(09-10-2019, 08:55 PM)Bullseye Wrote:

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(09-10-2019, 07:18 PM)jagsfan06 Wrote: We took a chance in hiring what the team believed was a young, up and coming Dave Caldwell as a GM when Shad Kahn purchased the team. In my opinion he has done a below average job. By gutting the team of any semblance of NFL talent he’s given salary cap with more money than virtually any other team in the NFL to spend on available free agents from the rest of the league. His most egregious shortcoming has been his first round draft evaluations. This guy has picked Luke Joekel, Blake Bortles and Dante Fowler Jr. with top 3 overall selections in the draft.  Please read the previous sentence again and let that sink in. That means that he was looking at basically the entire pool of draft eligible players and based on his evaluation criteria that they were the best prospects out there. That track record tells me that he just is over his head as a general manager.

(Emphasis added)

Gutting talent from a 2-14 team?!?

Come on, you're better than that Bullseye.

Just because the team was 2-14 doesn't mean there wasn't some talent there. The offense was horrendous overall, but the defense had a lot of NFL-caliber talent (not SB-winning talent, but at least mediocrity). Caldwell took care of that though (and somehow managed to carve out a legacy as the man who, through no fault of his own, inherited a roster worse than Matt Millen's Lions, apparently.).

With all credit to the ever-reliable wikipedia, the "Notable Departures" from 2012 - 2013 (with my edits removing the worthwhile losses, like Guy Whimper... ):

• S Dawan Landry, released on March 8, 2013.
  
• RB Rashad Jennings, declared free agent on March 12, 2013.
  
• FB Greg Jones, declared free agent on March 12, 2013.
  
• DT Terrance Knighton, declared free agent on March 12, 2013.
  
• CB Rashean Mathis, declared free agent on March 12, 2013.
  
• LB Daryl Smith, declared free agent on March 12, 2013.
  
• DT C. J. Mosley, released on April 1, 2013.
  
• RB/FB Montell Owens, released on May 16, 2013
  
• FS Dwight Lowery, released from injured reserve on November 4, 2013.
  
• DE Jeremy Mincey, released on December 13, 2013.
  

Remember, Caldwell made little to no effort to re-sign most of those "declared free agents," so these weren't cases where Caldwell got outbid or anything.  


The notable acquisitions he picked up to replace all the above and fill out his competitive NFL-ready roster (again, list from Wikipedia, though this time copied in its entirety):

• LB Geno Hayes, signed on March 13, 2013.
  
• DT Roy Miller, signed on March 15, 2013.
  
• RB Justin Forsett, signed on March 15, 2013.
  
• CB Alan Ball, signed on March 15, 2013.
  
• DT Sen'Derrick Marks, signed on April 2, 2013.
  
• DT Brandon Deaderick, claimed off waivers on May 14, 2013.
  
• CB Will Blackmon, signed on August 28, 2013.
  
• WR Stephen Burton, claimed off waivers on September 1, 2013.
  
• SS Winston Guy, claimed off waivers on September 1, 2013.
  
• TE Clay Harbor, claimed off waivers on September 1, 2013.
  

And, for completeness purposes, his draft that year:

1. Luke Joeckel
2. Jonathan Cyprien
3. Dwayne Gratz
4. Ace Sanders
5. Denard Robinson
6. Josh Evans
7. Jeremy Harris
8. Demetrius McCray

He did sign Abry Jones, Carson Tinker, and to a lesser extent LaRoy Reynolds as UDFAs though.

But he also traded Eugene Monroe during the season.

Did he inherit a SB-ready team? Obviously not; don't misconstrue my argument. But I tend to agree with JagsFan06 that Caldwell removed almost every bit of mediocre NFL play from the Jags in his first off-season and generally replaced the talent with below-average talent, while stockpiling cap room. Yet now, for some reason, despite not actually winning anything, other than one year in the playoffs, Caldwell gets to reap the rewards of taking that 2013 team and turning it into the competitor that we saw in 2017, as though he had no hand in causing the 2013-and-on mess.  

Caldwell chose not to pay for talent in his first years so he could play with house money for years, making big free agent splash after big free agent splash in the years after. Now that he has expectations to win, but doesn't have the endless cap room, I think you're seeing more people get frustrated with some of the moves that he used to be able to mask by just throwing the bank at a top-tier free agent. I think some of the complaints he's getting are fair (the 5th rounder for Hyde last year, given the team's refusal to use him after, being one, and now trading another 5th round draft pick this year--except this time for a 3rd string QB being a bigger example, in my opinion), though, obviously, others are not ("He should have told the coaches to coach better during the AFCCG.").

All that said, I lay most of the blame for this team on Marrone and his staff. But I am getting increasingly uneasy with the way Caldwell's managing the team with the depleted checkbook...

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