Quote:I totally DIS-agree with that last part.
You should always try to get a player as late as you possibly can (within reason) in the draft, otherwise, you are just threw value away.
For instance, yes Tom Brady turned out to be great - we all know that - but why draft him with a 3rd rounder when he's not likely to be drafted until after the 5th?....you can grab players more commensurate to their value in the rounds leading up to Brady's approx perceived value and then take him there.
Trading up in later rounds a few spots to get your player I don't mind....but doing stuff like the Alualu reach and Gabbert deals, I do not like. He'd have been better waiting to see if Gabbert merely fell to 16, and if he didn't, the Kaepernick or Mallett options were still there...this goes back to my point of being too rigid and making the cardinal sin of falling in love with "his" players.
Drafting isnt a science, it only takes one other team to fall in love with your guy and boom, Tom Brady gets drafted in the 3rd and someone else has those rings. For that reason I don't like bashing a guy when they stray from perceived 'value', when thats all it is, the perception of some guy in his basement who has watched a few college games or some guy on ESPN who is parroting the last Kiper/McShay article he read.
The only crime with the Alualu pick was taking a player who isnt very good.
Quote:I totally DIS-agree with that last part.
You should always try to get a player as late as you possibly can (within reason) in the draft, otherwise, you are just threw value away.
For instance, yes Tom Brady turned out to be great - we all know that - but why draft him with a 3rd rounder when he's not likely to be drafted until after the 5th?....you can grab players more commensurate to their value in the rounds leading up to Brady's approx perceived value and then take him there.
Trading up in later rounds a few spots to get your player I don't mind....but doing stuff like the Alualu reach and Gabbert deals, I do not like. He'd have been better waiting to see if Gabbert merely fell to 16, and if he didn't, the Kaepernick or Mallett options were still there...this goes back to my point of being too rigid and making the cardinal sin of falling in love with "his" players.
I get the falling in love with a guy argument. With QB though, I think it can always be worth it to trade up. Especially when it's not as easy as saying well if Quarterback A is gone, we can just take Quarterback B. There could be a huge gap between the two and trading up helps guarantee you get the guy you want.
I was a little suspicious of the whole "base-hit" drafting philosophy. But I went with the flow for the most part. I think he tried to build a team that focused on floors instead of ceilings.
I laughed at the Anger pick. But for the whole crowd who criticize him for taking a punter over Russel Wilson. Yea it's probably a valid criticism, but NOBODY that I know of wanted the Jaguars to draft Russel Wilson that I can recall. So we are at least half as wrong as he was on that.
Quote:I was a little suspicious of the the "base-hit" drafting philosophy. But I went with the flow for the most part. I think he tried to build a team that focused on floors instead of ceilings.
I laughed at the Anger pick. But for the whole crowd who criticize him for taking a punter over Russel Wilson. Yea it's probably a valid criticism, but NOBODY that I know of wanted the Jaguars to draft Russel Wilson that I can recall. So we are at least half as wrong as he was on that.
Pretty sure Carly wanted to draft Russell Wilson. Seem to recall others wanting him as well.
But you could pretty much pick anybody but Anger and have it be a better pick. A punter is the last guy you want on the field for your team. People loved defending the pick with MATT TURK. But as bad as Turk was, a decent punter + good pick in the 3rd will likely put you in better field position than the top punter in the 3rd.
About halfway into Gabberts 1st season
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Trading up for a QB isn't a bad thing either. If Gabbert had turned out to be a Top 10~ QB in the league right now, nobody would complain about trading up to grab him. I don't think the Redskins are complaining that they traded up for RGIII when they could have waited around for Tannehill.
I think its relative to the general talent of QB you are picking....
In Gabbert's case he was never at "RG3" level, thus making a trade as they did for Gabbert - stupid, especially when you had at worst "similarly rated QB prospects" in Keapernick and Mallett to fall back on if Gabbert was taken before 16.
I am not sure what the Redskins feel about that trade for RG3 at this point esp after the injuries.....but I will say this, there was significant separation between the value of RG3 and what was left after him. Not the same comparison as the Gabbert thing.
Quote:That's easy Mad Dog. I knew Gene Smith was going to be a bad GM the minute he was hired. The Jaguars organization wanted to have us believe that Gene Smith was this great guy all the while we all know that he was part of the three headed monster that lets us picking all those terrible first round picks. I hated to Tyson A luau pick, did not care for the Cox or Blaine Gabbert Trade but the Bryan anger picK was the last straw.
I definitely think Gene had more of a role in the Shack Harris regime that we were led to believe. Revisionist history set in and Gene was seen as the genius who was kept down by evil Shack Harris.
Quote:I was a little suspicious of the whole "base-hit" drafting philosophy. But I went with the flow for the most part. I think he tried to build a team that focused on floors instead of ceilings.
This is another great point that is first to be mentioned :thumbsup:
Wound up with essentially no "stars" out of it.
disclaimer: I believe the "base hit" philosophy was scrapped by the time Blackmon was selected. Or was simply overruled in this exception.
Quote:I definitely think Gene had more of a role in the Shack Harris regime that we were led to believe. Revisionist history set in and Gene was seen as the genius who was kept down by evil Shack Harris.
I seem to recall the following arguments:
"Gene Smith was responsible for the MJD Pick!"
