The facts about the Titans in Free Agency - a 3-year look

Agreed. It just shouldn't be the only strategy of building a team.

Hope, Thornton, Mawae, and Givens are ALL Floyd Reese guys.

Washington signing at least shows that MR is capable of signing free agents even when the contracts are actually substantial.

But I'm not discussing "what-ifs". We could "what-if" every signing we've ever had.

The bottom line: Givens was a mistake because he didn't produce for us.

Yes the reason is injury. But that doesn't change the result.

 

I thought it was a mistake to let wade go. Wade might have signed for $2.5M a year for us cheaper than gage's long term deal and cheaper than what we just gave washington and wade has been productive for the vikings.

 

My only problem is paying Jovan Haye more than Rocky Bernard? Bernard seems to be a much better player, yet we weren't interested in getting him to solidify our rotation??

 

For the life of me i can't understand the whining about how MR has done things. He has drafted well, has not compromised our future cap with expensive deals and has done very well bringing in lower priced people under $3M a year and getting production out of them.

We have a team that is flush with young talent, star players and budding young stars that MR has drafted. CJ, Griffen, jones, ford, hayes.

I think the idea of signing mid priced FAs in higher volume is the way to do things. Why mortgage your future on one super expensive stud when you can get a good player mid career for less than half as much? Reese did this in 06 with thornton-hope-mawae. Why not stick to that strategy? If you sign a guy for $3-4M and he proves a disappointment the world does not come to an end.

One signing few talk about is kerry collins who was horrible in an impossible role in 06. I was one who didn't want him back but MR gave him another shot.

What about the bell-scott turnaround? We sign scott for $4.75M a year and the rams sign bell for $6M and scott is the better player. We ended up paying less for the better player!

I think franchising scaife was a great move and the right thing to do.

MR has made at least 2 moves for everyone bad one since he came here and we have a 23-12 record so far with him.

 

Here is why we didn't try harder to sign bernard. Personally i thought he was worth a deal considering his market value had dropped 33% because of the incident but maybe the titans were never interested in him because of that.

The giants obviously didn't care and they also signed canty and boley the very fast weak side linebacker from the falcons. The giants were supposed to be most concerned about replacing burress and they go out and sign 1/3 of a defense and all good players! They know how you win in this league.

 

We were going to keep Wade to play the slot and not the outside and didn't value him at that money ($3M) for that role. A year later we paid Gage $3.5M per to play the outside, and this year we've paid Washington $4.5M per to play the outside. This year, Gage's salary is $2M and next is $1.5M, so depending on who we add, Gage now becomes a guy who is valued like a #3, but who can play all the positions. Now we've created room for someone to take over the other outside spot should they deserve it, and it's a great value if Gage continues to mature in the role. Wade couldn't have done it. He'd have been a permanent #3 for us.


But your second to last post I agree with.

 

I don't think anyone would say that the only moves you should make are collecting "garbage bin" players. However, I think it's pretty clear that it can be a good idea.

This discussion hasn't been limited to MR, which is why I was including the older FAs. The team's M.O. hasn't really changed in the last five years, and it seems to be working. RT had a good example with Bell and Scott last year.

If you really think it's a mistake to have gotten someone just because they were injured, then it's going to be hard to have a productive discussion with you. He didn't work out, but that doesn't mean he was a mistake. If you sign someone already injured, that's a mistake, but you can't predict a future injury. He shouldn't be considered a success, but he can't be weighed against the FO.

 

Agreed. This falls under the "**** happens" rule.

 

I think it's kind of funny. We all argue and blast each other but probably are more in common on the team goals. You say "I freak out and only want to sign the most expensive players in the first two days of free agency". I say "you are in perpetual fear of the salary cap purge, and only want garbage bin players"...

The truth is, I think WE ALL want quality players at affordable prices. :grrhee:



This thread was made to praise MR and how well we've done in free agency the last few seasons. I can't give that amazing praise and full backing of our free agency strategy, because it hasn't given us our ULTIMATE GOAL. A Superbowl victory.

Would a premiere WR been enough to win us a Superbowl last season? I don't know, I just know we did not make it, and we had no real WR outside of Gage. I've been saying we need a WR for years now, so I'm critical of that aspect of our free agency/draft strategy.

I'm also critical of everyone that acts like "sheep" of the organization or MR. I hear far to often... OMG HE WAS OVERPAID... when in fact the cap has risen and teams have money to spend. I said it here or another thread, if the Titans want to land a marquee receiver, we will have to overpay to get him to come here. I do think there are too many fans with an unrealistic fear that one big free agent signing = mass exodus of players and cap penalties for years to come. I think there comes a time when paying top dollar for a top player at a top position is the right thing to do.

It's going to be hard to have a productive discussion with you if you are going to sugarcoat every failure the front office makes.

An injury isn't as bad as being an outright bust. But it's a "mistake" or "failure" for the GM when the player doesn't turn out. That's ok, not every player will be a good signing.

But Givens wasted a roster space, cap space, dead cap weight, and did nothing for us. Floyd doesn't get a pass for that signing in my book. I'm not damning him as terrible because of that one signing. It was simply a signing that did not work out for the team, in other words, a mistake of a signing.

 

I wasn't making any argument. You said name three... there's three.