Jacksonville Jaguars Fan Forums

How would you grade GM Dave Caldwell's performance so far?


He is close to the end of his 3rd season as General Manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Do you feel the owner should fire him, or praise him?   He has brought in talent such as CB House, TE J. Thomas, RT Parnell, LG Zane Beadles, etc in free agency to address needs but have they all played as you wouldve hoped?   He has drafted well according to many fans, sports media, but is it the players you wouldve wanted and if not who and why?  He hired HC Gus Bradley whom some feel should've been fired, while others feel he is on cusp of turning things around for the positive with a young staff.  How much is he to blame or take credit for things like the draft, is it the scouts, HC Gus or him making the calls there?  The first year wasnt great in drafting but it was also a bad draft year in general with not that much talent in it.  He has done great in the last two years in drafting adding value while fitting HC Gus Bradley's desired scheme, but did he have to gut the entire roster?

 

 

2013 Draft Class

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ye.../draft.htm

1st Round (2nd overall pick) LT Luke Joeckel started as RT as a rookie & then moved to LT only to be injured and out for the rest of the season, struggled ever since but is starting to play some what better now.

2nd Round (33rd Pick) SS Jonathan Cyprien like Luke hasnt been consistent will have a good game and then a bad, but unlike Luke his good performance are far better than Luke's good ones.

3rd Round (64 Pick) CB Dwayne Gratz struggled as well to remain a starter being benched, many would have considered him a bust but he continues to fight for his starting role.

4th Round (101 Pick) WR Ace Sanders yeah um about that, okay maybe this draft wasnt great but it wasnt great for a lot of teams.  Ace struggled with drugs and ruined his career.

5th Round (135 Pick) OW D-Rob he fumbles, he drops passes, but then towards the end he started to look like a decent RB only to lose his job to TJ Yeldon.

6th Round (169 Pick) Safety J. Evans he was even cut at one point, struggles to even make the team but HC Gus Bradley likes him.

7th Round (210 Pick) CB D McCray some fans feel he is the best corner on the team, yet he remains on the bench.   This wasnt a good draft year for Jacksonville.

 

 

2014 Draft Class

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ye.../draft.htm

1st Round QB Blake Bortles (3rd Overall) wasnt supposed to play his rookie year, and struggled behind a really bad OLine.  He has improved dramatically doubling his TDs in less than a year, improving in almost every way yet still makes bad choices at times by trying to do too much with too little talent around him.

2nd Round (39th Pick) WR M. Lee, has been injured almost his entire two years with the team.  At times his speed and elusiveness has been impressive but the Albino Tiger is rare to see on the field but are injuries something you can predict?  He was injured in college which allowed him to fall to the 2nd round.

2nd Round (61st Pick) WR Allen Robinson, what a steal to get this great of talent so far down in the draft.  Even better getting undrafted WR Allen Hurns in the same year.  A great WR duo.

3rd Round (93rd Pick) RG Brandon Linder until he was injured this year he was set to possibly make the ProBowl, he played great in his rookie year and was actually playing better this year too.

4th Round (114th Pick) CB Aaron Colvin didnt play almost his entire rookie year due to an injury.  Leads the team in sacks and can play both inside & out but better as a nickel CB pass rushing.

5th Round (144 Pick) OLB Telvin Smith wow what a steal in that draft.  He is ranked 3rd in Tackles this year, and didnt even play most of his rookie year.

6th Round (205 Pick) Center Luke Bowanko played a bit, and competed for starting role but lost to more talented FA brought in by GM as he new he had to address the position.

7th Round (222 Pick) RB Storm Johnson sadly didnt pan out, but it was a 7th pick.

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2015 Draft Class

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ye.../draft.htm

1st Round Pick (3rd Overall) Dante Fowler Jr LEO, torn acl before he ever took a snap.  A GM cant really predict injuries like that, and he was expected to go in the top 10 by most people.

2nd Round (36 overall) TJ Yeldon has outplayed M. Gordon whom went in the first round, and is really in 2nd place to rookie RBs behind a weak Oline on a team that prefers to pass.

3rd Round (67) Guard Cann he wasnt really expected to play in his rookie year but RG Linder's injury had him in he's struggled this year but remains the starter.

4th Round (104) S James Sample again the injury bug has struck yet another rookie.

5th Round (139 Pick) WR/PR R. Greene last week helped the Jaguars win the game with a huge return coming off of injury.  Has made some clutch catches as WR but also struggled at times.

6th Round (180 Pick) DT M. Bennett had .5 sack but hasnt contributed as people had hoped so far as a rookie.

7th Round (220 Pick) WR Neal Stearling another 7th round pick that didnt turn out as people had hoped but there is still a chance for him come next preseason.

The thing about corn #3 is that it's simply not possible to sustain success that way.

I think he's done well. The biggest weakness on the roster is the pass rush and its hardly his fault his 3rd overall pick went down injured and his star DT has been injured almost all season.

