It’s hard to argue that Kirk Cousins is worth $19.9 million for a single year, or that Sam Bradford is worth $18 million a year for two, except for one thing — that pesky law of supply and demand.
Washington and Philadelphia were forced into spending amounts that don’t seem consistent with the resumes of the quarterbacks they spent on, simply because there aren’t enough to go around.
With those two names off the market, the best unrestricted free agents available are Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brock Osweiler and Chase Daniel. Think about that for a moment, and then come back from the bathroom but not before washing up.
Once you get past those guys, there are sufficient backups on the market, guys such as Drew Stanton, Matt Moore, Matt Schaub, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Whitehurst and the like, but nobody else that any reasonable mind would look at and say “Yeah, I can go to the playoffs with that guy.”
And there are plenty of teams with playoff aspirations that need to be in that market.
The Jets and Broncos obviously need to find a starter since their guys are on that free agent list, and the Texans have gotten tired of putting Band-aids on the problem to the point that the owner has all but demanded they draft one this year.
But the Rams, 49ers and of course the Browns are also in desperate need for a starter, and there’s a much longer list of teams which need to upgrade in the foreseeable future if they’re going to have a chance.
That’s why there was so much interest last week in draft prospects Jared Goff and Carson Wentz and the rest of them. Because when there aren’t enough answers available, people will be willing to overlook small hands or playing at the FCS level in order to fill the most important line on the depth chart.
And it also explains why Colin Kaepernick might think he could flourish in a new location, though that has more to do with the inventory of quarterbacks out there than Kaepernick himself.