Quote:
Originally Posted by Warthog
Rivera is the key. He will make the decision about who will be the GM.
It doesn’t matter how great or bad Rivera was during his HC time with the Panthers. Belichek sucked as the HC for Cleveland but turned it completely around with the Patriots. It’s learning from your mistakes, correctly evaluating players and coaches and getting a GM that are the keys as an NFL HC.
Rivera has taken a bad team, with a very bad QB and perhaps will win the NFC East. He didn’t go all in for FA but INSTEAD signed lots of cheap one year deals to get guys who had to prove themselves to the team. It’s worked great so far. Next year the team has A LOT of cap money for FA. Rivera will attract players who want to be with a winner, instead of simply looking to get paid.
The CRITICAL FACTOR for Rivera as the HC for the next five years is who the WFT chooses as the QB in 2021. I think the team will keep Alex Smith as the bridge Qb if he wants to play another season . I think they’ll keep Allen or Heinickle - with my bet going with Heinickle. BUT critically I think the team will go for the gold, trade up SOME (5-10 spots) and draft for the Franchise QB of the future in 2021. They need a QB with the “it” factor, who has excellent mobility, accuracy and decision-making.
Kyle Smith seems to be an excellent judge of talent. I think if Rivera evaluates all the actual draft / UDFA / FA decisions that Kyle was allowed to make over the last 3 years (not Dan Snyder / Bruce Allen), he might show a very good “hit” record. Only the team knows what decisions were left up to Kyle Smith or where he greatly influenced the choice. I suspect Kyle was thrown the very lowest draft and maybe all the UDFA choices starting in 2018 (maybe before) to see what he could do. We’ve seen starters come from UDFA or very low draft picks. Holcomb, Curl, Harmon were low draft picks and Steve & Cam Sims were UDFA probably picked or greatly influenced by Kyle. He might have received more input for higher draft picks as his success increased. But as of two years ago it was SNYDER making the calls on the top draft choice. How far down the draft did the owner make the choices before 2020?
Other very talented people have left this franchise because of better opportunities elsewhere - McVay , Shannihan are the biggest example. I hope that Kyle Smith isn’t the next one to go winning somewhere else because the team didn’t promote him!
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According to Keim Smith has been in charge of the last 3 drafts. I will give most of the credit to Smith for drafting and FA, Ron for coaching and motivating the players. The quality of players found by Smith in 3 years is probably tops in the NFL. If there's one Achilles heel for Smith, it has been his 4th rounders (Love, Apke, Charles, AGG, Martin) the jury is still out on 4 of the 5, Apke will be gone.