Really?
You are going to tell me that option E is as desirable as A, B, C, and D to a prospective head coach?
A. Eli Manning and the #2 pick in the NFL draft.
B. Matt Stafford and the #20 pick in the NFL draft.
C. Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett, and the #3 pick in the NFL draft.
D. Marcus Mariota
E. No QB under contract and the #15 pick in the NFL draft.
Ok, so the QB situation is bad, but we are much better off in other areas...but where? RB. Yes. OL, no. Even the best argument gets us to, as bad as the others. WR...again, we are at best tied for, as bad as the others. Defense? Sure, we are arguably the best, but the Jags defense just gave up 42. Vikings defense had Brees throwing all over it. We aren't that good of a defense in terms of personnel.
At the end of the day, we are an average franchise, with little to nothing to offer at QB unless we use a ton of resources to spend on Kirk Cousins/Case Keenum or trade up to get the 4th or 5th best QB in the draft. Now, I'm not saying that it can't work out. But, I am saying it is not the situation that a prospective head coach looks at and says this is better than those other options. It just isn't. We are going to have to look harder to find the right guy to coach this team, just like we are going to have to be VERY creative to find our way to a league average QB. Not much room for error.
A. John Mara is a disaster.
You saw the earthquake when Eli was benched. Even though Mara gave McAdoo the authority and told him he wanted to see the backups play, Mara was an idiot in thinking he wasn't actually going to use it (no... REALLY), then using that authority given by the owner to bench Eli was the last straw for Mara regarding McAdoo. That's an armpit of the NFL type happening.
What the hell kind of owner does that? A really, really, really bad one. Flaky. Out of touch. Meddling. Mara is a walking disaster. The problem with the Giants starts at the top.
The players who mutinied and acted like idiots are still on the team with a fresh slate. So their idiocy was reinforced and rewarded with a clean slate. It could come back at any time. Many of them are their best players. That's a problem. Because if it rears its head again, much of the talent of the team is going to have to go.
Meanwhile OBJ is coming off a fractured ankle and may never be the same. He's a headcase diva who wants beaucorp money, as he stated it, like Steph Curry. That's a problem.
They treated Tom Coughlin like dog excrement (and I'm sure he's laughing now), then hired McAdoo.
McAdoo goes to the playoffs. Within a few games this year, the inmates were running the asylum, guys are getting suspended left and right, Eli gets benched in a power play, Mara's are oblivious to all this dysfunction, give McAdoo authority to do something, but is too out of touch to understand what power they actually give McAdoo, he benches Manning, Mara's freak out, fire their head coach. Not even a season after taking them to the playoffs. He didn't even get to finish 2 seasons.
How appealing does a place look when the last head coach gets fired before 2 years is up, made the playoffs one of them, and the final straw for the owner was the head coach doing what the owner basically told him to do.
Giants look like a disaster. #2 and Eli is nothing compared to this. Nothing.
B. I didn't bring up the Lions because they are the only team that I think could beat us in what they offer. They got Patricia, which doesn't seem like we were too interested in to begin with. But we've known that for awhile now. This place was off the table before the board sentiment kicked in.
I wanted Stafford if they didn't re-sign him.
C. Andrew Luck. Is he even going to play again? 6yr 140 million dollar contract. I was one of the ones who wasn't buying Irsay's BS. I said something stunk to high heaven regarding Luck. I was right. He didn't play all season. Had to go to Europe to try a procedure and still there's no guarantee he ever steps foot on an NFL field again.
At any point between now and September his shoulder could become sore again.
Even if he makes it back, he's injury prone, and I have a feeling this shoulder is going to cause more problems in the future. His shoulder injury looks like something that can be a recurring problem for him in a violent sport where he's going to land on that shoulder hundreds of times if he were to play his career out like people thought up until this injury.
Jacoby Brissett doesn't look that good. He looks halfway decent, but more dink and dunk. Maybe a #20-32 starter for a few years. Could he surprise, maybe, but he's a dime a dozen. Granted it was his 2nd year, so he could improve. But the game still looked too fast for him and he was too quick to dump off short. That's a concern to me. If you can't read downfield very well and dump off, you might as well be Matt Leinart. In other words, a dime a dozen.
The Colts don't look promising. Have Irsay as owner. #3 pick in the draft is nice, but that will net you 1 player. They might be best served taking a QB.
D. Marcus Mariota? Wasn't sold on him throwing to wide open receivers at Oregon. See he still has trouble throwing in tighter windows in the NFL. Regressing despite having a solid line, and two stud RB's. Well Murray is on the downside, but still Henry is a beast. Mariota's just not all that. Maybe someone can harness him, and he's not a bad QB, he's serviceable, but I don't see him as a big draw. But whatever promise he still has is more than obliterated by ownership.
Meanwhile this is a team whose idiot owner just fired a guy after 2 seasons. A guy who went 9-7 BOTH years. Made the playoffs this year. Won a playoff game. Should be heaping praise, not looking for work.
Before the playoff game a report came out that they would fire him if they didn't win. He won. Owner supported him. Lose next game. Then we are supposed to believe they were going to extend him, but fired him after he didn't want to make coaching changes?
Oh and remember this is the 2nd coach they've fired after two years... in a row. They'll be on their 3rd coach in 5 years. Yikes.
The whole ownership situation with Titans puts everybody in limbo, and who knows what happens on that front. Whenever new ownership comes in, you could be out. Same thing could happen to Rivera after next year with whoever buys the Panthers.
