Have-Nots Have a Real Shot : Free Agency Gives Lesser NFL Teams a Chance at Quality Quarterbacks

So maybe it’s not a perfect system. So maybe it’s created a lopsided salary structure that rewards stars, sends aging veterans into early retirement and asks lots of players to perform for minimum wages.

So maybe it lavishes a few of the elite with outrageous incomes accented by preposterous signing bonuses that have no relationship with the reality of our daily lives.

Still, unfettered free agency, coupled with a salary cap, is terrific. To dislike it is to dislike the increasing competitiveness that highlighted this past season and will be the hallmark of the NFL for years to come.

Free agency weakens the best teams, which is great. No longer can a franchise duplicate the domination of the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, who each won three Super Bowls between January 1989 and January 1996.

Clubs that become really good in the NFL these days will inevitably begin to lose some essential players. They will be lured to other teams by income offers their old teams can’t duplicate under the restrictions of the salary cap. The resulting effect is twofold: It all but eliminates depth, and it limits the number of stars any franchise can control. And the fewer stars on hand, the harder it is to keep returning to Super Bowls.

Before free agency, teams could stockpile talent and keep potentially outstanding players tied up on the bench, waiting for a starter to retire. Steve Young felt that sting in San Francisco sitting behind Joe Montana. But now, clubs are forced to identify their core players quickly, sign them to extended deals and watch the best of the rest fly away. Nowhere is this more evident than at quarterback.

What we will see this off-season is a dispersion of quarterback talent that should make another handful of teams instantly more competitive than they were in 1996. Which will make it more difficult for everyone to win in 1997.

Don’t think for a moment the Seattle Seahawks really want to trade Rick Mirer. Or the Washington Redskins want to lose Heath Shuler. Or the 49ers want to see Elvis Grbac move. Without a salary cap and free agency, none of these players would be going anywhere. But the reality of the NFL in 1997 is a team simply can’t pay extraordinary salaries to two quarterbacks. So horse sense gives way to dollars and cents.

“You draft a guy and you have three or four years to find out if he can play,” Green Bay Packers General Manager Ron Wolf says. “That’s not always enough time. Then you have to decide who to keep and who must go, and you pray it’s the right decision. Before, you could wait on a guy to mature, especially at quarterback. Lots of guys sat for years waiting for a chance. Now you see teams rushing their young quarterbacks into the lineup immediately. What choice do you have? If a coach waits now and is patient with a quarterback, he may not have a job in four or five years. He’s got to win right away, which usually means trying to find a quarterback who can play.”

In another era, Wolf would be sitting on the best quarterback situation in the league. Within a 14-month period starting during the winter of 1992, he traded for Brett Favre and drafted Ty Detmer and Mark Brunell. Before free agency, all three would still be on the Packers roster. And, considering Favre never misses a game with injury, we would never know if Detmer or Brunell could play. But Wolf recognized the reality of the free-agency system; he knew both back-ups would eventually leave if they did not play, so instead he attempted to get something in return for their services.

He was successful with Brunell, trading him to Jacksonville in April 1995 for third- and fifth-round draft choices. Detmer, who was not as highly regarded, signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles after the 1995 season. Now the Packers are left with Jim McMahon and Doug Pederson behind Favre.

“I hear now that I gave Brunell away,” Wolf says with some disgust. “But what were my choices? How was I going to showcase him for other teams? By letting him be the holder on field goals? Brett is always on the field, so Mark and Ty weren’t going to play. I got what I could considering the circumstances.”

But the reality is, free agency produced starting quarterbacks for the Jaguars and Eagles. Brunell, given the chance to play, is coming off a special season that labels him as potentially one of the league’s next great quarterbacks. Detmer isn’t that talented, but he is smart enough to become a productive player, particularly within the controlled confines of a West Coast offense.

Now, more quarterbacks are about to wander. Shuler is a restricted free agent, which means his signing will cost his new team first- and third-round choices. But if Shuler develops into a star, that really isn’t much to give away. Some within the Redskins organization are convinced he eventually will become a standout, with an ability level rivaling Brunell’s.

Yet, given Shuler’s huge salary and the team’s need to significantly increase Gus Frerotte’s compensation this off-season, the Redskins have no choice but to lose Shuler. They know Frerotte is capable of winning on this level; they don’t have the luxury to continue Shuler’s development. Coach Norv Turner, in his fourth season, needs to produce a playoff entry in ’97. He feels that his known commodity, Frerotte, is a more reliable bet than the still-unpredictable Shuler.

Mirer is on the market in Seattle because there isn’t financial room for both him and John Friesz, who has been handed the starting job. Friesz, who came to Seattle as an unrestricted free agent two years ago, brings dependability and consistency to the position; Mirer brings greater potential.

Coach Dennis Erickson thinks he’s given Mirer enough chances to grow into the No. 1 role. But he can’t afford any more developmental time for the former first-round pick. It’s safer to stay with the steady Friesz, who makes fewer mistakes. Like Frerotte in Washington, Friesz represents a better opportunity for his team to win in the short term. There is no more long-term planning in the NFL.

It’s highly unlikely Grbac will return to the 49ers; he’d be wiser to leave San Francisco, sign for gobs of cash and potentially become the savior of a franchise, something he could never be with his present club. He’s certainly a solid player; given a team, far from Young’s presence, perhaps he could blossom into a major performer.