Free Agents
Of course it's all situational but I found this article interesting. Does signing too many of your own FAs breed complacence?
In a candid conversation with PFW last week, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson recognized that the team’s offseason priority of retaining their own defensive veterans (DE Eric Hicks, FS Jerome Woods, CB William Bartee, etc.) instead of adding outside talent did not yield the results he had hoped for. Far from it, as the Chiefs actually dropped a spot, from 29th to 30th in yards allowed heading into Week 17, and gave up more points in 2004. Peterson stated the Chiefs’ continuing issues defensively were not the fault of Gunther Cunningham, who returned to town as defensive coordinator, and implied that they need to surround Cunningham with players, and even coaches, who are more familiar with his system and can be more effective within it. “Objectively, it hasn’t happened,” Peterson told PFW. “… We haven’t improved the level of defense to where we wanted. And that’s disappointing.” Peterson said he plans to sit down with head coach **** Vermeil and vice president of player personnel Lynn Stiles to scrutinize the situation. “We know where the problem is and what needs to be fixed,” he said. “We just are going to evaluate it and go from there. I will very readily admit that when it’s all said and done, it was the wrong decision to retain perhaps all of these guys. Now, not all of them played badly, but (we need to find out) are they ascending, plateauing or descending, and that’s what we’re going to do."