NFL Free Agency started and now all the teams are really good

A failed physical takes down the Maxx Crosby to the Ravens trade. In all the “cannot be officially announced” until Wednesday dealings, this would be the biggest. The Ravens play in a pitiful division (Browns, Bengals, Aaron Rodgers). So one could argue they need not sacrifice two first round picks for an aging superstar. Tell it to John Harbaugh. After last season’s 8-9 wimper, Baltimore should do everything possible to sow this division up before it starts. The AFC is imminently winnable. No Seahawks. No Rams. No Eagles. Only a limping Chiefs and the cursed Bills stand in their way. Oh, I guess the Pats too. But that’s it! Fudge Crosby’s physical and get him in the building.

If baseball is really broken because of its lack of salary cap, then the natural sport to look at is football. Did this round of free agency provide any guidance to help us decide who’s side we should inevitably favor in MLB’s upcoming labor fight? I don’t think so. What’s obvious in football is that maintaining a championship level team is much more difficult than doing so in the MLB. HOWEVER, the NFL produces far more repeat champions. Different sports fellas. Gotta just accept that for what it is. Since it’s hard, here are some truths though that I’ve been wrestling with:

- The salary cap does force great teams to redistribute talent across the league. It took all of one day for the Seahawks to watch their Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker walk out of town. They’ve since lost a CB (Coby Bryant) and could also see 1-2 more starters leave. The redistribution of talent though doesn’t guarantee those players move to less competitive teams. Walker is a new KC Chief. Bryant found a 3yr deal with the NFC North champion Bears. The cap in a way helps good teams close the gap with great ones. Still, players that get a taste of success aren’t likely to immediately seek out the Browns. More to the point, the good teams are far more incentivized to pursue expensive free agent targets to maximize their competitiveness than perennially awful teams building through the draft. Yes, the Raiders blew a bunch of money, but the bulk of their additions (Linderbaum, Quay Walker, Kwity Paye, Jalen Nailor) are actually starters leaving failed teams choosing to prioritize resources elsewhere. It’s not as if the Raiders scooped up former Seahawks, Pats, Niners or Rams. The available talent for bad teams is more limited to fringe starters of good/great teams. Guys that good teams feel are expendable because of strengths elsewhere. Look at the Titans. The team with the most available cap space blew their wad on three (!) ex-NY Giants. Porque why! The Giants stink. It’s no secret you can’t build a team through free agency alone, but if the cap is designed to smooth any one team’s competitive advantage, it certainly doesn’t help out the little guys….

- And that brings us to baseball, because man, the Little Guys there better watch what they ask for. Purely on the surface, all the “small” market MLB teams clamoring for a salary cap really better think twice about what a salary floor would mean for their business. Check your Balance Sheet buddy. Are the Marlins ready to spend $150m a year, every year, at minimum? Doubt it. But therein lies the challenge with a hard cap. It can’t exist without a minimum promised spend towards the players. Outside of a more nationalized television deal, how are the Sacramento-Las Vegas Athletics going to spend at a similar clip as the Raiders? How are they going to spend even half of what the Raiders dished out this spring? The revenue numbers are virtually incomparable but the Bengals will spend double what the Cincinnati Reds spend this year on payroll. Both teams have a great chance of winding up in last place. Neither team stands to benefit from free agency in a capped or uncapped environment. The Bengals best defensive player (Trey Hendrickson) is actually walking away from Cincy for nothing.

What’s the lesson? Hoping you knew. The lesson is this: you can spend $300m on a last place football team in Cincinnati, and still turn a tidy profit. You’ll never make the playoffs. You’ll waste Joe Burrow’s prime. Free agents won’t look your way. OR. You can spend $150m on second to last place baseball team (thank you Pirates), never make the playoffs. Waste Joey Votto. Free agents won’t look your way. AND you can whine and bitch about the Dodgers.