BakoSaint

As evidenced by Derek Carr, Russell Wilson, and DeShaun Watson. Teams created cap space but did not find a quality player. They found a player another team discarded for non-financial reasons.

But it is easier to retain your own quality players such as Hendrickson, Williams, Elliss, Johnson, and Armstead if you have cap space.

In general I am not a big fan of high dollar free agents. It's best to retain your own when they are young, healthy, and productive but be able to move on when they are old, beat up, and declining.

It's best to replace aging/injured players internally which means needing a lot of draft picks, which means trading down more than trading up, trading current year picks at a premium more than trading future picks as a discount, and trading aging veterans for draft picks not draft picks for aging veterans. There can be times it makes sense to poach another teams player coming off their rookie contract at a good value in free agency, like Keenan Lewis who did not have a spot to start much on his first team or Demario Davis who was not the best fit on his first team. But in general the draft is the answer not free agency. And to build and retain through the draft you need more draft picks not less.