The signing of Reggie White by Ron Wolf gets brought up time and time again, including by Brett Favre. Realistically, that was about as low of a "risk" as there ever has been in free agency. Incomparable talent, impeccable character and person, no injury history at all.

Looking at this years free agents, how many of the really talented ones (who were not well past the best days, like Larry Allen) did not have some significant risk factor attached to them? Owens, Johnson, Abraham, Peterson, Arrington, Woodson, Brees all have significant injury or attitude risks. Any runningback with a 5 year history or more is inherently risky because their prime career years are so short.

Only a few truly top level talents seem to be free of character or injury concerns. Hutchinson, Bentley and Vinatieri come to mind. I'm sure there might be a few others, but were they potential difference makers?

Back to my topic question. What real "risk" did Wolf take in Free Agency? Many of the older vets and even some of the younger ones were signed to relatively low, short-term contracts. Many came because of Super Bowl possibilities. ABout the biggest risk that I recall was signing Santana Dotson to a fairly lucrative contract. Dotson had been inconsistent at Tampa Bay, and was not even a full-time starter for them. But he was young, and had shown real potential (sound a little like Pickett?).

Wolf was successful because he found good deals among the free agents. Sean Jones had a few years left and came reasonably priced. Desmond Howard had been given up on by some. Many came for short-term deals and/or cheap deals: Strickland, Raleigh McKenzie, Maryland, Galbreath.

On the other hand, Wolf let many, many very good players leave when their prices got too high: Chuck Cecil, Tootie Robbins, Tony Bennett, Bryce Paup, Ed West, Harry Galbreath, Doug Evans, Craig Hentrich, Eugene Robinson, Aaron Taylor, Adam Timmerman.

Wolf was not the risk taker some try to make him out to be.