The Near-Impossible Task of NFL Rebuilding

Here in Washington D.C. as well in many subpar NFL cities around America this offseason, there was a lot of talk of rebuilding.

Some teams chose to go that route (St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers) and some (Washington Redskins) chose not to.

The problem with the modern NFL is that rebuilding is very, very hard.

It's a "win now" league, where fans, general managers, and owners want to see results, and want to see them quickly.

This doesn't allow for proper maturation of a team or new head coach.

For example when Joe Gibbs was first hired in 1981 by Jack Kent Cooke and GM Bobby Beathard, he started 0-5.

Gibbs thought he was going to be fired, and legend has it that Cooke was very close to doing so, but Cooke stayed the course.  In Gibbs' first tour of the NFL, the result was four NFC Championships, three Super Bowl victories, and not a single season below .500.

In this day and age, a coach starting out that bad might not have a second shot.  He might not even make it through his first year.

Fans, owners, and general mangers' patience aside, with the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) teams can't hide away players on the practice squad like they once could.

The 53-man roster didn't really mean much. You could just throw a guy on the practice squad. Coach Gibbs was famous for that.

For those of you who have a team photo of the Super Bowl XXII Champion Redskins you'll notice Mark Rypien.  However no one knew who the hell he was before 1990 because Gibbs kept him squirreled away on the practice squad until he felt he was ready.

These days if a coach has a talent like Rypien, you can't hide him away.  He's either taking up a roster spot or he's gone.

The CBA also allows for greater freedom in free agency than in the early 90's and before. 

At one point when you drafted a player there was a good chance he was going to be on your roster for his whole career.  Darrell Green's 20 seasons with the Redskins will never be repeated. 

Players (for good or for bad) have a ton of freedom now when their contract is up.  And as we've seen with players like Albert Haynesworth, regardless of anything else, if you have a huge final season on your contract someone will pay you.

Free agency along with the salary cap creates a couple of problems when it comes to building a team of the future.

The first one is if you sign a fourth or fifth round pick to a two or three-year deal and he blows up and becomes your top receiver, when his short contract is up you might not be able to afford to resign him.

One could always say that the team could have signed him to a longer deal, which is true, but a late round pick normally won't generate a long contract simply because a team doesn't really know what they're getting.

Even if you cut that player for not producing, if you signed them for a seven-year deal you are still going to take some sort of cap hit which will affect your other signings.

Also if you have them signed for six or seven years, if they blow up what stops them from holding out for more money?

The New York Jets probably have the best cover corner in the league in Darrelle Revis, but what good does he do the team sitting at home wanting more money?

Not much, so the Jets will eventually buckle and pay him close to what he wants, and then will have to cut from their spending next year. So if they don't win it all this year what do they do?

They might stay the course or might find out they need another piece and then have to spend more money, which they might not have because of all the extra money they had to shell out to Revis.

Last but certainly not least is the major issue that hinders modern NFL teams from truly rebuilding, and that is first round draft picks' contracts.

These kids come into the league with zero experience in the NFL but usually demand (especially quarterbacks) the highest salaries.

The NFL is pretty much the only working environment where the new guy makes more then the guy who has been there and produced for the longest time.

Matthew Stafford and Sam Bradford were drafted No. 1 in 2009 and 2010 and hold a lot of hope for their franchises, but their huge contracts and signing bonuses really hinder their teams' chances.

When you have the No. 1 pick , you know you are going to have to spend a ton of money to sign that player.  So your options in the offseason wind up like this:

Do I draft this quarterback and spend $50 million on him, or do I take that $50 million and get several offensive linemen and other cogs that will make this team better?

It's a catch-22. 

Every team wants a franchise quarterback, and most Super Bowl winning teams have them, but at the same time a great quarterback can't win too many games from his back.

Drafting a quarterback is also the ultimate crapshoot in the draft.  For every Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning there are several David Carrs, Joey Harringtons, Ryan Leafs, JaMarcus Russells and Akili Smiths out there.

So, is it possible to actually build a team in the modern NFL?

Yes it is, but it is more difficult then ever.  For the past decade there have been several teams that have sustained winning traditions. 

For example the Eagles, Colts, Patriots, and Chargers have had constant success for the past decade.  The results have been four total Super Bowl wins (three by the Pats, and one by the Colts) and seven Super Bowl appearances.

Their success has been to get their players to buy into their system, and patient owners and GMs.

However these teams seem to be the exception not the rule.  Most teams now seem to be flashes in the pan.  We are now seeing more teams that just kind of pop and win for a season or two and then fall back into a playoff drought. Some examples are the Bears, Seahawks, Cardinals, Panthers, Bengals, Falcons, and Jaguars.

Then you just have teams that go back to the drawing board every couple of years like the Redskins, Browns, Bills, and Lions.

So rebuilding in the NFL is possible, but with the way the atmosphere is in the league these days, why bother?  If you feel you can get the right number of veterans and rookies to make a run (Jets) then why invest the time and money in a young team that might not pan out thanks to free agency.

Either way fans would rather see teams in this modern NFL win one Super Bowl now and have a playoff drought for several years than a couple-year drought for many consecutive postseasons and Super Bowl success down the road.