(06-23-2021, 06:31 PM)MoJagFan Wrote: You bet Bullseye good counter on some of my list. I understand. The Shack Harris era was bizzare. Do you think some of the picks were foisted on him?

No conspiracy theories here on either side as far as I'm concerned.

None of the picks were forced or imposed on him, nor did Shack have any sort of racial agenda in making his picks.  The only person in the organization who ranked above him as far as decision making was concerned was Weaver, and based on his history as owner, he never interfered on the football side, other than paying/not paying players.  Weaver gave Shack Harris the final decision making power in case of any tie over JDR-a clear response to TC's one voice philosophy that grew so unpopular with fans here.  As for the racial agenda thing, TC brought David Garrard and Quinn Gray to the team.  BL was widely regarded as a top QB prospect at the time in 2003, and the fact Brady Quinn dropped so far in the draft in 2007 before Shack passed on him twice, and he wound up sucking mightily showed that based purely on the merits, Shack was right to pass on him.

He clearly botched the Reggie Williams and Matt Jones picks, and arguably botched the BL pick...all on his own.  All football based decisions.

On top of that, he was unable to find a credible LT.  Khalif Barnes was good his first year, maybe year and a half, then went downhill afterwards.  If your receivers were Reggie Williams, Matt Jones, a declining and addicted Jimmy Smith and Ernest Wilford, with Ephraim Salaam and an inconsistent Khalif Barnes, not many QBs would have succeeded under those circumstances. 

Those decisions were all on him, just as he gets credit for the picks from the second round on that were so successful.   There was once a theory that Gene Smith was responsible for those picks, but it's interesting that he was unable to replicate the quality of those picks in any round once he took over.  Even acknowledging the crapshoot nature of the draft, the fall off from Shack's picks from the 2nd round on to ALL of Gene Smith's picks was so dramatic, it defies the aforementioned theory.

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