cathead said:
Yet we did throw 3/5 of that line away plus a FS and we did give that window a slam and as you pointed out. That window of opportunity is exactly what we should have focused on. Not some damn theoretical position vs cost plan.
2/5 -- donnalley retired, we didn't "throw him away"
don't know the numbers but could we have theoretically kept both Todd and Jeno (for the dollars he woulda cost us) ... and Shaw and Hawkins (or reggie and cousin)?
i think you're being shortsited but then i don't agree with this whole window thang.
the major problem with the window theory is there is just too much luck involved even if you start the season with a team that on paper looks good (sorta to me like if Nelson and Meadows hadn't fallen by the wayside ... but that's beside the point). we got to the SB last year without a secondary ... which speaks some for the unluck of the other 35 teams. we also had no, i repeat no, significant injuries on the OL other than a couple a meaningless games at the end of the season, and that was at the one position we had a somewhat decent backup. an injury at any other line position (if Mag's is rite about Nelson's inability to play guard) and we woulda seen such quality stars as Brez and Willig. if we had lost say Todd and Donnalley at the beginning of last year we woulda been in virtually the same sad shape as this year (maybe sadder considering Favors and the DBs). without even getting into bad calls or several other factors over which one cannot control, since injuries play such a huge role in the NFL and you can't predict them and it's hard to have adequate depth across the board, it seems to me that trading several years of trying to rebuild and bottom-feeding for a very risky, short window of hope is not a good gamble. i think your odds are much improved in you can field a good team year-in and year-out and hope that during a couple of those years your non future eroding moves pan out and you don't get killed with injuries and guys losing heart.
so say, if we had kept Todd and Jeno this year and supposedly mortgaged our future because of this narrow window of opportunity you think exists; and, low and behold, in our first game Smitty goes down and in our second game, or maybe when we reach the playoffs, Jake or Davis goes down and all of a sudden your window is slammed shut ... along with your future with which you betted.
so the better plan it would seem would be to try to consistently be good year-in and year-out ... not necessarily great. as NE and Carolina have proven you can get there by simply being good with good coaches.
you'll argue back we shouldn't intentionally slam the door shut on ourselves but as it has been argued by many, on paper it looked pretty possible before Meadows and Nelson.
it looks dim now with our OL situation and Smitty going down but there's still probably reasonable hope. we still have a lot of good players and some good coaches. last year i thought hope was lost when i saw Favors. in the beginning of last year, Jake brought questions as did Moose and Smitty and Howard and Cousin. our offense was piss poor for most of the year. we lost to the Texans and the Cowgirls for Peete's-sake. despite ide's homestate's worship of the game and highschool ball, losing to those two excuses for football teams is just about as shameful as it can get
