Scouts are responsible for scouting but I generally agree as the GM oversees all that. That's fair game. Just this past week, you had some questioning the Joseph extension. That's fair to question Rick on. The Joseph extension, the Mercilus extension. . .extensions, contracts, salary cap, absolutely.
This just sounds like you are trying hard to pin the blame on Smith. It's not his job to force players on the coach.
I don't think there is anybody who can rationally argue that Rick Smith should still remain the GM. He's consistently underwhelmed and has had a much longer leash than any other GM in the league would have gotten. Honestly that's the most amazing thing about his tenure here. His level of job security is second to none.
Telling him to **** off and drafting a player the coach didn't want anyway. That is pretty close to forcing players.
Rank all the GM's. Show me the players each GM selected. Who they signed. Like I said, they're all terrible. Smith finds talent occasionally which IMO, believe it or not, makes him slightly less terrible than about 10-12 other GM's every single year.
If "finding talent occasionally" is supposed to be an endorsement for Rick Smith, then yeah...he ain't good. Not saying he's the worst in the league or anything, (Hello Browns), but every GM in the league "finds talent occasionally". The teams that are actually good in this league are the ones that find talent on a fairly consistent basis (Ravens, Bengals, Seahawks, Packers, etc.) And yes...it's very easy to say "I'd love it if we were more like the Seahawks!", but I don't think it's asking too much for a GM that is a little better than "slightly less terrible" than some of the worse GM's in the league. I think the standard should be a tad higher than that.
Joesph extension Whitney extension I haven't even heard his name all year along with Simon who mind you was a practice squad player and now is a starter with us. Cushing haven't heard his name all year. Rabin Moore looks lost and the talks about him scared of contact is true. And that's just defense. Not to mention no tight end threat blue is not the future no true WR threat outside of Hopkins.
Well some think that our WR corpse is one of the best in the league. Truth is we added a couple mediocre free agents and drafted two guys (one of whome appears to be a bust, the other is Mumph who I love). To a good extent we are hamstrung by the big contracts we handed out to Foster, Cushing, and JJo and they aren't producing for various reasons.
If the GM has zero input in the draft process...then what's his role? If he lays out 5 possibilities and the coach denies each one, then it's on the coach for being stupid and on the GM for letting him be stupid. The GM isnt forcing the coach to take a single player...but giving him a list of options to choose from. That should be standard. Free reign for the coach and no role for the GM is most definitely not standard...unless you're Chip Kelly.
I'm not suggesting he has zero input. I'm just saying it is not 100% his decision. That is the only way it can work.
the Texans gave up draft picks #82, #152, #229 and Devier Posey to move up to #70 to draft Strong I get that OBrien wanted Strong for some reason, but did Rick have to give up that much?
Which is kinda weird because he didn't want to give up a single pick for Chris Clark [in the preseason trade.] Maybe he felt he had to give up that much because Seattle did one spot ahead of them. <PRE>Redskins receive: Seahawks receive: » 2015 third-round pick (No. 95): Matt Jones » 2015 third-round pick (No. 69): Tyler Lockett » 2015 fourth-round pick (No. 112): Arie Kouandjio » 2015 fifth-round pick (No. 167): Traded to Saints » 2015 sixth-round pick (No. 181): Kyshoen Jarrett</PRE> <PRE>Jets receive: Texans receive: » 2015 third-round pick (No. 82): Lorenzo Mauldin » 2015 third-round pick (No. 70): Jaelen Strong » 2015 fifth-round pick (No. 152): Jarvis Harrison » 2015 seventh-round pick (No. 229): Later Traded to Jaguars » WR Devier Posey</PRE>
You're misrepresenting the QB situation. I don't think he necessarily thought Mallett/Hoyer were better. But if you take one of those QBs in Round 1 or 2, you're making your bed with that QB. You're saying that this is your guy and you're committed to him. That's not the case with Mallett/Hoyer. There's no commitment there. They make relatively little money and the team can move on cleanly next year. The decision wasn't that Mallett/Hoyer were better. The decision was that OB didn't think any of the QBs in the 2014 draft were franchise guys, guys you wanted to commit to. There may have been interest in Bortles but they didn't think he was worth a #1, not over the "can't miss" Clowney. And if they didn't think any of those guys was worth investing in to be the franchise QB, then the choice was to not make a pick and defer the anointment of the next franchise QB. People act like that's a bad thing and it's not. Picking a QB because you feel you need to is a bad strategy. That's how you get Jake Locker. That's how you get Christian Ponder. That's how you get EJ Manuel and Geno Smith and Brandon Wheeden. You don't simply take the next best QB the minute you need one. Not in round 1, not if you're not convinced they're who you want leading your team for the next 5 years. The decision wasn't between Bortles/Bridgewater/Garoppolo/Carr and Mallett/Hoyer/Fitzpatrick. It was between taking a QB then and taking one later. OB didn't think any of those 2014 QB were worth it so he chose to defer the selection. THAT was the decision. And at some point, OB is going to choose his QB. And when he does, THEN you can compare that player to Bortles Etc . . . Some of you seem to think that OB has chosen Hoyer/Mallett as his franchise QB. That's nowhere close to the truth. People thought the same thing about Fitz and he was ditched after a year. I'm totally cool with playing musical chairs at QB if it means we get our guy in the end. And if OB misses on the guy, then yeah, criticize him for it. If one of the 2014 guys ends up being a stud, yeah, criticize the team for passing on them. But I find it pointless to do that now because 1) we don't know yet who OB's guy is going to be and 2) we don't know if any of the guys we passed on will do anything in the league. Yeah, we might be better off at the moment with one of the 2014 guys, but that doesn't mean a lot. They could all very well be mediocre (or worse) and I thought the goal was to get a franchise QB and not settle for mediocrity.
