Play GM, fix the Skins...

1. Dump this "draft pick for vet" mentality. How bout we keep and develop some of our own talent for a change? It'd be nice to have more than 4 guys that we drafted start on offense. Free agents should "round" the team out, not comprise the team

2. Trade Betts or Duckett. Can't have two backs like that on the bench, especially when their value plummets to zero after the trade deadline. We won't get the 3rd rounder back from Atl, so we may as well get some production out of the backup rb spot. If I see Betts turn one more five yard gain into a 2 yd loss I'm going to choke myself.

3. Tell Gibbs that we're not that good this year. Maybe Gibbs will keep gutting out these games with Brunell, but no one is enjoying it and it's not helping the Skins either short term or long term right now. In fact, it's hurting us long term because we can't get Campbell on the field who will need time to develop. The clock doesn't start until he hits the field, what are we waiting on exactly?

1. Setup an objective framework for signing players. Basically, what I mean is to have some rules and restraint when it comes to signing players (don't break the bank for every FA).
2. More drafting, less FA. I would like to see us take a more moderate approach to FA and drafting. Ideally, we would build equally through the draft and FA (risk distribution).
3. Improve scouting and value draft picks higher. With an improved scouting department, we'd be able to draft better prospects and our picks would be more valuable to us. Then, we could actually use our draft picks for good players with low salaries. This would in turn lead to better depth.

ok, that was fun ... back to reality :(

everyone on the offense is "proven". in our case its just a matter of "how long ago?"

Well, there is no way Saunders lost it in an offseason.
Not everyone is "proven". Brunell, Lloyd, even ARE are not proven commodities. Only Moss and Cooley are proven.

Portis is proven. And you can use Ill's argument of "how long ago" when talking about Brunell. But you can't say he hasn't proven himself over his career

Well, there is no way Saunders lost it in an offseason.
Not everyone is "proven". Brunell, Lloyd, even ARE are not proven commodities. Only Moss and Cooley are proven.

that was a little jab at Brunell, who i think we can all agree has proven himself in this league in the past (yes including last season), with special emphasis on 'the past'. think the rest you mention are also proven, none are rookies, it's just they're still in their prime.

we can't get clements unless you want to trade something really valuable (like portis or jansen). so that's out. you can't trade betts or duckett cause they only have 10 weeks left on their contracts and zero trade value. same with patten.

-start wynn (over carter), vincent (over arch), and either posey or mcintosh (over holdman), get springs, griffin, and joe back out there :/.

-run the damn ball. 15 carries for portis? wtf is that?

-if brunell can't get it done this week, pull the plug, for good. we've got a bye and nearly no chance to go 8-1 if we tank again.

-stop giving away draft picks, get better value by not insisting on trading up or only scouting a single player (ie at 53 they could have gotten a guy like richard marshall ( NFL.com - Richard Marshall (http://nfl.com/players/playerpage/415972) ) AND another player. marshall would have filled a known need (CB depth), was mentioned here well before the draft, and has played well for carolina).

-use FA to get vets to fill holes (baseline talent/depth/roleplayers) and PROVEN players, instead of paying crap guys like they're all world. (ie. we needed a LB - sign brandon short. that way you don't get locked into players as above... and at vet min, they're very cheap mistakes if they don't work out).


probably more to do, but that's a start. I wish I could say our FO was better than detroit's, but sometimes i'm just not so sure.

Hess, I am all for having a positive winning attitude, being blind to what is broken is not a positive winning attitude -- that is weakness.

It is "too late" to do what a GM does -- make personnel moves that will have an impact on the field.

Regardless of the trade deadline, there is no trade that will help this team this year. That ship has sailed. Signing Vincent is about as good as it is going to get.

And oh, by the way....

The GM generally doesn't have any say in how much someone runs the ball or who starts.


The GM buys the car and the coach drives it.

I'm fully aware of the Skins issues, believe me.. You guys do a GREAT job of figuring it all out and discussing our weaknesses. I just try to interject with positive thoughts any chance I get. I'm the cheerleader...

fix skins:

replace brunell, draft some young offensive line talent.
draft on the defensive line. our WR talent is fine, our RBs are fine. maybe get a LB or two in fa.