He has been GM since 2008 and his last draft was a bad as his first. Even if you want to 'cherrypick' the last 4 years, I count 8 out of 32 guys that you would say were good choices if you had to do it over. 4:1.
I'm no Ireland supporter by any means but I do tell it like it is and I've said it before...25% hit rate, as in players that contribute and stick on an NFL roster, is about the league average. Only the elite drafting teams like Green Bay hit at near 40% of the players they draft.
Where Ireland has failed is in getting elite players and difference makers. I rated him last year at 15th out of 32...he's in the middle like our team has been for most of his tenure. His draft philosophies and player value chart is outdated. For instance, he values D-line and O-line above skill positions and while he's done a good job on D-line is been awful at finding O-lineman. I also question his ability to draft for a WCO and a 4-3 defense vs. Power scheme/vertical offense and 3-4 defense. I view his drafting of Olivier Vernon, he has developed extremely well but looks more like a 3-4 OLB, and Dion Jordan, also more of an OLB in the 3-4, as evidence. In his 6 drafts he has only drafted a WR in the top 3 rounds once...that was Patrick Turner, Egnew was more of a makeup draft pick IMO for missing Jimmy Graham who he waited too long for (I believe Ireland and Parcells wanted Graham in the 4th...undervaluing the position and the player in this case), but Egnew is the highest drafted TE he's had in his 6 drafts. A fairly important position in the WCO.
You can kind of tell which positions he feels comfortable drafting by the free agents he gets. He doesn't like drafting WRs so he would rather spend more money in free agency than taking the risk of drafting one, linebackers are another....Dansby, Burnett, Wheeler, Ellerbe are free agent signings while Misi (2nd round), Kaddu (5th round), Jenkins (5th round), Spitler (7th round) were his draft picks and Kaddu and Spitler were strictly supposed to be special teams. He's not spending high draft picks on linebackers. When you consider Long, Pouncey, Odrick and Jordan were 4 of his 6 picks in the first round you can quickly see his comfort zone is O-line and D-line in the draft. Vontae Davis didn't work out...again, no team hits 100% even in the first round that stuff happens and Tannehill was a no-brainer IMO. We needed a QB, Tannehill's HC was our new OC, Tannehill was a guy that I really wanted even though some were against it....that pick just made sense...so did Vontae really but it just didn't work out.
