RealGM

Browns, Bills, Raiders, and Lions would all be considered perennial losers. How much impact does the consistent losing have on attracting free agents?

I think bad teams have to pay a little bit more than good teams. Call it a bad tax. I know being a Redskins fan, we always overpaid, but that might have just been Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato being idiots and negotiating against themselves.

It's obvious that the opposite is true - that sometimes top players will take less than market value to play for a top team.

I don't think I can say for sure that bad teams have to pay more for guys though...or that free agents think "If I'm gonna go to [crappy team] they better really back up the money truck." It could just as easily be that bad teams tend to have less talent, and therefore more cap space, so they can afford to bid higher than other teams. Bad teams also tend to have poor management so may be more naturally prone to overpaying regardless of their team's quality.