Quote:I don't know where you find the confidence. I look at the whole picture of what Dave has brought in and just do not see this great talent evaluator. He hit on marks. Who else?  Linder?Bowanko?Beadles? Robinson? T.Smth? Gratz? Bryant? This is the same man who also looked at hours of Jokel, and saw something that made him think he was a building block, an anchor for years at left tackle. Not just tape but in person at right tackle, and still was so confident in Luke he made him LT. When most fans could tell he couldn't handle RT. What kind of sense does that make, seriously? I understand missing on a pick, I cannot fathom having a player on the team that they watched hours and hours of play from and said "yeah he gets abused at RT, lets put him at LT and get rid of Eugene.". THAT IS MIND BOGGLING BAD DECISION MAKING.  Unless the player makes a 180 degree turn he is a bust at his spot in the draft. Major swing and miss.Made worse by as I said not recognizing how bad even when he was on the Jaguars.

This is just like "rating the rookies" thread, evaluating the top rookies, and I find myself saying, "who was good?". really good, not rookie excuse good, but showed flashes of greatness. Who were the great FA pickups and practice squad guys he signed off other clubs? Is there a good Jaguar team out there hidden away near the river at Everbank? Because I see lots of Jokels and ZIggy Hoods and Gratz and I get that old Gene Smith Feeling again. I think we are so used to mediocre players the fans are like starving haitians thrown a MRE. It's all gourmet until the season starts and we face other teams and realize what is really on our dinner table. Heck, some don't see it even then.

 

What would be a good hit / miss ratio for a good GM? I'd argue that most GMs miss on most of what they do. It's when they draft or sign a handful of key players that contribute significantly when they finally turn the corner.

 

Telvin Smith, Marks, Linder, A. Robinson, D. McCray and Allen Hurns appear to be players that will immediately make a return on our investment. Then you have players like Bowanko, A. Jones, R. Davis, M. Lee, and D. Robinson all appear to have a specific and useful role going forward. 

 

Bortles showed so much potential, and if he picks that back up, then I fully expect the Jaguars to show serious improvement. Sure, Caldwell may have picked up on some bums, Joeckel (maybe?), Beadles, Cyprien, and Gerhart are only a handful of players. I have faith in Caldwell. 

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