No, you called me a thread derailer in that post. Which is totally unfair. Btw, I really miss your Florida school district smack. Not that I am trying to derail this thread.
The Seahawks built their team based on competition and they just won a superbowl. You can argue that they got lucky with picks or whatever else, but you never really know what you have untilyou see what others can do in the same spot. It may not always guarantee a great player, but it will guarantee the best player on the roster will start and it can motivate players to elevate their game. Imagine if the Seahawks didn't care about competition and never drafted Russel Wilson? Basically the more people you have competing, the better the chance that one of them takes the next step. It's a numbers game really. Seattle brought in 3 different QBs that year and struck gold on one. It works, hence why Idzik stocked up on linesman last year and receivers and DBs this year. Sure, it's not fool proof, as they could all be terrible, it just gives you better odds at success. We have so much youth at this point that we know that a large portion of them won't make the roster right away, but we could find some great players in the process. That's the idea behind the philosophy at least.
I understand your POV here, but ftr when Seattle drafted Wilson, they really did not have an established Qb. Yes, Wilson proved to be a good move for them, but it's not like their Qb situation was an example of one where they set up competition at every position. This off season they just signed a big K with Sherman, and I don't think I heard anything about them wanting to bring in a bunch of lower round picks or undrafted players to compete with him. In the end your post is just another example of binary thinking. The choice is not competition or no competition. Every team has competition in the off season at some positions at least. It's a question of balance.
Having top quality players at every position is ideal but impossible. Tannenbaum 's philosophy was to get quality veterans and high picks and win that way. It worked as long as he picked the right players. When that stopped, the team imploded and had no young talent base. The other way to approach it is to bring in a lot of young, cheap talent and let them battle for jobs. If it works out you have one or more rising young players win key roles, and you're paying that talent a fraction of the price. Tanny was high risk, high reward. Idzik is medium risk, medium-high reward. Except having extra money available provides flexibility to get more good players later, preferably to sign players in their early prime.
Sherman is irrelevant. He's a young player in his early prime. Those players typically don't hit the market. However he was the product of young, cheap talent fighting for starting spots. He won, was dirt cheap for a few years, then they were willing to pay him before he hit the market because he's still young. That's the same thing Idzik appears to want.
Wouldn't you bring in more competition at the positions where you have the biggest needs? QB was a need for them at the time and they brought in 3 QBs. They competed and Wilson unexpectedly won big. There's no point in providing competition to an elite established pro bowl caliber player like Sherman. At CB and WR we did not have any established players aside from Decker and possibly Milliner. That's why it's a numbers game. It's not really binary thinking, it's pure logic based on increasing your odds. Obviously, yes there is always competition, but I don't recall the last time the Jets drafted this many WRs, do you?
That wasn't my point. My point was that having competition is not something every team does at every position every off season.
You seem to be implying I might disagree with what you said here. Of course you are correct. I merely wanted to clarify that you have competition where appropriate, and don't where you don't find it useful or needed.
Okay, yes, then we are in agreement. I do not think Idzik is going to put competition everywhere, just at the positions of need like OL last year, WR and DB this year.
Established teams don't. The Jets aren't an established team yet. Just as Seattle wasn't a few years ago. But they still have competition at certain spots.
Do you think Harris, Wilkerson, Richardson, Mangold, Ferguson, Decker face competition this off season? I don't. I don't think Pryor, Milliner, and a number of others will, either. Sure if they for some reason suck in camp, show no effort or whatever, the CS will come down on them. But the Jets will not be lining up young players and use them to attempt to counter or compete with them.
