Originally Posted by Scalper
There ARE franchise QBs in the draft outside the top-10, and outside the 1st round, many of them starting for NFL teams right now. Our goal should be not to mortgage the future on retreads or aholes like Watson, but rather to find a QB in the draft. Hurley never got it right, Newton has never been accurate and doesn't have the heart of a champion, he blames others rather than taking ownership. Mayhew just came from a SF team that didn't get QB right. It is probably unrealistic to think either can successfully pick a franchise QB, and RR is of course going to want to trade for the instant impact starter, that's what coaches do, they have to think about the short term especially with a turd like THE DAN standing in the wings ready to meddle. The GM is supposed to have the long view in mind, the decade plus view. I honestly believe that Smith, had Dan not meddled, would have gotten QB right long ago. This should predominate in thinking about choosing a GM, but did not. Smith almost certainly advocated less glamorous QBs that had franchise potential, but they weren't sexy glamorous marketing machine picks like those THE DAN and Allen etc. favored.
Now just imagine we commit to the hard road, the long-term road that a real GM would advocate. We spend 4 picks on QB next 3 years in draft, only 1 a first rounder. We fail at a 50% rate, end up with our franchise QB and a solid backup on rookie deal. At the end of that time, we have found a true long-term franchise QB we can count on for say the next 12 years, and maybe as much as 20. We have him on rookie deal. Then you draft, draft, draft, build around him, add just a few key FAs. You have his longevity in mind at all times (see Andrew Luck), and don't have him run all the time and get killed, and you take the long view and draft STUD RT and LT and C, resign off rookie deals. You are then in position to contend for a decade or more. Even if we traded 3 1sts plus more for Watson, he is going to get hurt running, and we don't have the OL to protect him, and wouldn't have the picks to draft one.
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