Article: More NFL people come to the defense of Ireland (good read in my opinion)

[ChambersWI]

Ireland will be judged both fairly and unfairly for his first couple of years here cause of Bill Parcells. We honestly don't know who should get credit for what, but we can guess.

At the same time, anybody who says the team is getting worse with Ireland as GM is either A)A huge hater or B)Has a very short memory. While he is not the greatest GM, I honestly feel as though people really forget how bad our drafting was before he and Parcells (since we can't really judge who was in charge of drafting until last year) got here. Again, the year before he got here we had 10 Picks. Do you know how many are still on the team? 2. TWO PICKS. One is a punter and the other is Solia. How about the year before that? Zero. 2005 before that? Zero. 2004? Zero. Now that Bell was cut there are zero from 2003, there are zero from 2002. And so forth. Now it's not just these guys aren't on our team any more, a lot of them are no longer in the league anymore.

Now Ireland's drafts in terms of players still on the team haven't been great, but we have gotten players who are highly thought of around the league and can be building blocks.

It can be a lot worse than Ireland and we have had it a lot worse.

Of course another huge problem (especially here) is that a lot of people jump at a claim on twitter and start posting things as fact or done deals.

 

[Nublar7]

Ireland will be judged both fairly and unfairly for his first couple of years here cause of Bill Parcells. We honestly don't know who should get credit for what, but we can guess.

At the same time, anybody who says the team is getting worse with Ireland as GM is either A)A huge hater or B)Has a very short memory. While he is not the greatest GM, I honestly feel as though people really forget how bad our drafting was before he and Parcells (since we can't really judge who was in charge of drafting until last year) got here. Again, the year before he got here we had 10 Picks. Do you know how many are still on the team? 2. TWO PICKS. One is a punter and the other is Solia. How about the year before that? Zero. 2005 before that? Zero. 2004? Zero. Now that Bell was cut there are zero from 2003, there are zero from 2002. And so forth. Now it's not just these guys aren't on our team any more, a lot of them are no longer in the league anymore.

Now Ireland's drafts in terms of players still on the team haven't been great, but we have gotten players who are highly thought of around the league and can be building blocks.

It can be a lot worse than Ireland and we have had it a lot worse.

Of course another huge problem (especially here) is that a lot of people jump at a claim on twitter and start posting things as fact or done deals.

I just want to chime in on the drafts of Ireland. We don't know who was behind the picks in 2008-2010, whether it was Ireland, Parcells or some sort of joint agreement. So to FAIRLY judge Ireland, we really should start with the 2011 draft and the upcoming draft in three weeks. It is easy to praise Ireland for getting a four time Pro Bowl LT in Jake Long or ripping him for Pat White(who lasted in the NFL one season), but no one can truly sit there and say "That pick was Parcells" or "That pick was Ireland."

Still early to judge the 2010 draft as it usually takes three years to get a firm grasp on a draft class. For example, look at Paul Soliai. He wasn't very good his first three seasons and was so hated by the fans that he wasn't even a sure thing to make the 2010 roster. He started the 2010 season as a backup and first got playing time as a starter after Odrick got injured and McDaniel got suspended(which forced Starks, who was the NT at the time, to play end). He played great in 2010 and is now coming off a year in which he was named to the Pro Bowl. So it is never really fair to say "this player sucks" after just one year.

With that said, the 2011 draft has POTENTIAL to be one of the better drafts in quite some time. Pouncey was solid last season and should only continue to get better. Daniel Thomas fought injuries all year and hit the rookie wall near the end, though he still was the leading rookie rusher in 2011. If he can shake off the injuries, the former Big 12 rushing champion, could blossom this season. Gates was very raw coming out of college, and that was evident last season. He was invisible in the passing game, but did a good job as a returner. I would expect the plan is to get Gates more involved in the passing game this season. If he can get his route running together he can be a dangerous deep threat. He might be the type of player though that won't fully blossom until year 3. Clay came on late last year, and Philbin has already mentioned they have big plans for him. 7th round picks rarely turn into much, as we saw that Kearse is already gone, but Wilson actually contributed last season.

Not a "sexy" first draft class for Ireland, but the potential is there to be one of the better ones in quite some time. I am excited to see what he can do in his second draft in full control. Especially that he has more early draft picks than last year. He has 5 picks in the first four rounds, while he only had 3 picks last year.

 

[2413fanphins]

my only complaint about last years draft would be taking DT for multiple picks, when he could have had a better back in mark ingram for one pick...

I would never in a million years be in favor of picking a center at 15... thats very poor value in my book. DO I like the player pouncey appears to be... absolutley... would I have addressed a different need at 15... you bet I would have...

I was not jumping for joy over the gates pick... and charles clay has turned out to be a nice player to this point...

jimmy wilson... meeehhhhh.....

I'd give last years draft a solid C... one starter, albeit in the first round... traded away our 2nd rounder for a guy we don't even have on the team anymore, and than traded up for a RB that I wasn't that high on coming out of kstate and who also hasn't panned out to this point.. not that he wont'..

gates contributed very little if anything... and wilson is a huge question mark....

so you have 1 starter and a guy who contributes albeit very little in clay... all after one year though, and I'd be willing to give them three years to see what kind of final grade I would give I suppose...

we need more than one starter out of each draft or we'll be discussing in threads like this for a long damn time, tell you that right now...

 

[fishbanger]

If he does not get a long term QB that can start his contract wont be renewed. GM has done a good job drafting def players but an aweful one of drafting offensive players that can put points on the board. You can get all the great draft picks you want but without a winning QB then it is like its been for the last 15 Years except for when Pennington played for that first year. GM hs one more year to prove himself. If we have 4 straight years of losing then find someone that can build a team.