1 more thing that I did not like about Gene.
He had a communistic mentality in which everyone should have a level salary. His payment range was from $2m to $6m per year. He'd rather get a $2m player that played like a $3m player then to spend $8m to get a talent that plays like a $7m player. The latter may be 2x as good but Gene wanted value across the board. Sometimes you need to overpay a bit to get "playmakers" and impact players. Let me overpay a little to get a game changing LB or DE.
Quote:Yeah, the Cox trade always seemed puzzling no matter how people tried to justify it. I think that was the first sign to me. But I wasn't on a fire Gene campaign. Alualu was another. I think the punter though is where I got off the Gene bandwagon.
HA !! Don't get me started on that one.......
Quote:Rumor was Del Rio/Phil Savage were a package deal. But the Savage deal fell through and he ended up in Cleveland. Of course Savage flamed out with the Browns and is now running the Senior Bowl.
I don't know about the link to Del Rio, but Savage turned Weaver down because he wanted control over all football operations, but Weaver wanted the three headed monster that turned out to be a failure.
I wasn't thrilled with the Cox trade, but I gave it a wait-and-see approach. Gene claimed to want to build through the draft, so trading away a pick was a minor red flag.
However, it was the next year where I began worrying about Gene. Not only did he reject the 49ers offer to trade back and pick up an extra pick out of fear that his pick, Alualu, would be gone, but then he tried to trade up to get into the 2nd to take Sean Lee. The guy was never going to have a full set of draft picks if it was up to him. You can't just keep handicapping yourself like that. For "building through the draft" he never really seemed to have a full draft...
Then he drafted Larry Hart and in his post-pick comments explaining what he liked about Hart, Gene basically justified the pick with; "well, the last time I didn't like an undersized DE it was Dwight Freeny, so, here's an undersized DE to make up for the Freeny mistake all those years ago." I had a tough time being excited about that.
Didn't like trading a pick for Luke McCown either. Thought the team could have found someone else to do his job without sacrificing a pick.
The forcing of Don Carey in the secondary was the last straw though. Thats when I stopped actively supporting him and began worrying for real. Guy wasn't good enough to be the NB of the future like Gene wanted, so he got moved to safety. Then when he wasn't getting playing time at safety behind Gerald Alexander (who wasn't great by any stretch but was at least competent), Gene cut Alexander. And then traded the team's other starting safety a day or two before MNF and proceeded to not get anything in return.
The Anger pick was when I began to actively want him fired. There's no justification for taking a punter that early. The team got by fine enough as it was with Nick Harris. The Turk signing was just one of many bad choices Gene made; it didn't mean it was that difficult to find a punter like some on here were trying to lead us to believe.
I admit I thought this team was going to be good in 2012. The defense performed outstanding in 2011 and at the time there was no reason to expect a sharp decline.
I was always skeptical of Blaine but I thought if he had some good WRs he would be servicable.
So I guess the answer would be October of 2012.
I thought Gene Smith was a bad GM when the day he was born.
But then he surprised us. He picked good with CSIII. I remember that guy getting booed at the stadium his first year during intros. I honestly thought he was bust material.
Quote:It initially started with the Don Carey situation. He cut two safeties that granted were great, but were wayyyyyy better than Carey. I mean, we would have made the playoffs if we beat the Colts at the end of the year. Throwing a terrible safety out there was just dumb when we were competing for the playoffs.
I didn't like the Gabbert pick. There were a lot of moves I didn't like. What finally made me realize Gene was bad GM was when he drafted a punter in the 3rd round. He always wanted to be the smartest kid in the class. I agree with TMD, Gene had absolutely no concept of value.
Cutting Gerald Alexander two days after he had a career game at free safety against Peyton Manning.
And I know why, it's because Alexander got an interception, returned it 20 yards, got up, looked at one of the luxury boxes Gene Smith was sitting in, and made a scissors symbol with his hands. There was absolutely no reason to cut him a second time and Don Carey was so bad that he might've been the reason we couldn't lock up the division that year. It hurts to think about.
That was the most egotistical roster move I've seen in quite some time.
Quote:But then he surprised us. He picked good with CSIII. I remember that guy getting booed at the stadium his first year during intros. I honestly thought he was bust material.
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes. I was hoping that would also turn out to be the case with Gabbert, but that currently seems unlikely.
Quote: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.
Clearly, this board needs a sarcasm font.
Quote:Cutting Gerald Alexander two days after he had a career game at free safety against Peyton Manning.
And I know why, it's because Alexander got an interception, returned it 20 yards, got up, looked at one of the luxury boxes Gene Smith was sitting in, and made a scissors symbol with his hands. There was absolutely no reason to cut him a second time and Don Carey was so bad that he might've been the reason we couldn't lock up the division that year. It hurts to think about.
That was the most egotistical roster move I've seen in quite some time.
another good one....forgot about that.
Quote:Cutting Gerald Alexander two days after he had a career game at free safety against Peyton Manning.
And I know why, it's because Alexander got an interception, returned it 20 yards, got up, looked at one of the luxury boxes Gene Smith was sitting in, and made a scissors symbol with his hands. There was absolutely no reason to cut him a second time and Don Carey was so bad that he might've been the reason we couldn't lock up the division that year. It hurts to think about.
That was the most egotistical roster move I've seen in quite some time.
Didnt Gerald Alexander get caught with a gun charge?
Quote:Clearly, this board needs a sarcasm font.
You mean to tell me that there's no such thing as All-Star hair?
The last two years down the drain... here I've been thinking that if you didn't have great hair, you wouldn't be a great. No wonder I was confused that we hired Gus Bradley.
Quote:Didnt Gerald Alexander get caught with a gun charge?
That was Sensabaugh I think.
Quote:In the 3rd though?
Yes.
Earlier, even.
Well before the draft, I said Russell was my preference for a QB behind Luck.
The 2010 draft. It was like he got big headed after the promise of the Cox and Knighton picks and just went crazy on reaches and small school players
Quote:Cutting Gerald Alexander two days after he had a career game at free safety against Peyton Manning.
And I know why, it's because Alexander got an interception, returned it 20 yards, got up, looked at one of the luxury boxes Gene Smith was sitting in, and made a scissors symbol with his hands. There was absolutely no reason to cut him a second time and Don Carey was so bad that he might've been the reason we couldn't lock up the division that year. It hurts to think about.
That was the most egotistical roster move I've seen in quite some time.
While Gene Smith made more than his share of mistakes as Jaguars GM, in fairness to him he was proven right in the long term regarding Don Carey vs. Gerald Alexander. Carey is not a preferred option as a starting Safety but he's developed into a decent # 3 Safety. He's also a good Special Teams player. On the other hand, Alexander has been out of the league a long time. Team after team gave up on him. Alexander was one of Matt Millen's bad draft mistakes.
Quote:Yes.
Earlier, even.
Well before the draft, I said Russell was my preference for a QB behind Luck.
Im not a big college football guy, but my dad and brother are, and they used to constantly say how Wilson was going to.be really good... so Carly is def not the first person to think Wilson should have went earlier.
I think I would of been more understanding if we had drafted any other postion than friggin punter.
Yes, 32 teams passed on Wilson, which people love to bring up, but only ONE of them passed on him for a punter.
I would say well before most of the so called "intelligent" posters on the board. I was called every name in the book and even accused of flipping burgers for saying Gene Smith sucked. He was a bum and set this franchise back years.
I have a much different feeling about Caldwell. I think he will make this team successful again. He is making some smart moves and you can't please everyone.
I'm on the fence about bradley. Time will tell
Quote:Yes.
Earlier, even.
Well before the draft, I said Russell was my preference for a QB behind Luck.
You nailed that.
And I wonder what would have happened if Gene Smith had actually drafted Wilson. Would he still be here? Would he be seen as a good GM?