The problem is that our front office sucks at evaluating talent, and then when it actually stumbles into some talent like a blind squirrel tripping over a nut, we don't bother to re-sign them, and instead throw money at free agents from other teams.
Here's a great example: Rishard Matthews. He was a Miami Dolphin who was drafted and then developed by the team for FOUR YEARS. Finally, in 2015, he had the chance to start (mostly by accident) and here's what happened when he was targeted:
2015: 61 targets, 43 receptions, 662 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception. Passer Rating: 121.1(!) - overall team passer rating was 88.9. When targeted, passing offense was 32.2 rating points better(!) than team average.
Then we let him walk to Tennessee, who signed him for a paltry 3 years, 15 million dollars. That's peanuts! That's nothing! And what has he done in 2 years in Tennessee? He's been good.
2016: 108 targets, 65 receptions, 945 yards, 9 touchdowns, 4 interceptions. Passer Rating: 101.0 - overall team passer rating was 93.7. When targeted, passing offense was 7.3 rating points better than team average.
2017: 68 targets, 41 receptions, 626 yards, 3 touchdowns, 4 interceptions. Passer Rating: 88.9 - overall team passer rating is 76.6. When targeted, passing offense is 12.3 rating points better than team average.
Instead of keeping players like Matthews on the roster, we have elected to trade draft picks for different receivers (Carroo and Stills) who have actually underperformed compared to the rest of our receiving group for the most part during their time in Miami. I like Kenny Stills, he's a great deep ball specialist, but it is inexcusable to have burned four draft picks plus a big chunk of cap space on a pair of receivers who aren't improving our offense by comparison to the guy who walked away for next to nothing.
So when I saw this this morning, I laughed:
Really? I get that perhaps he was not happy down here with Joe Philbin, but when he walked, Philbin had been fired. It should have been possible to work with him toward a fair contract extension. We didn't even try, because we wanted to showcase the guy we had just traded a 3rd round draft pick for, Kenny Stills.
He's certainly not the only one. We've had horrible struggles at cornerback, to the point that we had to go dredge up Byron Maxwell as a grossly overpaid starter in 2016, when we could have just tried to re-sign Nolan Carroll on a modest contract after he had shown that he was capable of being a serviceable NFL cornerback. Again, we develop players and then when they start to show that they are capable of being productive, decent players for us, we let them walk in order to blow more draft picks and money on unknown quantities or has-beens.
Jeff Ireland sucked. Dennis Hickey kind of sucked. Mike Tannenbaum...
The problem isn't Ross, the problem is the people Ross has put in charge of building the roster. They are ****ing stupid.
