gimmesix
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
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I agree to some extent, but we're still scraping the supposed scum off the floor and hoping it's not scum. What we pay means we either get low-cost players who have not proven worthy of much compensation (Turner, Elam, Sanborn, Murray, Williams, Campbell, Jones) or players nearing the end of their career (Thomas, Sanders, Fowler).They had their best seasons when they would wait until week 4 or when comp picks are no longer a consideration to doing what they have done in week 1.
This is lifting the floor as opposed to raising the ceiling but in an attrition league that is hugely important. LB and RB injuries and roster neglect at those positions were particularly bad for us last year. We are unlikely to have it that bad again.
They still have plenty of issues all over the offense's starting group. OG takes a step back. OT is a trainwreck. Skill position outside of Lamb is devoid of playmakers.
We have 1 starting DT and questionable backups. We have issues at range at S. Hooker is one of my favorite players but he is losing his step. Cover 3 is going to be that much more demanding.
We have a ways to go. Way I see it we need guys like Mazi, Schoon, and Guyton to play up to their draft status and players come back strong from injury and 2+ draft picks hit at positions of need and these FA be able to improve special teams and injury replacements and the team take to the new coach strong in year 1.
Then we might compete with the Chiefs, Eagles and Lions in the playoffs.
It's understandable that you have to add some of those kind of FAs, but that doesn't mean you've improved the position. You may have just swapped one low-quality player for another and in some cases, you may have gotten worse (Lewis for Elam, Turner for Lawrence/Golston, for instance).
Now, we still have the draft to go, but we didn't use free agency to clearly improve the roster. Our pro scouts/coaches have to be proven to have been right about their evaluations of these low-cost FAs for that to happen. Of course, like you said, at least this time we seemed to be picking the low-cost FAs that we wanted from the start instead of waiting for them to be picked through and then choosing from what was left. We'll see if that changes anything.