I find the criticisms of BB absolutely hysterical. There are people I have seen on other messageboards who truly believe BB is average or even a bad GM, and just claim the entire team is Brady only. Holy mackerel. Talk about being clueless with basic economics.
He's really only whiffed once on a 1st rd pick (Easley), and he's had some "disappointment" variety like Ben Watson, Maroney, Meriweather, etc, but look at some other teams' situations, their lack of understanding the market, taking contracts seriously, or not caring where someone was drafted.
Chess vs checker, no doubt. But, some teams don't even attempt to copy what he does in approach. You might fail, but why not try the approaches?
Pats Managament Secrets Vol 1 and 2 have been out for years. Read them both, multiple times. Even if you ru na business, and you're not making as much money as you'd like, read those books and it will really show you how JimmJ/BB, sort of grasped the economic landscape of the cap era, years and years ago. If Modell wasn't loser, BB would have built this in Cleveland, IMO. Maybe not this level, but the same sort of high level of success.
The Easley whiff was always odd. He had knee problems in college, where it came off to me like BB was simply rolling the dice knowing how loaded his D already was. Easley also always came off of as 4-3 guy, not a 3-4 guy, so he lacked some versatility, and his run D seemed a little weak to me.
Seems like whenever they veer of the page of what a Pats 1st rd pick would be, they lose. Chad Jackson (high Rd 2), Maroney, Meriweather (sort of dumb), Easley, etc.
The 2011 Rookie Cap changed the entire landscape, BB knew it, I knew the union would lose big because of how out of whack the previous CBA was, and so once ANYONE became a FA in this era, the market would spike in retaliation for that.
It's actually easier on GMs now...Even if you whiff on a 1st rd pick, the rookie cap makes it far less painful to hang onto the player, justifying the capital committed to the pick.
For some reason, BB never gets mention as the GOAT GM, which I have no idea why.
Someone like a Polian or Ron Wolf get all this hype in the cap era, Ted Thompson (fired for not fielding a competent D in 8 years), Ozzie Newsome (should be fired soon for the same kinds of reasons, mainly the Flacco deal), but no one has a resume like BB. No one.
Polian can't hold BB's headset, for example. Polian is that guy who is good, but was never that good to claim the title of great. Just good enough, but not quite great = Polian.
I would even argue BB is the greatest architect in SPORTS HISTORY, even better than Red Auerbach or (insert legendary name here).
But, I laugh at other teams like Baltimore, Indy, The Jets, even Pitt....They hold onto to clearly overrated players, and then end up caving with the big deal once their rookie deal expires.
Watch Leonard Williams in NY. The guy basically sucks, is invisible, but since he was taken #6 overall" and was deemed a steal by the Jets, the media is conditioned to believe that.
Deatrich Wise has shown better in 1 year than Williams in 3, for example.
Trey Flowers blows Williams away and Flowers was a 4th rd pick. BB hopefully can quietly give Flowers (and Malcom Brown) extensions, sooner rather than later. This is another thing our AFC rivals don't do. They irrespsonsbily wait too long, because they're technically carrying too many bloated deals, meaning they're really in an early stage of cap hell, with the GM having no leverage.
Look at Colbert right now with LeVeon Bell. They keep doubling down, catering to the primadonnas and they put a stupid deadline on the deal for him, So, he can just squeeze Colbert down to that deadline, but he doesn't have to sign it then, does he? It's just asinine logic.
BB does a nice job nailing down the character, high IQ, coachability elements, so it's hard to complain.
PS Same deal with Ealy...I can still see him earlier this year waving his fingers for the Jets crowd to make more noise, as if he was making plays. The guy checked out, BB sniffed it out, but still knew he had something cooking with Wise/Butler.
