A System At Work

The NFL free-agent feeding frenzy begins on Wednesday, and it will likely start with its usual boom.

There’s a pattern – initial gold rush, a quick leveling-off after about a dozen big signings, a secondary wave, then the NFL draft and a final sift through the detritus.

Smart teams build through the draft and fill the odd holes through free agency. You do not see the Green Bay Packers coughing up big contracts to free agents. They draft well and re-sign their own players. This is why general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy are always competing for Super Bowls. They have a system and they stick with it.

Others like to set huge stacks of money on fire with no real return. It’s the danger of chasing the talent that fit well in one system but may not do as well in another. This would be the Miami Dolphins, who pay linebackers and cut them, pay linebackers and cut them and now need linebackers. They don’t learn and they don’t compete for the Super Bowl – except in trying to get the NFL to put one in their stadium.

The Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos will be fun to watch. They’ve got to pay Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, they need to re-sign Brock Osweiler in the aftermath of Peyton Manning’s retirement, and they have a few key defensive players they surely would like to keep (linebacker Danny Trevathan, defensive tackle Malik Jackson).

We’d be remiss in not adding a special salute to Manning and his marvelous career. Five times the NFL MVP, twice a Super Bowl winner, most career passing touchdowns, most career passing yards, on and on the list goes. Good work, man. You were fun to watch. And now, back to free agency …

Free agency commences with the beginning of the new league year. So Wednesday is New Year’s. Have a sip of Champagne and hope your team doesn’t overindulge in free agency.

Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman