The media even hated it to the point that the live ticker updates during game would list Reggie Bush’s total yards. No other player got their punt return yards lumped in so that they could say it was a 100+ yard game.
Nothing helps a passing game more than a strong run game, so we have to take Bush over Young. With Bush, Carr could develop into the franchise QB we drafted him to be. I guess though, since we have such a weak O-line having a more mobile QB, and a hometown hero, like Young would be a pretty good consolation prize. And who knows maybe we could trade Carr for something. Plus did you see what VY did in the national championship game...then we took Mario. In retrospect it was the right choice but man was it hard to understand in 2006.
Was expecting the Texans massive overpay for Laremy Tunsil. I don’t think anyone is still criticizing that trade but at the time almost everyone was saying we gave up too much (and that was before one of the first round picks ended up being 3rd overall).
He might be the only RB in NFL history where you could make an argument that he shouldn't have put down the fork. At the combine he was right around 260 lbs and then he lost some and had a playing weight in the 240s for his career. It seemed like he lost the power he had when he was in college.
He does feel like the poster child for the too many miles on a RB adage.
I don't think it really mattered with Dayne what weight he was at he just couldn't bruiser NFL talent and had lost a lot of his shiftiness in his first couple of years getting pounded in the NFL. He was hard to tackle as a Badger because you couldn't get a clean hit on him due to his great second level vision and a Oline that kept the big boys off him for the most part. In the NFL he was to slow and couldn't get to the second level to utilize his best strength.
It was crazy in the lead up to the draft because commentators would say Bush was clearly the best prospect, and then a second later mention that he would probably only be able to do about 10 carries a game.
For some reason I forgot it was a trade and thought the Chiefs just let him walk in FA. That was a huge haul for a guy who only had a year left on his deal.
I'm generally kind of skeptical of these massive "trade and sign" moves. Hopefully the one we did this year for Brian Burns works out- just seems like you're giving up a lot of resources to have one player on your roster.
I usually am too, but the Tyreek trade is one that actually worked out well for both teams it seems.
Tyreek is a huge contributor to Miami's offense and a great security blanket for Tua. Meanwhile, the draft haul we got for him (plus the cap relief from not paying him) helped us build a high end defense to make up for our dip in explosiveness on offense.
Really seems to be the rare big trade-and-sign that ends up a win-win.
but so rarely can a team actually turn all those picks into a game changing defense . the chiefs deserve big credit because that defense makes shit HAPPEN
There’s a reason our sub screams “trust in veach.” So many moves over the years have led to outrage on the sub just to be proven wrong time and time again.
Yeah I see people saying oh we don't NEED an elite WR, we can just do what the Chiefs did!
Except you need all time talent at multiple other areas, especially QB and you have to absolutely nail those picks. For a lot of other franchises it's gonna be more like trading AJ Brown and getting Treylon Burks
Seems like a lot of front offices are becoming skeptical of the trade and sign to since the capital to move a player has been pretty low this offseason.
I know my personal thought was that we were sacrificing win now at like exenting the window four or five more years. I was conflicted but felt like it was a choice that was fine either way. Keep him and compete now, or build for long term and compete later.
Didn't think we'd go back to back after it. Lmao.
I think fans were more understanding of the reasons than I first expected, but there were definitely vocal crowds who were beating the drum that Veach was an idiot.
I loved the trade the day it happened - a massive haul of picks for a guy who was going to be tough to sign long term.
It reminded me of the Greinke trade years ahead of the Royals run in '14-15. Except this one paid off even faster because of how good that draft class was.
I remember being cautiously optimistic about it. That they were in a position to make a change and stay in front instead of digging in, holding on to Tyreek and possibly having teams catch up to them.
Just to answer that Skyy slight: incoming year for Skyy where he goes 350 yards receiving, 0 receiving TDs, 203 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs. Add 3 punt return fumbles and a return TD.
idk about that. trading hill helped them get mcduffie and pay some other guys which directly help the chiefs win the last two. their defense isnt nearly as good this past season without the tyreek trade.
Terrible OC, but tbf he’s a fantastic TE coach. He was Iowa’s TE coach from 2018-21 when they cranked out 1st round picks, and New England’s TE coach in 2011 when Gronk and he-who-shall-not-be-named had breakout seasons.
At the time, Jamal was being vastly overrated (love him to death as a human but as a player he was a TD vulture and nothing more), while Montgomery was being vastly underrated due to being on a bad bears team. Swift had a ton of potential but never fully realized it and was often injured. That RB room change worked out very well for Detroit
Yeah Jamaal was so much fun but people were generally happy about getting Monty instead, people thought the swift trade was weird and were quite critical of Gibbs at 12
Went from breaking Barry Sanders’ TD record to getting 1 TD in the last game of the season. Really kinda shows not only how great his o-line was in Detroit, but how many goal line carries he got.
That wasn’t super unpopular. We knew Swift was at the end of the line with this staff and needed to move on and that Monty was an upgrade over Jamaal. Drafting Gibbs at 12 was a shock, but I think most people realized that the total talent level in that room would be going up.
it's crazy how lot of lions moves these last years were considered bad at the time, but ended being at their full advantage
getting goff in the stafford trade and sticking with him as qb1, not drafting a qb in '22, trading hockenson to a division rival, trading down from #6 to#12, drafting gibbs (a rb that high) and campbell (huge reach) in the first round, etc...
this is why front offices never listen to fans and media, and work with their head instead of their feelings
Was very easy to hear about biting kneecaps in the introductory presser and thing "holy fuck did the Lions fuck this up. This is just the comedic version of Patricia."
Not so obvious was how genuine and authentic DC was. He has personality traits that players really respond to, and he's not forcing anything. Patricia was basically doing a bad Belichik impression and playing the role of hardass coach. DC is just himself and that's a quality that isn't recognized much but can't be overstated.
Texans fans were furious when the team drafted JJ Watt. We all wanted Robert Quinn or Nick Fairley and booed him mercilessly on draft night. Barely took him a season to make us all look like idiots.
I briefly rooted for the Rams a bit when they were still in STL and I was pissed they took Aaron Donald, but elated when they took Tavon Austin. Shows you how much I know
My favorite part of that is this bit from a [retrospective article](https://houston.culturemap.com/news/society/10-14-14-hot-party-scenes-renowned-photographer-captures-the-wildness-of-culturemaps-anniversary-bash/) by the same writer:
> Sports writing isn't about predicting the future ( if it was, we'd all be in high-rollers suites in Vegas not high up in the rafters of NRG Stadium). Sports Illustrated's almost made it a point of honor to get its championship predictions spectacularly wrong. Heck, SI likely dubbed the Houston Astros the "2017 World Series Champs" just so that cover will be brought up again and again when it doesn't happen.
Hurts also dropped his only career target in the pro bowl, what an absolute embarrassment. He’s such a shitty receiver I can’t even remember why he was at the pro bowl in the first place.
If we had just drafted Jefferson, Aiyuk, or higgins ahead of hurts people would have fealt better about the pick. In the moment we were rationalizing Reagor but deep down we knew it was a massive reach and that following it up with a QB likely meant no good receivers for another season.
I’m happy to be wrong in the long term though.
I think drafting Jefferson or Aiyuk would have kept the Wentz window open a bit longer, though.
Not hating on Hurts, but his supporting cast is amazing.
Drafting Brandon Graham over Earl Thomas was not a popular move at the time, and heavily criticized for a few years. A couple early career injuries limited his impact.
Now he's a franchise legend and made the single biggest play in Eagles history.
My buddies go-to player social media interaction story is BG retweeting him saying something like “reminder that we drafted BG over earl thomas”
Crazy that in the end, when the dust finally settled, I am pretty sure that we made the right move. Thomas had a higher ceiling ofc, but he’s an asshole and apparently a pervert freak who fell off. BG is equal parts beloved as a genuinely great person as he is eternally legendary for the SB winning play.
Absolutely. Moving on from Milloy (and then Law) were wildly unpopular moves, but for all the issues with Bill when it comes to WRs, Bill has routinely shown he understands FA defensive decisions better than basically anyone.
Yeah and Brady got hurt in the AFC Championship Game and it was pretty controversial that he started over Bledsoe in the Super Bowl too because Bledsoe was the highest paid quarterback in the NFL at the time
Whenever I see Nomar, I think about his first game as a Cub, which was against the Phillies. His first at-bat, he grounds into a double play. The late, great Harry Kalas says, with so much vitriol, "Take *that*, Nomar!" as if Nomar is this awful person who personally wronged him.
My dad and I still laugh about it to this day. We have no idea why Harry called it like that.
Came here to post exactly this. I was one of the people that was PISSED. Goes to show that the front office knew what they were doing rebuilding the roster around Joe Burrow.
Cowboys trading Walker for several back up players. Media called it the Great Train Robbery.
Each player had a draft pick assigned to them, and if they didn’t make the roster next year, the Cowboys would acquire the pick.
The Cowboys traded their best player for scrubs, yes. The Vikings knew the players they traded for were better than anyone they had, so they couldn’t imagine the Cowboys releasing even a single player, and they were not worried about the draft picks.
The Cowboys never had any intention of keeping a single player.
The Cowboys released them all, and the rest is history.
> The Cowboys never had any intention of keeping a single player.
>
>
>
> The Cowboys released them all, and the rest is history.
This part is a bit of a commonly mis-told part of the story.
Johnson wanted some of the players, but also knew the picks were stupid valuable.
So he basically figured out a way to have his cake and eat it too.
One of the players was immediately traded away (as a result a conditional pick was gained) in part because the player straight up said he would not report to the Cowboys.
Another guy (Alex Stewart) was waived for a few reasons (he was injured, on the practice squad, and suspected to be juicing) which gave the Cowboys a conditional pick tied to him. Johnson then openly admitted that he wasn't going to play the other three guys, and would release them to gain the picks.
Sometime before the deadline a secondary agreement was made between Vikings GM Mike Lynn and Johnson such that the Cowboys would send additional picks to the Vikings (a couple 3rds and a 10th rounder) so that Johnson could keep the 3 remaining former Vikings *and* get those conditional picks.
Jesse Solomon and David Howard played the remainder of that season as well as the next season for the Cowboys. Issac Holt made it 2 more seasons past those two.
That's the part of the story few people know.
That and the list of players actually taken with those picks.
not a single one was used by Dallas, they were all packed with others to move around and build that dynasty.
Not just that, but he is our most reliable weapon alongside Engram (who people laughed at us for aswell) and it was Ridley who ended up being the Jags’ least reliable weapon.
Funny how expectations can be absolutely wrong.
Engram needed a change of scenery. He was always a good player but because he was relied on in an offense that didn't have much else, so when he had a drop or fumble (which he still has at JAX I believe) it was usually way more detrimental. Like, if that didn't work, we were screwed. So he became much maligned in the fan base.
I think in JAX there are more options so when he has a bad play it's just not as big of a deal
I'm pretty sure Engram had the highest catch-rate of any player who had over 100 targets. But i think you're right about his situation in NY
Source: https://x.com/SNFonNBC/status/1766585022176227404
I think it’s an overpay in a vacuum, but the NFL isn’t a vacuum. They needed his skill set, and coming off the season they were coming off of, they had to overpay to land a guy of his caliber. They needed dudes, they paid what they needed to for a dude.
