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MalabarJag · 11-02-2013, 02:30 PM

Quote:Now let's look at some key differences instead of a few similarities that are likely shared by other teams over the years and/or that are mostly coincidence:

1. Dave Caldwell did not trade up in the draft once. For all Gene Smith preached about the importance of the draft, he sure traded up a lot. He traded away his 2nd round pick in 2010 for a 3rd round pick in 2009. He was busy building a team for the 'now' rather than for the 'future'.

2. Dave Caldwell brought in a new coach. Gene Smith retained the old regime.

3. Gene Smith avoided SEC players like the plague in the draft. Caldwell's first pick was an SEC player. (Not that SEC is the be all end all, but you find talent where you find talent, and that includes the SEC)

So far it's been one year. You aren't going to find a lot of differences -- but #1 there is a key difference. As long as Caldwell avoids falling in love with aLOLuLOLu or any such player, he should be better than Gene Smith easily. (also not drafting a punter in the 3rd round). Not that it's saying a whole lot to be better than Gene Smith. I think we could let random message board users do the job, and they'd probably end up with a slightly better team than what Gene left.

There are, of course, some differences in the way the two handled individual cases, OT traded by one and a WR traded by the other, one fills position A with a draft pick, the other with a free agent. Gene signed veteran Torry Holt while all of Caldwell's free agents were under 30. They inherited different teams under different owners and were faced with different options in the draft and free agency. But the similarities are amazing. To respond to your points:

1. I agree this is in Caldwell's favor. I was highly critical of the trade that got us Cox. However, Caldwell has not impressed me as a shrewd trader. From his statements it seems that he did not aggressively pursue a trade down instead of Joeckel, nor did he think of trading Monroe until the Ravens called. Neither is the skilled trader that Shack was. Feel free to criticize Shack's 1st round picks, but he had a great record with trades. Harvey was a terrible pick but the trade value was excellent.

2. I don't think Gene Smith was given the choice. Weaver was the one who eventually fired JDR, not Gene. I've seen nothing from Bradley that makes me think he's any better than Mularkey, and that's a very low standard to exceed.

3. I don't believe Gene actively avoided the SEC nor did Caldwell prefer it, just that their picks fell that way. Joeckel was clearly the BAP, and Cyprien and Gratz were classic Gene 'small school' picks, so I don't see any difference there so far.

They both replaced the same number of starters, at mostly the same positions. I would expect a lot more differences, even after only one year. I'm not sure if Cyprien wasn't a case of fallling in love with a player, Caldwell had all night to work out a trade before round 2 started if he wanted one. I agree that Caldwell would be hard put to draft as poorly as Gene did, but we haven't seen the results yet.

"Why should I give information to you when all you want to do is find something wrong with it?"