Why is Charles Woodson’s selection as NFL Defensive Player of the Year a testament to free agency?
As I’ve mentioned many times, signing Woodson to the Packers as a free agent in 2006 was quite a challenge, even as perhaps his only suitor. We were coming off a 4-12 season, Brett Favre had not decided if he was going to return, and Charles’ recruiting visit came during a frigid snowstorm. I felt like the Chamber of Commerce trying to convince him of the quiet charm of Green Bay, where time has stood still since the Lombardi era. After a month of negotiating with the Poston brothers over Charles and LaVar Arrington (sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don’t make), we finally gained a commitment from Charles, whose primary question before agreeing to the deal was, “Do you all wear black cleats?” My personal feeling has been that big plunges into free agency often compound mistakes made earlier in personnel evaluation, as free-agent signings usually replace high draft choices that did not work out (certainly the case in Green Bay with Joe Johnson replacing 2001 top pick J
