Smart Money

In a hotel lobby at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando last March, Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson was taken aside by his right-hand man, director of football operations Bob Ackles. The negotiations between several clubs and free-agent defensive tackle Sean Gilbert were heating up, and Ackles was delivering some bad news about Gilbert, whose services Johnson coveted. The player's price tag had gone up another $1 million a year, and Ackles needed to know if the Dolphins would stay in the game or fold. "Jimmy," Ackles told his boss, "they're talking seven years, $45 million. Maybe $10 million up front."

Johnson blanched. "Well, wish him good luck," he said. "We're out." Those might have been the seven smartest words Johnson ever uttered.

The Carolina Panthers outlasted all other bidders and gave Gilbert the richest contract for a defensive player in NFL history, a seven-year, $45.4 million deal. The total dollars and $10 million signing bonus were nearly identical to what the Green Bay Packers had given three-time league MVP Brett Favre nine months earlier, and the Panthers had to send the Washington Redskins first-round draft choices in '99 and 2000 as compensation for signing Gilbert, the Redskins' franchise player. That's a lot to give up for a guy who sat out the '97 season because of a contract dispute.

While Gilbert gets $10.7 million this season in bonus and salary, the 11 starters on the Dolphins defense, which has allowed the fewest points in the league, are playing for a collective salary-cap figure of $10.9 million. Now, at the season's midpoint, Miami is locked in a four-team scramble atop the tough AFC East with a 5-3 record; Carolina is trolling the bottom of the weak-sister NFC West at 1-7, having won for the first time on Sunday.

If the season's first half has taught us anything—other than that the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl win last January was no fluke, or that Buffalo Bills quarterback Doug Flutie is certainly not Doug Flukie—it's that the fool's gold of free agency is crippling teams like never before. Among the clubs driven to distraction by the new $17.6 billion network television contracts signed early this year, Carolina and the Washington Redskins ran amok through the free-agent market and have two wins between them to show for their investments.

Carolina bought Gilbert and cornerback Doug Evans, and Washington signed defensive tackles Dana Stubblefield and Dan Wilkinson. Total cost: $128 million. Evans has been burned more often than dry California woodlands, and Gilbert, Stubblefield and Wilkinson have combined for six sacks and 72 solo tackles. With the exception of the hard-driving John Randle, who re-upped with the Minnesota Vikings and has keyed the defense in the team's surprising 7-1 start, none of the free-agent defensive linemen who broke the $5 million-a-year barrier-including Chester McGlockton, who after signing with the Kansas City Chiefs missed the first six games with a back injury, and Eric Swarm, who re-signed with the Arizona Cardinals—have been remotely worth the expense. Meanwhile, in addition to Miami, which also courted McGlockton and Randle, the Jacksonville Jaguars shopped for high-priced defensive line help, thought better of paying the going rate and still lead the AFC Central at 6-2.

"I think what this free-agent crop proves is that free agency's really a crapshoot," Johnson said last Thursday I never liked free agency, and after this I hate it." That night he defended his former assistant, embattled Redskins coach Norv Turner. "Dana Stubblefield's got his money, his $8 million [signing bonus], right?" Johnson said. "Fair or unfair, Norv sooner or later could be out of a job. You give Norv those 15 sacks, like Stubblefield had last year [with the San Francisco 49ers], and he keeps his job. Why is it never the player's fault?

"Coaching is harder than ever. Free agency's the reason. Years ago, players would say, 'I'll run through a brick wall for you.' Then it became, 'Tell me why I have to run through the brick wall' Today it's, 'I've got enough money in the bank, so I'm not running through a brick wall for anybody.' "

Eight games do not a new career make, but Gilbert, who was moved from tackle (the position he played most of his first five years in the league) to right end in the Panthers' zone-blitz scheme, has two sacks and nine quarterback pressures, and opponents have rarely felt the need to double-team him. "We single-blocked him, and he didn't do much to us," says one assistant coach who has faced Gilbert this year. "He was nothing special."

Gilbert blamed his poor production on the fact that he's playing end in a 3-4 alignment, and his argument has some merit. An end in the 3-4 sets up plays for the outside linebackers. But it's a weak excuse to say an end can't be a playmaker, because other 3-4 ends have been impact players. The New York Giants' Leonard Marshall set up plays for outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor but still was a double-digit sack man in three of his 10 seasons.