(12-07-2018, 07:44 PM)EricC85 Wrote: From the start I had a problem with the way Caldwell came in and "cleaned house" after 2011. Yes the team needed to be rebuilt but his theory of tear it down to foundation and rebuild was flawed from the start. The problem with blowing a roster up and accepting the next 2-3 years are strictly rebuilding years is two fold. For starters you build a culture of accepting a losing record, that was part of Gus Bradley's problem of just trusting the process. Secondly and even more importantly you have to hit 100% on drafts and free agent acquisitions, there is no margin for error. 

After 2011 we had a decent secondary, we had Mathis, Cox, Lowery, and Landry. We had enough of a stop gap at LT in Monroe and we had role players at skill positions in Sims-Walker, Shorts, and Thomas. We had Daryl Smith and Poz at LB but a major whole on the outside, we had needs for pass rushers, we needed to find our QB and we needed help on the o-line. Finally we had an over the hill MJD and we needed a RB to replace him. So in come Caldwell and we gut the secondary, the one area we could've waited to upgrade and cut our starting LT again another area we could've waited to upgrade all in the name of this total rebuild. 

I'm in the Caldwell has to go camp, but I hope the next guy up doesn't take the nuclear option Caldwell arrogantly did in 2011. We have some good to above average players worth keeping and some that are good enough to fill in until we find upgrades. 

We shouldn't accept ever again that we need to lose in order to win, that we need to gut a roster in order to rebuild it, it just doesn't work. No I'm not expecting miracles and no we won't go from where we are now to back to contending over night but we should see gradual improvement each year. 

In the end Caldwell's arrogance is why he is the worse GM we've had as a franchise to date.

I think the idea was, that there was no way to get to the Super Bowl the way we were set up personnel-wise.   By the time we would be able to accumulate enough young talent, the older talent would be washed up.  So the plan was, to get as much cap room as possible, and maximize our draft position, and when we had accumulated enough young talent, spend the extra cap room on high priced free agents. 

And it worked.  We were one bad call from the Super Bowl last year.   

Then we got all injured this year, and our QB failed, and that's where we are now.  

But we won't have to do that kind of plan again at all.   We have a lot of young talent, and I think when we get all our players back from injury, and if we make a good choice for a QB, and beef up the TE and WR spots, we can make another run.  

We are WAAAAY ahead of where we were when they did the tear-down and started the rebuild.   We don't have to do that again.

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