GM discussion: Are you happy with your teams current GM?

[FrantikRam]

5 hours ago, jrry32 said:

Hell yes. People have given our GM a hard time for being so willing to trade away first round picks, but I love the boldness and aggressiveness. He doesn't always get it right, but Les Snead is significantly better than average when it comes to player evaluations. A lot of people threw in the towel on the Rams after we let go/dumped quite a few well known players this off-season, but as one of the youngest teams in the league, we're leading the NFCW. You can argue with the Cooks and Watkins trades (I am good with both in retrospect), but the Ramsey trade has been a homerun thus far.

Just to demonstrate how good Snead is when it comes to player evaluations, here are a good number of the starters on our first place team:

WR Cooper Kupp (3rd round pick)

WR Robert Woods (Relative bargain in FA)

TE Tyler Higbee (4th round pick)

LG David Edwards (5th round pick)

C Austin Blythe (Waivers)

RG Austin Corbett (traded a 5th round pick)

NT Sebastian Joseph-Day (6th round pick)

OLB Justin Hollins (Waivers)

ILB Micah Kiser (5th round pick)

CB Darious Williams (Waivers)

CB Troy Hill (Waivers)

FS John Johnson III (3rd round pick)

SS Jordan Fuller (6th round pick)

The secondary that has been arguably the NFL's best this year is comprised of Jalen Ramsey, some waiver signings, and a couple mid to late round picks. Our interior OL, which is one of the better in the NFL, is comprised of a waiver signing, a late round pick, and a guy dumped for a late round pick. My hat is off to Snead. He manages to keep finding players despite the fact that we keep trading premium picks.

What are his cons? He has given out some contracts to young players that ended up being mistakes (Cooks and Gurley). 

 

Just to add on to this:

Most fans and the media have crushed the Rams for going "all in" in 2018. But the last two drafts yielded:

Taylor Rapp - hurt right now but plays nickel S and is decent

Darrell Henderson - won't be a work horse but appears to be a key part of our committee

David Edwards - starting G

Bobby Evans - swing T with potential

Cam Akers - looks better each week

Van Jefferson - probably start next year and has looked good

Jordan Fuller - home run 6th round pick

There are others that I'm excited about like T Lewis, Greg Gaines, David Long that haven't seen a ton of playing time yet.

We've done this by utilizing the comp pick formula, similar to how the Patriots have - so a look at the Dante Fowler trade: we traded a 3rd and a fifth rounder for him, he played a part in our defense dominating in the playoffs in 2018, had double digit sacks in 2019, and we'll get a 3rd round comp pick for him after this year.

 

Gurley was the huge mistake - I imagine McVay pushed for the Cooks trade and once you made that trade, had to sign him.

[Gmen]

After a four game winning streak, something we haven't seen in NY in a long long time, I might be a bit rosy on Dave Gettleman so bear with me here.

His free agent signings on the defensive side of the ball this past offseason have been fantastic.

• James Bradberry - Playing like one of the top 5 cornerbacks in the game right now
• Leonard Williams - Gettleman took a lot of crap for trading a 3rd round pick on an expiring contract, but Williams is playing like the 6th overall pick that he was.  Just a wrecking ball.  Sorry Jets fans.  Giants need to find a way to lock him up.
• Blake Martinez - Super active tackling machine.  Probably the most impactful linebacker on the Giants since Antonio Pierce
• Logan Ryan - Smart, heady veteran has done a great job at free safety

He hired Joe Judge.  Not many Belicheck disciples have had success in this league, but I think Joe Judge is the real deal.  Despite a 1 - 7 start, he had this team playing hard.  He preached that as long as they keep playing the right way, the wins will eventually start to come - and they did.  He's both a good leader, and a good educator.  Really glad the Giants took a chance on Judge is lieu of a re-tread like McCarthy.

And finally, Daniel Jones had been playing better before his injury.  Gettleman put his career on the line by drafting Daniel Jones.  The jury is still out, but I think if he finishes the season strong the Giants are going to keep moving forward with Jones at QB in 2021. 

