When you shell out 239m dollars in free agency, you better get at least a hit or two off that.
And the very reason we had to spend this money was the atrocious drafting by BB and his 'braintrust' over the past 5-6 years which depleted the team's talent level to the point where we missed the playoffs.
So yes, Judon was a good get. No, I'm not impressed if we fail to make the playoffs this season. Results matter.
Just read the
article by Sheehan in response to the spending spree and see if you still feel impressed.
Of course! It had nothing to do with 4 trips to the SB in 5 years, picking at the bottom of every round 5 years in a row, hollowing out drafts to trade for players needed to make the runs, playing an extra month 5 years in a row, having players poached above market, having coaches poached because of success, and flipping to a rookie QB. To say nothing of their worst 2 picks, stolen by the NFL. There's a reason the Patriots got a lot of Comp picks, even in the 3rd round.
The money they spent wasn't spent for THIS YEAR alone - and it didn't put them in cap hell by any means. They're spending near the cap. Did they add VOID years? Did they add guaranteed money that will carry on long after any of the acquisitions are out of their prime playing years?
This is the "shock value" of that article, repeated in bold for every section: THEY SPENT $236MILLION! Add up the years of service for that money: Judon 4, Smith 4, Henry 3, Agholor 2, Godchaux 2, Wise 4, Andrews 4, Guy 4, White 1, Karras 1, Jalen Mills 4, Van Noy 2,
That's 35 years of service (which alone is less than 7m/players per year of service), not counting the guys like Adams, Anderson, Cody Davis who came in cheap, or didn't make it, or got hurt.
Talking about drafts in a vacuum can make things much worse or much better than they are in reality without context of others teams' drafts. Yes, they whiffed big on a couple/few, no doubt, but we simply don't know on 2020 and 2021 yet, and if you go back beyond 2017 those guys are all on second contract now, which would have meant...paying them (like with Wise this year, returning in FA).
You can argue individual contracts for those brought in - Judon, Mills, Bourne, Henry, Andrews, Karras, and Guy all look really good to me. Not sure about Smith (but confident) and Agholor yet, Godchaux and Van Noy have to step it up to be worth their $$, not sure about Wise, but hey, they knew who he was before they signed him.
i mean, Pittsburgh hit big on TJ Watt, right? And htey just gave him $110m with 80 guaranteed for four years. Hitting on a draft is $ savings for 4 (5 for 1st rounders) years, tops. So even if they had hit on drafts in 2014, 15, 16, and 17, they'd be paying those hits $$$$$ right now.
They're in a reset. Rookie QB. Liking what I see.
