Quote:Just one move? That's an easy choice. Undo the decision to name Gene Smith General Manager of the franchise.
That lead to four years of bad decisions.
I'll go back a few moves further: I wouldn't have fired Coughlin. Coughlin the coach is and was a tremendous talent. Coughlin the GM saw a long string of bad first-day draft picks catch up with him, and he spent the team into oblivion. Coughlin the GM needed to be replaced, but Coughlin the coach could have been successful in Jacksonville for many more years if he'd accepted the title change.
Quote:I'll go back a few moves further: I wouldn't have fired Coughlin. Coughlin the coach is and was a tremendous talent. Coughlin the GM saw a long string of bad first-day draft picks catch up with him, and he spent the team into oblivion. Coughlin the GM needed to be replaced, but Coughlin the coach could have been successful in Jacksonville for many more years if he'd accepted the title change.
This I can agree with. Honestly though I think Coughlin's ego wouldn't have been able to handle a demotion/loss of job title. The only question I would ask though would be, could a Coughlin/Harris combo be successful?
The release of Fred Taylor. The bad draft choices I can tolerate. The firing of Tom Coughlin, (given the point in time, it was needed, we needed a fresh start after three straight losing seasons), I can tolerate that as well. Just because he wins two superbowls in New York after he leaves Jacksonville doesn't mean he would have won them here. Especially when you consider the dominance that the clots sustained in the AFC South for many years to come. But the release of Fred Taylor till this day still bothers me as a fan. He's my favorite athlete of all-time. I grew up in Jacksonville my whole life. I grew up watching Taylor run as a Gator and then throughout his entire career as a Jaguar. Depsite missing the games that he missed, he's ultimately going to be our all-time leading rusher in franchise history. We all thought Jones-Drew would shatter it. And now we see just how difficult it is to stay healthy and consistent. And just how much more special Fred's accomplishments were as a Jaguar. He was willing to take the pay cut to stay. And Gene Smith should have done the right thing, and allowed him to play out his career in a moderate and respectable back-up position as a Jaguar.
I'll also add that drafting a punter in the 3rd is also a move I wish had never happened. Given that we needed talent pretty much everywhere and you can usually find a serviceable punter anywhere, I cant let that one go, I dont care how terrible Turk was. In terms of drafting, it pained me more than Alualu being selected 10th overall when he could have been had in the 3rd. Also, it doesnt bother me much about the Harvey selection. I am glad we took a shot on who we thought would be a game changer on the defensive side. Just a shame it blew up in our face. Great topic.btw, much better than the popular dead period threads debating Teddy vs Bortles vs Manziel and Micheal Sam.
Quote:Forcing the Leftwich pick, It really all snowballs from there. Would replace that with picking Suggs, starting Brunell for 1 more year, then drafting Big Ben in the next year's draft.
This 100x over.
Suggs Henderson and Stroud on the front line? Big Ben Taylor MJD? Me like.
Gene Smith. That would undo both Gabbert and Alualu. 2 for 1.
Quote:This 100x over.
Suggs Henderson and Stroud on the front line? Big Ben Taylor MJD? Me like.
This in itself shows a couple bad moves. Letting Henderson and Stroud go because they had a disagreement with coach? I can't forget all the games I went to and saw Stroud and Henderson pumping up the crowd nonstop.
Quote:This I can agree with. Honestly though I think Coughlin's ego wouldn't have been able to handle a demotion/loss of job title. The only question I would ask though would be, could a Coughlin/Harris combo be successful?
Losing Ron Hill as director of pro personnel was a really big hit after the 1998 draft.
Quote:This in itself shows a couple bad moves. Letting Henderson and Stroud go because they had a disagreement with coach? I can't forget all the games I went to and saw Stroud and Henderson pumping up the crowd nonstop.
Yeah and the Jags basically traded Stroud for Derrick Harvey eh. I'm a Gator fan and I said Harvey was gonna suck before the draft. Didnt Mike Peterson and Jack Del rio have issues that led to his release also?
Quote:Yeah and the Jags basically traded Stroud for Derrick Harvey eh. I'm a Gator fan and I said Harvey was gonna suck before the draft. Didnt Mike Peterson and Jack Del rio have issues that led to his release also?
Yeah I believe so. Then he went to Atlanta with mike Smith. He was such a beast here.
That StUPID uh oh song in 1999!!!!!!!!!
It cursed us
I can't believe nobody's mentioned picking Matt Jones over Aaron Rodgers.
Drafting Byron Leftwich started a chain of events that has held this franchise back for a decade now.
Signing Don Carey from the Browns PS. The Jags got blackballed in the NFL and this is really what's behind the horrible personnel choices.
Quote:Yeah I believe so. Then he went to Atlanta with mike Smith. He was such a beast here.
Mike Peterson was best MLB jags have had.
Quote:This I can agree with. Honestly though I think Coughlin's ego wouldn't have been able to handle a demotion/loss of job title. The only question I would ask though would be, could a Coughlin/Harris combo be successful?
Coughlin/Harris? No way. Coughlin/Gene, I think, could've had a shot. Gene was very good at picking his draft board and sticking to it--something that I think Coughlin didn't do when he would reach for a guy. That said, I think Coughlin would have blocked Gene from making some of his worse moves (Alualu and Blackmon for sure). The two styles, as weird as this sounds, might have meshed just enough to preserve sanity.
Quote:Yeah and the Jags basically traded Stroud for Derrick Harvey eh. I'm a Gator fan and I said Harvey was gonna suck before the draft. Didnt Mike Peterson and Jack Del rio have issues that led to his release also?
Yeah. Peterson made a tackle in a close loss to the Bengals, and made some kind of inoffensive celebratory gesture. Del Rio took issue with it and called Peterson out in front of the entire team in a meeting the next week. Peterson stood up to defend himself, and he was sent home for a few days as a result. I still believe that the Peterson incident was the one in which Del Rio lost his team once and for all. Unfortunately, it took Weaver three more years to notice.
Stroud and Henderson were both run out of town because they disagreed with Del Rio. Reggie Nelson was traded to Cincinatti, where he became a solid safety, over a disagreement with Del Rio as well, although Del Rio had a leg to stand on in that one. When a team's invested a first-round pick in you and you complain about being played at corner in an emergency, the coach has every right to say that you'll play kicker if he tells you to. I'm sure there were plenty of others who left because of Del Rio's ham-handed way of dealing with the team that just never made the news.
Quote:Drafting Byron Leftwich started a chain of events that has held this franchise back for a decade now.
Agreed, but how many people here weren't happy to see Leftwich drafted? I remember being thrilled. I also remember being about to graduate from high school and not really understanding the personnel side of things, but I was thrilled to see that Brunell's successor was in the fold. The bigger issue with Leftwich, I think, was his being thrown out on the field far too early. History repeated itself with Gabbert who, given a year to learn instead of starting by default after the release of Garrard and the tanking of McCown, might have been a different player for us.
Gene Smith.
Also would have kept Vic