Originally Posted by
ctchiefsfan
If I may, I'd like to try to inject just a touch of reason into all this sturm und drang.
I think Connie Jo's calling Elway's recent free agent signings foolish was perhaps a little over the top. In fact, Elway had no choice but to spent every dime he could scrape together on big name free agents. When the donks signed a $96 million contract with manning they made a simple statement. They said "The future is the next 5 years and the success or failure of those 5 years will only be measured by whether we win one or more Super Bowls." Well 2 seasons later, they have spent $38 million on manning and they haven't won a Super Bowl. So by the donks own measurement, the last 2 years have been a failure for them. A $38 million failure.
They have manning under contract for 3 more seasons. If they don't win a Super Bowl in those 3 years they will have essentially wasted $96 million. Manning isn't getting any younger so Elway had no choice but to "go all in" to try to get some free agents that could help them win a Super Bowl RIGHT DAMN NOW. With the lower end draft picks their record gets them they simply do not have the luxury of trying to draft and develop to fill their needs. Elway has no choice but to try to buy big name free agents to get them over the top and win a Super Bowl. And frankly, if he has to violate the salary cap to do it I am sure he will. Elway has sold the donkey's soul to the devil for a shot at a Super Bowl so he needs to move fast before the devil comes to collect his payment.
The donkeys are going to spend a good while rotting in the AFC West cellar as a result of what they have done. But that is OK with them SO LONG AS THEY WIN A SUPER BOWL with manning.
It's a gamble. Nothing more. Some people like that kind of gamble. Some don't.
I've heard (not in this thread) the manning signing compared to the Chiefs signing Joe Montana. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON! Adjusted for inflation and making it a 5 year contract instead of 3, Montana's contract was approx $43 million for 5 years. We got Montana for less than half what the donks paid for manning. And so far they have ABSOLUTELY no more return on investment than we got.
So.....did Elway do a smart thing signing manning or was it the stupidist move ever made by a GM? I dunno. Nobody knows yet. But having signed manning to the deal he did, Elway would have been a MORONIC CRETIN not to spend money like a drunken sailor on free agents. Elway took a huge gamble when he signed manning. Once you have made that gamble and been BLOWN OUT in a Super Bowl what choice do you have but to double down on your original bet????? There is no choice.
Me? I'm pretty happy with Reid/Dorsey. I expect the 2014 season to be a step down (record wise) from 2013 but I honestly think they are building a team that will dominate the AFC West for a decade or more.
Will that get us a Super Bowl? DUNNO. But I feel pretty confident it will get us more playing time and wins in January than we have seen in a long long time. And I am OK with that.
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