It looks like Ross is off to a good start and has a smart process in place with regard to fixing things:
-Grier goes first. Biggest issue in my view is the GM. Despite the rumblings we heard that Ross believes in continuity and no changes were going to be made, clearly they were ready to go. The decision was not just made after the Ravens game. That firing happened quickly, and the press release was out as well, which was probably drawn up awhile ago. These things just do not happen overnight, they had been thinking about it for some time. My view, it was a combination of the loss, and the Dolphins fans with bags over their heads that left early, as well as the stadium full of Ravens fans, that did it. The other issue was the fact that our offense seemed so boring and listless, it was clear to Ross he no longer had a product to sell and something had to be done.
-They had a decision in place to make Champ Kelly the interim GM as well. More importantly, they made it clear Champ Kelly is only the interim GM, and they did not make the mistake of committing to him as the new guy. I hope there is some oversight with regard to his behavior at the deadline. I am not into ownership meddling, but this is a special situation. Kelly was not hired to be GM, and is not qualified in my view. Therefore you do not want him to have carte blanche.
-They will go through a full process to find a GM. This is good. An early start is good in this regard. That is the right way to do it. Leave no stone un-turned. I do not know if they are allowed to start speaking with people that are on different teams (without being able to hire them), or they can just assemble a list of names at this point. Regardless, they are getting an early start. What I would like to know is who is on their search committee? This is important, especially given our track record of hiring people. I would add Jimmy Johnson, and believe it or not Pat Riley if I could. Guys that understand winning, and the value of toughness and culture.
-I can live with them keeping McDaniel for the time being. It is not like Weaver or Bevell are great choices either and need an audition. My guess is they just kept McDaniel around for stability reasons, and viewed it as too chaotic to do both guys at the deadline. The probably viewed McDaniel as inconsequential at this point, and want to leave the decision to the new GM - McDaniel is most likely a dead man walking. If they force McDaniel on to the new GM, and the new GM is willing to have a HC forced on him that he doesn't want, almost by definition we will have hired a chump GM, and the same thing is going to happen all over again. But, I do not want to accuse them of something they have not done yet. It will also be interesting to see if McDaniel starts doing things differently, knowing he may not be around much longer. Maybe he grows a little more spine because he realizes there is no downside at this point as he is probably done.
Of course, there is process, and there is execution. Again, I do not want to accuse them of something they have not done (screwed up), yet. But this is one reason I suggested adding Jimmy Johnson and Pat Riley to the search committee.
-Also with regard to McDaniel, Stephen A Smith went on this rant (video below) where he seemingly implied Grier's firing was about race and McDaniel is still in the job because he is the white guy. Really Stephen? Let's see. McDaniel is black too. His dad is black. If that doesn't make him black, Mr. Smith should be prepared to tell Kamala Harris that she is not black either. Then Grier is being replaced by a black guy in Champ Kelly. If this was about race, why would we have had a black GM to begin with for all of these years? We also just had a black head coach prior to McDaniel. Black head coach and black GM is a pretty good thing. Prior to that, Ross had fired numerous white head coaches and white GMs - maybe according to Mr. Smith Ross discriminates against white people too? Then of course most importantly, Grier has massively sucked at his job for a long time on every dimension possible, and saddled them with a bunch of terrible and costly contracts that will make this rebuild an ugly and lengthy process. Then of course it is highly likely McDaniel will be gone too as I described above in the prior dash point. Smith fails to mention these things. This firing was not about race, it was about merit. McDaniel is not keeping his job because of race either, and again, technically he is black. McDaniel is just a placeholder and probably some form of perceived stability as doing both at once would be a bit chaotic, especially right in front of the deadline. McDaniel has also not sucked at his job as long as Grier either, nor are his decisions as consequential as far as the duration of their implications. Logically, Grier should have been the first to go. None of this is about race.
-Grier goes first. Biggest issue in my view is the GM. Despite the rumblings we heard that Ross believes in continuity and no changes were going to be made, clearly they were ready to go. The decision was not just made after the Ravens game. That firing happened quickly, and the press release was out as well, which was probably drawn up awhile ago. These things just do not happen overnight, they had been thinking about it for some time. My view, it was a combination of the loss, and the Dolphins fans with bags over their heads that left early, as well as the stadium full of Ravens fans, that did it. The other issue was the fact that our offense seemed so boring and listless, it was clear to Ross he no longer had a product to sell and something had to be done.
-They had a decision in place to make Champ Kelly the interim GM as well. More importantly, they made it clear Champ Kelly is only the interim GM, and they did not make the mistake of committing to him as the new guy. I hope there is some oversight with regard to his behavior at the deadline. I am not into ownership meddling, but this is a special situation. Kelly was not hired to be GM, and is not qualified in my view. Therefore you do not want him to have carte blanche.
-They will go through a full process to find a GM. This is good. An early start is good in this regard. That is the right way to do it. Leave no stone un-turned. I do not know if they are allowed to start speaking with people that are on different teams (without being able to hire them), or they can just assemble a list of names at this point. Regardless, they are getting an early start. What I would like to know is who is on their search committee? This is important, especially given our track record of hiring people. I would add Jimmy Johnson, and believe it or not Pat Riley if I could. Guys that understand winning, and the value of toughness and culture.
-I can live with them keeping McDaniel for the time being. It is not like Weaver or Bevell are great choices either and need an audition. My guess is they just kept McDaniel around for stability reasons, and viewed it as too chaotic to do both guys at the deadline. The probably viewed McDaniel as inconsequential at this point, and want to leave the decision to the new GM - McDaniel is most likely a dead man walking. If they force McDaniel on to the new GM, and the new GM is willing to have a HC forced on him that he doesn't want, almost by definition we will have hired a chump GM, and the same thing is going to happen all over again. But, I do not want to accuse them of something they have not done yet. It will also be interesting to see if McDaniel starts doing things differently, knowing he may not be around much longer. Maybe he grows a little more spine because he realizes there is no downside at this point as he is probably done.
Of course, there is process, and there is execution. Again, I do not want to accuse them of something they have not done (screwed up), yet. But this is one reason I suggested adding Jimmy Johnson and Pat Riley to the search committee.
-Also with regard to McDaniel, Stephen A Smith went on this rant (video below) where he seemingly implied Grier's firing was about race and McDaniel is still in the job because he is the white guy. Really Stephen? Let's see. McDaniel is black too. His dad is black. If that doesn't make him black, Mr. Smith should be prepared to tell Kamala Harris that she is not black either. Then Grier is being replaced by a black guy in Champ Kelly. If this was about race, why would we have had a black GM to begin with for all of these years? We also just had a black head coach prior to McDaniel. Black head coach and black GM is a pretty good thing. Prior to that, Ross had fired numerous white head coaches and white GMs - maybe according to Mr. Smith Ross discriminates against white people too? Then of course most importantly, Grier has massively sucked at his job for a long time on every dimension possible, and saddled them with a bunch of terrible and costly contracts that will make this rebuild an ugly and lengthy process. Then of course it is highly likely McDaniel will be gone too as I described above in the prior dash point. Smith fails to mention these things. This firing was not about race, it was about merit. McDaniel is not keeping his job because of race either, and again, technically he is black. McDaniel is just a placeholder and probably some form of perceived stability as doing both at once would be a bit chaotic, especially right in front of the deadline. McDaniel has also not sucked at his job as long as Grier either, nor are his decisions as consequential as far as the duration of their implications. Logically, Grier should have been the first to go. None of this is about race.
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