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Price check Patriots' secret is not overpaying, finding a good fitPosted: Thursday February 07, 2002 2:06 PM
In the hours after the Patriots captured Super Bowl XXXVI with their stunning upset of the Rams, someone mentioned to head coach Bill Belichick that the team had just given hope to every downtrodden team in the league. Constructing a champion through middle- and lower-class free agency, Belichick was told, now had a blueprint. "I know," he said. This is how he did it: On their Super Bowl roster, the Patriots had 20 veteran free agents whom they signed last offseason. Seven started in the game, including big-play playmakers Roman Pfifer, Antowain Smith and Mike Vrabel. Nine more came off the bench. What is so special about the Patriot 20 is that the group was mined so skillfully by Belichick and director of player personnel Scott Pioli for so little cap money. New England actually watched a defensive tackle it wanted to re-sign, Chad Eaton, walk out the door to Seattle for a signing bonus of $3.5 million. It cost New England management $2.57 million in signing-bonus money to get the Patriot 20 under contract. The Patriots' secret is not overpaying for good players who aren't great but who collectively fit exactly what the coach wants them to do. Belichick loved the grit and power of strongside linebacker Vrabel and could get him to sign for $225,000 because no one else valued him highly. Pfifer, a lost sheep in free agency, cost but $43,000 to sign. Smith had missed multiple chances to shine in Buffalo, and New England bought him for $25,000 bonus. Larry Izzo, the special-teams demon, came in for $275,000 to sign in a four-year deal. Since Belichick and Pioli began running the personnel side of the Patriots before the 2000 season, they've piloted the team to the fourth-lowest total dollars spent in the league during that two-year period, in bonus and salaries combined. New England will be the only team in the nine-year history of free agency to win a Super Bowl and be under the cap entering the next season. And while the Patriots have some free-agent deals to get done -- Pfifer, Smith, kicker Adam Vinatieri and punter Ken Walter are priorities -- the big fish will be quarterback Tom Brady. He's scheduled to be a free agent after the 2002 season, though the Pats will likely begin negotiations with him on a new deal this offseason.
Bucs looking to get offensiveNow that the Bucs have settled on Marvin Lewis as their head coach, they have quashed his first choice to be offensive coordinator, former Redskins interim head coach Terry Robiskie. Not imaginative enough, Tampa Bay management thinks. Look for the team to go hard after one of two current quarterback coaches -- Philadelphia's Brad Childress and Pittsburgh's Tom Clements. Eagles head coach Andy Reid thinks Childress will be a great offensive coordinator, after all the lessons he's taught Donovan McNabb, both in fundamentals and seeing the position so clearly.
Lame-duck season for Gruden?This is a rumor that just won't go away: Now that all the seats have been filled in the 32-team NFL version of Head Coaching Musical Chairs, will Al Davis allow Jon Gruden to coach out the last year of his contract in Oakland? Davis has Dennis Green and Art Shell in the wings if he chooses to can Gruden for being disloyal and trying to engineer his trade to Tampa Bay or to one of several other jobs Gruden was connected to this offseason. Gruden would certainly be the hottest coaching free agent of 2003. But the next big question around the league is whether Davis will allow him his lame-duck year this fall. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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