If you were the GM, in retrospect

[Rats]

Loser on McCown, Loser on Alan Branch, Loser on Matt Leinart( thought he was QBOF), Loser on Whiz( if he gets good players he can win), Loser on DG( thought he was the HC to get us to the Super Bowl), Winner on Warner, Winner on DD(had us picking him in the draft), Winner on Fitz( everyone of us are), Winner on the Bidwills( they just don't get consistant winning, maybe they should call Charlie Sheen,

 

[Pariah]

It's really tough to say what would be different because each decision sets a whole 'nother set of circumstances in play.

For example, I likely would have drafted Ben Roethlisberger instead of Fitz.
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=296319&postcount=1

That sets the Cardinals on a different path...one where the next few years of draft debate are completely different (for example, in '05 I was saying we should take Rodger or Smith if they were there for us, obviously I wouldn't have had that opinion if we'd taken Big Ben)--for better or worse.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Loser on McCown, Loser on Alan Branch, Loser on Matt Leinart( thought he was QBOF), Loser on Whiz( if he gets good players he can win), Loser on DG( thought he was the HC to get us to the Super Bowl), Winner on Warner, Winner on DD(had us picking him in the draft), Winner on Fitz( everyone of us are), Winner on the Bidwills( they just don't get consistant winning, maybe they should call Charlie Sheen,

Good call on Alan Branch. I really thought we had a steal there.

 

[crisper57]

I am just going to list a few opinions off the top of my head, that may or may not have lead to contracts for the guys below.

Success:

Signing Dockett to an extension.
Thinking Leonard Davis should be a guard
Thinking LSH was a quality addition.

Failures:

Thinking ML was the man.
Thinking Max Hall's moxie translated into NFL-ready.
Thinking Early Doucet was a poor-man's Boldin.
Buster Davis...ugh.
Alan Branch...ugh.
Levi Brown as a run-blocking beast, which was clearly the direction we were heading as "Pittsburgh West"
Loving Aaron Francisco's motor.
Beanie being a beast.

TBD:
Wishing we re-signed Breaston

 

[JCSunsfan]

Loser: Starting Warner over Leinart is a step backwards

 

[Seandonic]

I, along with just about everyone on the planet, has always been a better GM (In Theory) than any Cardinals decision makers.

The one I remember most of all is during the 87 draft when Jerome Brown and Rod Woodson were sitting there at positions of great need for the Cardinals (DT and CB) and they chose...QB, KELLY STOUFFER! The hits just kept on coming after that. Free-agents they didn't go after. Talented players they let walk. Poor draft picks.

Off the top of my head, some that made me want to puke were: Stouffer, drafting Anthony Bell, letting Jay Novacek walk, not supporting and then firing Gene Stallings, picking numerous RB's (Anthony Thompson, Hearst, T. Jones, etc...) without an offensive line for them to run behind, drafting Tommy Knight (over C. Naeole, T. Gonzalez, and Tarik Glenn), allowing Jamir Miller and Lomas Brown to leave after play-off season, refusing to move L. Davis to guard, drafting W. Bryant over Haynesworth, skipping on Suggs, picking a WR (Fitz...In know he's great) over QB's Rivers and Roethlisburger, and too many non-attempts on free-agents too recall.

Not to toot my own horn too much (I have made some misjudgements here and there) but I can't even come close to renaming every mistake they made that I would not have made.

The one most glaring whiff I've made was totally agreeing with the drafting of Leinart.

I should mention that the way the Cards are doing things now (since Whiz and more importantly Michael Bidwill) is quite respectable. Picking up free-agents and drafting best player available more than need. Along with the moves they have made and are making (re-signing Fitz) they need to focus on the O-line and pass rush almost exclusively for the next two off-seasons and they will be a regular contender for at least the rest of this decade.(IMHO)

 

[Buckybird]

the good:

1)knew Fitz would be beastly when we drafted him
2)thought we never gave TJ a chance to be a very good RB
3)nearly broke my 61" TV the day we drafted Brown over Peterson
4)thought Warner could still play the day we signed him
5)liked Dansby from day 1
6)wanted Wiz from day 1 after DG got fired
7)knew Hearst would be damn good the day we tried to sneak him thru waivers
8)thought Hayes would be a pretty darn gold LB
9)knew Wendall Bryant would suck
10)thought letting Novacek go was a mistake

the bad:
1)thought Green could guide us to the playoffs
2)thought we had a franchise QB in #7 & he would win us super bowls
3)wanted Clint Sintim as an OLB
4)thought Max might be semi good as an NFL QB
5)thought Stevie B could fill Q's role
6)Coach Mac sucked me in with all his gift of gab
7)thought Patrick would become a solid TE
8)thought we got a steal in JJ Arrington
9)nearly quit the Cards when Boston was let go glad I got to go to SB 43

