Beware of Expensive Free Agency Mistakes
Somewhere around the middle of March, several NFL teams will make several expensive free agency mistakes. In so doing, they’ll greatly diminish their chances of competing in the 2022 season.
Part of what makes this time of the year so captivating for NFL fans is the unbridled hope. To a certain extent, we can forget the Dallas meltdown, the Cardinals missed field goal, and the Lions disaster. Instead, we can turn our attention to how the team may be able to improve with the addition of several players. For Vikings fans, this (hitherto naive) hope can go a long way.
Hope aside, there’s a real danger in free agency. It’s one thing to make a mistake on a player who is on a one-year, vet minimum. It’s quite another to make a 4-year, $72 million mistake.
The final number isn’t one I chose at random. Instead, it’s the amount that the Giants paid to get Kenny Golladay into New York. Now, it’s worth remembering that he may go on to do great things in the coming seasons. Last season, though, wasn’t great: 37 catches, 521 yards, and a goose egg in the touchdown category. Yikes. Part of what makes it even crazier is that it was a deal that received some initial praise.
There’s an important truth in our Golladay example: it’s supremely difficult to truly judge whether teams are making free agency mistakes in March. Almost always, we need to wait for the games to be played.
Bringing things closer to home, we could say that the Patrick Peterson deal didn’t work out. Thankfully, it was only a one-year deal, so the team’s new leadership can assess the path forward. $8 million is a fair bit, though, for an older corner who was average to a bit above average.
Our purple friends will have more financial wiggle room than most believe. My belief is that Minnesota can carve out $25-$40 million in a relatively reasonable manner. As a result, there is potential to make great signings and awful signings. The task falls to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his staff to ensure the mistakes are kept to a minimum.
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