Hurney

I'm not on an "oust Hurney" tangent, I just cannot fathom why he's a Morganna patron and he deserves to be called out for it. Fucking unfathomable (to me at least) decision.

The drafting, yeah could be better however take a peek at past drafts and check what went after us and I believe there will be plenty of guys who never panned out. Marshall surely upped the success rate of round 2 (from totally inept to tolerable) and we need more of that, but the team has made changes in scouting so maybe it'll get better. Plus, we've been drafting towards the bottom of the rounds more than the top, that makes it a little tougher.

As was mentioned, the signing of guys like Brez, Tylski and other rejects (plus the Meadows fiasco) is a mark against the masterminds, but then again the OL coach and OC who were at the wheel when those decisions were made are now gone and I never blamed Hurney for them anyway.

 

Small market kind of made that decision also. They had to put butts in the seats. You weren't going to do that with a bunch of unknowns.

 

Not sure I agree with Gamble being on that list.

 

Polian wasn't a huge loss, no. He's okay, but he's not especially noteworthy and he's a pain in the ass. The thing is, he has name recognition, partially because he's a loudmouth, so he's known. Kinda like that retard who used to coach special teams for Dallas, the longer haired old guy who'd froth at the fucking mouth and the TVs would always cut to him on replays as if it mattered.

At any rate, there's always been, ever since, a lack of power in the one guy who's supposedly in charge of our personnel because of Richardson. I'm fine with JR having a bit of say, but it was clear in cases like Foster, where Fox and Hurney both felt we really had to have a back after giving out a big contract to a starter.

 

I have no problem with Hurney or JR. JR did some poor stuff before, but I don't see any evidence of it now.

Hurney is the guy who is supposed to have some common sense. Period. He is a facilitator/get it done guy. He's not supposed to evaluate talent. He has people who do that. They are the ones who have not done their jobs, not Hurney. Morgan was all Fox, I heard.

It is much more important to have someone with good sense, who is good with people, and who gets things done at the top of your organization that it is to have someone with outstanding skills in the jobs that the organization does. Underlings can do those jobs. But without the skills Hurney has, the organization tends to be in emotional turmoil. There are other organizations whose GMs have superior talent evaluation skills, but inferior people skills, and they have more overall screw ups that we do.

The only possible meddling I can think of from JR was pressure to get rid of Henning. If he did that, then good for him.

 

Agreed, Marty has continually said he's not a personell guy. He's there to get the guys in that Fox wants, at least that's the way ive always understood it.

But where does the idea that JR meddled in the Foster thing come from? I remember him being very supportive when Foster got injured prior to the 2nd NFCC game. But i think they had already decided he was a keeper after the good late games he was having. Then of course, i dont remember the RB market being particularly hot that year anyway, at least that was the excuse they gave for tagging him.

I guess you can question putting 5 mill into a RB and also drafting a 1st round RB that year. But what if DeAngelo wasnt there? Was he BPA or would we have drafted White or Addai anyway?

One thing that really upset alot of people, or at least boggled the mind was the whole Morgan/Spoon thing. We claimed we wanted to build from within and there we had an up and coming LB that could defend the pass that never missed a damn game and we let him walk. Now, most will say his contract was way too much and we made the bold decisions that Pitt are famous for making, just like we did with Moose. You can also look to the struggles STL had at the backer position last year to back it up.

So we reinvest in a known head case and it backfired and most likely will continue to. That only compunds the fans frustration, overpay for getting a player on the field or a "fair" contract to a guy that cant stay on it.

 

Yeah.....I think Gamble has the potential for double digit Int's and that would get him some attention, but it's definitely a stretch to think he will ever make the Pro Bowl.

 

I'll probably get attacked for my defense...but.....Morgan has been selected to the Pro Bowl, his tackle total in the Super Bowl was phenomanal even if you take issue to the number and/or the quality of the tackles. I believe that IF he stays healthy and plays a full season he will be back in the Pro Bowl. Can't say that about Witherspoon....although I think he was a huge snub in 2004 and belonged on the Pro Bowl. I wish we still had them both, but I just don't think it's as mindshattering as most that given a choice we went with Morgan. He only missed 4 games in 2004 and still had 101 tackles, and that led to a Pro Bowl selection. Was that not when he got the contract extension? Then he only missed 3 games in 2005 (after the extension?) and imho thinking that the Organization should have known he'd end up missing 15games in 2006 with another concussion and therefore should have never extended him is not reasonable.

 

Google his injury history and then see how you feel about it.

 

Yeah, I love these articles on him: http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2006/06faceoff-MorgDa99.php