Jaguars to hire Trent Baalke as GM

[pwny]

 

[.Buzz]

1 minute ago, pwny said:

 

The fact this is how things were speaks volumes.

Good god.

[pwny]

Just now, .Buzz said:

The fact this is how things were speaks volumes.

Good god.

Literally no one on the staff except Dave and Gus knew that they were drafting Blake. And if I remember correctly, they didn’t even tell Tony or Shad until the day of the draft.

Biggest draft decision in franchise history and two people were the ones who knew the actual thought process that went into the evaluation.

[.Buzz]

5 minutes ago, pwny said:

Literally no one on the staff except Dave and Gus knew that they were drafting Blake. And if I remember correctly, they didn’t even tell Tony or Shad until the day of the draft.

Biggest draft decision in franchise history and two people were the ones who knew the actual thought process that went into the evaluation.

What could possibly go wrong?

[.Buzz]

https://www.espn.com/blog/jacksonville-jaguars/post/_/id/28957/jaguars-need-gm-trent-baalkes-experience-but-2021-could-be-a-trial-run

Interesting spin from DiRoc on this.

[Tugboat]

On 1/19/2021 at 6:43 PM, N4L said:

 

This is exactly what happened in SF. He schmoozed ownership before we hired a hotshot college coach and convinced them that HE was the only guy that can make this whole thing work. The dude knows how to sell himself, that is for sure

I certainly get the idea of just hiring a "grizzled veteran" to help navigate the waters of managing an NFL team for Meyer, who is obviously going to have a lot on his plate right from the hop.  Obviously knowing that Urban is going to be The Man here, for better or worse, was going to limit interest for a lot of potential GM candidates.

But this whole writeup, and specifically this sort of theme worries me.  We've seen Khan seemingly get hoodwinked by these types before.

 

I don't have a problem with the hire conceptually.  Basically just about bringing in a glorified scouting director, with some understanding and familiarity with the other NFL management trappings around the rest of the job.  Free Urban up to just find talent, and coach them up.  That's good.

But the specific hire, coming with some red flags in terms of relinquishing control willingly, and taking that back seat, handling the mundane day-to-day minutia of the role rather than purely "team building"...is not good.  I'm also really not blown away by any of the actual work Baalke can seemingly be credited with in those facets of management either.

 

Also concerns me that we're going to have a big personality in the room with Urban as the linchpin of the whole operation...whom Baalke is ultimately going to have to sorta "bend the knee" to.  Plus Shahid Khan appearing as though he's going to be assuming a more active and involved role, after the whole "hands off" model really blew up in his face repeatedly over the years he's owned the team and had it managed by the Caldwell cabal and all its tendrils and accompaniments.  And presumably, Tony Khan is also going to continue to have some sort of voice in things as well.  Just seems like potentially a lot of cooks in the kitchen...which could be fine, if everyone can keep their egos in the proper compartments.  But how is Baalke going to ultimately handle things, when he feels he's getting squeezed and pushed from above and below and occasionally from the side.  Is he going to be able to just stow it and tow the line?  Or is he going to incite stupid drama?  Because i don't want stupid drama anymore.  There's been more than enough of that.

[pwny]