Irish Greg 2.0 wrote:I am still not convinced that John Schneider is a good GM. I think the early roster creation was mostly Pete, especially the diamonds in the rough like Sherman, Baldwin, etc. His trades have largely been terrible; he had a really bad string of drafts; and he has mishandled the offensive line in a negligent way. He refuses to bring in elite talent in FA and always waits for the cheaper deals.
I will never forgive him for taking Dee Eskridge when Creed Humphrey was sitting right there.
As far as this off-season goes, specifically, it was necessary to eat some dead cap and get rid of expensive players that were not performing. With a new head coach and an all staff staff (except a few holdovers), there is going to be some growing pains.
I also believe Schneider is leaning heavily on Macdonald and his staff's inputs on the types of players they want.
Spending so much draft capital on offensive skill positions at the expense of the OL was/is one of my biggest beefs with the previous regime. In the past 5 years, we spent a #1 on a RB (Rashaad Penny, 2018), a #2 on a WR (DK Metcalf, 2019), a #2 on a WR (Eskridge, 2020, our first of just 3 selections), a #2 on a RB (Walker III, 2022), and finally JSN with a #1 and Charbonnet with a #2 in 2023.
In the meantime, the only OL we've taken in the first two rounds during that same period of time has been Cross in 2022. That's 6 first or second round picks out of 14 selections in the past 5 years on WR's and RB's and just one offensive lineman.
Regarding your observation about Pete's 'diamonds in the rough' in his early years, IMO a lot has to do with his time at USC. Take a look at where some of those diamonds in the rough played their college ball: Sherman and Baldwin from Stanford, Browner from Oregon State, Beast from Cal (acquired in a trade) and Kearse from Udub, Wags from Utah State, all on the west coast and players that Pete had a lot of familiarity with. Most of those players were low round/UFDA's. Plus, he probably got a pretty good look at Earl when he was playing for Texas.
I don't think it any coincidence that the further away Pete got from his college days, the worse his drafting got.
I'm neutral about JS. Like you, I'm not convinced that he's a good GM as it's anybody's guess as to just how much influence he had on some of these decisions. However, I'm impressed with the way he's gone about rebuilding this coaching staff. I'm results orientated, and I expect to be in SB contention within 2-3 years.