While making some dumb mistakes himself trying to "fix" things. Come on Al, the only thing that is better is the cap situation. And to be honest, how much of the penalty saved us from spending ridiculous contracts the last 2 years? I mean we were handed a big pile of **** 2 days before Free Agency and still wasted millions on Josh Morgan and Fred Davis...that is 7 million over 2 years for Davis and 8 million over 2 years for Morgan! Not to mention the cap hit the Jamaal Brown extension cost us...that's another 3.3 million for 2013 alone. In the month after the cap hit in 2012, we extended Jamaal Brown's contract, signed Fred Davis with franchise tag and signed Josh Morgan.
Talk about great management of resources!
I am afraid to see what kind of contracts would have been written if the cap hadn't hit us. We got Garcon...whom we all wanted, but we also sought Eddie Royal, after the Gracon and Morgan signings.
I am not happy about the cap hit, but I gotta say I am happy Mike Shanahan will not be spending that money...so I guess youy could say we are better off today!
matter of scale. the stuff you refer to pales in comparison to $36 mil cap hit. couple other thoughts:
- if you recall...Morgan wasn't who they were after. they had to settle cuz they were strapped for cash
- they signed Davis cuz they had him by the short ones price wise and they had no idea on how their draft picks would pan out. the reality is that Davis paired up quite well with RGIII. there was an upside. we still don't know what went on behind the scenes here. can't have it both ways - it's all Shanahan's ego/leadership vice it's a loser player.
- sure Shanahan made mistakes. but if you think signing RGIII, Morris, Reed, Garcon, Kerrigan, Amersen, Young and several others isn't progress over the past...then there is no room for discussion. secondly, you and others can point to the failures like McNabb. ok by me. where are your stats? to draw an assessment you need to have some metric. all of you point to the failures but have no standard. personnel selection fails across the board with everyone....every team. what is the metric you all are staking yourselves to? 10% failure rate? 20%? 30%? the complaints are meaningless from where I sit without some standard BEFORE the decisions are made. also, as anyone who works forensics will tell you, context matters. what circumstances surrounded each decision? I'm onboard for holding Shanahan accountab;le for the results. not onboard with coach potato analysis that is 100% hindsight and uninformed by context and decision criteria. sure, it's a privilege of every fan to wank. but wanking and knowledge are not the same thing.
if you're going to make these sorts of arguments you have to provide context. at the time a decision is made:
- what were the objectives?
- what was the opportunity cost in terms of other objectives?
- what resources were available at the time?
- what FA alternatives were available?
- how bad was the problem area for the team? i.e., what was the priority
- what were the projected consequences of a bad decision?
- where did the information come from that the decisions were based on? was it good information?
- what was the over-arching strategy that framed the decision?
- what was the chain for the internal decision process?
the answers to some of these questions point directly to Shanahan. no argument. but I'm constantly reading claims on this board about what should/should not have been done by people who have no idea at all how the actual decision process unfolded or its context. it's simply too easy to cyber wank with hindsight as the primary piece of knowledge.
Shanahan made mistakes. the roster needs more talent. these are not scintillating observations. we all know this. but progress was made IMO. there are players on this roster right now, brought in by Shanahan, who are going to be major contributors when (and it will) this ship gets placed back onto a course needed to get to the final destination. but there were all sorts of external extenuating circumstances that weigh in when making accountability decisions. I think Shanahan's hubris, in the end, is what produced the collapse and his early departure. but I also think the results were not entirely under his control. he inherited a friggin mess and then had to struggle with cap hits based on a whisper rule that really reflected NFL/ownership collusion to screw the players. this is why 5 teams were really slammed - for defying the illegal activities/priorities of the other owners! in the event, polluted Mara waters under the bridge. Shanahan is gone. we now have an empowered GM who is figuring out what the core values and vision are going to be for this team (along with the owner). we will hire a new coach and staff in the next couple weeks (my guess). we will learn how serious they are by who they hire and how well they integrate that person's "style" into the overall organization decision process. we will be signing FAs. we will learn whether they have a solid plan. first signings ought to include an RT and a top tier safety at the very least. Throw in a quality CB and this team is already 4-5 victories on the plus side IMO - lest we forget, we are in the NFCE. then comes the draft. there's plenty to be positive about - in the sense that there is a path forward. we aren't locked into hopelessville here.
screw what happened in the past. let's focus on where we are and where we need to go. we will find out in short order if there really has been a sea change. terrific for the folks who want to "sit back and watch before getting onboard." I can't fault them for that. me? I like trying to figure out what needs to be done. I like figuring out what the team's strategy is as it unfolds. I like the sense of moving forward. I don't worry about pull hooks when I golf - I immediately forget the shot and try to figure what I need to adjust in my swing to prevent the same outcome. well....that's where we are with the Skins.