But the way the draft unfolded they could have had Clowney/ Carr, Clowney/ Bridgewater, Clowney/ Garoppolo. I also don't think drafting a qb in the 2nd rd is the same as drafting one in the top 10. It's much easier to move on from a 2nd rounder than a top 10 pick if he's not your guy. Now if OBrien thinks Savage is as good as those guys that's fine. I just hope it works out for him...
This. Smith is following the personnel wishes of the coaching and scouting staffs and not the other way around. It was like that when Kubiak was HC so all of this finger pointing at Rick like he wields the power and control of a Bill Belichick, John Elway or Jerry Jones is off base. Sure, he's had his share of misses over the past nine years but overall he's been pretty good. Folks overlook that it's year two of the BoB regime and he is performing another overhaul of this football team and Rick is following the script that BoB wrote.
Apropos of nothing Spoiler Smithiak's roster QB: RB: Arian Foster, Jonathan Grimes FB: WR: DeAndre Hopkins, Alan Bonner TE: Garrett Graham, Ryan Griffin LT: Duane Brown LG: David Quessenberry C: Ben Jones RG: Brandon Brooks RT: Derek Newton DE: Jared Crick NT: DE: J.J. Watt OLB: Whitney Mercilus ILB: Brian Cushing, Mike Mohamed, Justin Tuggle OLB: CB: Kareem Jackson S: Quintin Demps S: Eddie Pleasant CB: Johnathan Joseph, A.J. Bouye K: Randy Bullock P: Shane Lechler LS: Jon Weeks SmiBri's roster QB: Ryan Mallett, Brian Hoyer, Tom Savage RB: Alfred Blue, Chris Polk, Kenny Hilliard, Daryl Richardson FB: Jay Prosch WR: Cecil Shorts, Nate Washington, Keith Mumphery, Chandler Worthy, Jaelen Strong TE: C.J. Fiedorowicz, Anthony Denham, Mike McFarland, Eric Tomlinson LT: Kendall Lamm, Oday Aboushi LG: Jeff Adams, Xavier Su'a-Filo, Chad Slade C: Greg Mancz RG: Karim Barton RT: Chris Clark, Edawn Coughman DE: Jeoffrey Pagan NT: Vince Wilfork, Christian Covington DE: Dan Pettinato OLB: Carlos Thompson ILB: Akeem Dent, Bernardrick McKinney, Max Bullough, Reshard Cliett OLB: Jadeveon Clowney, John Simon CB: Kevin Johnson, Darryl Morris S: Quintin Demps, Andre Hal, Kurtis Drummond S: Rahim Moore, Lonnie Ballentine, Corey Moore CB: Jumal Rolle K: P: LS:
Yeah, they "could" have had those guys (even assuming a trade for Bridgewater). Doesn't mean OB liked any of those guys. And if he didn't (seems to be the case) it would be asking a lot for him to take a guy he didn't like . . . just 'cause. And if he were right, and none of those QB's were to his liking, and he drafted another QB in the first round 2 years later, fans would be b****ing about the wasted 2nd round pick in 2014 and why did he draft a QB he didn't want if he was going to draft the guy he wanted a couple of years later, etc . . .
