Quote:
Originally Posted by rm1369
I used to believe that the best way to a title was to be really good for as long as possible and things would break your way. But I’ve been both a Colts and a Pacers fan for a long time, so I no longer believe that. Trying so hard to maintain success means shorting yourself now for the ability to sustain the success in future years.
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I appreciate the thoughtful response (and without resorting to cheapshots and name calling), and you’re right that we just have a fundamental disagreement. As you can probably tell, I fully subscribe to Ballard’s approach (at least my understanding of it as outlined in my prior post). Since the playing field is relatively level given the salary cap, I think you need to always be focused on maximizing your efficiency to get ahead. Greatness is absolutely sustainable over a long period, particularly when you have the most important piece (QB) already in place like we do. So in my view we don’t need to be a constant fire-reload-fire-reload cycle as I think you’re suggesting. I won’t cite to the Patriots either, because they been caught cheating repeatedly and thus I’ve got no confidence that they deserve their success.
Also, the Manning-led Colts
were great, not just good – and certainly as assembled, should have won multiple SBs. But for whatever reason – bad coaching, bad playing, or bad luck – they tended to fall apart in the playoffs. They just weren’t the same team in the playoffs, and I put that squarely on the players and coaches. I don’t think adding a free agent or two would have changed that in any meaningful way. But make no mistake, they were a dominant team - Polian had that team in a position to succeed. And, from a fan’s perspective, they were fun to watch, even in those seasons we didn’t win the SB (now, try to convince me that seasons like 2017 were fun – because I recall thinking during the games that I wasn’t enjoying it at all. Even in the few games we won, it just sucked).
I refuse to believe that overpaying outside free agents is any way to succeed. The more you maximize performance for the cap dollars you have, the better you will be – it’s basic and undeniable. And overpaying free agents runs directly contrary to this principle. It should be a last resort, if anything.
As I said in my last post, at bottom it’s really a question of talent evaluation more than anything else. If you draft well and make smart free agent acquisitions (both in terms of money and talent), you will succeed. If you don’t draft well and overspend wildly in free agency, you will fail. The more you act like the former, the more you will succeed, and the more you act like the latter, the worse off you will be.