Quote:He brought in Dwight Lowery who is the only man since Deon Grant left to play the FS position at an NFL-level, which might cloud my judgment as to how good he actually was (not in context of Jaguars-safety play).

 

By the same token, Gene brought in Dawan Landry who actually knew how to play the SS position without giving up a big play fairly regularly. Whether he's great in the context of the entire NFL might be tough for me to judge because I'm so used to atrocious safety play, but I thought he was pretty great in his two years in Jacksonville.

 

Drew Coleman was a pretty stout nickelback for his one year here.

 

Gene also brought in Ryan Davis.

 

Also drafted Brandon Marshall and Rashad Jennings who, while nothing special in Jacksonville, have shown themselves to be pretty good players once they left the team.

 

Are any of these guys hall of famers? No. But I think there's an argument that in the right situation they can make an argument for being "great."

 

I know we all like to revise Gene's tenure to be the worst in the history of the NFL so we can all feel warm and fuzzy about Caldwell, just because we can say "AT LEAST HE'S NOT JEANS SMIFF, LOLZ" but the guy did put together a defense that gave up the 6th fewest yards in the entire NFL back in 2011. I think that one statistic makes the idea that he never brought in a single great player a pretty tough sell.

 

(Note: Don't get the wrong impression, I'm not saying Gene's a good GM by any stretch. He obviously needed to be fired and I would hope he's never in a position to pick players again. But, the revision to make it look like he never made a single good move so we can all slobber over everything Dave does just reeks of an embarrassing desperation for anything even resembling mediocrity, to me.)

 

Edit: I should also clarify that the last two paragraphs aren't directed at you, specifically, Jags02. I generally like your posts and respect you and your opinions. More of a comment about the generally accepted mindset of the fanbase.