That would be a terrible mistake. He is in the A group of S and deserves to the "highest paid du jour."
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Funny. All I heard during and after the season was that either the offense and/or defense needed to be improved to compete with DEN. Now, I'm being told to appreciate the value of "quality" role players (backups?).
I confess the term "decimated" is an overstatement. However, the talent level has not been improved at any position on the field. Not a single one.
I think the people telling you that we are signing Key Role players understand that building the team is done through the draft and sigining good Free agent that fit within our budge. NOT the over priced Star players that blow up the salary cap. Yes, this team needs help at Fs, it needs help at NB and ILB. It needs helpt at Guard and WR. You can't fix all of those by buying the best player available. See the Redskins.
The reason the Donkies can do this, is because they have a core of young players they drafted with low contracts. They can then upgrade at positions that they don't have a huge need in by siging the top line Free Agents. The Chiefs have talent they drated, but most are High the highest paid players. The Chiefs failed as drafting later round Talent with smaller contracts to fill the Voids you are looking to spend the bank on. The back up players that you are upset about are the very players that need to step up to build a good team. Justin Houston is a prime example of this. A star but being paid based on a 3rd round contract. Sanders Comings, Kush, N. Davis, Johnson. These guys need to make an impact just as the players we take this year. Once our team has starters on lower Contracts the Chiefs can then fill in voids by spending a little more on Free Agents.
So in all of your dissapointment, What would you have done different. Who would you have signed and fit into this cap? We know you would have reworked Berry's contract.
The main disagreement I had was the use of decimated. I just don't think this team lost anything that can't be replaced. They lost some nice parts yes but hardly anyone that was playing at a top level.
That leads to my thoughts about the draft. Dorsey as I have said is going to sink or swim by how he drafts. If he drafts well and can get a few rookies to be those nice parts of the team which is possible then I think this year will be a step forward. On paper right now there really isn't any improvement to the team. But the offseason is not over yet. It's incomplete I see no reason to grip just yet.
Mongo.....Don't sweat use of the word "decimated"....I think I used it myself at the start of Free Agency. But if you give an honest look at what the players we lost got on the open market and look at the cap space we have, you'll realize there was no way we could keep them. Nor was there any way we could go out and try to grab some big name players. The money simply isn't there. Certainly we might have been able to renegotiate some contracts and maybe gotten some cash to play with in Free Agency but it wouldn't have been enough to win us a Super Bowl and 3-4 years down the road we would have found ourselves well and truly screwed. Dorsey believes in building through the draft and grabbing "bargain Basement" Free Agents to fill holes. That is simply his philosophy on how you build a team. IMO it is a sound policy and a route to building a team that will eventually dominate the AFC West for the better part of a decade. But it won't happen overnight. I HATE that the double-damned donks will will likely be the team to beat in the West for another year or two and that our best hope during those years will probably be a wildcard, but if after 2 more years we find ourselves as an AFC West powerhouse with a LOT of guys playing on rookie contracts (and therefore LOTS of money available to shop in Free Agency) then the wait will have been well worthwhile.
In short, I trust Reid and Dorsey and I think they are doing the right thing. You don't....and that's OK. But there is NO WAY you're going to see me complaining about the Reid/Dorsey duo that took us from 2-14 to 11-5. They have EARNED the right to try to do things their way for a few years.
Believe it or not, I'm not advocating going bat-****, Daniel Snyder crazy. Maintaining a veteran presence on the OL would have been a priority to me. Scratch Jeff Linkenbach. I'd have kept Schwartz or pursued another veteran guard like Zane Beadles or Chad Rinehart. I'd consider a one year flier on Davin Joseph.
I would have liked Chris Clemons. I might've signed Lou Delmas to a friendly deal. I wouldn't have gone crazy on a safety, most likely though.
I agree on Schwartz and he liked it here in KC and he is frequently on the radio, but I think he was shopping for more money than what the Chiefs want.
Andy has always been a system guy feeling that they could find another younger guy and the system made them better. I can't tell you how many guys left Philly on bigger contracts, failed with their new team, only to return to Philly once they realized the Grass was not greener.
Chris Clemons would have been worth kicking the tires, but he is not much of an upgrade.
No thanks on Beadles. He gets beat way to often, and probably could be flagged for holding 75% of the time. Delma is no better than the other players you are upset we signed. He is a low risk high reward guy. Had lots of promise but dropped off just as fast as K. Lewis.
It's funny. I remember just a few years ago everybody was complaining that the Chiefs had $30M+ in cap space and they weren't using it to sign the big name FAs. Then we resigned Charles, Hali, Flowers, Bowe...even Succup and Colquitt were taken care of. Now people are complaining that we don't have the cap space to go after the big name free agents.
The pre-Dorsey regimes had a lot of misses, but when they hit, they hit big. We are against the cap because we have drafted so many pro bowlers. So many, in fact, that we had to let Albert and McCluster walk. If we had spent all that money on big name free agents years ago, most of those players would be past their primes or gone by now, and we wouldn't have had the money to keep the pro bowlers that WE drafted. THEN how good would the Chiefs be?
The Chiefs were criticized for not spending money they had; now they are being criticized for not spending money they don't have. You can't have it both ways. But I would rather spend money to keep our guys, than spend it on other teams rejects / cap casualties.