Yes, winning percentage matters.

But let's look at Gene Smith vs Dave Caldwell in another light:

Gene Smith inherited a team with David Garrard and Maurice Jones-Drew in his prime.
Dave Caldewll inherited a team with Chad Henne and Maurice Jones-Drew on his last legs.

The Jaguars had 20 combined wins in the two years preceding Gene Smiff.
The Jaguars had 7 combined wins in the two years preceding Caldwell
The Jaguars had 8 wins the year before Gene
The Jaguars had 2 wins the year before Caldwell.

So Caldwell inherited a team with fewer wins in 2 years than Gene Smith inherited did in 1 year.

To be more fair let's calculate it this way:

GM"s first year: 25% of wins and 25% of losses are on the new GM. (75/75 on the old GM)
GM's second year: 50% of wins and 50% of losses are on the new GM (50/50 on the old gm)
Everything after that is all on the new GM.

Gene Smith's record: 17.25 - 46.75 (27%)
Dave Caldwell's record: 29.5 - 65.5 (31%) (this counts the two playoff wins, and one playoff loss. Gene Smith had no playoff appearances)

Gene's at least largely responsible for the mess he left behind. So those losses should count toward him, and less toward Caldwell (who you can't expect to turn a team around with one draft and some free agents) It's possible that Caldwell's record will still end up worse than Gene's (depending on how the next GM does), but right now I'd say Caldwell's teams have preformed better.

Of course, Caldwell's record is still embarrassing. But Gene Smith left us devoid of talent on all levels. Caldwell has some players worth keeping. Including ones he's drafted. Gene Smith's best pick was probably either a super obvious tackle or a punter in the third round. Caldwell's made some good picks. I think it's time for him to go, but let's not pretend he's worse than Gene Smith. Gene traded a 2nd rounder for a 3rd rounder. He traded up for Blaine Gabbert. The most talented player he drafted was probably the guy who'd rather get drunk than get paid millions of dollars to play football. And a Punter was in the Top 3. He took Tyson Alualu in the TOP 10. I mean I liked Alualu enough, but he wasn't a Top 10 pick.

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