Jamal Lewis

resigned with the ravens.

 

Lewis AND Anderson. No letoff there really.

 

good for him. Probably his best chance at success, and it might be a minority opinion but for cheap enough I'd have taken him here as half the equation (he wasn't that cheap, though). I do believe he'll be somewhat better this year, but he really doesn't have much life left in him.

 

I'd have given him a shot for anything less than $1.5 million, but that obviously wasn't realistic.

 

Surprising, but yeah -- staying in Baltimore was probably his best shot of getting back on track, if he can at all.

 

I wonder if Anderson is happy with this. I bet he went there thinking he would be the feature back.

 

You dont want to pay anyone, do you?

 

I like the Hartwig deal, but most of the other contracts are ridiculously expensive. Plus, Lewis is flat out finished as a starter.

 

If MOST of the contracts are ridiculously expensive, doesn't that mean they are market value?

 

No, it means silly NFL teams are thinking like teenagers getting their first credit card as they head off to college and buying wildly without regard to price, simply because they can. In fact, a significant number of contracts (probably will end up being the majority) are fairly reasonable, but competition over a few top players while every team has cash to play with has driven up the market exponentially. That will settle down in the coming weeks, and certainly in the coming years. I expect that a number of contracts signed over the next 2-3 years will actually be cheaper than the ones signed this week.

As you noted in the other thread, a 20% increase is rational. Unfortunately, a lot of teams aren't thinking in percentages and are simply throwing every last available dollar at free agents. That might work for 2006, but it's a foolish strategy over the long-term and will end up costing teams in future years.