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MalabarJag · 09-08-2019, 09:58 PM

(09-08-2019, 07:27 PM)Nikowho Wrote:
(09-08-2019, 06:11 PM)Senor Fantastico Wrote: I like Caldwell more than most here but he's at some glaring blunders in his time here for sure.

I want to like Caldwell. I really do. He's not a Gene Smith, and for that, i'm thankful, but how many of his first round picks alone have failed? Any team that has the amount of first round misfires Jacksonville's had is not going to win consistently. But it's not even just that, because for whatever reason, the man DOES make up for it by snagging good to very good talent in the latter rounds. I'll give him that.

But my real issue with Caldwell was bringing Gus Bradley in as a head coach. And then sticking with him when it was clear that he was out of his depth. Hindsight is what it is, but it could've been possible that Bortles COULD have been a better QB if he'd been developed by a real coach with a mind for development. So having Bradley ruined Bortles' initial progress. I think from then on, Bortles had trouble recovering from that. He was lousy outside of garbage time in 2015 and game managership in 2017.

Bradley set this team back for another several years, and honestly, i cannot say I'm supportive of Caldwell being the guy that, SHOULD Marrone get fired later this season, picks a new head coach. I barely trust him with first round picks at this point; Ramsey and Allen both fell into Caldwell's lap because other teams didn't take them. I call that luck. Jokell was a bust, though I won't blame all of that on Caldwell; the Joke was supposed to be pretty good. But Bortles was a [BLEEP] reach and we all know it. I'm not saying there was a better QB to take at the time, but there WAS premium talent at other positions that they could've pursued instead; Khalil Mack was available, for example. I guess I'm grateful he didn't bring in Johnny Manziel, but Bortles is hardly a consolation prize

I don't blame Caldwell for Bradley. First off, at the time the Jags were terrible with the future looking even more dismal. I doubt there were very many coaching prospects who had the Jags at the top of their wish list. Bradley was frequently mentioned as a prime candidate for a head coaching job, and when you hire a coach with no previous head coaching experience you are in a high risk (and hopefully high reward) situation.

I suspect the Jags had to promise Bradley, or any other prime candidate at the time, a full four years. As much as I despised Bradley for delaying the rebuild, I can understand the Jags not reneging on the promise. Khan may have had some say on that too.

And I'm pretty sure keeping Marrone was a Coughlin choice.

Bortles was a mistake. Khalil Mack was a popular guess for the Jags pick at the time, but I saw him as a consolation prize after Clowney, since it's hard to judge just how well a small school player will translate. Of course Mack turned out to be much better than Clowney. The 2014 draft was a great draft for Caldwell in spite of Bortles. The Jags got three Pro Bowl level players in Robinson, Linder, and Telvin.

I do agree with the opinion that Ballard is a better GM than Caldwell, although he lucked into not hiring McDaniels. But the clots limped along for years with worse GM and tacks GM isn't as good as Caldwell. Houston doesn't even have a GM and their personnel decisions have been laughable this year.

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