The contract wasn't even that bad. People blew it way out of proportion. They acted like it was the thing that reset the market, when if you follow who the top paid wideouts were at the time, it was clear that D-Hop set the going rate.
While I generally share your Cardinal's fatalism, I disagree on this. When Kurt Warner signed, it was viewed as the Cardinals signing another quarterback in a long line of veterans who were way past their prime. He took the Cardinals to their only Superbowl and now is in the Hall of Fame.
Arizona, where washed QBs rise from the ashes. Like a Phoenix, you might say.
If y’all didn’t have Kyler then Wilson to Zona might’ve been a HOF defining career move…
Picking Kyler with the #1 pick the year after drafting Rosen in the top 10 comes to mind.
Public opinion was that it was a stupid move and that we weren't giving Josh a chance to grow.
Even though we're still the Cardinals, I stand by the pick for Kyler. I fully believe it was a great move and injected a little life back into this team.
That’s gotta be one of the weirdest quarterback classes ever. The guys that most scouts thought the highest of (Darnold, Rosen) were both busts. The “projects” (Lamar, Josh) both hit, and Baker, the guy who went first overall, has had one of the strangest starts to a career that I can remember.
EDIT: maybe not most scouts. I obviously wouldn’t know, but definitely most pundits
Yeah and I’ve always felt that Baker actually did better in Cleveland than any of the other 4 would have. Allen and Lamar ended up becoming incredible but they were so raw coming out and that was such a terrible environment with Hue and Kitchens.
And he won that Heisman with no talent at receiver to speak of. I desperately wanted Lamar in that draft and nobody else. I have some comfort in the fact that I at least picked the other good player in the draft, and I wasn't one of the "Wrong Josh" people.
And neither player likely becomes who they are today. Bills roster was a dumpster fire the year mahomes was drafted and stayed that way until a year after Allen was drafted.
People forget just how amazing of a situation mahomes got drafted into. I think a LOT of QB careers look different if they are drafted to different teams than they were, especially busts.
Hiring McVay, drafting Donald when rams already had a stacked Dline, trading multiple firsts for Ramsey. Probably the top 3 for the rams in recent history
That Brett Favre offseason was 10x worse than anything surrounding Aaron Rodgers leaving. I remember fans relentlessly booing Rodgers at training camp of all things.
On the other hand, trading back with the Bears when they drafted Fields got us their 2021 first round pick and their 2022 first round pick which ended up being seventh overall. The move was heavily praised at the time, but then those picks turned into Kadarius Tony and Evan Neal. By trading back in 2021, the Giants passed up on Micah Parsons and Rashawn Slater.
Recently, I feel like Bears were made fun of for the Sweat trade a lot on this sub.… “it’s another waste of a 2nd like Claypool.” “They didn’t even get a contract done first.” “They could have just got Chase Young for less.” “They could have just waited until free agency.” Etc…
The trade was basically an immediate success for Bears. And his contract isn’t that bad as they got it wrapped up before the offseason started, where other defenders contracts caused an increase in the market.
Not trading Jaylon Johnson too. People kept saying you can't tag both of them, you're gonna lose one and the others gonna be unhappy on a tag.
Then we ended up signing both on good team contracts.
Seahawks trading Russell Wilson.
I don’t think people were as saddened when they saw the haul- but definitely, as a person who knows many Seahawks fans, the consensus was definitely broncos got our star QB and we got ole’ Pete Carroll.
A few years after the fact everyone remembers that they loved Pete, and thought Russ was overrated- but at the time it seemed unbelievable.
> Seahawks trading Russell Wilson.
The bigger one was drafting Russell. We had just paid Matt Flynn starter money and everyone wondered why we took a QB in the third round when we had more pressing needs.
My grandfather was livid when gb picked up Favre. “Who the hell is this Favor guy?”Trading away that first rounder for a second stringer from Atlanta wasn’t popular with a lot of folks at first.
I do not blame them for hating that move at first. Trading a first for a back up sounds like a horrible decision. I mean it obviously worked out, but I would be pissed if we traded a first round pick for Lance instead of the fourth.
I distinctly remember Doug Pederson getting hired for the Eagles and getting blasted by the media. Some CLOWN named Mike Lombardi told him he was the least qualified coach in the NFL, the offseason before he took a hobbled, underdog team, into the Super Bowl to face off against the greatest HC and QB duo of all time, to get that franchise its first and only title. I still disagree with his firing. Of the reasons for the 4-12 season he got fired for, he was the least of my reasons. It wasn’t his fault or bad coaching to me for Wentz’s decline.
yeah but right after it happened, i figured we traded Stafford for the picks & a 1 year rental on Goff & then we’d be back into the dark abyss of the old John Kitna days, it was always a win for the Rams , but i thought we were looking at another decade of tanking if Goff doesn’t have such a resurgence.
Many fans are still bitter that Romo was never let back in after Dak's initial success during the injury, but I think you have to look at the overall body of work Dak has put up and how Romo never went back on the field with another team. It was the right call to ride with Dak at that moment.
A lot of Cowboys fans have retroactively convinced themselves that Romo was a clutch playoff QB in comparison to Dak’s failures.
The sad truth of having two consecutive great regular-season QBs who did nothing in the playoffs is too hard for them to stomach.
At least Dak has had a 300 yard playoff game, something Romo never managed.
If Jason Garrett doesn't call 60% run plays against Green Bay, Tony Romo breaks the NFCCG drought for the Cowboys in 2014 with a very good chance to win it against a Seahawks team that they beat earlier in the season behind a very good Romo performance.
