Most of us wanted to keep Huff and EVERYONE on this board thought JFM trade given how much he ended up making was an imbecile move by JD. Just an amateurish idiotic mistake by JD that everyone and their mother knew was indescribably dumb, but him. Basically the idea was that Clemons was ready to replace him. But Clemons stunk the previous year we talked that he was playing TOO MUCH, and needs to be end of bench. JD and Bob thought not enough. These are the types of obvious mistakes JD made again and again. For all the good moves he did, he would then make a fundamental back breaking mistake that everyone knew was a huge mistake but him and Bob, and fucked everything up.
Reddick must have had a higher Madden rating than JFM or Huff. That seems to be how all of the decisions have been made at 1JD for the past six seasons.
I don't think so. This is lazy narrative ultimately propagated by JD and Bob and their staff that absolves them of all their failures. In fact Clemons was projected to be the JFM replacement, and JFM's rating was higher. Maybe if he actually looked at Madden's ratings we would have still had JFM. Huff also had high ratings before he was let go. Reddick trade came later. Wirfs was higher rated by everyone than Becton, I am sure the owner did not make JD pick the inferior player. Let's not buy into the bullshit and not excuse this failed regime just because our owner is dumb.
The Becton/Wirfs thing comes up a lot. Personally, I wanted to go Wirfs, not because I watched either guy in college, but only because I know Iowa just churns out OL like crazy and that was enough for me, without any other knowledge on either guy, to say take the safer bet from a good school for OL. However, I honestly understood the logic…Becton was maybe a lower floor but a higher ceiling with his unusual size. He played LT in school while Wirfs was a RT in school. And to be fair, Becton did not have an injury history in college. So I got it at the time…JD went with the bigger player with higher upside who was already an LT as compared to the “safer” pick from a better program who was a RT. I didn’t agree with it, but I understood the thought process. And to be fair, Becton looked pretty damn good that rookie year. What none of us knew, because we never talked to the guy, was his character, his immaturity, and then of course what maybe a good GM would assume, is that a guy that size was maybe a greater injury risk just due to sheer size. To me, what made me mad, was JD’s blind faith in Becton after he got hurt his second year and missed the season on an injury that other guys would not have missed the season on. To me, that was a red flag and JD ignored it and still counted on him for year 3, which of course went the way it went. So to me, that was worse mishandling by JD than even the original choice of Becton over Wirfs in the draft. But all water under the bridge now…for JD, I think he was the first GM with an actual sound plan and strategy that we’ve had since what, Parcells? His weakness and ultimate undoing was his failure to identify the right GUYS. He had the right POSITIONS. Just whiffed on WAY too many picks…Zach, Mims, Moore, mid round OL like Mitchell and Warren, Becton you can put in there, etc. He did have some later round wins with guys like MC2, Echols, even Pinnock who looked good and is a starter for the Giants now…it’s not like he didn’t hit on ANY mid round guys, but he whiffed on too many OL guys.
The OL thing is just baffling. He finally fielded decent starters for the 1st time in 6 years after using two first round picks (AVT and Olu), two 3d round picks (conceded in a trade up for AVT), and a high second (Tipp). But the OT back-ups still suck. So whenever Olu/Moses are not in the lineup, OL stinks. As far as the plan, high level yes it made sense. But the devil is in the details. Like the plan the 1st year was start tearing this down (particularly defense) but evaluate Sam and decide if he is the guy going forward. That means at the very least you have to protect him and give a few weapons. JD didn't do that. Not even an Anderson level top WR or a half decent TE. So, a year later, he didn't truly evaluate him and it was time to decide on 5th year option. So he left himself very little choice but to draft a QB and reset the clock. Then he missed on Zach and even if Zach were as good as Sam but with the reset financial clock, he still failed to protect him, so most likely he would have failed as well even drafting someone better than Zach. Then after Zach busted, he went for Rodgers. Was fooled like an absolute rookie and gave up way too much to GB. I mean we are talking an extra 2nd round pick and pick swap in the 1st, which had larger implications. That failed as well, and again he failed to protect him, and Rodgers was hurt. I know people say it was a fluke, but the injury would have happened sooner or later anyway and anyway you saw on Sunday what older less mobile Rodgers can do without a good Oline. The answer is not much. Last year without OL would have been a disaster even if Rodgers didn't get hurt right away. He then finally addressed the OL starters (still terrible back-ups), but then completely destroyed DL again with some of the most amateurish moves you can imagine (like JFM trade) and did not select the right kicker after one clearly emerged from the training camp. So, yes high level he did have a good plan and he did have a variety of good moves, but the mistakes were absolutely back breaking and brutal - and easily avoidable. Plus not the best evaluator of talent overall. Which is why I think he can still be a solid executive, but he cannot be the final decision maker on the team.
