INDIANAPOLIS — This offseason truly is uncharted territory for all but a handful of NFL general managers.
The overwhelming majority weren’t in decision-making positions in 1993, the last time pro football operated without a salary cap. For most executives, the cap is the only system they have ever known.
No wonder so many GMs sported quizzical looks at the scouting combine here over the weekend as talk of labor woes and an un capped year over shadowed the usual focus on 40-yard dash times, cone drills and vertical leaps.
If a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached by the time the free- agency period starts Friday, a lot of teams will be feeling around in the dark over the next few months while trying to improve their roster.
“You always see some teams jump out there and make some moves [in free agency],” Giants GM Jerry Reese said during a break from the combine. “But with the uncertainty of everything going on, the unrest of everything going on, I think people will be cautious.”
Reese and Giants coach Tom Coughlin have numerous holes to fill after last year’s 8-8 disappointment, most glaringly on an awful defense that nearly set the franchise record by allowing 427 points.
But Reese was placing his own club in the “cautious” category when it comes to offseason spending, reiterating co-owner John Mara’s contention that the Giants wouldn’t spend just for the sake of spending.
Reese left open the prospect of the Giants making a heavy pursuit of big-name free agents — defensive end Julius Peppers, middle linebacker Karlos Dansby and free safety Antrel Rolle come immediately to mind — but didn’t want to raise any hopes of a clean sweep.
“I still believe you do what you do to fill the spots in your roster you need to fill,” Reese said. “We have a budget, [and] we’ll try to stick to our budget. But if we have to spend on a guy, we’ll do that.”
The Jets will have more certainty than the Giants in an uncapped year because of a rule that will be in place limiting the ability of the final eight teams in last year’s playoffs to sign players who become unrestricted free agents on Friday.
The Jets only can sign a player who becomes unrestricted Friday if they lose one of their own unrestricted free agents, and only then at roughly the same first-year salary.
That means Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum will have to mostly scour the secondary talent market or hope that more teams make surprise cuts, because the Jets are allowed to sign released players such as Rolle without restriction. “We’re prepared for the uncapped year,” Tannenbaum said over the weekend. “The more research we can do proactively, I think we’ve done that. Now we’ll see what happens as we get closer to the start of the league year.”
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Tim Tebow isn’t going to throw until his pro day next month, when he plans to show off his supposedly “new-and-improved” throwing motion, but the Florida enigma did open some eyes yesterday by setting the combine record for a quarterback with a 38½-inch vertical leap. Tebow also prompted some debate with his 40-yard dash time of 4.72 seconds. That’s fast for a quarterback, but not so much for other skill positions and a potential black mark for teams thinking of using him at a spot other than signal-caller.