What Really Makes A Rebuilding Team

A new regime with a good QB in place might still need a lot of work to improve the roster.

The other day, I posed a question on Twitter to Jason Fitzgerald at Over the Cap for his podcast, about whether a team that is rebuilding is always in need of a quarterback.

I thought about this question after reading some of the reactions to the Falcons' recent trade of Julio Jones to the Titans. One response was that, if the Falcons were going to trade Jones, they should have drafted a quarterback this past April.

I read other remarks about how the Falcons are still expecting to go to the playoffs, despite the team coming off three straight losing seasons. It's true the Falcons, for the past few seasons, have built the roster with the expectation of going to the playoffs, but that doesn't mean they are a playoff contender this year.

The Falcons may still have Matt Ryan, and they did restructure his contract earlier this offseason, but that does not mean they think they are a playoff contender. In reality, this is a rebuilding team, regardless of what they do at the quarterback position.

The Falcons entered the 2021 offseason with cap problems. I can remember going over the roster for different NFL teams who were projected to be above the cap entering the 2021 offseason, and figuring out how to get each team with 51 players under contract and be cap compliant. While I was able to find ways to make things work with the Saints and Eagles, who were well above the projected cap, it was tougher to do that with the Falcons, despite them needing to clear less space than the other two.

The problem the Falcons had was they leveraged so many existing contracts, gave out a couple of extensions, and made multiple poor free agent signings which made it difficult to to get under the cap without doing a lot of restructures. In fact, they only recently got enough space to sign their draft picks after trading Jones.

Why didn't they trade Jones sooner? Because trading Jones before June 1 would not have helped their cap situation. Trades take immediate effect on the cap and you can't designate them as post-June 1 -- if you want to spread out cap hits, you have to complete the trade after June 1.

Getting back to the Falcons' roster, they had almost nobody on defense who they can build the unit around. Grady Jarrett was the only such player and some may argue he isn't a top 10 player at his position. The offense did have a couple of good players in 2020, but not enough to make the offense a top unit. I would describe the 2020 Falcons as having a league-average offense with a below-average defense, and that's a sign you don't have a roster that’s good enough to make the playoffs.

The Falcons, back in March, basically did what they had to do to get enough cap space to get their roster to 51 players under contract. Then they played the waiting game until the draft to address roster needs as they saw fit. The talk then rose about the Falcons trading Jones, and ultimately, the trade to the Titans was completed after June 1.

You can make the case that the Falcons should have drafted a quarterback in April, given that Ryan is nearing the end of his career and that the Falcons had a top-five pick. However, drafting a QB doesn't mean that it becomes a given that you trade Jones. Trading a player like Jones is done because you need to rebuild, regardless of your QB situation.

Some people might point to the Lions, who acted more like what we think of as a rebuilding team, in that they traded Matthew Stafford earlier this year. Of course, the Lions didn't draft a QB early and people may argue they should have, but the point is, the perception may be that the Lions are rebuilding only because they moved on from a quality QB and acquired one who is average at best in Jared Goff.

However, regardless of what the Lions did at the QB position, they needed to get more playmakers on offense, because TJ Hockenson and D'Andre Swift were the only good players under contract. Kenny Golladay is a good player, but not a game changer and his contract had expired. Like the Falcons, the Lions had an average offense. their defense was much worse. And as with the Falcons, the Lions didn't have a good roster overall and were in need of a rebuild, regardless of their decision at QB.

I could also point to the Texans, who have a poorly-constructed roster despite having a top-five QB in DeShaun Watson under contract. Of course, the Texans had traded away their 2021 first-round pick, Watson has hinted he wants out and the sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against him put his status into question. Still, the fact the Texans have done a poor job of building the roster around Watson since Rick Smith stepped aside as general manager, puts the Texans into a rebuild situation, even after you remove the issues involving Watson himself.

I would say it's not often that a rebuilding team needs a QB, but these are examples of teams that needed a rebuild entering the 2021 offseason, even if they entered it with a quality QB. Rebuilding is about the roster as a whole, not just the need for a QB.

Again, it's fair to argue that the Falcons should have drafted a QB, but their decision not to do so doesn't mean they had to keep Julio Jones. They are still a rebuilding team and trading Jones was an appropriate move -- the move simply didn't happen earlier because of the Falcons' cap situation and how a Jones trade earlier in the year would have impacted it.