Harry
ASFN Consultant and Senior Writer
Another key Cardinal decision maker is the General Manager. This spot is occupied by yet another person in training. I will urge the same caution here. I don’t care how prepared an individual is. People new to a position will make mistakes. Yes, I consider 2 years new to a position. Quick decisions to discharge often weakens an organization. The only time I deviate from that stance is when I feel the person has been unreasonably deceptive. Like saying you’re okay with a 3 or 4 man defensive line, then making personnel decisions that clearly indicate that wasn’t the case.
Aside from hiring coaches there are two obvious duties of the position that determine the fate of the team; the draft & free agency. Turning first to the draft Ossenfort has overseen 2 drafts. His drafts as a whole have been exceptionally good. All 2023 draftees are still on the roster. That’s hard to believe. Ojalari has been injured but shows promise. Of the other 8, 4 have started regularly or rotated steadily. The others have occasionally started or played significant snaps. Looking at 2024, 6 of the first 7 have either started of been primary backups. The 7th was injured. The final 2 draftees are both on the practice squad.
Free agency is extremely hard to evaluate. Guys signed who started include White, Froholdt, Collier, Woods, Barnes, Daley and Wilkenson. I may have missed a few. It’s fair to say they blew a couple of quality re-signings by letting Zach Allen & Byron Murphy walk. In 2024 Ossenfort signed Williams, Dallas, Brown, Bunting, Jones, Nichols and Wilson. Nichols, Williams and Jones went down to injury almost immediately. Wilson was terrific. Dallas has been valuable. Brown and Bunting have been inconsistent. Williams has played well when healthy.
During the course of the season Ossenfort added Browning who has flashed sack ability. When long range kicker, Prater, was lost Ryland was signed and starred with 3 game winning kicks and a couple of other plus efforts were booted.
Again there was criticism of Ossenfort that he should have signed more free agents. Keep in mind the free agents signed were plagued by injuries, several season ending. The team as a whole likewise suffered the same fate. At one point in addition to what I mentioned they were missing both tackles, the right guard, the top 3 running backs, a key linebacker and their punter. They had numerous players who missed games here and there. The team might have had better results and fewer needs if not for those injuries. Nobody bats a thousand on free agents. Again I think Ossenfort wanted to avoid overspending and saw fewer sure things than others. It’s easy to pick free agents in hindsight. Few GMs are good at both of these aspects. Ossenfort’s showed that potential. If he can continue to hit on 70% of his draft picks and hit 50% on free agents, he’s a winner. Realize as the team gets better, that’s harder to do.
Apparently he’s kept out of the team’s day-to-day play. He’s let the coaches; coach. He’s kept a solid, business-like presence. Ossenfort has the potential to be a great choice.
Aside from hiring coaches there are two obvious duties of the position that determine the fate of the team; the draft & free agency. Turning first to the draft Ossenfort has overseen 2 drafts. His drafts as a whole have been exceptionally good. All 2023 draftees are still on the roster. That’s hard to believe. Ojalari has been injured but shows promise. Of the other 8, 4 have started regularly or rotated steadily. The others have occasionally started or played significant snaps. Looking at 2024, 6 of the first 7 have either started of been primary backups. The 7th was injured. The final 2 draftees are both on the practice squad.
Free agency is extremely hard to evaluate. Guys signed who started include White, Froholdt, Collier, Woods, Barnes, Daley and Wilkenson. I may have missed a few. It’s fair to say they blew a couple of quality re-signings by letting Zach Allen & Byron Murphy walk. In 2024 Ossenfort signed Williams, Dallas, Brown, Bunting, Jones, Nichols and Wilson. Nichols, Williams and Jones went down to injury almost immediately. Wilson was terrific. Dallas has been valuable. Brown and Bunting have been inconsistent. Williams has played well when healthy.
During the course of the season Ossenfort added Browning who has flashed sack ability. When long range kicker, Prater, was lost Ryland was signed and starred with 3 game winning kicks and a couple of other plus efforts were booted.
Again there was criticism of Ossenfort that he should have signed more free agents. Keep in mind the free agents signed were plagued by injuries, several season ending. The team as a whole likewise suffered the same fate. At one point in addition to what I mentioned they were missing both tackles, the right guard, the top 3 running backs, a key linebacker and their punter. They had numerous players who missed games here and there. The team might have had better results and fewer needs if not for those injuries. Nobody bats a thousand on free agents. Again I think Ossenfort wanted to avoid overspending and saw fewer sure things than others. It’s easy to pick free agents in hindsight. Few GMs are good at both of these aspects. Ossenfort’s showed that potential. If he can continue to hit on 70% of his draft picks and hit 50% on free agents, he’s a winner. Realize as the team gets better, that’s harder to do.
Apparently he’s kept out of the team’s day-to-day play. He’s let the coaches; coach. He’s kept a solid, business-like presence. Ossenfort has the potential to be a great choice.
