Quote:I don't think they're tanking the season so much as writing it off.  The team is so void of talent that there's not much that could be done in a single year to make this team competitive.  


That this team doesn't have talent is all on Gene and Shack.  Dave has had all of one off-season to find talent.  Why expect Rookies to make a showing in their first year, when you didn't when Gene was the GM?  

 

Remember the old saying?  Rome wasn't built in a day.  Well we just got rid of the old Architect because he decided to build near a mountain, and the fire gods got angry and made red stuff come out of the mountain.  And instead of calling it Rome, he decided to call it some silly name that starts with a P and ends with an I.  

 

I don't think they're even writing it off.  They're using this season to identify the nucleus for the team moving forward.  Were they expecting the team to compete for a title?  No.  Not after the same roster won 7 games over the past 2 years.  So, as upset as some are by the Jags not aggressively working to retain their free agents, the reality is these guys we lost weren't setting anything on fire with their play.  Moving on from oft-injured or aging veterans as part of the process makes complete sense. 

 

The mindset of some here that if you let a guy like Daryl Smith walk, you'd better replace him with someone of equal or better production misses the point of the overall process.  You're not necessarily going to replace a veteran right away with someone who can carry the load.  Not when you're doing a comprehensive, ground up rebuild of the roster to begin with.  My guess is you'll see a very different roster again next year, but you'll also see a transition in the approach taken as they've now cleared the decks of players who don't fit with what they want to do moving forward.  I fully expect them to continue to focus on building through the draft, but I think you'll see them being more active in free agency identifying players who they can plug in as long term solutions.  This year was about rebuilding the nucleus of a bad team.  Next year they will expand upon that plan.

 

Like I've said before, if we don't see the team taking a significant turn for the better next year, then there's cause to question the direction Caldwell wants to take it.  It's difficult to be patient after watching this team stink for years, but that's all we can do as fans.

---