Right…I agree The strategy/vision/approach…whatever you want to call it…I believe is solid. For comparison, both Idzik and Mac wasted high first round picks on non-critical positions…both chose a safety…let that sink in… a fucking SAFETY, high in the first round…Adams bailed Mac out a bit by being a great athlete but really only made an impact as a blitzer…he sucked in coverage and deep coverage is the safety’s primary responsibility. But they had the team building all wrong. Mac went fucking DT at #3 TWICE. Just awful use of draft capital. So I think JD knew the blueprint..build solid lines on both sides of the ball. But he blew the details. I agree. He knew the POSITIONS to look at, but he chose bad players more often than not. He whiffed on too many OL…not a single mid round OL panned out. He whiffed on two second round receivers. Of course Zach is the worst case…and as a professional GM, he SHOULD have seen past the bullshit and realized the kid had one good year with a bad school playing bum fuck nobodies in a covid year. Not a shock that he was NOT worth the 2nd overall pick. And that’s not hindsight…there were MANY people saying no to Zach at the time. He should have been one of them. He should have kept Huff and not had to go the desperate route and sign a holding out guy in Reddick…Huff produced for us. He was an undrafted find who developed. That’s the kind of guy you reward and keep. He should have held tight with GB on that trade and not lost out on Jones in the draft. For every great draft pick or free agent (Reed), he had some very bad ones. Problems mounted more when there were too many whiffs at the same group like OL. So we get what we got. I wanted to like JD. I really did. But too many bad decisions sealed his fate. He had 6 years to build a team…that’s an eternity in the NFL. And he failed badly. Never came close to a winning record.
9.5 million for the only edge rusher in the league without a full sack, per nextgenstats. Between he and MacD IV, it'd be difficult to find a pair of starting edge's in the NFL who are less disruptive.
Between Reddick and Davante Adams, it's no wonder the talented young players want out. If I'm Garrett Wilson and the offseason is more of the same stupidity, I'd refuse to put my body on the line for the Jets in the fall and hold out until they trade me.
Becton didn’t have injury issues in colege but he did have a weight issue with reports of him ballooning to 380-400 pounds at one point. I consider weight issues to be a much bigger red flag because it speaks to work ethics, which compounded with injuries leads to exactly what we got from him.
When you have an idiot at the top, it trickles down to everyone else, especially when they have the final say on all major decisions.
Becton also failed the combine drug test. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to determine he had a weed+food issue. Tons of players smoke weed and I don't care in a vacuum, but if you can't abstain for a month for the biggest job interview of your life then it shows you're either an idiot or have an actual addiction issue.
I also understand the logic to selecting Becton over Wirfs. To me if you identify a much higher ceiling then you pull the trigger. Becton has been a beast at guard for Philly and they identified where he fits best. To be honest that not his biggest blunder. JDs biggest mistake was caving in on keeping Sam and getting a kings ransom for #2 overall. I truly believe the Johnson’s meddling drove that decision. They would have got at least 2 first round picks + 2nd for #2 overall. It would have given Sam a confidence boost and we would have never hired Hackett. This was by far his biggest mistake.
A few interesting points. One: Wirfs was a no brainer pick and a consensus pick as well. There was no higher ceiling for Becton. Usually you have higher ceiling for younger players and better athletes. They are same age and both tested extremely well athletically. In fact Wirfs did superior in vertical and broad jump whereas Becton did not participate in these. But when you look at their College careers, Wirfs was first team all American by multiple outlets. Becton was not even close. Wirfs was big ten OL man of the year. This is not to say Becton was a scrub, but Wirfs a clear much higher probability pick with much higher floor and similar ceiling. Now, as far as Becton succeeding at Guard, that's something some of us were saying before - to move him there when he stunk as OT, ultimately allowing the most sacks in NFL. But the problem was that JD didn't field a single serviceable OT last year. Think about that. Duane and Turner are out of the League, and Becton moved the position. These were our top 3 OTs last year. Add Max and Warren to the list of players who SHOULD be out of the League but he still kept them. If JD were able to find good OTs for the 1st 5 years as a GM, maybe we could have actually moved Becton to G instead of useless Laken Tomlinson or to the right side. Heck, maybe if we had good OTs and didn't have to start Duane that year, Rodgers wouldn't get hurt and we could have made play-offs last year with better defense and STs. But JD fucked it all up by his continuous inability to build serviceable OL. That brings us to the last point: it's the same reason why JD traded Sam. No, it was not Woody, why would he want to let Sam go, the guy was always respectful and model citizen. By all accounts meddling started years later and there were numerous reports and Rex Hogan and JD who were enamored with Zach. So, no, JD does not get a pass for this. But a bigger point is that he could not protect Sam, and took away what little weapons Sam already had. Gave him Perriman as #1 WR, and no TEs at all. 2020 was supposed to be the year to evaluate Sam. But how can you properly evaluate when the guy has no protection and no weapons whatsoever? So he moved on since Sam could not be evaluated and Zach, who they loved - especially his right hand Rex, was there for the taking. That would reset the salary CAP clock as well. That is the biggest fuck up JD made along with coaching and OL, which both contributed to this fuck up as well.
