Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief X_Phackter
That's your reason. I'm fine with being confident until it is proven not to work.
"Homegrown" talent always ends up elsewhere. Where did Belichick come from? Mike Tomlin always been in the Steelers organization? Nope. Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Sean Payton...all those guys grow up in those organizations? Nope. Bill Parcells...? I could go on and on with head coaches, GMs, etc. Funny thing is people move around when opportunities arise. You can't keep them all, no one does (or can).
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At least three of the more promising young coaches in game, Shanny, LaFleur, McVay, were here and left, and we chose Gruden, a mediocre coach at best, instead. We let a few promising young GM or talent evaluators go, while keeping Bruce and Vinny. The only reputable GM that would come here prior to RR was a drunk, McLovin, who was fired for abusing alcohol again. We then just let one of the most promising young talent evaluators in league go, who was admittedly brought in by Allen because he was a son of his buddy AJ Smith, but he does have pedigree and has been performing well. We let him walk to bring in two retreads.
I think the broader point of the original poster is that whenever we begin to sniff success, THE DAN meddles. Given that the one factor preventing success is still in place, THE DAN, the reasonable assumption is to presume it won't work until proven otherwise, because that is the history here. Anything else is irrational. We let the superior talent evaluator go for two guys who are better administrators. Only time will tell, but I think it is a mistake. At no time in the history of THE DAN'S ownership have we drafted so successfully, as the last three years, and letting a key contributor to that success walk seems unwise. We can only imagine where we might be right now if we had let Smith pick a QB instead of Haskins. But I see why RR had to have his own guy, given that he can't trust THE DAN but can't admit this publicly.
I expect Smith to be a GM within 5 years, and one of better GMs in league for a long time. I could be wrong. Time will tell. I expect us to be a solid competitor under RR but not win the SB, or even come close, and to eventually move on from him. I hope we win the SB, FYI. History suggests Mayhew and Hurney will whiff on a QB, as they have previous. I don't think Smith would have had he been given the power to select who he wanted, but we can't ever know for sure.
I like Smith. He isn't a polished public speaker like Mayhew or Hurney, but he seems more like a scout. The single most important skill of a GM is to find talent, QB especially, and I think we let the superior talent evaluator go.