TBD:
1)think the Cards made a mistake in taking Williams in rd2 instead of Brooks Reed Or Dontay Moch
2)think Cards shouldve signed Rolle to replace AW at SS
3)think Cards will regret trading THT
4)Colt McCoy will be a very good NFL QB, wanted Cards to trade up to get him
5)Peterson will be a S for the Cards in 3 yrs
6)eyed Kolb as Cards QB sometime last year
7)wanted Edmond Gates instead of Housler
8)Fitz will leave Cards as a FA after this year
9)didnt think DWash would be a NFL playmaker

 

[JeffGollin]

Sam Etcheverry

Ken Kortas

Fait Echols

Roy Shivers RB. He was beaten out by Johnny Roland

Willis Crenshaw

McArthur Lane

Calvin Favron

Rush Brown

David Galloway

Freddie Joe Nunn

Ivory Lee Brown

Buster D

Alan Branch

Garrison Hearst

Perhaps the biggest disappointment to me (in terms of what he might have been if he remained healthy) would be Eric Swann (with Wads and Timm Rosenbach close seconds for the same reason) .

 

[john h]

This thread is purely for fun. Take an honest look at your past opinions and see where you would have succeeded and failed as the Cardinals GM.

Off the top of my head

My failures:

After Raynoch Thompson and Levar Fisher, it felt like a draft tradition to waste a second round pick on a LB. So I was pretty annoyed when the Cardinals did it again to take one Karlos Dansby.

Coming into our super bowl season. I was convinced that Warner was done. I was all aboard the Matt Leinart bandwagon train. So frustrating to see someone waste their abilities.

My successes:

I was all in on drafting Anquan Boldin. Really thought he was going to be Hines Ward part 2.

Like everyone, wanted AP over Levi Brown. I remember they had that draft party at the stadium. When that pick was announced the whole stadium boo'd and left.

We will see:

I wasn't a fan of the pick of Rashard Johnson. So far it looks like I am correct but maybe he can get it together on the field.

I was all in on Leinart and Warner. Leinart really disappointed me. This last draft I was all in on Ryan Mallet as our second round choice. I still think Mallet would have been a best second round pick. He looked very good last week and before this year is past I will not be surprised to see him as a starter and a better player than Kolb. I do not want him to be better than Kolb but those are my feeling. Perhaps they come from being a homy but we shall see.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Perhaps they come from being a homy but we shall see.

ha... when i first read this, i thought you said: "perhaps they come from being horny, but we shall see."

 

[football karma]

the rights:

really wanted Peterson, and somewhere in the ASFN archives is a post I did in January before the draft noting he could be the guy sitting there and the Cards should jump regardless of Edge ( my one ASFN moment!).

the wrongs:

I thought Eric Green was going to be really good.

I thought DRC was drafted way too high -- based on terrific combine results.

When the Hyphen was drafted (even as a 7th rounder) I thought: a super undersized back who couldnt even start for his own college team???

 

[MadCardDisease]

Successes:

Wanted Fitzgerald even before we had hired Green as HC:
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f4/eli-who-21032.html

Wanted CB Marcus Trufant over trading for Pace/Johnson

Predicted that Boldin would be Offensive Rookie of the year
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=134294&postcount=20

Didn't like the Buster Davis pick.

Failures:

Thought that Freddie Jones would solve our TE problems.

Thought that Jeff Blake would open up our deep passing game.

Thought that Suggs was too slow to warrent a high draft pick.

Loved the Leinart pick.

Thought that Rolle would be a shutdown corner.

Predicted the Cody Brown selection and thought it was a great choice.

Plus so many more...

 

[Catfish]

Chris-----last year I was VERY hard on Whiz, not only for his debacle at the QB position, but for his apparent disregard for following through with his professed 'competition to determine who wins jobs'. Granted, after the season, he alluded to the fact that he made some bad judgements about who he was playing in certain positions, so I will allow a mulligan to him on that count-----I just hope he gets it right this year.

As for the QB debacle, I still don't understand how ANYONE with a degree in ANYTING, much less engineering, could make such a decision, without considering what he would do if he got it wrong. I said then, that he created that situation, and it is up to him to get us out of that situation. So far, it looks like he has taken a rather large step in the right direction. I still will more or less stay out of this until he shows that he either has, (or has not), fixed this problem. I said then, that he reminded me of a man that I worked for who was so very convinced of his own abilities that he did more or less the same that Whiz did, only this guy's failed attempts set back a Valley Police Department for nearly 20 years, trying to recover from his choices. Whiz, at least has shown some resiliency in this effort. Lets just hope it didn't cost us the ability to retain Fitzgerald in the long run.

As an aside, (considering this past draft), while I really like the picks we made, I know the Cardinals really liked the pass rushing LB from A&M. I considered him too slight of build to accomplish what we needed, and would have really tried to find a way to take one of the two much bigger/stronger DE types that we could have turned into a rush OLB. We still lack that person on our defense, and have not addressed it for the past two years.