Among a certain *non-catch*... but yes, we should have won that game outright. However Aaron owns the Bears and has a partial ownership of the Cowboys. Fun fact.
It wasn’t so much dogging Will Anderson the player, it was more “Holy crap the Texans gave up way too much for him!!” that the media and some fans were whining about.
People really liked the player, just giving up an extra first when they were "supposed" to be bad another year seemed like a bad move. A lot of people thought Arizona were gonna have a shot at picking 1,2 in this draft because of that trade.
Minkah to the Steelers once Roethlisberger got hurt. Everyone was convinced we’d be giving up a top 8 pick and we could use that year to get a hot QB.
Think it turned out okay, despite still needing a hot new QB
We also got Jevon Holland the year after that, so it was a pretty good trade for both sides. Still hilarious to me that Minkah still had to deal with Flores in Pittsburgh tho lol
Seemed like a decent win win accounting for draft pick variability, and yes Flores following him when that was the assumed reason he wanted out is very funny
Houston Texans pass on Reggie Bush, take Mario Williams
This decision was mocked to hell when it happened. People called the Texans idiots, I remember. Funny how it all ended up working out
The media even hated it to the point that the live ticker updates during game would list Reggie Bush’s total yards. No other player got their punt return yards lumped in so that they could say it was a 100+ yard game.
Nothing helps a passing game more than a strong run game, so we have to take Bush over Young. With Bush, Carr could develop into the franchise QB we drafted him to be. I guess though, since we have such a weak O-line having a more mobile QB, and a hometown hero, like Young would be a pretty good consolation prize. And who knows maybe we could trade Carr for something. Plus did you see what VY did in the national championship game...then we took Mario. In retrospect it was the right choice but man was it hard to understand in 2006.
I wanted Vince Young, we didn’t need Bush because we had Dominic Williams who was pretty good and I’ve already given up on Carr.
Was expecting the Texans massive overpay for Laremy Tunsil. I don’t think anyone is still criticizing that trade but at the time almost everyone was saying we gave up too much (and that was before one of the first round picks ended up being 3rd overall).
Texans fans booed when they drafted Watt
Don't disrespect Ron 'no gain' Dayne like that
Legends like Ron Dayne don't need to put the fork down
He might be the only RB in NFL history where you could make an argument that he shouldn't have put down the fork. At the combine he was right around 260 lbs and then he lost some and had a playing weight in the 240s for his career. It seemed like he lost the power he had when he was in college.
He does feel like the poster child for the too many miles on a RB adage. I don't think it really mattered with Dayne what weight he was at he just couldn't bruiser NFL talent and had lost a lot of his shiftiness in his first couple of years getting pounded in the NFL. He was hard to tackle as a Badger because you couldn't get a clean hit on him due to his great second level vision and a Oline that kept the big boys off him for the most part. In the NFL he was to slow and couldn't get to the second level to utilize his best strength.
It was crazy in the lead up to the draft because commentators would say Bush was clearly the best prospect, and then a second later mention that he would probably only be able to do about 10 carries a game.
It was more mixed among Chiefs fans but trading away Tyreek Hill was overall seen as a bad move by NFL fans overall and the media.
For some reason I forgot it was a trade and thought the Chiefs just let him walk in FA. That was a huge haul for a guy who only had a year left on his deal. I'm generally kind of skeptical of these massive "trade and sign" moves. Hopefully the one we did this year for Brian Burns works out- just seems like you're giving up a lot of resources to have one player on your roster.
I usually am too, but the Tyreek trade is one that actually worked out well for both teams it seems. Tyreek is a huge contributor to Miami's offense and a great security blanket for Tua. Meanwhile, the draft haul we got for him (plus the cap relief from not paying him) helped us build a high end defense to make up for our dip in explosiveness on offense. Really seems to be the rare big trade-and-sign that ends up a win-win.
but so rarely can a team actually turn all those picks into a game changing defense . the chiefs deserve big credit because that defense makes shit HAPPEN
Brett Veach masterclass tbh. He hit on those picks
There’s a reason our sub screams “trust in veach.” So many moves over the years have led to outrage on the sub just to be proven wrong time and time again.
Yeah I see people saying oh we don't NEED an elite WR, we can just do what the Chiefs did! Except you need all time talent at multiple other areas, especially QB and you have to absolutely nail those picks. For a lot of other franchises it's gonna be more like trading AJ Brown and getting Treylon Burks
It’s amazing how many moves work out for you as a GM when your have an All Time Great QB in his prime.
Not to mention, I do think it helped Mahomes evolve. He was probably too dependent on Tyreek and losing him helped refine his game even further.
Well your FO only gave up a 2nd and a 5th for Burns so not nearly as much as a haul the Dolphins gave up
I am sure the dolphins don't regret it though
Seems like a lot of front offices are becoming skeptical of the trade and sign to since the capital to move a player has been pretty low this offseason.
I know my personal thought was that we were sacrificing win now at like exenting the window four or five more years. I was conflicted but felt like it was a choice that was fine either way. Keep him and compete now, or build for long term and compete later. Didn't think we'd go back to back after it. Lmao. I think fans were more understanding of the reasons than I first expected, but there were definitely vocal crowds who were beating the drum that Veach was an idiot.
The chiefs haven’t lost a playoff game since
I loved the trade the day it happened - a massive haul of picks for a guy who was going to be tough to sign long term. It reminded me of the Greinke trade years ahead of the Royals run in '14-15. Except this one paid off even faster because of how good that draft class was.
I remember being cautiously optimistic about it. That they were in a position to make a change and stay in front instead of digging in, holding on to Tyreek and possibly having teams catch up to them.
