HarveyWallbangers
06-12-2007, 09:50 PM
:beat:
From a Press Gazette chat:
Ed Armour: Hi Mike, is it really true that Mike Sherman's 3-year tenure left the Packers a salary cap strapped, aged team in decline with no depth?
Consider the roster as it was when Sherman was fired as GM after the 2004 season. That team had 25 players penciled in as starters this year for their respective team, 15 likely to make teams, and 7 that could still make it. At least 6 have played in a Pro Bowl since, and only 4 were over 30 at the time; superstars Walker and Green were in their statistical primes. The team had as much youth and depth as could be hoped. The 2005 catastrophe was due to the horriffic injury situation, and the manueverings of Ted Thompson before the season.
There was also plenty of cap space, (especially when Mike Wahle is considered a free agent as it was assumed he would be by both parties), and the option to restructure Bret Favre's contract. Sherman never sacrificed the future, or even left Ted Thompson with his hands tied - he may not have been able to keep everybody, but he had options, (like the huge pay outs he made to Hunt, Klemm, and Diggs). We were in as good of a salary cap situation as any successful team realistically could be.
I think part of the problem is that people focus on Sherman's mistakes, and don't notice his successes. A good draft is one that yields 3 starters - including rookie free agents, Sherman's 3 drafts yielded 10 projected starters, and 11 more spot starters, important roll players, backups, and special teamers. Sherman made undeniable mistakes in Free Agency, but he also did a great job resigning his own players, and bringing in Grady Jackson, and few other guys that really helped out.
Given all of his hard work and loyalty, we need to be fair in considering Sherman's legacy; perhaps, you could give us your spot opinion of him as GM, and maybe even consider doing a researched analysis some day.
MIKE VANDERMAUSE: I thought Sherman was a good coach. You don't win 3 straight divison titles, and go 44-20 over a four-year span, without some coaching chops. But as a general manager, he was in over his head. He traded up far too often for mediocre players, which meant he wasted not one, but two draft picks on those players. And he did this repeatedly, which hurt the team immensely. Let's look at his drafts:
2002: Javon Walker and Aaron Kampmann were keepers; Marques Anderson, Najeh Davenport, Craig Nall and Mike Houghton were not. 2 out of 6 is a .333 percentage, which isn't bad by Ron Wolf's standards. But, he also traded a second-rounder to move up to get Walker, a fourth-rounder for Terry Glenn, and a seventh-rounder for Rod Walker.
2003: He hit on Nick Barnett, and essentially missed on everyone else, including Kenny Peterson, James Lee, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Brennan Curtin, Chris Johnson, DeAndrew Rubin, Carl Ford and Steve Josue. This was a disastrous draft. He hit on 1 of 9, and traded away extra picks for Peterson, Lee and Hillenmeyer. To compound this train wreck, he cut Hillenmeyer, who went on to start for the Bears.
2004: He hit on Scott Wells, and to a certain extent, Corey Williams. He missed on Ahmad Carroll, Joey Thomas, Donnell Washington, and B.J. Sander. To make matters worse, he traded extra picks away to get Washington and Sander, a pair of utter flops.
Sherman did indeed leave Ted Thompson's hands tied in terms of the salary cap. As for keeping your own players, that's not a good thing when one of those players is Cletidus Hunt.
Any way you slice it, Sherman was below average as a GM. After Ron Wolf retired, Bob Harlan should have allowed Sherman to concentrate on what he does best -- coach -- and put someone else in charge of personnel decisions. It was unfair to Sherman. It was simply too much for one man to bear.
:beat:
From a Press Gazette chat:
Ed Armour: Hi Mike, is it really true that Mike Sherman's 3-year tenure left the Packers a salary cap strapped, aged team in decline with no depth?
Consider the roster as it was when Sherman was fired as GM after the 2004 season. That team had 25 players penciled in as starters this year for their respective team, 15 likely to make teams, and 7 that could still make it. At least 6 have played in a Pro Bowl since, and only 4 were over 30 at the time; superstars Walker and Green were in their statistical primes. The team had as much youth and depth as could be hoped. The 2005 catastrophe was due to the horriffic injury situation, and the manueverings of Ted Thompson before the season.
There was also plenty of cap space, (especially when Mike Wahle is considered a free agent as it was assumed he would be by both parties), and the option to restructure Bret Favre's contract. Sherman never sacrificed the future, or even left Ted Thompson with his hands tied - he may not have been able to keep everybody, but he had options, (like the huge pay outs he made to Hunt, Klemm, and Diggs). We were in as good of a salary cap situation as any successful team realistically could be.
I think part of the problem is that people focus on Sherman's mistakes, and don't notice his successes. A good draft is one that yields 3 starters - including rookie free agents, Sherman's 3 drafts yielded 10 projected starters, and 11 more spot starters, important roll players, backups, and special teamers. Sherman made undeniable mistakes in Free Agency, but he also did a great job resigning his own players, and bringing in Grady Jackson, and few other guys that really helped out.
Given all of his hard work and loyalty, we need to be fair in considering Sherman's legacy; perhaps, you could give us your spot opinion of him as GM, and maybe even consider doing a researched analysis some day.
MIKE VANDERMAUSE: I thought Sherman was a good coach. You don't win 3 straight divison titles, and go 44-20 over a four-year span, without some coaching chops. But as a general manager, he was in over his head. He traded up far too often for mediocre players, which meant he wasted not one, but two draft picks on those players. And he did this repeatedly, which hurt the team immensely. Let's look at his drafts:
2002: Javon Walker and Aaron Kampmann were keepers; Marques Anderson, Najeh Davenport, Craig Nall and Mike Houghton were not. 2 out of 6 is a .333 percentage, which isn't bad by Ron Wolf's standards. But, he also traded a second-rounder to move up to get Walker, a fourth-rounder for Terry Glenn, and a seventh-rounder for Rod Walker.
2003: He hit on Nick Barnett, and essentially missed on everyone else, including Kenny Peterson, James Lee, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Brennan Curtin, Chris Johnson, DeAndrew Rubin, Carl Ford and Steve Josue. This was a disastrous draft. He hit on 1 of 9, and traded away extra picks for Peterson, Lee and Hillenmeyer. To compound this train wreck, he cut Hillenmeyer, who went on to start for the Bears.
2004: He hit on Scott Wells, and to a certain extent, Corey Williams. He missed on Ahmad Carroll, Joey Thomas, Donnell Washington, and B.J. Sander. To make matters worse, he traded extra picks away to get Washington and Sander, a pair of utter flops.
Sherman did indeed leave Ted Thompson's hands tied in terms of the salary cap. As for keeping your own players, that's not a good thing when one of those players is Cletidus Hunt.
Any way you slice it, Sherman was below average as a GM. After Ron Wolf retired, Bob Harlan should have allowed Sherman to concentrate on what he does best -- coach -- and put someone else in charge of personnel decisions. It was unfair to Sherman. It was simply too much for one man to bear.
:beat: