(10-13-2021, 12:59 PM)JagFan81 Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 08:57 AM)Bullseye Wrote: Exactly!

I describe this dynamic as drafting on a treadmill.  All of that effort expended only to not go anywhere.

It takes time to develop talent.  To actually find quality talent and develop it with coaching and experience, only to let them walk away in their primes makes it impossible to accumulate talent, have continuity or progress as a team.  It makes it difficult to have an experienced team or have experienced team leaders.  The team is always having to overcome inexperience.  When you let them walk and then botch things when drafting their replacement, it makes matters far worse.

When the Ramsey controversy flared up, everyone said we were better off without him, he could be replaced, he was a cancer, etc.  Same with Ngakoue.

Well are we better off without them?

Since Ramsey left, our pass defense has gone into the toilet.  We've highly drafted two players to ostensibly replace him:  CJ Henderson and Tyson Campbell.  After just over a year past drafting him 9th overall, Henderson has been traded for a 3rd rounder.  Campbell was taken in the 2nd round and has played horribly thus far, and has already missed a game or two with injury.  Our record since he last played a game for us (Tennessee in week 3 2019) is 6-28...1-20 since teams have had a full offseason to prepare for the team without him.   Conversely, since acquiring this cancer, the Rams went 6-3 in 2019 (finished 9-7 overall) , 10-6 last year, making the divisional round of the playoffs, and are considered a Super Bowl contender in the NFC.

In Ngakoue's last full season with the Jaguars, 2019, he had 8 sacks.  Josh Allen, then a rookie, was freed to have 10.5 sacks.  Since he was traded in 2020 along with Campbell, the pass rush has gone into the toilet.  Smoot was our leading sacker with 5.5.  In five games this year, we've accumulated only a handful of sacks.

It seems to me if Ramsey and Ngakoue were cancers, then the cure of purging them from the roster is worse than the disease itself.  Perhaps the next time someone offers us the snake oil of addition by subtraction of talented and productive players from the roster, we should give a hard pass.

Couldn't agree more. It takes time to adjust to the NFL and it takes years to become a dominant player in your position. There can be a number of reasons it takes time for a player to develop but we have this weird thing where the high picks are given a short leash but the late round and UDFA aren't. I mean take someone like Herndon, does anyone think hes suddenly going to become an elite CB but we keep him around while guys like Bouye are traded for peanuts.

If your constantly having to rebuild huge parts of your roster than your doing something wrong. A roster should be something you are adding to every year not replacing. Completely agree with the lack of experience and i ask myself who are all these young players learning from? Whos teaching them what to do and what not to do? 

I know Ramsey didn't do himself any favors with how he left but i always felt the 'locker room cancer' was a poor argument. Yeah he would trash talk and had an ego but he is an elite football player, i expect that. He always played hard for us and i never felt he didn't care. I think the whole situation could have gone differently if the FO had handled things differently but i also think the D just had enough of the bad O while they were playing at a very high level and then they would have the problems with Coughlin and co. 

Like you say, they have gone elsewhere and played well and these issues dont see them to be issues now. I kind of look at it like say you work hard in your job but your co-workers are lazy and keep messing up yet your boss blames everyone, how long before you go look for a new job? Especially if they arent fixing the actual problem?

I do also think we've become a bit too obsessed that the answer to all our problems are in the draft and draft picks will fix the problems. Time and again we see it hasnt and i get the argument of not having to trade or spend high in FA to get the top players but letting talent walk out the door for draft picks we hope can be as good just seems crazy to me.

(emphasis added)

I think the bold is an important point.

The draft IS the most critical component of any rebuilding effort.  But it becomes a moot point when

1. You miss on many draft picks, especially high ones.  As has been documented on this board, first round draft picks have a 50% chance of being a quality starter, so right off the bat, you are dealing with shaky odds.  Now factor in whether quality starter equals or surpasses in quality the good to great player you allowed to leave, then the odds get longer.  On top of that, you have a front office who may not be so good in evaluating talent, it gets worse.  The odds decrease considerably with each successive round.  Finally, because of the dearth of good players on the roster, players like Josh Allen who could be outstanding can't maximize their talent.

2.  When you DO hit on a draft pick, you let him go before even signing him to a second deal.  That makes it impossible to accumulate talent, build a  young nucleus or develop veteran leadership.  As a result, you are not only trying to overcome a tremendous talent deficit, but you are also having to overcome inexperience and a void in leadership.  Trying to win becomes even more difficult...akin to bailing out the Titanic with a wire mesh strainer.

The axiom to remember is "a bird in the hand beats two in the bush."  Keep the great, in their prime players for as long as possible instead of letting them walk, thinking they are easily replaceable.  Clearly they aren't...not by this team.

The best teams have been exploiting the lesser teams by pilfering superior talent from them for decades.  I wish we'd stop facilitating the theft by selling off our best player for a handful of not even magic beans.
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