I feel that drafting has been really good, FA signing only average since I felt he paid too much for other teams backups (paying them as great starters) and FAs havent been perfect while House has played about as expected in GB, JT hasnt (although some of that was due to injury), Toby didnt pan out, Zane has been okay but not as good as everyone had hoped, along with rest of Oline FAs.

Brown hasnt been good at FS, and he had the money to fight for players like Revis for example and chose not to.

 

Plus its hard to give him anything higher than a C on that because the team has yet to get more than 4 wins in any season after 3 years....

One thing I will always be critical of Caldwell is the manner in which he chose to tear down the roster to near expansion level (or worse) talent. It wasn't necessary.


He has taken some big swings in free agency with some guys that ended up re-signing with their original teams. I will be interested to see how he tackles the ongoing issue of trying to build an above average O and D line.

Done a great job on the offensive side of the ball, but not a good job on the defensive side of the ball. Of course, most of the draft picks have been spent on the offensive side of the ball. He needs to draft all defense/OL in this next draft, and the same with free agency.

Quote:One thing I will always be critical of Caldwell is the manner in which he chose to tear down the roster to near expansion level (or worse) talent. It wasn't necessary.


He has taken some big swings in free agency with some guys that ended up re-signing with their original teams. I will be interested to see how he tackles the ongoing issue of trying to build an above average O and D line.

What was worth preserving from a 2-14 team?

 

Monroe?  Smith?

 

The Ravens have both of those guys, and where are they now?

 

Behind the Jaguars in the standings.

 

As it stands now, most observers see the team as one in ascent.

 

We have a promising young QB, at least two promising young receivers, a good young OLB.

 

I like what Caldwell is doing.

Quote:What was worth preserving from a 2-14 team?


Monroe? Smith?


The Ravens have both of those guys, and where are they now?


Behind the Jaguars in the standings.


As it stands now, most observers see the team as one in ascent.


We have a promising young QB, at least two promising young receivers, a good young OLB.


I like what Caldwell is doing.

This. We had a historically bad football team 3 years ago. The entire roster had to be gutted and rebuilt. Caldwell's okay. And I think Gus will be okay, contrary to other panic button pushers on this message board.


If I were to tell you that we would be playing meaningful football in December, every single person would've taken that every day of the week. The fact that we're actually in the hunt for a playoff spot this far into the season has raised our expectations to the point that we forget where we were not too long ago.


Patience, people.

Caldwell is good Bradley needs to go

Quote:This. We had a historically bad football team 3 years ago. The entire roster had to be gutted and rebuilt. Caldwell's okay. And I think Gus will be okay, contrary to other panic button pushers on this message board.


If I were to tell you that we would be playing meaningful football in December, every single person would've taken that every day of the week. The fact that we're actually in the hunt for a playoff spot this far into the season has raised our expectations to the point that we forget where we were not too long ago.


Patience, people.

Exactly.

 

Consider that Daryl Smith is now 33 years old, and the Ravens currently have two wins.

 

Like it or not, they have to start a massive rebuild.

 

Will Smith be there through the rebuild?  No.  He may not even be in Baltimre next year.

 

Meanwhile, Telvin Smith is young.  Barring something wholly unforeseen, Smith will be part of the nucleus that brings this team back to winning.

 

Most of the team is young.

I approve of his overall performance with an "A". I gave his drafting skills a "B" so far. And as far as his handling of free agents I've given him a "C".

 

Reasons are as follows and have probably already been cited. I applaud his overall work for completely deconstructing and gutting this roster and it seems like we're now turning the corner despite all of the youth. I've given his drafting skills so far a "B" because it seems his first draft class is dying down a bit but his last two have been decent enough to help this team become more competitive. His free agency skills are lacking though. We've seen a few players leave here under his command and they've had relative success at their new locations. And outside of Julius Thomas, who just now came on strong. I can't really say he's found some gems for us. Maybe Odrick. Maybe Clemons. But I still say it's averaged out because we've let guys go like Daryl Smith and Justin Forsett who could have been the difference between some wins and losses over the last two seasons.

Give caldwell one more year to work on the defense but after four years there will be no excuses.


Caldwells found a good core with the offensive skilled positions but be has failed miserably at putting together a competent line or secondary and you can't win without the big uglies.


The offensive line is worse than when he got here, the defensive line is worse than when he got here, the secondary is worse than when he got here. And you can't say he hasn't addressed those positions yet, we've drafted and pursued free agents ywt those units are below average.

Quote:What was worth preserving from a 2-14 team?


Monroe? Smith?


The Ravens have both of those guys, and where are they now?


Behind the Jaguars in the standings.


As it stands now, most observers see the team as one in ascent.


We have a promising young QB, at least two promising young receivers, a good young OLB.


I like what Caldwell is doing.

