warhawk
Cheesehead
Darn Mike! You tell me that now when the applaud/smite feature's been removed. Nevertheless nice to know.
The sheer talent of a Polamalu type or the experience of a John Lynch in the secondary, a couple of real weapons for Favre on offense and a line that still featured Wahle and this team would be a contender.
This theory features no account for the fact that we were desperately thin in most positions. Look at the injury report for all teams at this point in the season. Guys go down. That's just how it is. We would have had nobody to come in and pick up where we were if we spent the cash on a few more free agents.
The fact is playoff teams have depth and we had virtually none. Holding onto Wahle would have meant somebody else had to go. We didn't have the money straight up to hold him otherwise. Kampman, Green, etc. would have had to been signed or let go. We could have foregone the Woodson signing but to be a contender SOMEBODY had to replace Carroll.
We than add a Palamalu and Lynch type we still have to address the CB and "D" line issues. What we had were absolutely not playoff caliber. By the time we sign the Wahl's and Kampman's and Lynch's and a big time WR the money is gone(if there would have been enough to start with).
Now we do that and who do we have to back all these guys up? Where are the situational guys needed for certain schemes going to come from? Remember, we cut a lot of guys loose to get in a good cap position so we spend it on FA's and now there is a huge void in second line guys.
I'm sorry but this team was far from what you are suggesting would have been all that was needed to contend. I won't even get into how far away from quality Special Teams we were when it comes to a playoff caliber team. We stunk there and adding three or four FA's ignore's this and too many other areas we were short in.