Shadarr
4641
Matt Millen is the key. The difference between the Lions and teams like the 49ers and Bengals who were down for a while and then bounced back is that Millen completely squandered all those high draft picks. You have to draft really poorly to stay bad for that long.
I’ve said this before, but rarely does someone make a ‘bad draft pick’ unless they’re reaching way, way outside someone’s perceived value (e.g. Tebow, Maurice Clarett). Most of Millen’s picks would have been grabbed by someone right after Detroit in the draft, most scouts share roughly similar opinions about candidates.
In fact, I’d argue that most of the great front offices are the ones that reach for a player that people didn’t expect to go as high (Edge James, Freeney) or grabbed someone of value that should have gone higher (Aaron Rodgers, T. Suggs)
So you are saying Matt Millen drafted well. Interesting. And here I thought drafting a WR with your first pick several years in a row was dumb.
I misspoke. My point was that there’s a difference between evaluating talent and drafting well. Millen didn’t draft well, but I’d say the bigger issue is that he just sucked at all the intangibles at running a team, including hiring coaches.
I didn’t have a beef with his WR selections specifically (okay, Mike Williams was stupid I’ll grant), it’s that he was drafting WRs at all for a team that had so many holes elsewhere. Those picks should have been spent on linemen or on defense or traded down – the Mike Williams pick was unforgivable because he was far from a can’t miss prospect, and guys like Ware and Merriman were both available.
But rereading Shadarr’s post I jumped the gun and assumed it was a criticism of Millen’s talent evaluation but in fact it was just a criticism of Millen’s total inability to manage a draft, which I’m 100% on board with =)
Shadarr
4646
I reject your definition of a bad draft pick as being against consensus. Football is a results-based endeavor and a bad draft pick is a player who does not perform. Whoever took Mike Williams, Charles Rogers and Joey Harrington would have been making a bad pick, it just so happens that it was Millen every time.
If the Texans had gone with the consensus, they would’ve drafted Reggie Bush or Vince Young. Instead they drafted Mario Williams, and time has proven them right just as it has proven Millen disastrously wrong on almost all of his high picks. The fact “everybody” would’ve taken Bush in the top three doesn’t make him a good pick. It’s the scouts’ and GM’s job to figure out who will perform at the NFL level.
Yeah, I mean fundamentally if you just want a GM who does consensus work, you don’t need a GM at all – just get a random dude with a copy of Mel Kiper’s latest draft guide, mechanically pick the highest-rated guy available, and you’re all set.
Shadarr
4648
I don’t really harp on the whole “He picked WRs year after year” because that would, effectively, be an argument against taking Calvin Johnson. The issue wasn’t drafting all those WRs, it was drafting players who couldn’t play. It’s not like they had Larry Fitzgerald, Tory Holt and Roddy White when they decided to draft Megatron. Millen used three top five picks and still had a hole at WR. So in that sense, it’s pointless to talk about what position he should’ve drafted instead, because that implies that he would be successful in filling those holes when he was unable to fill the holes at WR and QB despite multiple attempts. And when I was reading through the list of Millen’s 10 worst draft picks, Roy Williams didn’t even make the list, and there were plenty of offensive and defensive linemen in there.
I think we can all just agree that Millen sucked as a GM (and as a television commentator, and probably even as a member of the board for Second Mile) and move on.
Does Tyler Palko have a mullet?
Thing is, all those players would have been drafted top ten regardless. No GMs saw them as busts. All GMs saw them as potential all-pros.
If Millen had drafted a DE and LOT instead of Mike Williams and Charles Rogers, and those picks had been busts, he wouldn’t be quite as vilified.
It’s like the Niners with Alex Smith. He may not ever be a great QB and it’s only because over the last few years the Niners never found anyone better that he’s still on the team, but when they picked him the pickings were slim and no one wanted to trade up.
Lorini
4652
I am going to be really mad if the Patriots fuck up and lose this game!!
Is that Julian Edelman playing defense?
Shadarr
4654
First of all, you don’t know that. All the draft analysts saw them as potential all-pros, but that doesn’t mean the guys who actually put the work in agreed. You have absolutely no evidence that Ron Wolf or Scot Pioli wanted those guys. Mel Kiper may have seen Rogers as an All Pro where Belichick could spot a potential bust.
Second, it doesn’t matter, because his job is to be right, not to have plausible deniability. The difference between a good GM and a bad GM is doing a better job of talent evaluation than the consensus.
It’s like the Niners with Alex Smith. He may not ever be a great QB and it’s only because over the last few years the Niners never found anyone better that he’s still on the team, but when they picked him the pickings were slim and no one wanted to trade up.
You’re right, it’s exactly like Alex Smith, because that was a bad pick. They could’ve had the best QB in the league, and they blew the call. And that’s why Mike Nolan is no longer making those sorts of decisions.
What the fuck are they sneaking Brady for, on 4th down, with a 24-point lead, late in the 4th?
Stop running up the score, Bill! It’s one thing to give your rookies some playing time, but geez.
Whatever, that was a total armadillo sneak by Brady.
Why not just give it to Hoyer? Why risk your All-Pro quarterback on meaningless points?
It’s the Belichick way man. You ought to be used to it by now.
sluggo
4660
I was only half watching by the end of the game, but I saw two things I thought were weird: (a) KC started calling their timeouts with 5 minutes left, calling their last with 3:30 or something left, even though the game was completely over. (b) the Pats still throwing the ball and trying to score instead of running out the clock.
And as I was listening to the announcers, I couldn’t help but wonder, am I the only person on the planet who considered maybe the two were related?
Seriously, it never crossed anyone’s mind that maybe Belichick was pushing to score as retaliation for pointless timeouts? I would have been a little annoyed with KC calling TOs there, and I could see a coach thinking fine, you want to extend the game? We’re going to continue to beat your ass.