Instead of drafting a joeckel so he could let monroe go he could drafted any other position we had needs ecerywhere.


In the secondary he choose to release the entire unit we went into the first year with an entire crop of rookie defensive backs hopping they'd all grow together. That's mighty arrogant of Caldwell to assume he can put together and entire secondary in one draft.


Jennings was a serviceable back wouldve been better off with him over gerhart and Robinson the last two years.


No ones saying he didn't need to rebuild the roster what some of us have been saying is the blow it up philosophy never works. It takes to long to build a roster from nothing theres a real possibility we won't be competitive next year that would be year 4 you think he would get a year 5 if that's the case?

Quote:This. We had a historically bad football team 3 years ago. The entire roster had to be gutted and rebuilt. Caldwell's okay. And I think Gus will be okay, contrary to other panic button pushers on this message board.


If I were to tell you that we would be playing meaningful football in December, every single person would've taken that every day of the week. The fact that we're actually in the hunt for a playoff spot this far into the season has raised our expectations to the point that we forget where we were not too long ago.


Patience, people.

Come on man were not really in the playoff race. It's fun to watch but let's get real were two games back in division that is on the nfc west of the early 2000 level bad.


We just watched the 2-8 chargers March up and down the bank all day don't let the schedule fool you where just slightly better than last years 3-13 team

Quote:Instead of drafting a joeckel so he could let monroe go he could drafted any other position we had needs ecerywhere.


In the secondary he choose to release the entire unit we went into the first year with an entire crop of rookie defensive backs hopping they'd all grow together. That's mighty arrogant of Caldwell to assume he can put together and entire secondary in one draft.


Jennings was a serviceable back wouldve been better off with him over gerhart and Robinson the last two years.


No ones saying he didn't need to rebuild the roster what some of us have been saying is the blow it up philosophy never works. It takes to long to build a roster from nothing theres a real possibility we won't be competitive next year that would be year 4 you think he would get a year 5 if that's the case?

He didn't let Monroe go.

 

He drafted Joeckel because there was a strong argument he was the best player on the board at the top of that draft.

 

Drafting Joeckel gave him the flexibility to TRADE Monroe, who wasn't making anyone forget Boselli.  Trading Monroe away helped put us in position to trade up for Robinson and draft Telvin Smith.

 

Regarding the secondary, I don't think Caldwell or anyone argued that draft definitively fixed the secondary in one draft.  Besides, I return to the question I posed earlier.  What guy from that 2-14 team was worth preserving?  Who in that secondary was the indispensable playmaker the team couldn't live without?

 

Yes, Jennings was a decent back.   Nothing great, but decent.

 

But be honest. 

 

Of all of the guys you named, would you rather have any of those guys over Bortles?

 

Because if you assume one or more of those guys would have made the difference in a win or two (an overly ambitious proposition considering the same players led us to 2-14), then we likely would have missed out on Bortles.

Quote:He didn't let Monroe go.

 

He drafted Joeckel because there was a strong argument he was the best player on the board at the top of that draft.

 

Drafting Joeckel gave him the flexibility to TRADE Monroe, who wasn't making anyone forget Boselli.  Trading Monroe away helped put us in position to trade up for Robinson and draft Telvin Smith.

 

Regarding the secondary, I don't think Caldwell or anyone argued that draft definitively fixed the secondary in one draft.  Besides, I return to the question I posed earlier.  What guy from that 2-14 team was worth preserving?  Who in that secondary was the indispensable playmaker the team couldn't live without?

 

Yes, Jennings was a decent back.   Nothing great, but decent.

 

But be honest. 

 

Of all of the guys you named, would you rather have any of those guys over Bortles?

 

Because if you assume one or more of those guys would have made the difference in a win or two (an overly ambitious proposition considering the same players led us to 2-14), then we likely would have missed out on Bortles.

 

Of course not but we're playing 10 degrees of what if's now. I've maintained this rebuild would not have been as painful if we had worked to build the roster and replaced guys where needed rather than blowing it up. You asked who in the secondary was worth retaining, but Lowery and Landry where serviceable and better than Evans or anyone else we've tried to plug into safety the last 3 years.

Quote:Of course not but we're playing 10 degrees of what if's now. I've maintained this rebuild would not have been as painful if we had worked to build the roster and replaced guys where needed rather than blowing it up. You asked who in the secondary was worth retaining, but Lowery and Landry where serviceable and better than Evans or anyone else we've tried to plug into safety the last 3 years.

Fair point, but how many games do they really mean the difference in wins and losses?

 

How much pain would they have saved us?

Caldwell's performance has been Corn #3 in my book. Just pure corn #3.

I'd say a B. Could use more speed on defence, and we're still losing the battles in the trenches more often than not. But it looks like he's addressed skill positions pretty well. This off-season is going to be fun to watch.

you guys know where I stand, and it will be proven that I was right all the time

 

 

FIRE CALDWELL