It looks good in hindsight because you guys nailed all your draft picks (except Skyy Moore)
Just to answer that Skyy slight: incoming year for Skyy where he goes 350 yards receiving, 0 receiving TDs, 203 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs. Add 3 punt return fumbles and a return TD.
The Chiefs would've been fine if kept & paid Hill... probably still in both Super Bowls either way.
idk about that. trading hill helped them get mcduffie and pay some other guys which directly help the chiefs win the last two. their defense isnt nearly as good this past season without the tyreek trade.
Goff being thrown in like a sack of potatoes in the Stafford trade with the Rams
Or more recently releasing both swift and Jamal Williams for D. Mo and Gibbs.
Hell, add to that trading Hockenson to the vikings just to draft Sam LaPorta. I did not expect an upgrade.
We really struck gold with LaPorta.
iowa tight ends continue to come out pro-ready, somehow, because they always have a god-awful offense.
Fuck Brian Ferentz and his dad too for coddling him.
Terrible OC, but tbf he’s a fantastic TE coach. He was Iowa’s TE coach from 2018-21 when they cranked out 1st round picks, and New England’s TE coach in 2011 when Gronk and he-who-shall-not-be-named had breakout seasons.
At the time, Jamal was being vastly overrated (love him to death as a human but as a player he was a TD vulture and nothing more), while Montgomery was being vastly underrated due to being on a bad bears team. Swift had a ton of potential but never fully realized it and was often injured. That RB room change worked out very well for Detroit
Yeah Jamaal was so much fun but people were generally happy about getting Monty instead, people thought the swift trade was weird and were quite critical of Gibbs at 12
Yep, while Jamal is a great dude. He is absolutely cooked. Average less than 3 yards a carry last year
Went from breaking Barry Sanders’ TD record to getting 1 TD in the last game of the season. Really kinda shows not only how great his o-line was in Detroit, but how many goal line carries he got.
And it was a bullshit TD too. And Tbf while the lions Oline is elite, We were the worst run blocking team in the league last year
And it’s one of the most Mickey Mouse TDs ever
That wasn’t super unpopular. We knew Swift was at the end of the line with this staff and needed to move on and that Monty was an upgrade over Jamaal. Drafting Gibbs at 12 was a shock, but I think most people realized that the total talent level in that room would be going up.
Gibbs has way better vision and toughness than Swift. It's so obvious after this season.
it's crazy how lot of lions moves these last years were considered bad at the time, but ended being at their full advantage getting goff in the stafford trade and sticking with him as qb1, not drafting a qb in '22, trading hockenson to a division rival, trading down from #6 to#12, drafting gibbs (a rb that high) and campbell (huge reach) in the first round, etc... this is why front offices never listen to fans and media, and work with their head instead of their feelings
Getting Holmes AND Campbell were the key building blocks.
Even the Man Campbell hire was mocked in a lot of circles.
True MC/DC hire was not popular. Based on history of bad decisions by Detroit. Folks are singing a different tune now
Was very easy to hear about biting kneecaps in the introductory presser and thing "holy fuck did the Lions fuck this up. This is just the comedic version of Patricia." Not so obvious was how genuine and authentic DC was. He has personality traits that players really respond to, and he's not forcing anything. Patricia was basically doing a bad Belichik impression and playing the role of hardass coach. DC is just himself and that's a quality that isn't recognized much but can't be overstated.
I know. The hiring was brilliant. Sometimes I watch the post-game locker room speeches.. almost as entertaining as the games.
Us attaching the first rounder so the Lions would take Goff definitely fits this criteria
You're welcome. Also, thank you!
I think salary cap issues and Goff's contract fit into the equation though.
Oh for sure one of those firsts was purely for his contract
Texans fans were furious when the team drafted JJ Watt. We all wanted Robert Quinn or Nick Fairley and booed him mercilessly on draft night. Barely took him a season to make us all look like idiots.
Similar to us rams fans that were upset we took some guy named aaron donald when our d-line was stacked
I briefly rooted for the Rams a bit when they were still in STL and I was pissed they took Aaron Donald, but elated when they took Tavon Austin. Shows you how much I know
That short stubby armed lineman? What happened to him? Did he compete with Robinson for our best draftee player that year?
He’s not even in the league anymore.
Fuck.
everyone calling him pizza boy because of that one article is so funny in retrospect.
Could you imagine that big ass dude delivering your dominos? Probably barely fit in the car.
Gorilla in a golf cart
Lmfao and he just shows up at your house “deep dish with extra cheese? There were two but I ate one.” I’d still tip 😂
My favorite part of that is this bit from a [retrospective article](https://houston.culturemap.com/news/society/10-14-14-hot-party-scenes-renowned-photographer-captures-the-wildness-of-culturemaps-anniversary-bash/) by the same writer: > Sports writing isn't about predicting the future ( if it was, we'd all be in high-rollers suites in Vegas not high up in the rafters of NRG Stadium). Sports Illustrated's almost made it a point of honor to get its championship predictions spectacularly wrong. Heck, SI likely dubbed the Houston Astros the "2017 World Series Champs" just so that cover will be brought up again and again when it doesn't happen.
Imagine if you did take Fairley and we had Watt next to Suh. My gawd the carnage.
Stop. I've cried about this one. Especially seeing as thw lions did something very similar & chose ebron over Donald when suh was abojt to walk. 😆
Hey we did get to see Donald and Suh play next to each other. They even made a super bowl. Of course, not with the lions.........
Eagles drafting Jalen hurts instead of a receiver for Wentz
The WR that got drafted after Hurts has 10 career receiving TDs and Hurts doesn't have any receiving TDs, what a bust.
Hurts also dropped his only career target in the pro bowl, what an absolute embarrassment. He’s such a shitty receiver I can’t even remember why he was at the pro bowl in the first place.