"He was responsible for our picks in the later rounds! Those were good"
"Tom Coughlin said that Gene Smith was the one guy you want to keep on."
"Gene believes in BAP and BAP Works."
"Gene just needs more time. You can't judge him after 3 and a half years! Players take longer than that to develop"
"It's Jack's fault. Del Rio never developed the players.
Mularkey will. Mularkey almost took Buffalo to the playoffs. Obviously their best coach. Not his fault they sucked. And you can't blame him for 2 points in the playoffs because it's players not plays."
"We've had too many injuries. Gene couldn't forsee all of them. Nobody could. It's just bad luck."
The entire AluAlu draft as a whole got the questions going. 4 defensive lineman and not one of them flashed anything resembling good play during the season. Even the Monroe draft started to look a bit sour. Dillard never showed, Jennings had major questions about vision and willingness to hit the whole, Monroe wasnt living up to his draft status, Britton sucked and was injury prone, Cox injury prone.
So for me it was the end of his first seasons draft up until midway through the AluAlu rookie season. By the time that season was done i knew he couldnt find good players and his base hit philosophy was crap.
Last straw for me was Gabbert being drafted. That was the one QB i didnt want in the entire draft process. I couldnt stomach watching him "play" at Mizzou and it made me physically disgusted to see him answering the phones when we were on the clock.
The anger pick was just more gas on an already blazing flame. At that point i wished i could be at one of his press conferences and the moment he starts speaking just yell at the top of my lungs: "STOP DESTROYING OUR TEAM DUMB***"
Quote:I seem to recall the following arguments:
"Gene Smith was responsible for the MJD Pick!"
"He was responsible for our picks in the later rounds! Those were good"
"Tom Coughlin said that Gene Smith was the one guy you want to keep on."
"Gene believes in BAP and BAP Works."
"Gene just needs more time. You can't judge him after 3 and a half years!"
"We've had too many injuries. Gene couldn't forsee all of them. Nobody could. It's just bad luck."
I remember and even argued after 2 years we needed to wait and see but I don't remember to many people saying we can't judge him after 3 and 1/2 years?
As for the BAP sale he made that was the biggest load of crap I've ever seen, Gene was the anti-BAP guy if I've ever seen one.
It was a nebulous point, but it's when I saw that he just didn't value players the same way that the League did. While I am a big proponent of doing things the best way that you see fit, it's imperative that you see value the same way everyone else does, so that you can maneuver within your market in the most efficient way possible.
He paid M. Lewis and M. Thomas way too soon, he seemingly ignored the pass rushing situation, the argument could be made that he overdrafted Gabbert due to his perceived value, etc. etc.
I'm not trying to bash the guy because that's really not something that I like to do, but if he had a shortcoming it was that he had a radically different value system than the rest of the League and it ended up hurting him.
Mike Thomas contract extension and/or the D'Anthony Smith pick. The first one was way too early and not deserved at all, the second was the drafting of a backup in the 3rd round (he later went to justify the infamous Anger pick by saying that he only drafted starters in the 3rd).
The first time I saw his hair. I mean, seriously, how can you trust a man who took a look in the mirror every morning, saw the head of hair he sported and decided it should be seen in public?
I should have known he sucked as soon as Vic started saying he was god, the ground he walks on is gold, and he farts out diamonds.
Quote:I remember and even argued after 2 years we needed to wait and see but I don't remember to many people saying we can't judge him after 3 and 1/2 years?
As for the BAP sale he made that was the biggest load of crap I've ever seen, Gene was the anti-BAP guy if I've ever seen one.
Gene fell in love with a guy and would trade up or completely overdraft him. He was absolutely not a BAP guy.
Quote:Pretty sure Carly wanted to draft Russell Wilson. Seem to recall others wanting him as well.
But you could pretty much pick anybody but Anger and have it be a better pick. A punter is the last guy you want on the field for your team. People loved defending the pick with MATT TURK. But as bad as Turk was, a decent punter + good pick in the 3rd will likely put you in better field position than the top punter in the 3rd.
I liked him too. But I don't remember much talk at all about him on these boards, especially not at that high of a pick.
I almost would have been OK if Anger actually turned out to be this absolute game changer he's been sold as (if that's even possible at the punter position) because chances are the other pick probably wouldn't be good either (though T.Y Hilton was availiable at the time too). But he's just been a punter.
Quote:The first time I saw his hair. I mean, seriously, how can you trust a man who took a look in the mirror every morning, saw the head of hair he sported and decided it should be seen in public?
meh,,,, I wouldn't put too much stock in that.....That Redskins GM all those years (whos now an analyst/ his name escapes me) looked pretty goofy too....and he had some success.
Quote:The first time I saw his hair. I mean, seriously, how can you trust a man who took a look in the mirror every morning, saw the head of hair he sported and decided it should be seen in public?
Maybe the hair looked good in that one mirror.
Quote:Pretty sure Carly wanted to draft Russell Wilson. Seem to recall others wanting him as well.
But you could pretty much pick anybody but Anger and have it be a better pick. A punter is the last guy you want on the field for your team. People loved defending the pick with MATT TURK. But as bad as Turk was, a decent punter + good pick in the 3rd will likely put you in better field position than the top punter in the 3rd.
:yes: