Quote:I'm pretty sure Dave retained a majority of the scouts. Anyways our scouts have always been highly regarded, Gene just didn't use them correctly and he fell in love with a bunch of small school players.
Yeah you forced me to look it up. The majority of our scouts have been with the team longer than Caldwell has. The only pass he gets is that he was a first time GM running his first draft. Not too shabby since, but it needs to start translating on the field.
Quote:o.O
We had a lot less talent in 2013 because of what Gene did. Not because what Caldwell couldn't do.
HOWEVER...
he did let quite a few vets go that maybe could have made us a better team then....
I will say, this article doesn't really say "Caldwell is good because this draft was bad"
It's just "everyone had a bad draft"
And the teams in the mid teens and beyond had less "bust" potential picking where they were.
For Joker, even if he's been average to meh to bad, he still is a better selection than half the 1st rounders of that draft.
And allowed for us to move Monroe (who's been paid too much and injured too much) for draft selections that at least helped Caldwell have a very solid draft the following year.
A one year vacuum is a terrible way to judge a GM/HC/Player.
4 drafts in... and you gotta like what the man has done.
I dare anyone to show me a GM that has done it better in the past 4 offseasons.
Especially when you consider he started off with an expansion-level roster.
Quote:Yeah that draft was garbage. The only arguement you can make is that we should have selected Ansah over Joeckel. But you can't fix everything in one off-season. He's had success on the offensive side of the football through the draft. Now it's time to see if his defensive selections from this year and Fowler Jr. from last year were the right decisions. Caldwell isn't the problem here. It's the coaching. You can be a solid general manager and personnel selector but still have a bad hand when it comes to coaching choices. Bradley still has this year to show he's worth the patience. If it doesn't work out. Hopefully Caldwell can hit a homerun with his next hire.
Agreed. One of the key problems has been coaching... but bare in mind that Caldwell selected Bradly too.
Quote:Agreed. One of the key problems has been coaching... but bare in mind that Caldwell selected Bradly too.
Still... Bradley hasn't had a whole deck of cards to play with up until this season... and we don't really know how well the new guys are gonna work out yet either. So this will really be a very telling season on if Dave picked the right guy for HC or not.
I really don't think Bradley is as bad as people say he is.
When you lose and badly, people need a scape goat.
I mean... the W's need to come. But Bradley isn't the reason our team has been losing.
He could be blamed going forward. This team has plenty of talent, plenty of promise, a weaker(er) division...
Gotta win now.
Quote:I really don't think Bradley is as bad as people say he is.
When you lose and badly, people need a scape goat.
I mean... the W's need to come. But Bradley isn't the reason our team has been losing.
He could be blamed going forward. This team has plenty of talent, plenty of promise, a weaker(er) division...
Gotta win now.
Generally, when you have the best QB in the division, you should win the division. Last year, we had by far the best QB and came in 3rd.....
Quote:Generally, when you have the best QB in the division, you should win the division. Last year, we had by far the best QB and came in 3rd.....
It doesn't always work like this, while Blake took major steps forward, he was still sloppy in his play at times (evident by the amount of turnovers). Our record last year had more to do with turning the ball over on offense (putting our awful defense back on the field), not forcing enough turnovers on defense, and not being able to run the ball. I'm not sure how you can blame Bradley for any of that.
Quote:I dare anyone to show me a GM that has done it better in the past 4 offseasons.
The Cards?
Nobody has it sweeter than ol Gus with the built in excuses. You can't start criticizing him until this year is a joke statement. You can have a high school team out there and still tell if a coach is good or not after three years of doing it. At this point somebody outta the two sucks, either Caldwell or Bradley. My money is on Bradley being the weak link to all of this.
Quote:Yeah, I've said it many times that the majority of the league whiffed on that draft. I thought he had a pretty solid draft at the time, but hindsight is 20/20.
