A year of mistakes and fallacies 2004

[dlockz]

Why did we trade Ogunleye? We said it was money but he got a six year 33 million dollar contract and we signed Kevin carter the next year for 30 million over the same time frame. They have the same number of tackles and Ogun is much younger 4 years and has more sacks. Not only that but we traded for a WR that was not exactly cheap(I like Booker). The Wanny years really doomed our franchise and am glad that we seem to be looking on the upswing. That last year was a doozy.

Traded a top DE for a third a high paid player.
Traded a 2nd for Feeley
Traded a 3rd for Gordon
Trade an extra fourth rounder to get a OT that nobody was moving up to get and we moved up a whopping 1 spot. Hmm maybe if we traded our second or third rounder then we could have moved up and got Ben Rothlisburger. I'm sure the second would have done it.

Signed Reggie Howard to a 20 million dollar contract
Not to mention Ricky jumped ship, no telling how much was to do with bad management.
Named Forester offensive coordinator worst move since Kippy Brown.
Kept jay Fielder as starter
kept Wanny as coach.

And the coup de grace named Rick Speilman GM. If this man ever gets another GM job it would be amazing. He makes Matt Millen seem smart.

Damn 2005 seems great and even though Gus sucks things don't feel as bad.

 

[PhinsPhan]

You are going to get alot of "it's the past, let it go" comments.

But I for one like talking about how much of an idiot Wannstedt is. For some reason I just can't help but laugh whenever someone cracks a Wanny joke or I see his stupid face.

But I do feel your post fell short in a couple of areas.

1) Playcalling. Dumbstedt just didn't know how to play a game without running the ball 40 times. It was awful to watch and even worse was watching our oline trying to block.
2) Draft. Don't stop at Vernon Carey, lets talk about the rest of our draft. Or for that matter previous drafts. I guess you can only have so good of a draft when you trade away all your picks though.
3) Aging our defense an extra year. Does anyone ever think about how long those guys were on the field last year. Essentially they played two season out there, I am sure it somewhat shortened the careers of our vets.

But the reason for O-Gun was because he was not affordable at the time. Only after Saban took control did this team turn from a cap hell in the next couple of years to one of the best situations in the league. Don't forget we had to release Surtain too, so it is not like we had the money to spend on Ogunleye. Kevin Carters contract is essentially 2 years with a 3rd year option I believe. The rest of the money back logged shouldn't be factored in because it simply won't matter.

Alot of critics and analysts at the time said that O-gun trade was good for us. We got a pro bowl receiever and a 3rd for a secondary pass rusher. Don't forget whoever plays opposite JT has always had good numbers.

Also Kevin Carter was considered a top 5 free agent last year. He had alot of 'value.' Picking up players with value is how to make a successful franchise, not just spending money on young guys. a la Patriots.

 

[dlockz]

I'm fairly sure that since it would have been the first year of the contract we could have afforded Ogun considering the cap hit for Booker would have been about the same plus we wasted some of Ogun's earned money on scrub Reggie Howard.


As for playcalling hmm it was pretty bad throughout the Johnson/Wanny Years. I am not a big fan of our redzone play calling this season. We have Ronnie and Ricky for good reason don't put the game in the hands of our passing game at a crucial time. We blew two games in a row with awful playcalling at end of game and almost lost to the Bills because of it.

 

[dlockz]

Plus I think that Ogun has proved he is capable this season and Taylor would probably benefit from playing alongside Ogun also. carter is far from a special player, but he is good.


As for the past we must look at the past to learn from our mistakes hopefully.

 

[bakedmatt]

both booker and carter's contracts are more manageable than ogunleye's would have been. for instance, carter's contract is essentially a 2 year contract, because it doesn't inflate until that time. and booker's contract never really takes off because we aren't responsible for his signing bonus.

 

[Hasta]

I'm glad all that stuff happened...we got a real coach out of the deal.