I'm not really an apologist for this front office, but I'm not sure why we'd overpay to promote a guy who's already tied to this organization. Keim was really the only guy we wanted; we didn't talk to any other legitimate candidates other than a Rooney Rule guy. Blame Michael Bidwill's desire to have a more active role in the organization for that, not necessarily a knee-jerk financial reaction.
As joeshmo has said in the past, the last few years this team has been in the top third in the NFL in payroll for players; they've just invested that money poorly. That's the bigger problem with promoting Keim, IMO.
To be fair to Michael Bidwill, he was the guy who pulled the trigger on Ken Whisenhunt, against the guidance of Rod Graves (who reportedly wanted Ron Rivera as the head coach). I have faith that Bidwill can and will make another good decision on this front. It's just unfortunate that he blew out his offensive coaching staff before we could've gotten valuable information from them, like player evaluations that most teams do at the end of the year.
That's pure spin, just like that Ray Horton is "guaranteed" to get head coach offerings elsewhere. Keim's gotten interviews around the league, but it's a tough sell for any organization to sign a general manager who has been responsible for a 13-30 team the last three seasons. Maybe Keim bears a lion's share of the responsibility for that, maybe he doesn't. But after teams talked to him, they tended to go in other directions.
