SMGM free agent signings

[skinsdad62]

Worst Free Agents Signings Under McCloughan

Here are the misses

 

[kbso83432]

This is my one gripe with Scot, yet none of those killed us cap wise like in the past.

 

[gkekoa]

So...his worst signings were on prove it deals or stop gaps. Only Paea had any sort of real contract, and that contract was a low grade starter contract. People are complaining because some of the FAs he signed lived up to their low quality contracts?

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I have refenced this list often because it is worth discussing. Virtually every player, including the only real "prove it deal" in Pot Roast, were signed with the belief that the player would fill a specific role and be an immediate contributor. When they failed miserably you can't just ignore that because it wasn't Albert Haynesworth expensive. We got bad play, costing the team games, and when you add up the money it is a significant amount of cap space wasted both for the time they were here and the future cap hits.

Of course the counter to that was his amazing ability to find in-season replacements. And of course there were a few hits in Ty and Davis. Still it's a concerning record for sure, he must do better.

 

[j_y19]

To truly evaluate his performance in this area, it must be compared to how his peers have performed in FA. My guess is that he is probably in line with his peers. FA is not the panacea some expect it to be. With the exception of the top FAs every year, most of these guys were purposely let go by their previous teams. There is a reason for that. Most FAs are not top performers so you need to expect a fair amount of duds.

 

[kbso83432]

You have a point DGF. If guys like Culliver and Knighton hit we might be real contenders this year, but it seems like Scot is being true to his word by using FA to plug holes for a year or two, just until he can draft the eventual long term replacement.

But when you swing and miss badly on guys like Bruton Jr., and Reyes, and then spend the entire preseason and the first month of the regular season trying to prove yourself right, it cost the team. That's the problem I have. Giving these obvious misses the benifit of the doubt because we spent money on them.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

There should be no doubt they stuck with Bruton way too long and it did cost the team badly. j_y makes a good point about the hit/miss rate around the league, it's hard to really get a handle on that.

 

[gkekoa]

Knighton- one year contract, did not come here to be a star. He was a gap filler.

Jerron Johnson- 2 years, 2 mil per...was not brought here to be the starter. He was brought here to compete.

Chris Collier was brought here to start. He played well before the injuries. SM can't be blamed for injuries.

Kendall Reyes was brought here to compete. He was on a one year contract at 2.5 mil.

Stephen Paea was brought here to start. He didn't really pan out but there are 5 million dollar backups in the league. In no way is a DE at 5 mil per going to be a sure thing or close to great.

David Bruton was brought here with the hope of being a starter. 3 mil is not the value of a starting SS in the NFL.

 

[reptec101]

Hey, if you don't like SM we can always go back to Vinnie.

Thought so....

So lets all just shut the F up about Scott and focus on these damn birds Tomorrow.

 

[Sportster 72]

No one mentioned Will Blackmon or Mason Foster that I noticed. SM brought them in. I think Rashad Ross too.

 

[kbso83432]

I'm gonna speak on whatever the hell I feel like speaking on. I was the one who posted the thread "I still trust Scot," in September. STFU? Come on man, keep it respectful.

 

[reptec101]

Listen, every GM out there is gonna miss on some. I'm pretty excited we have a GM here in Washington with a good track-record. Now, if he finds a way to F up on resigning KC then ill piss on him some myself. Until then I'm pretty happy with the guy and ill focus only on his hits. Wasn't disrespecting anybody... just think he's done more good than harm.

 

[kbso83432]

More good than harm, no question. He's changed the culture of this team. No more running upstairs to Dan (Portis, RG3) No more trading high picks for guys in their 30's. Gotta get the KC deal done.

 

[Breed]

Jeron Johnson was a useless move that amounted to nothing except a loty of undeserved hype of Johnson and unfounded hope for Skins fans that we landed a safety.

Chris Culliver was a terrible move and the Skins were fortunate it worked out as well as he did for them.

David Bruton - I don't know who was watching him in practice one day and thought, "Hmm, he should get a chance to be a starter." He wqas fuckin terrible in covetrage, tackling, run game, pretty much everythang.

 

[Breed]

Hey, if you don't like SM we can always go back to Vinnie.

Thought so....

So lets all just shut the F up about Scott and focus on these damn birds Tomorrow.

Not that anyone would want to, but no, we can't go back to Vinnie.

 

[j_y19]

Jeron Johnson was a useless move that amounted to nothing except a loty of undeserved hype of Johnson and unfounded hope for Skins fans that we landed a safety.

