While it certainly didn't torpedo the team (they did make the Super Bowl), both Albert Haynesworth and Chad Johnson spent a very non-productive year (or in the case of Haynesworth, partial year) on the Patriots roster in 2011. Haynesworth spent some time with the Bucs after the Pats cut him (I think we're all painfully aware of that), but that was the final NFL season for both of them. Perhaps not the norm, but to definitively say elite teams would never do something along these lines isn't the case.
The differnce is Johnson/Hayneswoth were signed to relatively cheap contracts compared to what Green/Reed etc... got. This is why the Texans stay in cap jail and the Pats dont. It looks like this may be changing under BOB.