offseasons: they need guys that can make the team better without exploding our cap and putting us in Jerry Jones Hell. Because as good as John Dorsey is as evaluating talent, he sucks nuts at negotiating contracts. 8. Keep in mind the Chiefs essentially will have added three new-ish players next year anyway at exactly $0 extra to our cap: Sanders Commings, Travis Kelce, and AJ Jenkins. The health and development of all three players will make us a better team, and will cost us nothing. Commings flashed in his handful of plays in 2013. Kelce is a workhorse tight end who can block extremely well and has good straight-line speed, with NFL bloodlines. He flashed at training camp. And we've all been hearing the buzz surrounding AJ Jenkins. Which brings me to my final point: 9. You will be underwhelmed by free agency. Primarily because the Chiefs do not have a lot of cap space.** So, the next time you find your emotions swirling fruitlessly, and you absolutely have to rain your thunder down on an online message board because nobody in your family likes putting up with your teenage bullshit anymore, take a deep breath. You are a grown man. You have the power to regulate your emotions. This is not the NBA: it's the Draft that really matters in this league. Much love, bozos.
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