Well, I guess someone has to step up & defend Casserly & I'm here to volunteer for the job.
First off, in my opinion, the GM has to work with the coach in regards to what players he needs to make his particular offensive/defensive system work. Any GM that chooses players without the coaches opinions weighing in heavily on the pick, is an *****.
Okay, it appears that Casserly made a huge mistake in trading for P-Buc. Not for being proactive & trying to fill a definite need with a young veteran player, but for being overly aggressive & not doing his homework on this trade. In other words, he trusted his scouting department's evaluation & didn't ask the right questions. McNair admits that he made the same mistake, & he owns the business (team).
Show me one GM in the entire history of the NFL, or any sport for that matter, that hasn't made a major blunder during his career, & I'll show you God himself. No GM can look at every snippet of film for every player & go over every bit of information by himself (he should try, though). He has to be able to depend on the people that work for him to make the correct evaluations. Ultimately though, because he's the boss over the scouting department, he gets all the credit & all the blame.
Al Davis has made his reputation by taking on misfits that no other team in the NFL would touch with a 10 foot pole. Does anyone know how many of those moves failed to work out? There's no doubt that P-Buc has the intangibles (speed/athleticism) to be a great CB someday. It's possible that he only needs the right coach to bring it out in him. Look what Bum was able to do with a bunch of players that wouldn't have made it on another team.
The only other real mistake that I believe Casserly made was taking Hollings with a 2nd round pick, with just 4 games of experience. Mind you, those 4 games were spectacular & if he had developed, Casserly would've looked like a genious for taking him with what looked like a late 2nd round pick at the time. Who could've foreseen Oakland's collapse?
I truely believe that the Babin pick was pushed by Capers. Since I'm just like everyone else on this board, in that I have no clue what went on in the war room, I'm going to assume that Capers told Casserly to do whatever it took to get Babin. And, Casserly did just that. It's not cheap trading back into the 1st round. Now, while Babin hasn't taken the league by storm, he has shown that he's got the talent to be a very good OLB someday. In my opinion, he needs to increase his upper body strength & develop some strong moves to the QB. That's where the coaches come in. The kid has the quickness to get around almost any RT, but he keeps getting tied up by them & the TE's.
Okay, let's take a look at the drafts that Casserly has had. In 4 drafts, CC has drafted 39 players (this includes Hollings & Milford Brown as supplemental picks). Of those 39 players, 29 of them are still in the NFL as a player in some capacity. That's 74% of the players he's drafted. 26 of them are on the Texan's roster & 20 of those players have either been starters, or contributors in the playing rotation at some point in their careers. That's 51% of the players that have contributed in some way. Of the remaining 3 players (Henson, Baxter, & S.Thomas), Baxter has started for the Texans & Arizona, while Henson & Thomas are just reserves.
Let's take a look at where the GM & scouting departments really make their marks, the 5th-7th rounds. Casserly has drafted 19 players in these rounds & 11 of them (Baxter, R.Walker, Faggins, Henson, Pearce, J.Lord, C.Anderson, S.Thomas, Hodgdon, C.C.Brown, & Pettway) are still in the NFL. That's 58%. 7 of those players (Baxter, R.Walker, Faggins, Pearce, C.Anderson, Hodgdon, & C.C. Brown) are, or have been, starters at some point.
It's not like Casserly isn't a good GM, he's just made some moves that many of us just disagree with. The one move that sticks out most in my mind is drafting B.J.Symons in the 7th round of the 2004 draft, when we had Carr, Banks, & Ragone on the roster. We didn't need another passing QB to groom, when we had a line that couldn't pass block to save their lives (err..., Carr's life). We needed OL or DL help in the worst way. One player that I'd been touting was Jordan Carstens (6'5" 300lbs. DT). He had all the intangibles (size, strength, quickness) & did well at the combine. He would've been a much better pick than Symons. Unfortunately, he went undrafted & was signed as an undrafted rookie by Carolina. He's now, their starting RDT & has 25 tackles/3 sacks for the year. By the way, Carolina at 9-3, is tied for the 3rd best record in the NFL this year.
Anyway, even with the mistakes he has made, I believe that Casserly is a good GM & should be retained for at least one more year. But, that's just my opinion.
Does'nt like to tackle and can't cover WRs . Do you get the feeling all GM's line up to call CC when they need picks .
) I believe that Justice injects a lot of personal opinion in his columns and just a little fact.
