Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Abby Harvey

With the start of NFL free agency upon us, numerous teams are about to receive major face-lifts. Big names are going to be packing their bags as teams try to add the missing piece to a title run. The problem is, free agency is not the most important part to building a Super Bowl contender.

The NFL has a salary cap, which limits the amount a team can spend on its players. The cap isn't set at a certain number, but is instead calculated by using a complex formula that involves a percentage of the NFL's projected revenues and unmet contract bonuses. This essentially means that each team has a different salary cap. According to Foxsports.com, The Dallas Cowboys had a payroll of $158 million and the Kansas City Chiefs had a payroll of $84 million in 2008.

Even with these shifting salary cap figures, the amount of money available for teams every offseason stays about the same every year. The teams that continually sign free agents usually don't have much space under the salary cap because of the large amount of big contracts, while teams that stay relatively quiet during free agency have more money available.

The problem with spending lots of money in free agency is it makes it tough for teams to resign their other star players when their contracts run out. Another major downfall to free agency is the players are usually on the decline in terms of ability.

The teams with the top 10 overall salaries in 2008 - the Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New Orleans Saints, Washington Redskins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns and St. Louis Rams - have combined for 13 playoff wins since the 2004-2005 playoffs, eight of which were won by the Steelers.

On the other hand, the teams with the bottom six overall salaries - the Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, and New England Patriots - have combined for 19 wins in the same time span. These teams also have produced four MVPs in the past six years.

So how should teams be built? Through the draft. The NFL's best players usually spend the vast majority of their career with one team. Yes, players such as Brett Favre switch teams in the twilight of their careers, but when the great players are in their primes, they almost never switch teams. It's safe to bet that Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and LaDainian Tomlinson are going to be staying with their respective teams for a while because they are players that you build a franchise around.

Only 15 of last year's 87 players on the Pro Bowl rosters - including alternates - were acquired via free agency. That's not just players that were acquired in the last off-season, that's players that were acquired by their current team in free agency at any point in time - Mike Sellers has been playing for the Redskins since being signed in 2004. On the other hand, since the NFL began allowing free agency in 1993, every MVP has won their award with the franchise that they began their careers with except for three, and only one of them - Rich Gannon - moved via free agency.

Fans have developed a romanticized view of free agency. The New York Yankees are a major reason for the glamorized view of free agency. Practically every year they sign one of baseball's best players to a mega contract and instantly become everyone's favorite to win the World Series.

Baseball, however, is a different topic. Without a salary cap, many teams cannot match the salary demands of their players, and thus are forced to watch them leave in free agency. The NFL is a different story because of the salary cap.

In the early 1990s, when the NFL was first implementing the free agency rules, many dominant and Hall of Fame worthy players switched teams because general managers had yet to master the art of free agency. Reggie White's move from Philadelphia to Green Bay was one of most famous and influential moves in NFL history. Other superstars such as Deion Sanders and Curtis Martin made switches in free agency in the mid-90s too, but players of their caliber don't become available in today's NFL.

I strongly believe teams should rely on the draft to acquire the building blocks to a great team and use free agency to find temporary solutions to roster problems. Yes, this is the strategy Packers GM Ted Thompson employs, and yes, I am a Packer fan; however, it is also the same strategy employed by the perennial NFL powerhouses. The Patriots, Colts, Steelers and Chargers are usually among the quietest when it comes to free agency every year, yet they are consistently picked to win the Super bowl. Their key contributors - Manning, Brady, Dallas Clark, Dwight Freeney, Bob Sanders, Ben Roethlisberger and many more - were all drafted by their respective teams while the mediocre role players that come and go every year are free agent acquisitions.

Is dabbling in free agency to fill a few gaps in a roster a bad thing? No, but relying on free agency for a large part of a team's talent is. The draft is where the great teams are built.

Gourdoux is a sophomore print journalism major and sports editor of The Spectator.

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