Blah, blah, blah, 40. Graves gets a lot of demerits because he's the one constant in the past 7 years of being terrible, and his name is at the top of the letterhead. Apparently, you don't think he has responsibility for anything.
And I don't blame the Bidwill's for anything. I don't accuse them of being cheap, and I don't accuse them of not being interested in winning. You'll never hear those words come out of my mouth.
If you think Graves rates higher than 30 among his colleagues, I'd love to hear the 5+ GMs that are better than him. I submitted Millen. Russ submitted Al Davis (which I think is close; the Raiders were in the Super Bowl 5 years or so ago). Who else has the long track record of on-field failure that Rod Graves has managed to put together?
You say that this team is better than before Rod Graves came on board, but that's demonstrably false. The six seasons before Graves was made VP of Football Operations after the 2002 season, the Cards were 36-60 (Not counting 1-1 in playoff games). In the six seasons after Rod Graves took control of the operation, the Cards have been 33-63.
If you can locate a general manager that worked 7 seasons in the NFL putting up a .343 winning percentage that isn't Matt Millen, I'd love to get his name. The years from 2002 until 2007 was the worst five-year stretch the Cards had performed since the Cards moved to Arizona.
I'm not really interested in talking about the past. There's too much to look forward to. Where do you think that Graves deserves criticism for his past performance? More importantly: What results to you need to see on the field this season that would inspire you to provide criticism of the front office?
Of course you don't want to talk about the past because it blows holes in your whole argument. In the first place, RG has only been in charge since the Denny Green era started which was 5 years ago, not 7. Regardless of what his title was or is, his decision making was severely limited until DG came to town and even during that period, he was only one voice among many.
If you knew the Cards organization the way I do, you'd realize just what he was facing when he started as GM. The Cards had few dollars to work with, a complete lack of talent and an owner who was used to running things his way and was still doing the same things he had decades ago. RG was probably the only guy they could get to take that job as it had become a graveyard for every GM or head coach the Cards had had in the past 30 years and they had had a pile of them. With all of these things working against him, he managed to get things to change, slowly at first, but the changes did come.
In spite of the obstacles he had to face, he managed to get some decent players in here, extend his core group and get a real head coach who in turn hired a real NFL coaching staff. These things take time, especially when you are limited financially. Maybe this hasn't gone as quickly as you would like, but it is being done and we should realize the fruits of his effort this year.
How many current GM's do you think would even have gone to work for the Cards 5 years ago? RG has done something I've waited for for the past 3 decades. Given us real hope and a legitimate chance of being one of the premier NFL teams. With a little luck and a few breaks, this team could really be something special. Thank you RG. Thanks for all your hard work, going about you job, taking all the critisizm, never complaining and never taking you eye off of the final goal.
So you can complain about him all you want. It's your perogative. I prefer to look at his accomplishments and where this team is compared to where it was when he started.