A, C, and D look like disasters from an ownership perspective. That's a huge thing. They don't seem to know what they want, or how to get there, except they expect to win. They won't give you long, and even if you have a good amount of success, they will give you ultimatum's and fire you.
Compared to A, C, and D, our ownership is lights out better. Not even close. It's professionally run versus Mickey Mouse.
Our ownership is always looking to improve itself. It's become very process oriented. Processes built off of best practices. Our ownership bends over backwards trying to create the best situation for any GM/coach to succeed in.
The funny thing is, this is what we as Cards fans have been screaming for our whole lives. Competent ownership. Now that our competent ownership is adhering to their process, people are freaking out that we're missing out on coaches from teams who likely aren't following a competent process.
It's just kind of funny to me. If anything I'm sort of enjoying it a bit. It shows how far we've come. I don't want us to copy what the Giants, Colts, and Titans are doing. They don't seem to be looking for what could be the best fit for them, but chasing the perception of who is the best coach. They are looking for a complete new plan/leadership, whereas our front office has leaders who are merely looking for a strong leader who can handle their sphere and fits in well with Steve and Michael. That's the impression I get.
We do have some key players and hard to find positions. Lockdown corner. Premier pass rusher. Stud running back. We've got some other nice pieces as well.
There's a reason we went 8-8 without so much of our talent. Despite our deficiency of basically going the past few years with what amounts to a receiving core of a #3, #4, and #5 receivers. I don't hate on Brown or Nelson. I just never expected them to be #1 or #2 receivers. I expected them to be a #4 and #5. Fitz is a #3. So yeah, we need WR help. But receivers are pretty easy to find. #1 harder, but plenty of #2's and #3's to be had. I suggest Christian Kirk in this draft. You want a stud with Fitz's team aspect, he's your guy. Only 5'11", but that's taller then Antonio Brown.
In this draft, the 3,4,5 QB's might be better then the #1 or #2. As now, Darnold and Rosen are projected as the top 2. I think the next three or four have a great shot of being better then them. It would not surprise me to see Darnold and Rosen fall and others jump above. Overall unless you are sure about a specific guy, this isn't the draft to trade up to get a QB. We can't fight this battle using last battle rules. Last year was a year we could of traded up. This year, as of now, I would specifically avoid it.
So as you can see, the #2 pick or thereabouts doesn't look like a huge thing to me. If QB is the issue, we might get a better one at 15-47 then at 2. Maybe that changes, but I do not trade up for Darnold or Rosen, nor do I celebrate if I already have a pick that could guarantee one of those two would be mine.
We are going to have to use resources on a QB. We're going to sign someone or trade for someone before the draft. Probably two people. We don't know who all will be available. There's quite alot of options.
Would a specific coach rather have Rosen/Eli and the rest of their crappy situation or our much better situation and Smith/Mayfield or McCarron/Jackson. I just don't see Rosen/Eli or Darnold/Eli as some huge draw. But I sure and the hell would be scared off by the idiocy and impatience of the ownership of the Giants (and players), Titans, and Colts (not impatient).
Not every head coach thinks he has to have a good QB before he'll sign, and really none of the openings have one except Stafford.
I don't get the we'll need to look harder for a coach. I'd be pissed off if we didn't look hard. These other teams, many don't look like they are trying too hard. That might be because they don't have a good ownership/front office plan. They're flailing around trying to find sure things and blame those sure things when it turns out, almost predictably, they aren't so sure.
I'll take our longer term process over their short term idiocy any day. First isn't best, and last isn't worst. The best coaches could still be out there.
No matter what they do, we were going to do our process, because to US, that is how OUR ownership will find the best candidate. for US. I can't ask for them to do something else, because in the long run, anything other then this approach will be a disaster for us. I sure don't want them to switch gears midstream and jump at a candidate who may be 5th best, but is about to be signed 1st. I want them to get the best candidate that fits us, because that's all any ownership can do. You risk more by jumping the gun then waiting.
Now that doesn't mean over time there isn't a single situation where we have our guy lined up. But overall the process is still useful to find stuff we don't know, new ideas, new directions. It's a good process to be involved with overall.
We've got a team that could win the Superbowl next year, hell we were 8-8 this year and ~2 games from the playoffs. We don't need a complete rebuild. But we're in a situation where the new coach and new schemes might need some major changes. Just depends on the coach/scheme. Obviously a new QB room and philosophy is going to be a huge change. So we might suck next year. Even if we can't find the guy this year, there's next year. It's clear this is going to be Keim's highest priority.
As for our perception? We're not the Patriots. Everyone else is at least a notch below. I don't ever expect us to be on the Patriots level. If the perception is that the Colts, Giants, and Titans are as good or better then us, then that perception is massively flawed. If some candidates feel that way, well we'll see how they feel after they work with the inept ownership that's perception says is good.
Chasing perception is one of those lowest common denominator type things. Sometimes its unavoidable, but overall, it's not a strategy one wants to start with.
Again, we need to get what's best for us. If the candidates perceptions are flawed, well they don't fit us, and that's probably for the best. I'm not concerned with timing. I don't think we're being cheap. I doubt we're pushing Bettcher on anyone, just telling them we have this guy if you want.
We're an attractive franchise to the right kind of person. The kind that we want will appreciate our ownership, and not look at our empty QB room as some big obstacle, because most teams even with a full room have the same obstacle.