All that being said, I think Gettleman might retire after the season.

[vikingsrule]

Spielman has gotten stale for me. He’s landed a number of good players over the years, and miraculously, the Vikes are still in the playoff hunt despite gutting the roster this year.

My biggest concern is the QB position. I have little faith that Spielman can find a long term QBOTF. He seems content going the win now route with veteran options and his draft picks (Teddy and Ponder) didn’t work out. 

So everything else has been good and Spielman maximizes the value of his picks (though last year was ridiculously annoying with 15 picks) but I don’t think he can build a great team (which is mostly characterized by having a great franchise QB).

[August4th]

I think my GM should be in the HOF, I just wish he drafted cornerbacks better

[Daniel]

I am very happy with the Titans GM.

He’s been way above the average in the draft, does well in free agency, and has made good hires. Bonus that he’s from Tennessee, so he’ll stay here forever and won’t be looking to work anywhere else.

I mean, I could nitpick about a few things, but it would be nitpicking. After suffering through Ruston Webster, I will easily forgive a few mulligans.

His 2020 draft is off to a terrible start, but his 2019 class is quickly looking like one of the best in franchise history.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

I have very mixed feelings about Eric DeCosta, mostly centered around how he did absolutely nothing to help Lamar this year aside from drafting JK Dobbins, who our coaching staff refuse to use. everything else he did benefited the defense.

However, what he's done via trades has been northing short of magical.

[Forge]

I gueeeeeeeeeeess? 

So here's the thing...I love John Lynch. I don't know how much of an actual GM he is, and that's not a dig on him. You'll hear a lot of fans talk about moving him into a football president ops role and moving Peters into the GM role and there's a reason for that. The actual GM role really seems to be split between a lot of people who have say and influence, while Lynch's biggest role would appear to be the face and mouth of the football organization, a role which he is excellent at. 

But roster construction is clearly heavily influenced by multiple parties; offensively, by Kyle Shanahan in particular (which he is not very good at tbh). Joe Williams was a guy that Lynch had taken off the draft board but Lynch wanted. Beathard was Shanny's handpicked QB, etc etc. My guess is that any offensive player drafted just about has Shanny's fingerprints on him. 

Adam Peters has been a rising FO star since we snagged him from Denver, and there's a chance that he's a GM this off season. Martin Mayhew has GM experience and has been with the 49ers from the start and been considered a valuable asset. Hell, Demeco Ryans was the one who "discovered" Dre Greenlaw for the team. Paraag, who is our finances guy and cap wizard, is the guys who negotiated the trade with the bears to move down so they could trade Mitch Trubisky if I remember the article from Peter King right. 

So clearly, there are a lot of hands in the cookie jar of building this team. 

As for specifics...well, despite getting to the super bowl last year, it's kind of been a mixed bag and there have been some huge swings and misses.  Solomon Thomas in 2017 may be the worst draft pick in 49er history, and thats not hyperbole. Foster was also a brick in that draft and couldn't finish his rookie deal. But the trade down with the bears netted them Fred Warner the following year, they selected George Kittle in the 5th round, DJ Jones in the 6th, and supplemented the wash outs of Trent Taylor / Joe Williams / CJ Beathard that year with UDFAs Kendrick Bourne / Matt Breida / Nick Mullens. So in the grand scheme of things, the draft wasn't awful even though at first blush the thought is "yikes" when seeing the first five picks lol. So the drafts have largely been okay. When the guys have busted, they have busted hard, but lots of important pieces and lots of contributors. 

