Thompson: "We value draft and development, we value free agency"

[GBP4EVER]

My biggest issue with Ted's philosophy is it leaves him with so little margin for error if he has a mediocre draft or two because he pretty much ignores any other avenues to put together his roster from year to year.
So while a guy like say Belichick will also have some mediocre drafts, he's regularly uses trades and free agency to either add high end talents or in other years, make smaller additions which turns a clear weak position to at least solid . Obviously not everything Belichick does ends up working out great, but he rarely will just sit back and ignore free agency/trades exists if there are needs on his roster which might be able to be upgraded. Plus, if he can add a player or two that way, it's not as pressing to fill that need in the draft.
Belichick understands that every year with Brady is precious and thus he'll always use every avenue possible to make his team better, not mostly just restricting himself to the draft. He also manages to do this without putting the team in cap hell.

I think a large part of the problem is the teams conservative nature. It seems the number one goal of the team is to always make sure the coffers are full and this team never wastes money. Thus they want a very conservative GM who won't go out and spend a lot on FA's who would require big signing bonuses that would require the team to pay out right away from their bottom line. Instead the team is focused on trying to draft and develop their own players and then re-sign them to team friendly deals that help keep the cost down. Is it the best way to run a team when the focus is to win championships? No. Is it the best way to run a team from a business standpoint from a team in the smallest market in sports? Yes.

 

[FlaPack]

I think a large part of the problem is the teams conservative nature. It seems the number one goal of the team is to always make sure the coffers are full and this team never wastes money. Thus they want a very conservative GM who won't go out and spend a lot on FA's who would require big signing bonuses that would require the team to pay out right away from their bottom line. Instead the team is focused on trying to draft and develop their own players and then re-sign them to team friendly deals that help keep the cost down. Is it the best way to run a team when the focus is to win championships? No. Is it the best way to run a team from a business standpoint from a team in the smallest market in sports? Yes.

Small market means nothing in terms of salary cap. The cap comes from shared revenue. And with cap floor it's really not even about profitability.
The issue is contract structure. In GB it's cap vs cash out. They don't push money back to create dead money on the back end. And it's also about signing bonus / guarantee money. Budget is usually around 30% of value. On the flip side Teavathon was wondering close to 50%. Those two areas are where I gave the biggest issues with Thompson and the organization. It's about philosophy