There is no such thing as an alternative to draft and develop. When you have to follow a salary cap like everyone else, the path to a better team than everyone else is to hit your draft picks. Get great players on ridiculously underpriced rookie contracts. Every good team has this working for them.

Furthermore the free agency of Ron Wolf's day is very different from early Ted's day and starting to change again right now. Players like Reggie White will only hit free agency again in the rarest of circumstances. That was a different world. By Ted's day FA was something that bad teams did to get to the salary cap and good teams to put fingers in the dike. In this time period one of the best signings ever was Woodson and he was considered a major risk. Today FA is still retreads and risks but what's changing is the salary cap is exploding faster than contracts can keep up. Teams have money so might as well get some mercenaries to sure up the ranks.