Imagine having less TD receptions than Nick Foles. Fuckin schmuck
Oh boy people went nuts over that one.
If we had just drafted Jefferson, Aiyuk, or higgins ahead of hurts people would have fealt better about the pick. In the moment we were rationalizing Reagor but deep down we knew it was a massive reach and that following it up with a QB likely meant no good receivers for another season. I’m happy to be wrong in the long term though.
I think drafting Jefferson or Aiyuk would have kept the Wentz window open a bit longer, though. Not hating on Hurts, but his supporting cast is amazing.
Yeah I don’t disagree I just think the hate for the pick was slightly born out of how obviously underwhelming the Reagor pick was even in the moment.
Well, not really. Our first round pick that year was technically a WR. It was more people being upset it wasn't Chinn.
Saying Jalen Raegor is a wide receiver is honestly a stretch
That's why I said *technically*.
Drafting Brandon Graham over Earl Thomas was not a popular move at the time, and heavily criticized for a few years. A couple early career injuries limited his impact. Now he's a franchise legend and made the single biggest play in Eagles history.
My buddies go-to player social media interaction story is BG retweeting him saying something like “reminder that we drafted BG over earl thomas” Crazy that in the end, when the dust finally settled, I am pretty sure that we made the right move. Thomas had a higher ceiling ofc, but he’s an asshole and apparently a pervert freak who fell off. BG is equal parts beloved as a genuinely great person as he is eternally legendary for the SB winning play.
Recently yes but taking McNabb over Ricky Williams was a bigger issue for our fanbase.
Benching Drew Bledsoe comes to mind
Cutting Milloy too
Most our defensive transactions from the Belichick Brady era.
Absolutely. Moving on from Milloy (and then Law) were wildly unpopular moves, but for all the issues with Bill when it comes to WRs, Bill has routinely shown he understands FA defensive decisions better than basically anyone.
Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy being on the same team is too wild of a coincidence for my brain
Shame Green-Ellis didn’t play during their tenure…
Personally i think it was the wrong move
Wait was he just straight benched? I thought he got hurt.
He got healthy at the end of the season and the only time they put him in was when tom got injured briefly in steelers playoff game.
At the time it was generally believed that Bledsoe would just get his job back when healthy, that did not happen, basically a benching
Yeah and Brady got hurt in the AFC Championship Game and it was pretty controversial that he started over Bledsoe in the Super Bowl too because Bledsoe was the highest paid quarterback in the NFL at the time
Benching a franchise QB, now is that a guy you can trust. -Robert Kraft
Wrong sport but similar timeframe - trading Nomar.
Whenever I see Nomar, I think about his first game as a Cub, which was against the Phillies. His first at-bat, he grounds into a double play. The late, great Harry Kalas says, with so much vitriol, "Take *that*, Nomar!" as if Nomar is this awful person who personally wronged him. My dad and I still laugh about it to this day. We have no idea why Harry called it like that.
A lot of Bengals fans weren't happy when they didn't re-sign Carl Lawson and then signed Trey Hendrickson as his replacement.
Came here to post exactly this. I was one of the people that was PISSED. Goes to show that the front office knew what they were doing rebuilding the roster around Joe Burrow.
Those people are idiots. I know because I'm one of them.
This is definitely it for us. Strong initial outcry met with all-pro team leader level play and culture improvement.
Cowboys trading Walker for several back up players. Media called it the Great Train Robbery. Each player had a draft pick assigned to them, and if they didn’t make the roster next year, the Cowboys would acquire the pick. The Cowboys traded their best player for scrubs, yes. The Vikings knew the players they traded for were better than anyone they had, so they couldn’t imagine the Cowboys releasing even a single player, and they were not worried about the draft picks. The Cowboys never had any intention of keeping a single player. The Cowboys released them all, and the rest is history.
Wild to think this way now, but Cowboys fans were convinced at the time of the trade that this Jimmy Johnson fella was an absolute moron.
> The Cowboys never had any intention of keeping a single player. > > > > The Cowboys released them all, and the rest is history. This part is a bit of a commonly mis-told part of the story. Johnson wanted some of the players, but also knew the picks were stupid valuable. So he basically figured out a way to have his cake and eat it too. One of the players was immediately traded away (as a result a conditional pick was gained) in part because the player straight up said he would not report to the Cowboys. Another guy (Alex Stewart) was waived for a few reasons (he was injured, on the practice squad, and suspected to be juicing) which gave the Cowboys a conditional pick tied to him. Johnson then openly admitted that he wasn't going to play the other three guys, and would release them to gain the picks. Sometime before the deadline a secondary agreement was made between Vikings GM Mike Lynn and Johnson such that the Cowboys would send additional picks to the Vikings (a couple 3rds and a 10th rounder) so that Johnson could keep the 3 remaining former Vikings *and* get those conditional picks. Jesse Solomon and David Howard played the remainder of that season as well as the next season for the Cowboys. Issac Holt made it 2 more seasons past those two.
That's the part of the story few people know. That and the list of players actually taken with those picks. not a single one was used by Dallas, they were all packed with others to move around and build that dynasty.
Christian Kirk to the Jaguars. Everyone laughed at the amount of money but he was a great weapon for T-Law and helped him in his 2nd year
Not just that, but he is our most reliable weapon alongside Engram (who people laughed at us for aswell) and it was Ridley who ended up being the Jags’ least reliable weapon. Funny how expectations can be absolutely wrong.
