Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldcolt
I guess I look at it from the perspective that there are way to many holes on this team to fill them, and be successful, with free agents-essentially other teams cast offs. Ballard is trying to lay a foundation for this team. I cannot name a winning team whose foundation is built upon free agents. There is no choice but to build thru the draft. If you have faith that you are bringing in good players the cap space will be utilized keeping them and hopefully helping to round out the roster later. We are probably (cause you never know) not going to be a super bowl contender for several years. I'm going to enjoy watching us grow into one.
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For me it’s not a matter of building a foundation through free agency - that’s not the suggestion. I’d say you are absolutely correct that the draft is where your foundation has to come from. No matter how you build the draft should always be your primary source of talent. The issue is ignoring other avenues of improvement. Plenty of good teams supplement their rosters with free agents. The key is being smart about it - both in terms of who you add and in maintaining long term flexibility. I’m not at all suggesting that Ballard should have blew all the available cap space on whoever would take it. But do you really believe that he couldn’t have improved the WR or LB groups more than he has? They are paper thin and we are hoping that late round draft picks and undrafted free agents step up and make meaningful contributions. When the preaseason injury to a 6th round WR is looked at as a big blow to your WR depth, your WR depth was shit before the injury. It’s one thing if you allocated all your resources elsewhere- every roster has holes. But when you can barely point to any strong position groups on the roster (QB, TE, kickers) and you have tens of millions in cap space available to me in simply shows you are wasting opportunities to improve. Grigson already wasted way to many of Lucks years. I don’t want to watch Ballard throw away more as he fixes everything through the draft. There are to many holes for that.