The Free Agency Fandom Test
Do tweets from NFL News Breakers also send you into a psychotic fit?
I’m more and more convinced that the true test of fanhood isn’t the draft, isn’t the gruelling 17 game season, isn’t the playoffs. It’s the buzzing of Adam Schefter notifications flying in in the opening hours and days of Free Agency. Oh I’m sorry. Do you not have Adam Schefter notifications turned on? What are you, some sort of well-mentally-adjusted person? I bet you don’t even lie awake at night with your brain screaming about the route depths in Drew Petzing’s scheme. The gall.
Well, those of us who don’t have our brains in as good a working order had our lives this week soundtracked to the delectable orchestra of bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz. “Wow, look at all my friends reaching out to me”, I half-heartedly dream to myself. Nope, it’s a twitter notification. The one reliable thing in our lives. It’s Adam bloody Schefter. Again.
It’s been a particular test for Cardinals fans this week. Most of us were well aware of the medicine taking we were due for last season. New regime. Kyler injured. A roster bloated with players not good enough and paid too well leftover from drunk Steve Keim. But we took our medicine. We took it good. Monti traded down in the draft, accruing future assets in the process. We spent next to nothing in Free Agency, rolling over money and cap space to following years. We lost a whole lot of games, enough to receive the 4th pick in the 2024 draft. We took our medicine. So why oh why, in the legal tampering period in the days before Free Agency of 2024, with a big ol’ pile of cap space, a hoard of draft picks just begging to be traded, isn’t Adam Schefter tweeting about us!
“Hi, it’s me again, Adam Schefter. NFL news-breaker. I’m just tweeting to let you know that some really good player has signed with a team. Not the Cardinals, to be clear. It’s some other team. Any other team. To recap; good player, signing, team that isn’t the Arizona Cardinals. Got it? Good. See you in 3 minutes when I tweet the exact same thing about another player and another team. Still won’t be the Cardinals though”
It’s irrational, I know.
But of course it’s irrational. Fandom is irrational. But there are only a couple of times in the NFL calendar that teams have a real opportunity to reshape their rosters, and in those moments, be it the Draft, the Trade Deadline or Free-Agency, it’s natural to want every good player available to be acquired by your team. Regardless of cost. Regardless of age. Regardless of feasibility. Regardless of the long-term.
For a moment.
But then we remember the plan.
This is a new organisation. Gone are the 3 year deals for ageing cornerbacks and wide receivers. This team will be built through the draft. As it should be. That’s what long-term, sustained winning is built on. Free-agency is about filling holes in the roster, building a floor. For all the flirtatious glances I sent across the bar at Christian Wilkins, Danielle Hunter and Jonathon Greenard, they weren’t fixing this defense. No one player will do that. Monti doesn’t have the leeway to be irrational, that’s our job.
Of course we have made moves. Quite a few actually. But if you really were deluded into thinking Christian Wilkins was going to sign with the Cardinals, Bilal Nichols probably didn’t scratch your itch. But it’ll sure scratch Defensive Co-ordinator Nick Rallis’. If you don’t think so, then you really have no idea what an upgrade just competent players can be over fringe NFL talent. New additions Bilal Nichols and Justin Jones might not be the stars you were looking for, but in having missed very few NFL games in their careers between them, their ability to be available and just functional could lead to a crazy improvement in the Cardinals’ defensive line play. The $20m guarantee is a bit of a head-scratcher for Justin Jones admittedly but taken with Bilal Nichols’ figure and the Cards set a floor for their defensive line for a relatively low number for a few years to come. Most importantly, these moves have removed any urgency to draft a defensive tackle in April. If, when the Cardinals are on the clock, they have a DT as best player available, they can take him, but if they don’t, now they don’t need to stress out and reach for one. Ask drunk Steve Keim how reaching and drafting for need worked out for him.
Creating a baseline level of competency seems to have been the plan across the board for Monti. Mack Wilson at linebacker seems a great find at a low number and with the re-signing of Krys Barnes, we can avoid an Isaiah Simmons fiasco. Sean Murphy-Bunting is a solid starting corner, nothing more, nothing less. Deejay Dallas is a great insurance option both on offense and special teams. Jonah Williams at Tackle means if none of the top-tier tackles drop into our lap at 27, there’s no need to panic. Desmond Ridder for Rondale Moore. And still over $20m in effective cap space remaining. There’s definitely no more star talent on this roster than there was during last season. But in deftly hitting singles and doubles, this Cardinals squad is definitively better than in 2023. Almost every position group now has functional players that set a significantly higher floor. Almost. There’s still two things I’ve yet to mention in this column. The Ceiling of this team, and the Wide Receiver room. I think they might be linked somehow. What was that about star talent?
Of all the hundreds of players suiting up in new uniforms on the opening weekend of the 2024 NFL season, your Wilkins’ and your Cousins’, your Ridleys and your Saquons. Take your pick, Marvin Harrison Jr will be better than them all. Hell, it’s likely Nabers and or Rome Odunze will be as well. After letting Hollywood walk and trading Rondale it’s the one area of the roster that is almost bereft of talent now. Yeah, Michael Wilson had a good rookie year, Greg Dortch is a great slot option. But in building the foundations across the rest of the roster, the Cardinals have set themselves up to be able to take a truly generational wide receiver prospect both as a need and as best player available at the top of the 2024 draft. That’s what free-agency is for.
You can’t hurt me anymore Adam Schefter. I’m numb to your teasing guiles. Report on all those silly teams spending silly money on silly players. The Cardinals have bigger plans.
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