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First of all, with what they were supplied with was a horrible team. It HAD to be broken down to have any success for the future. That said, how exactly do you think they could have built a quality roster without sacrificing the future? Go ahead. I'll wait. 

 

Well lets start with the simple and obvious, letting players like Daryl Smith go to evaluate a journeyman like Geno Hayes was a mistake.

 

It doesn't really matter what anyone says about what moves "could've" or "should've" been made to prevent this backward motion of a rebuild, you'll just come back with either "that's not possible", "they where apart of a 2-14 team they wouldn't make that big of a difference" or my personal favorite "____ player didn't want to be here so it's not an option".

 

No one expected the Front office to field a "winning" team this year, but damn is it to much to ask for a team that at the very least mirrors an NFL team? For all the hate Gene Smith gets never once did we have a squad this bad under him, not even in his first year taking over for Harris.

 

You want to shield Caldwell from this roster and yet as it's been pointed out 35 members of the 53 man roster where brought in this year alone by Caldwell.

 

Just an observers idea of what I wish we would've done in hindsight

 

1. Resign Daryl Smith, Terrence Knighton, Derek Cox, Laron Landry, CJ Mosley to similar contracts they signed else where not a single one signed an outrageous contract.

 

2. Instead of drafting Joeckel take a premium pass rusher at 2 there was PLENTY of options. Even if the rest of the draft is the same taking a player like Ziggy or Jordan would've filled a HUGE need and allowed us to part ways with useless players like Babin.

 

3. I like the signings of Marks and Blackmon, imagine how much better of a line rotation we'd have with Marks playing with Knighton and Mosley instead of the blob like Roy Miller. Imagine a backfield with Cox, Blackmon and a young Gratz allowed to develop instead of being thrown to the wolves. Imagine allowing Cyprien to develop with Landry and Lowery.

 

Just those 3 simple things would put us in a much better position heading into the next offseason. I'm not saying it's a perfect flawless plan I'm point out again how retaining some of the players that where serviceable would've put us in a better position down the road and even today.

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