Originally posted by JaggedJ:
Originally posted by Rice-a-Ronnie:
I'm not an expert, but hearing various podcasts, beat writers, even the frequent posters here in the zone, it seems like our poor record can largely be attributed to lack of talent over scheme. Our drafts prior to Lynch/Peters coming on were deplorable, and for the most part their draft picks have been decent (save for sophomore slumps). What does bother me has been the pro player scouting:
1) We've overpaid for bad free agents (Malcolm Smith, Earl Mitchell, Jonathan Cooper, Attaochu);
2) Made some trades with very little in return (Shon Coleman for a 7th? Vance Mac Donald and a 5th Rd for a 4th Rd Pick?? Harold for conditional 7th?)
3) Not traded away players for additional trade picks before the deadline (Armstead? Garcon? Garnett?)
4) And been largely dormant on the waiver wire. I keep hearing how we don't have any depth, and yet we promote players like Exum, Powell and seem to never poach other practice squad players with our waiver wire position. Basically I can't find anyone this season that was not promoted from our practice squad: Moseley, Dayes, Mabin, Delaire, Toran.
Does anyone else think that Mayhew is not doing a good job? We tend to give credit to Peters for his drafts, but we don't really talk about Mayhew. I hope Lynch does the right thing this offseason and looks for more help on the pro player side of his job. Mayhew is asleep at the wheel. My guess is they make a change with him.
1) When you're starting from scratch you need to overpay. There's really not much else to it. Fortunately most of those contracts we're not stuck with long term and won't hinder us.
2) Harold and McDonald were likely getting cut. You take what you can get for them. Coleman looks like he's being developed. A 7th is no biggie.
3) Is this really a Mayhew thing? Besides, just because half the zone want to trade everyone away doesn't mean the team does. I find this point contradicts your previous one. If there was a good offer they would likely have taken it, but if they took a low offer (the only ones likely available) they'd be lumped in with point 2.
4) Depth is only a problem because our depth are the ones starting. We don't need more waiver wire guys who add little. What we need are legit starters to push guys like Marsh, Mitchell, Colbert, Spoon etc down into the backup slots where they are more than adequate to fill.
Your point kinda reminds me when Bill Walsh said something to the effect of, if you think you have two potential starters...odds are you have two backups.
It could not be any more apparent last year the team was decimated by injury, and the backup talent was fairly consistently below average minus a couple of good performances.
We watched a team of backups.... it is what it is.