I remember in 2010 we thought Gene Smith 2009 draft class was going to be pretty good. It was still his best class but still pretty awful.E Monroe,Z Britton,T Knighton,D Cox,M Thomas,J Dillard,Z Miller,
R Jennings and T Underwood. Monroe,Knighton,Miller and Jennings I believe our the four left in NFL. Meh
Quote:I really don't think Bradley is as bad as people say he is.
There are many examples of why he is not a good in-game head coach.
Quote:I remember in 2010 we thought Gene Smith 2009 draft class was going to be pretty good. It was still his best class but still pretty awful.E Monroe,Z Britton,T Knighton,D Cox,M Thomas,J Dillard,Z Miller,
R Jennings and T Underwood. Monroe,Knighton,Miller and Jennings I believe our the four left in NFL. Meh
The fact that 4 players are still starting in the NFL 7 years after the fact is actually pretty good.
There really was not much wrong with that class aside from giving up too much to trade up for Derek Cox. That was a terrible move.
The 2010, 2011 and 2012 drafts were just god awful though.
Quote:Nobody has it sweeter than ol Gus with the built in excuses. You can't start criticizing him until this year is a joke statement. You can have a high school team out there and still tell if a coach is good or not after three years of doing it. At this point somebody outta the two sucks, either Caldwell or Bradley. My money is on Bradley being the weak link to all of this.
So how can you tell the difference between a poorly coached team and a competently coached team with bad players?
Were the Jaguars of 1996 a poorly coached team before they went on their run?
Were the Colts who went to the Super Bowl and lost to New Orleans a well coached team under Caldwell?
Were the 1989 Cowboys a poorly coached team?
Did TC forget how to coach between the last time his Giants won a Super Bowl and this past season?
Not to mention that the great bill belicheck was fired from the Browns and on the verge of being fired from the patriots before Brady fell into his lap. Now he's the supreme coach. It's hard to tell how good a coach is sometimes. Bradley has had an awful defense. No coach would be successful with it. If we still stink with the talent we have now then sure you can say he is bad.
Quote:There are many examples of why he is not a good in-game head coach.
Not to mention the complete stagnation if not regression of defensive players like gratz and cyprien can give rise to the argument that there is some legitimate concerns about our head coach. But it's all been brought up.
I think Caldwell will not be judged by 2013. That was just an awful draft class. His 2014 draft may be a draft we talk about for decades. And this 2016 draft has visions of dynasties dancing in our heads.
Quote:Not to mention that the great bill belicheck was fired from the Browns and on the verge of being fired from the patriots before Brady fell into his lap. Now he's the supreme coach. It's hard to tell how good a coach is sometimes. Bradley has had an awful defense. No coach would be successful with it. If we still stink with the talent we have now then sure you can say he is bad.
I wouldnt say no coach... Stop giving him excuses...Smh
Gus Bradley is going to make his detractors look real dumb.
Quote:I wouldnt say no coach... Stop giving him excuses...Smh
Okay...which coaches could have been successful here with the combination of talent and inexperience we had in 2013-2015?
Quote:Gus Bradley is going to make his detractors look real dumb.
I hope you are right.
Quote:I wouldnt say no coach... Stop giving him excuses...Smh
Can you add something with actual substance? I'm not giving anyone excuses. I don't personally know whether or not Gus can be a good coach yet. You, like a lot of people seem to just rather just say he can't be a coach then to add any analysis or intelligent thought. He might just be an awful coach but I don't think the way the defense played over the last 3 years can really dictate that either way. There was just hardly any quality starters on our defense and a lot of the ones we do have got injured.
People on this board are so adamant about Bradley being a worthless coach like they know for sure. Yeah maybe he is but we don't know yet. A similar negativity is being shown toward Jason Myers. He was abysmal in extra points but he has great potential. However, nobody wants to give him a chance to take the next step. Again, maybe he will never be consistent, but we don't know yet. He was a rookie with a mental hurdle with the new extra points. With an offseason of practice maybe he will come back and nail the new extra points.