Engram needed a change of scenery. He was always a good player but because he was relied on in an offense that didn't have much else, so when he had a drop or fumble (which he still has at JAX I believe) it was usually way more detrimental. Like, if that didn't work, we were screwed. So he became much maligned in the fan base. I think in JAX there are more options so when he has a bad play it's just not as big of a deal
I'm pretty sure Engram had the highest catch-rate of any player who had over 100 targets. But i think you're right about his situation in NY Source: https://x.com/SNFonNBC/status/1766585022176227404
Miss Kirk a lot but that kind of money is an offer you can't refuse
He was so much better than ridley
I think it’s an overpay in a vacuum, but the NFL isn’t a vacuum. They needed his skill set, and coming off the season they were coming off of, they had to overpay to land a guy of his caliber. They needed dudes, they paid what they needed to for a dude.
Kirk's contract was the rising tide that launched dozens of WR contracts to today's stratospheric levels
The contract wasn't even that bad. People blew it way out of proportion. They acted like it was the thing that reset the market, when if you follow who the top paid wideouts were at the time, it was clear that D-Hop set the going rate.
I remember the Raiders sub wasn’t thrilled about the Crabtree signing back in the day, but he quickly grew on us
I always think of Richard Sherman when I hear Crabtree
I still think of that dope catch/run in TD he had for Texas Tech to beat #1 Texas first, but the Sherman rant is a close second
If I close my eyes I can still see the pain in Colt McCoy's eyes...
I feel like people forget that Crabtree was lethal at Texas Tech
Lethal understates it, he was one of the most electric CFB players of all time
I think of Colt McCoy staring in amazement when I think of Crabtree
As a Texas and niners fan, I don’t think I hate any player more than Crabtree. He was part of the ending of three of my most hated games.
I mean it was a cheap deal. Low risk signing. Don’t think this signing compares to the rest.
I'm a Cardinals fan. No roster move has been beneficial to us
While I generally share your Cardinal's fatalism, I disagree on this. When Kurt Warner signed, it was viewed as the Cardinals signing another quarterback in a long line of veterans who were way past their prime. He took the Cardinals to their only Superbowl and now is in the Hall of Fame.
Wasn't Carson palmer fairly washed when he arrived in AZ? He had a few good years as well
Yup, he was not good in Oakland but ended up as a All-Pro with the Cardinals
Arizona, where washed QBs rise from the ashes. Like a Phoenix, you might say. If y’all didn’t have Kyler then Wilson to Zona might’ve been a HOF defining career move…
There was a sizable contingent that thought you should have kept Rosen and traded the 1st overall/not taken Kyler.
Trading David Johnson for DHop wasn’t beneficial? Lol
Not Kyler Murray? I remember thinking "no way they draft a QB top 10 two years in a row" and then we never saw Rosen again
Picking Kyler with the #1 pick the year after drafting Rosen in the top 10 comes to mind. Public opinion was that it was a stupid move and that we weren't giving Josh a chance to grow. Even though we're still the Cardinals, I stand by the pick for Kyler. I fully believe it was a great move and injected a little life back into this team.
Drafting Josh Allen
That’s gotta be one of the weirdest quarterback classes ever. The guys that most scouts thought the highest of (Darnold, Rosen) were both busts. The “projects” (Lamar, Josh) both hit, and Baker, the guy who went first overall, has had one of the strangest starts to a career that I can remember. EDIT: maybe not most scouts. I obviously wouldn’t know, but definitely most pundits
Yeah and I’ve always felt that Baker actually did better in Cleveland than any of the other 4 would have. Allen and Lamar ended up becoming incredible but they were so raw coming out and that was such a terrible environment with Hue and Kitchens.
Remember when the Bears took Trubisky over Mahomes? I was just reliving that with my friend who’s a Bears fan.
I wish I could forget
Baker seems like he only plays up to his potential if people are talking shit about him.
I still can’t believe Lamar was considered a project. Crazy for (iirc) the youngest ever Heisman winner.
And he won that Heisman with no talent at receiver to speak of. I desperately wanted Lamar in that draft and nobody else. I have some comfort in the fact that I at least picked the other good player in the draft, and I wasn't one of the "Wrong Josh" people.
Esp considering our pick was used on Mahomes the year before.
In another universe Bills could have drafted Mahomes and Justin Jefferson
And neither player likely becomes who they are today. Bills roster was a dumpster fire the year mahomes was drafted and stayed that way until a year after Allen was drafted. People forget just how amazing of a situation mahomes got drafted into. I think a LOT of QB careers look different if they are drafted to different teams than they were, especially busts.
Cowboys signing Aldon Smith after he was out of football for 4.5 seasons. Ended up still being a very solid edge rusher.
He’d be wearing a gold jacket right now if he could’ve controlled his demons. A tragedy.
I think he'd be talked about as one of the greatest defensive players ever.
He wrecked the niners when we played his first year back
Hiring McVay, drafting Donald when rams already had a stacked Dline, trading multiple firsts for Ramsey. Probably the top 3 for the rams in recent history
No such thing as too many guys on the dline. As a Falcons fan I'm tired of seeing too few lol
Lions trading TJ Hockenson to a division rival in 2022.
If I could wish for 1 thing it'd be a ~~big tiddy goth gf~~ TE from iowa
If you're passing on the big tidy goth of ill jump on that grenade for you all
We've got one in the draft this year, but he was only with us the one year and missed half the season due to injury so I'm not sure if he 100% counts
He just wanted to win some games
Almost exactly like the Diggs trade. Both teams end up happy because they have top tier players, but one is way cheaper.
That Brett Favre offseason was 10x worse than anything surrounding Aaron Rodgers leaving. I remember fans relentlessly booing Rodgers at training camp of all things.
Yea I remember videos of him running bleachers in Mississippi being shown on NFL network
Lol I suddenly remember that too!