The Jimmy G trade was good, the Dee Ford trade was bad so far even though he had a huge positive impact when on the field last year. The Laken Tomlinson trade was great and the Trent Williams trade was a great move. The Manny Sanders deal didn't have longevity, but it's impact was hugely positive given that it helped open up Deebo  Samuels' growth.  The free agent signings have largely been a disaster or fantastic. Sherm was fantastic. Jason Verrett paying huge dividends this year. Even the Juice Check signing is worthwhile despite the absurdity of his contract; you shouldn't be paying him 5 million, but frankly there are much worse ways to spend 5 million. Robbie Gould was a great signing. But then you have Pierre Garcon. Jet McKinnon which was bad from the start. We basically paid Johnathan Cooper 4 million dollars to get cut weeks after signing him. Malcolm Smith...I'm not sure what illicit drugs they were taking that made that appear to be a smart move. K'Waun Williams has been an amazing signing, while we paid a lot of money to Richburg only to have his career largely torpedoed by injury and the Kwon deal was somewhat foolish from the start, though his play on the super bowl run (when healthy) was fine.  Financially, the team has largely been wise with their contracts, though their choices of restructures is a disaster and they have started adding ghost years to players' deals which will come due and are generally not a financial tactic I am in favor of. 

[Xenos]

Don’t have time to go into details about the GM. Right now I am just waiting for news that him and Lynn have been fired.

[Ty21]

3 hours ago, vikingsrule said:

Spielman has gotten stale for me. He’s landed a number of good players over the years, and miraculously, the Vikes are still in the playoff hunt despite gutting the roster this year.

My biggest concern is the QB position. I have little faith that Spielman can find a long term QBOTF. He seems content going the win now route with veteran options and his draft picks (Teddy and Ponder) didn’t work out. 

So everything else has been good and Spielman maximizes the value of his picks (though last year was ridiculously annoying with 15 picks) but I don’t think he can build a great team (which is mostly characterized by having a great franchise QB).

I still think it’s wild that you guys had 3 theoretically viable (at the time) starting QBs a few years ago in Bridge, Bradford, and Keenum and I was wondering which they would choose to keep on and they went with zero of them and won. 

[Ty21]

I think it goes without saying that every bears fan hates every member of their organization 

[bigbadbuff]

Yes. Brandon Beane has been great since coming to Buffalo.

 

He, along with McDermott have instilled a culture that fits the city, and one that focus's on team first.

For years I would be screaming for the Bills to make moves to fit GLARING holes, and we actually have a GM that goes out and fills those. I didn't even know that was possible before him. He isn't scared to make trades, and has shown he can find value in free agency when other people don't see it as such. *cough Cole Beasley*. 

EDIT: Just to add to this all that needs to be said is look at Buffalo pre Beane and what the team has done and what it looks like since has taken over. Says it all.

Edited December 7, 2020 by bigbadbuff

[DontTazeMeBro]

Eric DeCosta and no. And for some reason it’s like sacrilege to question his genius. His first draft was a near complete dud. He paid Earl Thomas like $14 million a year and then let the “leadership council” bully him into cutting him after a year.  Left the LB position unattended to and had to resort to desperation moves mid season two years in a row. When it comes to our own players he’s like the worst negotiator on earth. 

[SkippyX]

Howie is a strange GM to grade.

He has made a few great picks like Fletcher Cox but mostly he's been awful at drafting.

He could do no wrong in the 2017 Free Agency and its a big reason why they won the Super Bowl

• Foles(1), Blount(3), Patrick Robinson(1), Chris Long, Alshon Jeffrey(3), Tory Smith(1), Wiz as guard depth
  • 9 of their playoff TDs were scored by those guys
  • Another was by a UFA RB (Clement)
  • The only playoff TD scored by a player not added in 2017 was the SB winner by Ertz
• Adding Ajayi during the season was another solid move.
• The Sammy Sleeves trade was a huge win.

He was the perfect guy to clean up after Chump Kelly. I'm just not sure he's the guy they need going forward.

[RaidersAreOne]

Mayock is very hit and miss. He's done well with the draft in my opinion, but his big named FA signings have been very poor. Trent Brown, Littleton, Nassib, etc have been major busts. The small signings of Booker and Agholor have been home runs though. I think Mayock suffers a bit being stuck with Gruden.

[Kip Smithers]

Nope.