You don?t really hit everything in free agency. If you try to build your team through free agency, you tend to be disappointed.

It's a rarity that doesn't happen much now with free agency. I'm very fortunate to be on the same team, finishing my seventh year.

I've got to play free agency out, and I've got to look at all of my options.

Unrestricted free agency is not a savior. I've never seen an unrestricted free agent carry a team. But it is a tool.

There was a need to reinforce that we needed to stay aggressive. We were aggressive in the Terrell Owens thing, and you don't want that to slow you down when the next situation shows up. Our belief is that teams that have significant success are those that aren't afraid of making mistakes or taking chances.

We would not have felt that [negotiations] had reached a roadblock. We were certainly at a point where we had a gap in his expectations and our comfort level. Whether or not we would have been able to close that gap, I'm not sure. But we felt we were in productive contract negotiations.