Yesterday via twitter (follow me at @AsherMathews) I asked my followers to complete this statement: "The NFL team I'd most like the Raiders front ofice to pattern themselves after is _____."
The answers, of course, varied but there were only 8 teams that were submitted (outside of joke answers…unless someone really wants the Raiders to pattern themselves after the Browns). Unsurprisingly, most of the teams mentioned are recent Super Bowl winners or teams that are considered to be up and comers.
The answers, in order, were:
Baltimore Ravens
Seattle Seahawks
San Francisco 49ers
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
Green Bay Packers
New York Giants
Atlanta Falcolns
Based on those answers, we’ll consider these 8 the elite teams based upon their recent successes.
So, yesterday when the league went spending crazy, it makes sense to want the Raiders to follow the lead of some of the elite teams, right?
Which begs the question: what did these 8 teams do on the first day of free agency (historically when teams over pay the most for slightly above average talent)?
The answer: not much.
Outside of the teams resigning their own players, most of the teams didn’t sign any other free agents.
In fact, on the first day of free agency 5 of the 8 teams didn’t sign a single player that was on a different team in 2012. The five were Green Bay, Seattle, San Francisco, New England and Atlanta.
Pittsburgh and Baltimore each signed one free agent yesterday.
Only the New York Giants, of the list above, signed more than one player yesterday and they have a whopping two.
The Raiders, of course, didn’t sign any players that weren’t on their team yesterday, either.
So, today when you hear which teams “won” the first day of free agency remember that list will likely not include any of the teams that recently won the Super Bowl.
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