Quote:
Originally Posted by 70Chip
Charley Casserly is an exceptionally hard working guy and competent to a fault in terms of day to day operations, dealing with the league, and all those things that have to be done behind the scenes that we don't get to see or judge.
As a talent evaluator, he had some real doozies, though. The drafting of OL Andre Johnson was so bad that even the press was too embarrassed to talk much about what a fiasco it was. And you could go on at length like this. Heath Shuler, Desmond Howard, Micheal Westbrooke, etc. If you look at the list, you say things to yourself like, "Tre Johnson was good -Kenard Lang wasn't bad." But there those are the best of them. Most of his picks went nowhere.
Having said that, he is GREAT on NFL Network. I saw a segment with him the other day and even the other on-screen talent was like "Holy Cow, Look at Charley go!" He was talking about how to manage the Jay Cutler kerfuffle in Denver and it was like he had a seven bullet power point presentation. "First, send a letter to every other team in the league...", and on like that for three solid minutes. It's no wonder that few people laughed when Charley was mentioned as a potential candidate for comissioner.
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Casserly did have some really rough drafts & they were at a time when the franchise REALLY needed them to be fruitful. As a talent evaluator I don't know that he's any better than Vinny. But as a guy who pulled off good trades & had a sense of value w/draft picks, I think he's shown quite a good track record. Plus, he looks pretty good now w/the Mario Williams pick & the building of Houston that he did.
Don't be too hard on him for some of those picks, e.g. D. Howard. As Casserly said himself, there was no GM out there that didn't think Howard was a great prospect. WRs are a boom/bust pick.
And w/Westbrook, I put that one on Turner. I know Casserly was GM, but the word was that Turner really wanted him. I'm still pissed that they passed on Warren Sapp that year & then went on to sign stubby & Big Daddy a couple years afterward.
Heath Shuler? That guy looked like a star on the rise when he started here, but he could never make it happen. I can't fault CC or Norvelle for picking him, he seemed to have it all. His early years he was much like D. McNabb, but obviously his game never evolved.