Dallas Clark, Edge James, Dwight Freeney, there top CB, etc some how the Colts, Patriots, Eagles, and have been able to sign tons of money and still keep all of their key starters. I understand about keeping together the core group to make that 4-5 year run but there also has to be some maintaining there. The Patriots have been able to keep the core of their group together and are not massivly over paying people or paying people who have not played n this team in 4 years. I just dont think the management is there for the Titans.
That's
exactly what Lawyer Milloy said when the Pats released him right at the start of the season a couple of years ago, that the Pats always kept their core players!
(Was not a popular decision in New England, at the time. )
I understand your point, however, so....serious answer:
1. I do think the decisions the Colts are making today (dating back to last year or two, with the new BIG contracts to Harrison and Manning) will force their hand elsewhere. Especially if they also lock up Freeney, and exercise the option due on Corey Simon. It may take a couple more years, but the effects may start to catch up to them as soon as this offseason when they will have to pay to compete for the services of Edgerrin James and Reggie Wayne, who will be unrestricted free agents (prior to any tags being applied).
They are, IMO, right about where the Titans were in around '00 or maybe '02with their cap.
2. The Eagles are ruthless in cutting their veterans. They don't like to pay guys once they get close to/hit 30. So "keeping the core together" on that team is kind of relative. Over the last few years they've let guys like Duce Staley, Hugh Douglas, Jeremiah Trotter, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor, and Corey Simon walk rather than give them another contract extension/new deal. (Douglas and Trotter came back for encores, but the Eagles felt their absences while they were gone, IMO.)
What the Eagles do well is getting young players signed to new deals sooner, and making use of years when they have a ton of room to front-load deals so the cap hit in future years isn't as big. To be able to do that, though, you have to get to a year where you have a ton of room to play with first.
3. The Patriots are a really interesting team, and kind of the exception to the rule in how they were able to fit in "cast-off" pieces from other teams at reasonable prices. They got a little lucky in that Tom Brady -- who was making about $380K when he won his first Super Bowl as a sixth-round pick in his rookie contract -- did not have to be paid like an elite QB right away, from the start of their run. That's....very unusual, to have a guy like Brady play at the level he did in such a key (financially) position as a "bargain basement" draft pick.
There are some seeds of discontent right now with guys like Richard Seymour squawking about whether they're going to get paid, but the interesting thing with the Pats will be if they can really recapture the peak on defense once guys like Bruschi (32 years old), McGinest (34), Mike Vrabel (30), and Rodney Harrison (33, coming off possible career-ending injury now) start to walk away for good. You can try to replace those guys, but it isn't always as easy as you think to recapture the magic. They missed Bruschi earlier this year, and they still miss Harrison.
Question: if the Pats were in the AFC West or AFC South this year, do you think they would be headed for the playoffs, at 9-5? Or did they get a little lucky this year that neither the Jets nor Bills challenged like expected while they were going through their slump? (Not taking anything away from them and I hope they go down to Indy and beat the Colts in the playoffs...just saying, sometimes you get a little boost from the misfortune of teams around you, too.)
4. The thing with the Titans and the teams before them that have "strung things along" is, once you start, you are pretty much locked in until you decide to blow it up. Moves made 2-3 years ago to maximize the chances of winning then, limit the moves you can make subsequent to that. But once that cycle is broken -- and it has for the Titans now -- you can start to use some of the tricks teams like the Eagles and Patriots use to reload their rosters or keep their cap costs in line over time.
The Ravens are an example of a team that did the painful cap purge (after trying to load up for a second Super Bowl run when they knew time was running out on their cap), but IMO they just kind of repeated the same thing of loading the roster with expensive older veterans...with much worse results this time.
The Titans need to find a happy medium between that and how the Eagles operate (more cut-throat about getting rid of older key players even when they still have some good football left). But closer to the Eagles than they were the last go-round from '99-'04. Whether Reese and Fisher get a chance to see that next cycle through depends on whether they can convince Adams that they have this team on the right track moving from this year through next season.