Thanks for your presentation of this thread, because it surely will force some of these thread-hijacking posters who only can provide one liner sarcasm, to think a little bit about justifying their choices. I choose not to address our FO until we get through this season. We will then see what we need to do with regard to not only our player roster, and the coaching staff, but perhaps the FO itself.

 

[Russ Smith]

Good call Pariah I too said we should take Aaron Rodgers if he slid to us on draft day. I think that's the one good QB call I've made, I did like Big Ben but honestly given his off field issues I'm not convinced he'd have been any good here. Pittsburgh had the guys in place around him to sort of keep him for the most part out of trouble and he has played very well. We would not have had that structure around him and he probably would be in jail now if we'd picked him.

Another good call hated the Rolle pick, said he was not a CB.

But god QB alone I liked Leinart, didn't think Warner should have replaced him, was glad we signed Blake etc.

I still say if we'd picked up Henson when I first started talking about it we'd have 3-4 Superbowls by now.

 

[Duckjake]

It's really tough to say what would be different because each decision sets a whole 'nother set of circumstances in play.

For example, I likely would have drafted Ben Roethlisberger instead of Fitz.
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=296319&postcount=1

That sets the Cardinals on a different path...one where the next few years of draft debate are completely different (for example, in '05 I was saying we should take Rodger or Smith if they were there for us, obviously I wouldn't have had that opinion if we'd taken Big Ben)--for better or worse.

Just think how different things would be today for the Cardinals if Rackers hadn't missed that FG against the Bears. One play in one game that had ramifications far beyond what anyone could have imagined at the time.

 

[Jersey Girl]

My partial success is that I didn't think Warner was completely washed up, but my failure was that I thought Leinart would be our Eli. My success was that I was optimistic about the Cardinals in 2008, but my failure was that I was optimistic about them every other year, too.

I am guilty of this as well. I thought Warner had more in the tank (my sis, bro and I debated about which veteran QB was better, Bledsoe or Warner). But, I put way to much stock in Leinart. I remember being THRILLED when he fell to us and having my sis and bro say "you don't want that guy."

Loser: Starting Warner over Leinart is a step backwards

Ditto. And I remain very happy to be wrong about that.

Success: I literally cried tears when it was announced that Buddy Ryan was named head coach.

Failure: Thought that Feely was pretty much the same as Rackers and that letting Rackers go was a mistake.

 

[SECTION 11]

I thought for sure Bobby Newcombe was going to be a demon returning kicks.

 

[D-Dogg]

Like everyone, wanted AP over Levi Brown. I remember they had that draft party at the stadium. When that pick was announced the whole stadium boo'd and left.

Failures:

I did not want AP..I worried about his injuries and thought he'd suck behind our Oline. I was ok with Levi, but really wanted Thomas.

I was pissed when McCown won against the Vikings, because I really wanted Eli...but then we got Fitz, so...yeah!

I was stoked for both Leinart and JJ Arrington. Ugh. double freaking ugh.

I thought Warner was done. Twice. Once I was right.

Listened to Whis and bought the max hall moxie hype. FUUUUUUUUU.....

Success:

I've always loved AW

Boldin was a stud and I loved him from jump.

Never in a billion years would have even signed DA for a charity event.

Thomas Jones was screwed over here, always knew he was talented and loved the guy

Loved Dockett, worried about his attitude

Always freaking hated Josh McCown (the player...really liked the person)

---

TBD:

Super happy with Beanie pick, thought he was on the way in rookie year. Still think he's going to be very good. Worried about the injury aspect but then remembered that was why I was worried about AP, and at 31 who cares?

LOVE the hell out of Ryan Williams.

Optimistic about Kolb

Really like Stephen Williams to come out of nowhere but I'm guessing he's going to be in my bad move pile when all is said and done. heart? or DA?



I've got a middling track record on both QBs and RBs...hope I'm right on these ones.

 

[THESMEL]

ESPN and Kipers big board put our staff to shame,

 

[jefftheshark]

I once thought that someone was totally out.

JTS

 

[TJ]

If all of us were to list our successes and especially our failures, this thread would single-handily crash the server. I'll give you some of my notables:

Successes

• Anquan Boldin would be better than Skillet Hands
• On that note, trading out of the #10 spot was a huge mistake. Hometown boy T-Sizzle would have lit it up
• Bertrand Berry signing would pay immediate dividends.
• I predicted in 2006, we'd be in a Superbowl within 5 years.
• The LSH draft pick would be one of the biggest sleeper picks

Failures

• Constant support of Matt Leinart (wanting him over Warner, thinking he was pro bowl material).
• Thinking Max Hall would amount to anything (more hope than anything).
• Edgerrin James would make the pro bowl
• Alen Faneca would be great
• Levi Brown over AP