Chris Culliver was a terrible move and the Skins were fortunate it worked out as well as he did for them.

David Bruton - I don't know who was watching him in practice one day and thought, "Hmm, he should get a chance to be a starter." He wqas fuckin terrible in covetrage, tackling, run game, pretty much everythang.

I agree with everything said here, breed. But isn't this kinda cherry picking? Don't ya think we could go through every GM in the league and find 3 FA busts that would make it look like the GM had no clue?

I think that is the rub some have with this thread. It seems that there a a few here that are appear to be judging SM by these FA signings that are busts without really looking at his entire FA signings, their values//exposure to the cap, what else was available (who he missed on and why), how big the hole was he was trying to fill, and how his peers have done in this area (hit rate). Have there been misses? Absolutely. But there have also been hits. Everyone of these guys mentioned are backups in the league at best. But we were so void of talent when SM got here that we had to sign way too many FAs as starters than most good teams.

It's year 2. Lets give the guy a chance to shape the roster as he envisions it long term........I think everyone agrees the trajectory is in the right direction. But there will be misses, both in FA and the draft (hell, Doctson may be a miss) but the overall talent on this team is light years ahead of where we were 3 years ago. This is mostly all due to SM (and, surprisingly, a very good draft by Allen the year before SM got here).

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

But it's not just 3, the article pointed to 6 very clear misses. These 6 players were signed to play key roles, either as projected starters in the vast majoirity of caes or at the very least they would be in the rotation and key ST players. Bottom line is every one of them failed in those roles including Culliver who very clearly did not play well when healthy.

And again pointing these misses out hardly means we are not onboard with SM, not even close.

 

[j_y19]

But it's not just 3, the article pointed to 6 very clear misses. These 6 players were signed to play key roles, either as projected starters in the vast majoirity of caes or at the very least they would be in the rotation and key ST players. Bottom line is every one of them failed in those roles including Culliver who very clearly did not play well when healthy.

And again pointing these misses out hardly means we are not onboard with SM, not even close.

Not suggesting you aren't on board. What I am suggesting is that you can't view these six in a microcosm. You need to evaluate them in the overall situation he had. How critical was the hole he was trying to fill? What other options did he have and passed on? How punishing was the miss to the overall cap?

Just because they were signed in the hopes they could temporarily fill a starters role doesn't mean they were legitimate starters, it could be that they were the best option of a bunch of bad options. I can't believe he ever signed Bruton expecting him to be our solution at the position, only hoping he might be able to hold down the fort until the long term solution could be found. So if one wants to offer data that SM passed on player xyz in favor of a Bruton, and player xyz is now a legitimate starter on another, then I could sympathize with the point. The only one I truly think he blew was Johnson. Only because he knew of Johnson in his time at Seattle so he should have had better insight into his capabilities.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

Not suggesting you aren't on board. What I am suggesting is that you can't view these six in a microcosm. You need to evaluate them in the overall situation he had. How critical was the hole he was trying to fill? What other options did he have and passed on? How punishing was the miss to the overall cap?

Just because they were signed in the hopes they could temporarily fill a starters role doesn't mean they were legitimate starters, it could be that they were the best option of a bunch of bad options. I can't believe he ever signed Bruton expecting him to be our solution at the position, only hoping he might be able to hold down the fort until the long term solution could be found. So if one wants to offer data that SM passed on player xyz in favor of a Bruton, and player xyz is now a legitimate starter on another, then I could sympathize with the point. The only one I truly think he blew was Johnson. Only because he knew of Johnson in his time at Seattle so he should have had better insight into his capabilities.

Again Bruton and Johnson were young players playing on very good defenses behind established stars. I find it hard to believe that they were not signed to complete for and hopefully nail down the position for years to come. They were simply not the same as signing an old vet with a year or 2 left. Were there better options? Impossible for me to know that. All I know is these options failed and that's what we are discussing.

 

[j_y19]

Again Bruton and Johnson were young players playing on very good defenses behind established stars. I find it hard to believe that they were not signed to complete for and hopefully nail down the position for years to come. They were simply not the same as signing an old vet with a year or 2 left. Were there better options? Impossible for me to know that. All I know is these options failed and that's what we are discussing.

And I don't know, either. My point being is that if you really want to do a fair analysis, you need to factor that in. Let's face it. When he signed those 2, we had nothing at the position. So he had to do something. They might have been his best option, but that doesn't mean he believed they were the final answer. Johnson was signed for $2M per year and Bruton $3m per year. Not exactly starter money for the position if he thought they were the answers.