And now Chargers fans are getting delusional!

[cdumler7]

Also I would add that the comment about the Broncos buying their championship coming from a Raider fan after just watching their team spend I think the 2nd most in Free Agency this off season of any team is kind of a foot in mouth moment. I don't get how you can say we bought our Championship after your team spends that much money trying to bring in talent.

But like I said with having a Cap Floor and a Cap Ceiling all teams have to spend money so it is not about buying a championship in today's NFL. This isn't baseball where the top paying team spends like $200 million more than the bottom team. The NFL is partly so great because all teams are on a level playing field when it comes to the money side of things. It is just a matter of some teams have figured out how to spend their money well to keep them competitive year in and year out. Other teams just spend big and try to "win" Free Agency but quickly figure out there is a reason that team was let walk by the team that drafted them and that they were more of a complimentary piece instead of a core piece like they paid for.

 

[iknowftbll]

Was just in the middle of typing a response and you summed it up perfectly. To me what the Broncos did was the mixed in players that could contribute from many different places. It wasn't just the draft that brought them great/core players but they were able to hit in FA which most teams struggle to do that, they hit on the waiver wire with guys like Todd Davis and Brandon Marshall, they found UDFA talents that again on very cheap contracts contributed in big ways to our championship like CJ Anderson and Shaq Barrett, and they also built guys up on the Practice Squad for a year giving them a nice red shirt season to then promote them to be a quality start like Matt Paradis and Brandon Marshall. This is how you build a championship caliber roster in your find talent through many avenues. If you rely squarely on the draft you are limiting your opportunities. If you go big in FA and continue to sell off draft picks or whatever in trades to bring in talent you quickly find your roster void of talent like the Raiders did pretty much for about 12 years straight.

Really in the NFL because of having a Cap teams have to spend their money. It isn't a matter of buying a championship. It is about spending your money wisely to build depth throughout the roster. Look at our defense. DeMarcus Ware our defensive captain goes down for a big chunk of the year and our two back ups in Shaq Barrett and Shane Ray step in and the defense barely falters with one of our key guys gone. Talib misses a game and we have a guy like Roby waiting in the wings that would be starting on almost every single team in the league. Derek Wolfe misses a few games with suspension and we have a nice rotation to young and veteran guys on the defensive line to step in and hold their own. Really safety was our one position without depth last year and it really did show up at the end of the year as our 2 game losing streak just happened to coincide with those guys being out and then of course with us losing Bruton as well in that mix.

The practice squat route (Broncos and other teams practice squads) as well as other less heralded FAs is a good point. The fact the Broncos had/have: Ware and Manning on the roster, as well as had Welker, and to a MUCH LESSER extent, Sanders, Talib and Ward give the impression to a fan less intent on critical thinking they "bought" a championship because the biggest FAs they DID sign panned out. It's rare to hit that reliably on the big splash free agents but the Broncos did it. And despite the fact a Broncos draft pick (Miller) was by far the best player on the field in both the AFCCG AND the Super Bowl, some people are going to say the Broncos bought one regardless of the facts.

And so, in an effort to meet them at their argument, let's say the Broncos DID buy a SB Win through FA. That makes them more remarkable doesn't it? When has any other team been able to do that?

 

[cdumler7]

The practice squat route (Broncos and other teams practice squads) as well as other less heralded FAs is a good point. The fact the Broncos had/have: Ware and Manning on the roster, as well as had Welker, and to a MUCH LESSER extent, Sanders, Talib and Ward give the impression to a fan less intent on critical thinking they "bought" a championship because the biggest FAs they DID sign panned out. It's rare to hit that reliably on the big splash free agents but the Broncos did it. And despite the fact a Broncos draft pick (Miller) was by far the best player on the field in both the AFCCG AND the Super Bowl, some people are going to say the Broncos bought one regardless of the facts.

And so, in an effort to meet them at their argument, let's say the Broncos DID buy a SB Win through FA. That makes them more remarkable doesn't it? When has any other team been able to do that?

Good point. I have pointed this out a few times this off season but only I think 4 players that changed team via Free Agency this past year (there were over 500 players that changed teams) actually even made the Pro Bowl. Then when you think about the fact that the Pro Bowl had more players make it than any other year in the history of the NFL because of players dropping out again it just shows how hard it is to hit in Free Agency to actually boost your team with a big signing. It is why "winning" Free Agency isn't always the best thing to be said about your team. To me it just shows how great of a scouting department our team has even beyond just for the draft where we have found All-Pro talent but then through UDFA, Waiver Wire, and so on. It is why beyond our top big name Free Agents we have had guys like Darian Stewart who went from rotational player with the Ravens to great starter for us. We have been able to buy low and sell high with some of our Free Agent additions where other teams decided they were not worth a 2nd contract and with the Broncos they became a great starting player. Then when they want that big contract we have let some good players for us walk and get the Comp Picks. What we have here is a great set of coaches/FO people that know what they are looking for in the players to fit the system and then use those guys to their strengths. This is what Seattle has done so well on defense is guys can walk and the next guy in still does great because they have a great system in place and coaches that know how to use them.

 

[Mingo]

The Broncos were advantaged after the last labor contract between the league and the players. They had high draft picks and a first ever rookie wage scale. Von Miller - in this sense got jacked for a lot of money and that saved a large chunk of money off the Broncos salary scale. This allowed the Broncos to get fresh talent cheap and also get mid-level veteran talent at below scale - due to the influx of new players every year. Pat Bowlen's brokered labor settlement - just so happens to be tailor fitted to rebuilding the Broncos. The Broncos were even able to pay Manning straight up cash instead of any kind of structured contract. This meant Manning didn't leave the Broncos with much dead money.

I would not say the Broncos were lucky - they were very deliberately excellent in using every advantage they had at their disposal - the major one among them was the way the salary cap after the last labor settlement just so happened to be in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.