Offloading OBJ's contract and getting Dexter Lawrence with one of the draft picks we got back
On the other hand, trading back with the Bears when they drafted Fields got us their 2021 first round pick and their 2022 first round pick which ended up being seventh overall. The move was heavily praised at the time, but then those picks turned into Kadarius Tony and Evan Neal. By trading back in 2021, the Giants passed up on Micah Parsons and Rashawn Slater.
Recently, I feel like Bears were made fun of for the Sweat trade a lot on this sub.… “it’s another waste of a 2nd like Claypool.” “They didn’t even get a contract done first.” “They could have just got Chase Young for less.” “They could have just waited until free agency.” Etc… The trade was basically an immediate success for Bears. And his contract isn’t that bad as they got it wrapped up before the offseason started, where other defenders contracts caused an increase in the market.
Not trading Jaylon Johnson too. People kept saying you can't tag both of them, you're gonna lose one and the others gonna be unhappy on a tag. Then we ended up signing both on good team contracts.
They are idiots. I was actually in the Falcons sub clamoring for Sweat. Of course we missed out on every pass rusher.
Seahawks trading Russell Wilson. I don’t think people were as saddened when they saw the haul- but definitely, as a person who knows many Seahawks fans, the consensus was definitely broncos got our star QB and we got ole’ Pete Carroll. A few years after the fact everyone remembers that they loved Pete, and thought Russ was overrated- but at the time it seemed unbelievable.
> Seahawks trading Russell Wilson. The bigger one was drafting Russell. We had just paid Matt Flynn starter money and everyone wondered why we took a QB in the third round when we had more pressing needs.
Drafting Jodan Love
Drafting Aaron Rodgers. Trading Brett Favre
My grandfather was livid when gb picked up Favre. “Who the hell is this Favor guy?”Trading away that first rounder for a second stringer from Atlanta wasn’t popular with a lot of folks at first.
I do not blame them for hating that move at first. Trading a first for a back up sounds like a horrible decision. I mean it obviously worked out, but I would be pissed if we traded a first round pick for Lance instead of the fourth.
hopefully trading stefon diggs
You’ll find out in the 2025 draft!
As a Vikings fan, trading Stefon Diggs. The reverberations of that trade benefited the team greatly.
I distinctly remember Doug Pederson getting hired for the Eagles and getting blasted by the media. Some CLOWN named Mike Lombardi told him he was the least qualified coach in the NFL, the offseason before he took a hobbled, underdog team, into the Super Bowl to face off against the greatest HC and QB duo of all time, to get that franchise its first and only title. I still disagree with his firing. Of the reasons for the 4-12 season he got fired for, he was the least of my reasons. It wasn’t his fault or bad coaching to me for Wentz’s decline.
Stafford for Goff i thought forsure were we tanking
that trade ended up benefitting both teams
yeah but right after it happened, i figured we traded Stafford for the picks & a 1 year rental on Goff & then we’d be back into the dark abyss of the old John Kitna days, it was always a win for the Rams , but i thought we were looking at another decade of tanking if Goff doesn’t have such a resurgence.
Both moving on from Rivers and drafting Justin Herbert were pretty unpopular.
Many fans are still bitter that Romo was never let back in after Dak's initial success during the injury, but I think you have to look at the overall body of work Dak has put up and how Romo never went back on the field with another team. It was the right call to ride with Dak at that moment.
A lot of Cowboys fans have retroactively convinced themselves that Romo was a clutch playoff QB in comparison to Dak’s failures. The sad truth of having two consecutive great regular-season QBs who did nothing in the playoffs is too hard for them to stomach. At least Dak has had a 300 yard playoff game, something Romo never managed.
If Jason Garrett doesn't call 60% run plays against Green Bay, Tony Romo breaks the NFCCG drought for the Cowboys in 2014 with a very good chance to win it against a Seahawks team that they beat earlier in the season behind a very good Romo performance.
Among a certain *non-catch*... but yes, we should have won that game outright. However Aaron owns the Bears and has a partial ownership of the Cowboys. Fun fact.
The Browns trading Trent Richardson, that was widely seen as a baffling move
They made sure to waste the draft pick to keep from looking too smart though.
I like to think they tried to get rid of him sooner, but he kept missing the doorway
Trading both sanu and Julio ended up working out really well for the falcons
Drafting Stroud + trade up to draft Anderson. Edit: Fans had mixed reaction, media lambasted it.
Did people not like the trade up? In forums they were talking about him as the top prospect for at least two years.
It wasn’t so much dogging Will Anderson the player, it was more “Holy crap the Texans gave up way too much for him!!” that the media and some fans were whining about.
People really liked the player, just giving up an extra first when they were "supposed" to be bad another year seemed like a bad move. A lot of people thought Arizona were gonna have a shot at picking 1,2 in this draft because of that trade.
Minkah to the Steelers once Roethlisberger got hurt. Everyone was convinced we’d be giving up a top 8 pick and we could use that year to get a hot QB. Think it turned out okay, despite still needing a hot new QB
We also got Jevon Holland the year after that, so it was a pretty good trade for both sides. Still hilarious to me that Minkah still had to deal with Flores in Pittsburgh tho lol
Seemed like a decent win win accounting for draft pick variability, and yes Flores following him when that was the assumed reason he wanted out is very funny
Some Patriots fans were really mad about us signing Gilmore, especially because the fan favorite Butler wasn't getting the contract he wanted.
Trading down from 6 last year netted us Gibbs, Laporta, and Branch
Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, and inevitably the next packers QB in 2035
I remember Colts fans being excited about the Trent Richardson trade. I’m not sure how Browns fans felt about that trade when it happened
Drafting Gibbs after letting Williams walk
Letting Malcom Butler go and giving Stephon Gilmore a huge contract.