***NFL Free Agency News & Signings Thread***

[Joelist]

(03-14-2024, 09:26 PM)casear2727 Wrote: IMHO, the main reason so many free agents do not work out is that the NFL has the tampering periods backwards. 

Currently teams can talk to agents during the legal tampering period but cannot talk with players until 3 days later when the new league year begins.  This means that all the talk is about dollars and contract structures instead of communicating with the player's fit and what his role would or could be.  As soon as the new league year begins the race is on to sign players.

If teams could talk to players first for 3 days, then talk to agents about contracts, I believe teams would sign players that could be better fits for their schemes & existing personnel. 

Agreed. It is also one reason I think we've done better at this in the Zac era - they have been pretty focused on ensuring culture and system fits over "name" and also generally go for younger players now.