This discussion reminded me of the post-2005 post-mortem dialogue we were having: ...we've come a looooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng way! :grin:
That's on Kubiak. 100%. Rick Smith doesn't hire his coaches. His job is to find players who fit the coaches' systems. That's why they've universally done better with offensive personnel than defensive - they've had a system on offense since 2006; prior to this year, they had no system on defense. They were throwing stuff against the wall. But because those guys were, for the most, independently talented, Phillips was able to find the right pieces to make his system work. That's why I said what I said back in May - the team had talent; it was lacking competent coaching. On opening day, position aside, they had only 3 new starters, personnel-wise (Watt, Joseph and Manning; 4 if you want to count Cody). Their ascent is as much a scathing indictment of Bush as it is a celebration of Phillips. The Bush hire set them back two years.
We've built from within while adding a couple of key free agents (Joseph, Smith, etc). I'm not sure how much Rick Smith plays in to the draft process, but he's kept players happy while Kubiak's team has coached all of those draftees into a fine team. Props all around.
Bush did not have the selection of meat that Wade has. Joseph and Manning help a lot. Cushing has recovered from overtraining. Watt, Barwin, and Reed have helped a lot. I remember reading somewhere that against Pittsburgh, Wade's knew he had to keep Wallace covered tightly and that Ben had to eat dirt. Wade's solution was Joseph cover Wallace without any help. Give Kareem safety help. Everyone else was sent after Ben. Bush did not have that luxury. He had 2 and sometimes three CBs that needed safety help. I think Rick has done a very good job acquiring talent at a good price with the exception of not having enough talent last season in the defensive secondary.The defense has been slowly building with talent. It is nice that the 2nd and on round picks aren't forced into starting. This is not meant as an endorsement of Bush. Kareem showed no skills. This year, he is playing like an average CB and at times he has played very good. I also don't mean to be harsh on Smith as he was dealt a bad hand as far as getting talent on defensive side. Joseph and Manning signings fixed the talent problems.
Smith has hard salary cap. Morey would do wonders in a hard cap environment. I do think Smith and Morey are very similar in how they work. Use football people for talent evaluation. Use stats and other forms of data to keep football people from over paying for skills, draft picks, etc.
Smith is kinda like CD to me. Kubes and Wade are really making the decisions. Not that Smith is doing a bad GM by any means. He probably has to do all the serious number crunching.
I'll give him props. The 09 draft was his best work so far, with the picks of Cushing, Barwin, Quinn, McCain, Casey and now this years draft with Watt, Reed and now the blossoming of Yates? That dserve props.
Rick deserves no props.l He is lucky to still have had his jobs after sucking for 5 years. If he was fired who the heck would have given him a job at anything.
How many GMs have gotten 5 years? In the nfl you have 3 years max. The average career is three years so there is high turnover and rosters get turned over every 3 years. If you can't fix a team in three years you get fired. All those supposedly great 09 picks didn't preform till wade got there.
I think most GMs get to fire their coach 1st then when the next coach fails. . then they get fired Was not an option here. When talent is on the field. . . . You don't know if it is failing because of talent deficiency or coaching deficiency NOW we see it was a coaching deficiency IMO Rocket River
I delegate it this way. All defensive players before Wade got here, and general contract negotiation/strategy, Rick gets credit for. This means I am giving him props for Cushing, Barwin, Antonio Smith FA signing. He gets massive massive minus for Kareem Jackson. He gets a plus for not giving dunta robinson a bloated contract, but all that is wiped away and then some for not bringing in some cheap veteran players in the secondary.
