Has the truth about the Jalen Saunders fiasco finally surfaced?

[CodieneWanKenobi]

point - you are one of my favorite posters. you call them like you see them, and i have tons of respect for your opinions and especially your knowledge of the college game. i didn't say these picks were unanimously lauded, just that the consensus (imo) on our old board was that they were good picks. you are definitely right that there is some level of home team cheer-leading during the draft.

my perhaps not so veiled comments were mostly directed at certain poster(s) who are leading the pitchfork and torch brigade so soon after slurping the same picks a year (or 2) ago. 55 was geno smith's biggest fan for a year and a half, and now idzik is an idiot for drafting him in the 1st place. i understand opinions can change, and that makes sense as more evidence is built on whether or not a pick is good. but the same guy who is bashing idzik relentlessly is also one who applauded so many of his moves.

you've always been steadfast in your opinions, and are humble enough to admit the times where you were wrong (i think it's happened once or twice...lol). you were critical of both of idzik's drafts, and reading your criticisms definitely made me re-think some of my prior positions given the amount of respect i have for you and your opinions.

Not sure there were many people happy with the Geno pick. I was genuinely shocked that he was even considered a top choice in the draft at all. He had consistency issues in college, which puzzles me as to why they would expect that to dissipate in the NFL playing against the best of the best. When the pick was made I literally grabbed my keys and left my friends house where I was watching the draft.

 

[BlindsideD'Brick]

Classic boogeyman syndrome? That just tells me you're not a boss. You are responsible for the output of your personnel, even if they performed the act, if the department under performs, you are under performing. if Bradway is failing, Idzik is failing. That's what a team is about. Idzik is the boss, and responsible for the output of his department, the output was poor, he takes the ax. It's that simple.

It doesn't take being a boss to see the big picture. I completely understand the reasoning for firing Idzik. Yes, he didn't do enough with the money he had at his disposal to lure more players into the building. I get it. It's been repeated ad nauseum for two full years now. But I'm seeing what Hobson's seeing here: the old "I loved it before I hated it" trickery that you and a few others have resorted to in some attempt to say "see, I told you so!". I also remember many fans on the old board liking the Idzik hire, liking the draft picks, and feeling optimistic about the future. The fact that a committee responsible for finding qualified GM candidates decided on Idzik seemed to put many people's minds at ease that the correct man was chosen. I'm not using revisionist history to make a point. These points are indisputable.

Yes, you and a few others correctly called out the drafting mistakes at WR regarding Bryant and a few others we passed on. Kudos to you. But this all-out blitzkrieg on Idzik has been more emotionally inspired than factually based, IMO. He's deserved criticism and even deserved to lose his job, but you're reshaping of what happened and how people actually feel about Idzik is, as I said earlier, a misrepresentation of the facts. Stop with the "apologists" and "Idzik lovers" garbage. It's just inflammatory baiting.

 

[Pointdexter]

point - you are one of my favorite posters. you call them like you see them, and i have tons of respect for your opinions and especially your knowledge of the college game. i didn't say these picks were unanimously lauded, just that the consensus (imo) on our old board was that they were good picks. you are definitely right that there is some level of home team cheer-leading during the draft.

my perhaps not so veiled comments were mostly directed at certain poster(s) who are leading the pitchfork and torch brigade so soon after slurping the same picks a year (or 2) ago. 55 was geno smith's biggest fan for a year and a half, and now idzik is an idiot for drafting him in the 1st place. i understand opinions can change, and that makes sense as more evidence is built on whether or not a pick is good. but the same guy who is bashing idzik relentlessly is also one who applauded so many of his moves.

you've always been steadfast in your opinions, and are humble enough to admit the times where you were wrong (i think it's happened once or twice...lol). you were critical of both of idzik's drafts, and reading your criticisms definitely made me re-think some of my prior positions given the amount of respect i have for you and your opinions.

Agreed. You can always retain the right to change your mind on a player; no problem there. But when you bash the moves that you overwhelmingly endorsed just a year earlier, it comes off tacky. I think showing a little humility at that point goes a long ways.

