spacecrime said:
One team's misguided pride is another team's philosophy that has worked very well so far.
Thats just my point. It is MISGUIDED pride from FANS, who want to project that belief on the team. Its just not true. We have paid top dollar for all our FAs, we pay it for draft picks, we pay it to retain players.
To think that BBs philosophy is "Anyone who accepts the highest offer they get will never play for me" is ignorant and misguided.
He pays VALUE. In some cases he feels the value is lower than what someone else does, and in some cases he feels its higher.
BB is NO DIFFERENT than any other team in this regard. Everyone pays their opinion of value. Why is BB different? The characteristics he values appear different than the consensus of the NFL. He has enough talent here that the value of an addition, IN MANY CASES, BUT NOT ALL, has less additive value than it would to another team. In other words, with many FAs the alternative to not signing them isnt as bad for him as it is for other teams.
Somehow, we have taken a guy who took over a cap nightmare and signed players for cheap, simply because he had no other choice, built a winner where the success causes everyones value to rise. To retain his own players costs more than it does for unsuccessful teams. Therefore he is cautious in FA because A) he does not have much cap room (This is the first year he has really had room) and B) as his good players contracts expire, the cost of resigning his players is higher than for another team.
The reality is that BB pays for players just like anyone else. The reality is that since 2000, he has had overall a lower budget to do so under the cap---after resigning his own---than other teams.
To say we win because BB refuses to sign any player who is concerned about getting the best offer is ludicrous.