Long Term vs. Short Term: The Anquan Boldin Debate

Although this is a topic that is based around Anquan Boldin, this actually extends beyond just Boldin. Rather, this is a topic that encompasses all of the risk/reward decisions made with football personnel.

That topic is the eternal struggle between long term and short term benefits.

Whenever a transaction is made, the school of thought behind each move boils down to its long term and short term benefits. When an organization decides to draft a young, unproven player with loads of potential over a proven veteran whose future is in doubt, the team makes the acquisition with the hopes of reaping long term benefits. Conversely, a team that decides to sign that proven veteran over an unsure prospect, does so with the expectation of benefitting in the short term.

Other than money, the common denominator in the Anquan Boldin debate boils down to long term vs. short term; Ravens fans that support the signing of Boldin, expect the team to be immediately poised for a Super Bowl run, while fans that argue against Boldin, expect a receiver to be drafted that will help the team win multiple Super Bowls in the future.

However, the fallacy of that logic is the assumption that a Super Bowl (or more) will even be won. Regardless of how playoff-ready a team is, there is no guarantee that an acquisition will seal that team's fate, for better or worse.

In other words, the signing of Anquan Boldin does not resign the Ravens to the fate of winning only one Super Bowl, or even reaching the Super Bowl for that matter. On the other hand, the drafting of a wide-receiver does not guarantee that the Ravens will win multiple Super Bowls, let alone one at all.

No single transaction is a win-now or win-later proposition, as one player does not make a team, no matter how large of a financial strain he is; the only way that one player can have a negative effect is if he does not produce or does not fit with the locker room.

At the end of the day, the question that needs to be asked is, will the team improve regardless of the action taken? In this case, no matter what the Ravens do, the team is subjectively better (on paper) this offseason than it was in the last. The team has done nothing astronomically wrong to prevent itself from making another playoff run, and fans will still have a reason to cheer in Week 1.