 

[BlindsideD'Brick]

Agreed. You can always retain the right to change your mind on a player; no problem there. But when you bash the moves that you overwhelmingly endorsed just a year earlier, it comes off tacky. I think showing a little humility at that point goes a long ways.

Well said, Point.

 

[Old#15]

Not sure there were many people happy with the Geno pick. I was genuinely shocked that he was even considered a top choice in the draft at all. He had consistency issues in college, which puzzles me as to why they would expect that to dissipate in the NFL playing against the best of the best. When the pick was made I literally grabbed my keys and left my friends house where I was watching the draft.

Just for the record, Geno's stats in his final two seasons at WVU were:
73 TDs;
13 INTs;
8500 YDs; and
68% completion rate.

Not sure how inconsistent you can be with those stats. One other thing that I have harped on and seems to be missing from all of the arguments in this thread, and that is the Rex factor. Other than a couple of DLinemen (thank you Karl Dunbar), Rex developed no young players. Maybe that's why we have had some seemingly good drafts on draft day, but 2 years later we are left scratching our heads. In the end I also agreed that Idzik should go, but the connection of Ryan to his failure cannot be ignored. Just my humble opinion.

 

[CodieneWanKenobi]

Just for the record, Geno's stats in his final two seasons at WVU were:
73 TDs;
13 INTs;
8500 YDs; and
68% completion rate.

Not sure how inconsistent you can be with those stats.

68% isn't something to brag about. I judge from what I see. I don't have time to fact check people. I watched his Senior game against Texas Tech and didn't see anything remotely to an NFL quarterback.

 

[Old#15]

68% isn't something to brag about. I judge from what I see. I don't have time to fact check people. I watched his Senior game against Texas Tech and didn't see anything remotely to an NFL quarterback.

Not sure how you feel about Mariota, but he had a 66% completion rate.

 

[CodieneWanKenobi]

Not sure how you feel about Mariota, but he had a 66% completion rate.

I'm aware

 

[Superman55]

Moving on from the butt slapping going on above and QB discussions, if he was a malcontent, good riddance. Just another bad draft pick from the last two years. Facts are facts, even if facts are tacky these days, it was a swing and miss with more talent on the board...but you have to cut cancers out of the locker room so at least we moved quickly to make that happen.

 

[SackExchange]

BS, I was pissed about this pick with bruce Ellington still sitting there. Martavis Bryant was also there.

I remember you were big on Ellington, and I was big on Bryant. Turns out both of us would have picked better than the Saunders pick there.

 

[SackExchange]

Moving on from the butt slapping going on above and QB discussions, if he was a malcontent, good riddance. Just another bad draft pick from the last two years. Facts are facts, even if facts are tacky these days, it was a swing and miss with more talent on the board...but you have to cut cancers out of the locker room so at least we moved quickly to make that happen.

More and more, it makes me question how much homework Idzik and his staff did.

 

[mykcuz]

I think the biggest issue with idzik, is that he was clearly unloading cap and building for the future, and attempting to bring in youth and character. While he was doing all of this, the team wouldn't admit we were rebuilding, and instead was trying to blame the coach for our record. Rex was right, we are what our record says we are, rebuilding.
Not that idzik wasn't great at clearing 60m for us this year, or that Rex is without fault.

I just hate that the front office was in rebuilding mode, and refused to admit it.

The reason people's opinion changed on idzik, in my opinion, is why my opinion changed. We gave him the benefit of the doubt, draft choices were unexpected, but I'd think alright let's see what the staff knows that we don't. Maybe this guy had something. .. but then the team would have glaring, obvious holes that even us fans could see, idzik refused to even address our biggest holes, then the season would play out, and everybody but idzik was right. Our secondary was a joke, and he failed to deliver a wr in a draft producing starters straight through the late rounds.

I feel like his undoing was rebuilding while lying to everyone about being serious contenders.

 

[Savage69]

oh stops with this crap already. there aren't a ton of people who loved idzik. there were some who took a more measured approach, but almost everyone of them (and i was in this group for a time) were 100% on board with him being fired.

Actually most Rex haters were saying dumb Rex made the pick for a player that doesn't even fit his system then when Sheldon shined it became great pick by Idzik..