NFL FREE AGENCY KICKS OFF IN 1993 AS A MESS

By STEVE KING
Giving a kid $10 and sending him into a candy store with the instructions, “Go ahead and spend it all,” would be a dangerous proposition.
The kid isn’t going to give any real thought to what he was going to buy.  Instead, he — or she — is going to race in, scoop up the first appealing treats they see and take them to the cashier.
Just like that, they’re out of money and options.
Such was also the case when NFL unrestricted free agency began 28 years ago, in 1993. The teams — even the best ones and the smartest people — had no idea what they were doing, how those players would fit into the team’s scheme and in the locker room, and how to manage the salary cap. Why? Because there was no one to ask, since it had never happened before in the NFL. Free agency had been going on for almost two decades in baseball and basketball, but it was apples and oranges since the NFL had a hard cap. There was no massaging the cap to get it to work like there was in the other sports.
What ensued was a mess, with a lot of buyer’s remorse. It — the player — looked good on the showroom floor, but when the team brought him home, it wasn’t a fit.
In that first year of 1993, the Browns, after losing out to the Green Bay Packers for the top free agent on the market in now Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Reggie White, signed wide receivers Mark Carrier (from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Hassan Jones (Minnesota Vikings), guard Housron Hoover (Atlanta Falcons), cornerback Najee Mustafaa (Vikings) and quarterback Vinny Testaverde (Buccaneers). They lost in free agency tight end Mark Bavaro (New England Patriots) and quarterback Mike Tomczak (Pittsburgh Steelers).
The following year, 1994, when the Browns went 11-5 and made the AFC playoffs for the first time in five years as a wild card, the names were much bigger as the club signed linebacker Carl Banks (New York Giants), running back Earnest Byner (now the Washington Football Team), cornerback Don Griffin (San Francisco 49ers), quarterback Mark Rypien (Washington) , tight end Walter Reeves (Arizona Cardinals) and offensive lineman Mike Withycombe (San Diego Chargers). Free agents departing Cleveland were linebackers Clay Matthews (Falcons) and Mike Johnson (Detroit Lions), punter Brian Hansen (New York Jrts) and cornerback Randy Hilliard (Denver Broncos.Jets).
And so it went as the Browns and the rest of the league tried to figure out how to use this new toy. The process is continuing even today.