more bang for the buck. Without a cap, will Jerry Jones ever be able to buy a Super Bowl? I doubt it.

I think the Colts probably know that as well as anybody. To cast a wider net, let’s make it top-5 picks. I bet we had more than any other team for about a decade span, say from 1979 (sorry to include the last, sad Balt years, but I had to include the winless, strike-shortened 1982 season) through 1993 or so. We did not get very good production/value from all those lottery picks—they team hardly improved over that time—not sure if they won more than 87 games in any one season for a 14- or 15-year span. Then Jim Irsay takes the reins, brings in guys like Polian, Tom Moore, etc, and our now first round picks tend to accumulate near the end of the round. Peyton was a phenomenal pick at #1, Edge at #4, Freeney at #11. All the rest were, because of the team’s success, roughly slots 25-32. And aside from Rob Morris, who was a solid if unspectacular and underappreciated player, they have all contributed very well. Good value.

The thing that kills me is that there is no single way to do it—we do it almost exclusively through the draft, the Pats have used free agency a ton. There are teams that rely on the draft hevily and fail, as do some teams that rely on FA. It’s not the methodology, it’s the application of the ideas. This has gotten a little off-track from Irsay, but to bring it back, to him, it’s the people he hires and the mission statement he instils in the organization that makes it work. We really are very lucky, as are Pats fans for Kraft, Steelers fans for the Rooneys, etc. To quote Spinal Tap: “I envy me.” At least in this regard.