I don't remember the Redskins ever attempting to use free agency to supplement an already very good team, which is what I think we're doing.
I also think that for everything everyone is saying about us spending too much or acting un-Patriot like, they are really forgetting last year. It's very easy and convenient to simply repeat that we were just a play or two away from the super bowl. While true, it ignores the fact that, despite that, we had some very serious issues all year. Fading into oblivion is the frustration we all felt on a week-in, week-out basis with this team, even while winning. The seeming inability to get our opponents' offense off the field in crucial situations in the third and fourt quarters. Our trouble at times, after the first few weeks of the season, playing a possession game late to keep the clock running when nursing a small lead. Remeber the first Bills game? Or the Detroit game? Or how badly we played against the Colts the first time? Or how we almost barfed all over ourselves in the second half of the first Jets game? This team was lucky in some ways to be 12-4, and was also extremely lucky to get past the second round of the playoffs. We had some major needs despite how close we were last year, and we've really done a nice job addressing several of them.
I would take issue with two things in that article -- I think both the broncos and the cardinals deserve to be in the higher group. The broncos did a real nice job this off season in how they spent their money. And the cardinals are not nearly as far away from being a very good team as people would like to think. They addressed some major needs, and they got rid of the second most broken part of their team -- the head coach. They can't get rid of the most broken part -- the owner -- but I think that in the division they play, they could be much improved next year. The lost several games last year against some very excellent teams on last second plays. They were just a little less than the sum of their parts. I think they are a playoff team, just barely, this year.
