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Here is a ranking of playing ability in Sandbox:
Decent journeyman who sees some snaps during the year > named player on an NFL roster who doesn't see snaps > street free agent
Injuries are a significant factor. Given that we will always do at least part of our free agency after the NFL season is over, we benefit from hind site. But in future years, a lot of the best FA talent will be gone by the time your starting LT gets injured in week 15 of the NFL season. I think there is some benefit to having depth built into your roster.
Two other benefits to depth:
1) Developmental players. Picks past the first 3 rounds of the rookie draft aren't likely to contribute much their first few years. But they can be damn cheap to sign for 3 or 4 years. If you hit on one player every three years that you don't have to bid for on the open market, it is going to put you ahead those who rely only on FA and the first couple of rounds of the draft to build their team. I mean seriously, lets go down the road a few more years when the initial vet acquisition draft has less influence on your roster. Let's say you go with a 47 man roster. You'll be lucky if you drafted 20 of those. Are you seriously planning on acquiring on 25+ players from FA?
2) You keep that talent off the roster of another team.
Now granted you aren't going to be able to throw 6 year contracts at players who likely won't contribute to the W-L record much in a particular year. But for a rookie a 2 to 4 year contract has a very low per-year cost, provides a built in backup, gives you a chance to stumble onto a cheap starter, and keeps your opponents from gaining access to that talent.
I don't know how the economic aspects of the game will work out better than any one else, but I think there will be value in reasonably priced back up talent even if it isn't obvious how they might contribute in a given year.
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