The Saints are the exact proof that you draft based on talent, not need. If they drafted for need, they would have pulled a Texan and drafted Brick instead of a guy like Bush. The Bears are the same way. Bad O, so they draft a DB and ST guy.
The Saints in rounds 2-7 drafted for need. With that said drafting Bush to be #2 overall he has to show he can do more than catch passes and be a punt returner. Deuce was impressive but Bush needs to show he can be an everydown player at some point in his career to justify what he makes.
The offense is still a low rated inept unit even with the guys you mentioned. Now the D is cracking under the weight of the neglect. That is the definition of poor roster management.
Inept? Did you watch the same game that I watched yesterday? The last two weeks you can not say the offense has been inept. We will have to agree to disagree on that.
The Cap card? The same cap problems that allowed us to sign Steussie, Stinkbomb, Garner, Deese, et al? That same cap issue? We had enough cap room to sign a player here and there. Now, I do agree that margin of error was low, but if Gruden is the HC/GM that you say he is, then surely he could spot the right player for the right price.
The combine dead money of Steussie, Stinchcomb, Garner, and Deese combines to be less than the dead cap money that one player will leave behind once he is cut (Booger) in the near future.
The Bucs have been cap strapped. That is why the Bucs signed Hovan, Ike, and Bolden for vet min the previous year. Becht was given modestly more and he is the only bust of those four.
The Bucs had a little more to spend this year but re-signed Hovan and extended Barber. They had enough cap space in my opinion to pursue Rocky Bernard which I felt was a mistake on their part that they did not try to do.
Of course it was Gruden's idea. Who else made that decision? 3 DT's and 7 WR's. If that isn't pure Gruden, I don't know what is.
So whose idea was to keep 7 LB's? Like I said before Gruden is not the only one to blame. Kiffen and his coaching staff as well as Bissacia did not make good personnel decisions either. They are all to blame.
As it was last week as well. Gruden is not a good play caller in the 4th quarter. I do think that he knows the X and O part of offense, but not the squence and game management skills of the top tier guys. A top OC gets us to 2-2 even with this expansion caliber offensive roster. Gruden has us at 0-4.
I agree with you on this point.
I said on another post that maybe we do what Seattle did, and shed the time management of GM from Gruden and give it to a real GM.
That "problem" worked just fine for the Bucs since 96. The problem is that the young players drafted on D aren't nearly the talent level of the past guys brought in. Kiffin is not sitting down the next Butkus so he can play Quarles, I assure you of that.
You with with Defense. You can't overlook defense. The Bucs have, and now they are paying the price.
McKay ignored the defense with Dungy for a while. The reason why McKay/Dungy, McKay/Gruden, and Allen/Gruden have invested in the offense so much becuase it has always lagged behind from the defense.
