Quote:Couple of points:

 

1. Managing the cap doesn't just mean staying millions of dollars below it. It means utilizing the available cap space in such a way as to put a competitive team on the field. That was Gene Smith's failing regarding the cap. He had no issues keeping us well below it, but in keeping us so far below it, he failed to acquire the necessary talent to field a good team.

 

Then by your definition, Dave is even worse than Gene in this regard. You can call it his philosophy of rebuilding or what not, but he absolutely did not utilize available cap space to put a competitive team on the field. Which, is why your definition isn't really appropriate for "managing the cap"
. The fact that Dave was able to get below the cap so quick without letting go of key players means that Gene did manage the cap. If we are not able to keep guys that we want to keep then we have mismanaged the cap. See Michael Huygue (sp?) and the early Jaguar years. Our cap situation was so bad that the only way we were able to get out of it was due to an expansion draft, where we lost Boselli (no big loss since his injury proved to be pretty much career ending) and Seth Payne (who was a player we wanted to keep).


 

2. You'll get no argument from me that Gene was in over his head. That became apparent when he drafted Alualu at ten, amidst rumors that he thought the Dolphins would have taken him at twelve.