On paper, every roster scenario sounds good. Trade for this player. Sign this guy. Make this move, cruise to a Lombardi, start writing the Hall of Fame speech. The NFL is far more complex with layers to consider. Personality. Financial. Scheme. Arthur Smith knows playing armchair quarterback is easy. Doing it in real life is hard.
“Sometimes people get lost and they’re acting like my 11-year-old playing Madden with the salary cap off and think you can just stockpile players,” Smith said via a team-issued transcript when asked about the balance of trading for players mid-season. “That’s not real life.