Quote:
Originally Posted by SouperMeister
Even bigger than letting White slip away was the Skins poor draft record during that era.
In '92, the FO traded the #6 and #28 overall to move up to #4 overall, selecting Desmond Howard. Troy Vincent was there for the taking at #6 and Carl Pickens at #28, both quickly established themselves as Pro Bowlers while Howard was a total bust.
In '94 the FO selected Health Shuler #3 overall, hoping he would develop into our Troy Aikman. Another bust.
In '95, Michael Westbrook was selected #4 overall to be our Michael Irvin, but aside from a single 1000 yard season, he was a chronic underachiever. And BTW, Warren Sapp was available at #4.
Three top five draft busts in 4 years - that's almost hard to do. That said, Reggie White was the greatest D-lineman of all-time IMO, and he would have certainly solidified the Skins D during that era.
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agreed. In particular, the year that we passed on Sapp I was up in arms.
I looked for that wash post mag. article online but couldn't find it, but what I remember was it broke down every facet of the Skins fall from grace, including the Monk debacle.
Casserly & Gibbs said that during the glory years, players' agents were always asking them how they could work a deal to play for the skins. The FO thought that free agency would be a boon for them & they would land top talent at the price they wanted to pay. What happened was that players were more about the $ than they realized, playing for the skins wasn't as coveted as the 49ers, and suddenly salaries skyrocketed for players that used to be cheap, namely o-linemen.
As I recall, the theory implied in letting white sign w/GB was that had they signed him AND made some other good moves (they also made bad fa signings at this time such as Tim Mcgee, Al Noga), Pettibon might've kept the job and all those other dominoes wouldn't have fallen. i.e. if white had signed maybe Norv & his poor draft picks + letting Monk go would've never happened.
No doubt though, there were a lot of reasons for the collapse. I'm still bitter toward Norvelle more than anyone else, though I know he was only part of it.