The brand name definitely help teams to keep their own key free agents. Packers, Steelers, Giants, Cowboys, and Patriots all have a tradition to sell & they sell it well. I work in sales for a division of FedEx. That brand name allows me to both secure & keep business from competitors with very similar capabilities. Even if & when the Cardinals put together some very good seasons, they are at a huge disadvantage to teams with a longer tradition of winning. Bottom line, we are suffering from the sins of our past. Even after going to a SB, we didn't have a long enough tradition to keep guys like Dansby, Rolle, etc. They were east coast guys that wanted no part of the west coast. If we had a winning tradition that spanned a generation or two, we would have had a much better chance of convincing those guys to stay.
There are other teams that had a great generation or two of winning, but they became so bad at times, that they lost their ability to sell a winning tradtion: 49ers, Redskins, Bears, Vikings, Dolphins, Indy, Broncos, and Raiders. The Ravens have developed a tradition of winning, but they have to keep winning to get into that upper echelon.
Bottom line, the Cardinals need to put together a decade of consistent winning before they develop any free agent advantages. Otherwise, we will continue to have to overpay in order to keep our better players or lure other teams better players. For a franchise like the Cardinals to develop that winning consistency, it's IMPERATIVE that we draft well. Obviously, that hasn't happened.
Not to disagree with your agreeing with me, but here's what players care about when they reach free agency:
1) Guaranteed money
2) Non-guaranteed money
3) Endorsement opportunities (money)
4) National exposure (leads to 3)
5) Living in an interesting area
6) Being close to family
7) Opportunity to win a championship.
Who were the last headline free agents that the Patriots, Steelers, Colts, or Packers brought in? They don't. They keep their guys and re-sign those they want to keep before they're about to enter free agency, and then bring back the players who depart because they're better off in the system.
The problem with the Cards has been poor allocation of resources. We don't do a good job valuing our own roster, so we spend money on wastes of space like Bryant McFadden, Travis LaBoy, and most recently Stewart Bradley while allowing our good players to find greener pastures.
The key is drafting well, but the next key is extending guys like LaRod Stephens-Howling, Early Doucet, and Calais Campbell before the allure of unknown money becomes too great. All contracts increase in value, so even if signing Hyphen to a four-year, $7 million extension right now sounds excessive, in two years he'll be making the market average for a solid KR. We could probably get him for less than $5 million because he's been injured and ineffective so far this year.
But Cheese is right that we underestimate our players and (kind of) hope they're below-average in contract years so that we can undercut them in an attempt to re-sign them. Dansby was pissed that we didn't promote him. Voice of the Franchise Ron Wolfley was always happy to emphasize Dansby's weaknesses when he was one of the two or three best players on the defense
his entire tenure here. The same thing happens inside locker-rooms. Dansby wasn't being promoted for the Pro Bowl around the league, even though his talents and production merited more than the consideration he was receiving.
We've done just about average in drafting talent around here, but we've been awful at keeping it around, and that's why we were 5-11 last year.
