I was told by someone that the league has some sort of rule in place for this situation when it happens. Something about teams that made the final 8 in the playoffs last year was not allowed to sign free agents from other squads or only being allowed to sign an X amount of free agents. I don't know remember for sure and I haven't looked into myself. If this is the case though, it would even the playing field a little.
I am not a real big fan of parody anyway. Yes it keeps things exciting every week, and even Bengals fans can really be hopeful when they say "wait till next year". However, all you get is a bunch of average teams. I liked it when there were powerhouses who when you knocked them out of the playoffs you had a real accomplishment to be proud of.