References are constantly made between the 'overpaid first batch of FA's' and the 'subsequent value finds'. Let's apply this analogy to QB's in particular and draw the analogy of FA out over the period of a year to include all means of player addition and next year's draft. Does it feel to anyone else like this is the year of QB crazed addition, i.e. 'overpaid first batch of FA's' and next year will be the mark of QB 'subsequent value finds'? Are teams overpaying for these QB's and are they doing it in a rash manner? (There is some QB speculation on landing points, deal with it)

Did Washington do this with RGIII? Will Arizona change their plans for Manning? Will Miami/Cleveland freak out and sign Matt Flynn to a Cassel contract? Will Miami/Cleveland freak out and draft Tannehill in the 1st?

For a moment let's go ahead and disregard whether or not you are a believer in Cassel's abilities, let's just think about how once we made that acquisition we knew we had invested the types of resources (draft pick, contract) that we would not be making a serious splash for probably 3 years. Come hell or high water we had to play patient.

From our experiences we know if the above teams make one of those investments then they won't be in the game next year come draft time for a QB. We also know that a surprising amount of teams have made heavy investments in franchise QB's recently. What does this all mean? Well it just may mean we have a shot to make our own 'subsequent value find' from the FA analogy in the beginning.

Let's go ahead and chart the top 20 teams picking and determine if they A) have their 'franchise or potential franchise QB' or B) will have invested too heavily recently for them to take another shot next year. It doesn't really matter which of these a team falls under, that is not the point of the debate, so I will just mark a team with an X if they will not be in the draft market next year.

1 Indianapolis Colts Luck X

2 Washington Redskins RGIII X

(from St. Louis Rams)

3 Minnesota Vikings Ponder X

4 Cleveland Browns Tannehill?/McCoy?

5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Freeman X

6 St. Louis Rams Bradford X

(from Washington Redskins)

7 Jacksonville Jaguars Gabbert X

8 Miami Dolphins Moore?/Flynn?

9 Carolina Panthers Newton X

10 Buffalo Bills Fitzpatrick X

11 Kansas City Chiefs ???

12 Seattle Seahawks Jackson?

13 Arizona Cardinals Manning X

14 Dallas Cowboys Romo X

15 Philadelphia Eagles Vick X

16 New York Jets Sanchez X

17 Cincinnati Bengals Dalton X

(from Oakland Raiders)

18 San Diego Chargers Rivers X

19 Chicago Bears Cutler X

20 Tennessee Titans Locker X

This leaves us with Cleveland, Miami, us, and Seattle. 4 Teams... but someone will likely overdraft Tannehill in the 1st round and someone will likely pay Flynn and take the risk. I highly doubt it will be us, which leaves 2 teams including us without significant investments/definite QB's going into next year's 2013 draft.

Think about Cleveland and Colt McCoy recently... and us back when we first acquired Cassel. A 2nd round pick is highly likely to rule out picking a QB high at least the very next year. This is where hopefully Cousins, Weeden, and anyone else may sneak in. What if Seattle makes an attempt here?

Well, I'll tell you what that means, it means that there is potential for us to go into the 2013 draft without any serious bidding partners.

Here is the important part - I honestly think the bottom 5 teams, top 5 in the draft, will be straddled with 'potential franchise' or 'our investment is too great right now' QB's. Could a trading places trade of Julio Jones level be in the works for next year? What if a trade to a spot in the ballpark of 6 would net us the top QB? If a soft market made it a SIGNIFICANTLY lesser investment than what Washington put up this year... then I would ask you... WOULD IT BE WORTH THE WAIT?