What Caldwell has done better than Gene at this point (and at this point you can't argue that he's better or worse than Gene Smith) is not trade away future picks.  In Gene's first year he decided to use his second round pick a year early.  I've never really understood why teams (especially ones that are rebuilding like we were when Gene came in) trade a 2nd round pick a year later for a 3rd round pick a year earlier.  

 

The Alualu pick would not have been so egregious if we had a second round pick that year.  Or a second round pick in 2011 (which we used to grab Blaine Gabbert).  Yes, we used that pick to get Derek Cox.  But by not trading down, and reaching in the first... that draft was all but guaranteed to be pretty bad.  

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