This Offseason we experienced our first with the GM hot seat dynamic.
Let's start with the Hot seat GMs and the moves they made to keep their respected teams.
Denver Broncos. GM Tom Riddell. Tom had acquired the Titans Future 1st from a trade last season. As it turned out the pick ended up to be 1.03. This is nice draft capital for a team on the hot seat. I think Tom could have played this a couple of ways. They could of traded down and acquire a talented player to inprove the club immediately plus add a lower 1st round pick. Like the Dallas cowboys were able to do. The other option was to move up to 1.2 or 1.1. Securing a player the felt would also impact their club sooner then later. Tom decided to go with the latter. Drafting WR. Matt Jones at 1.02. I know Gms seem to be split with this choice. I personally think this was his best case scenario for him. If I were to guess, I think the Broncos will be able to get into the post season this year. With a few more defensive upgrades they will be a hard team to beat for any club.
Tennessee Titans. GM Gary Cohen. Gary has made perhaps the most heavy weight impact moves of any hot seat GM. Gary used his draft capital differently then Riddell. He was able to secure big name talent with some remarkable moves. Names like Terrell Owens at wide receiver, MLB Brian Urlacher, OLB Peter Boulware and LE Jason Taylor. This is easily the most big name talent to change to a single team of all 32 teams period. I also think Gary has done enough to win at least 6 games this year. His mark to hit is substantially lower then the Broncos who need 10 wins. I see no problems here this season for Gary to keep his team.
Jacksonville Jaguars. GM Jason Arnold. Jason was hit with a bit of bum luck last season. QB Eli Manning spent most of the season scrambling around costing the Jags win after win. Jason also made is own attempt at getting more impact players to his roster looking that elusive 6 win mark. The combination of FA signings, trades and draft capital were all used this offseason. MLB Shelton Quarles replaces last season starter Kendrell Bell. RG Kris Dielman was acquired in a move with Arizona for the 1.01 pick which was a good move for Jason. Those picks turned into MLB Jordan Beck and CB Antrel Rolle. Also one thing to note, losing DT Kris Jenkins to FA by not placing his min EFA tender may go down as a massive blunder. Look for Jason to try a lure him back with a big payday. Having seen both the Titans and the Colts upgrade their rosters it will be difficult this season for the Jags to get those 6 wins, not impossible though.
Buffalo Bills. GM Brandon Lindgren. Brandon did the quietest amount of offseason moves. Don't look at that as him not getting his upgrades within the Bills roster. The big move saw him acquire QB Steve "Air" McNair. from The Washington Reskins in return for 3rd year pro Rex " Mouth Breather" Grossman. This alone should get the Bills at least 4 wins single handily. Adding in LE Andre Carter from Dallas and WR Ike Hilliard from the Colts. This puts the Bills at in my opinion challenging for the division title in the AFC East.
Detroit Lions. GM Brad Barber. Brad has perhaps the hardest track to 6 wins of all the hot seat GMs. They did well to improve the QB position with Michael Vick. That is an instant improvement over 3rd year pro Brian Leftwich. Also the drafting of wide receiver Braylon Edwards and RB Marion Barber will get Brad's Lions putting up more points then last season. The real problem here is still both the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers. These two will be battling for the division title all season. Luckily for Brad the Bears decided to get out the the 3 way battle this season and regroup for future battles. That move alone will get them one more win then last season. Now is they can get the 2 more needed to get to 6 then Brad keeps his job. I think they can get to 6 so Brad looks to keep on building for the years to come.
Philadephia Eagles. GM Leonard Jones. The Eagles has easily made the most offseason transactions of any hot seat team. 17 total moves not including the draft additions. Its hard to tell but it looks like they acquired more talent then they lost. Looking to fully transition to a 3-4 defense is clearly evident. Adding in MLB Courney Watson from Cleveland in exchange for LE Derrick Burgess was a statement to support this theory. Losing WR Marty Booker and LG Tra Thomas hurts this squad. Adding in RG Terrence Metcalf helps a little. The addition of DT Bryant Young looks to bolster his Dline. Leo needs 7 wins to save his job. I think he can still get that as the Redskins are clearly less potent a team from last year and the Giants are still grooming a young QB. They should compete with Dallas for a division title this season.
Seattle Seahawks. GM Rock Hewko. Rock is the only Gm not to make one single offseason acquisition. It looks to be draft and develop or bust in Seattle. This should be quite interesting to see play out. I can't say they lost a pile of talent. As only two players have been acquired from other clubs to this point. QB Trent Dilfer and RG Tupe Peko. Both were backups athe their resective positions. One last thing working in Seatles favour is the rebuild process of both St. Louis and San Francisco. Look for Seattle to get the 6 wins required to keep this franchise for another season.
Draft Day 2005 Hot Seat Edition.
For this years draft I was heading out of town. Visiting my mother after a long quarantine period. Only having my cell phone available for the draft this year was going to be interesting. I was running errands thinking I had a solid hour before the draft radio show to get back to my moms. Then I realized I had lost a time zone my phone was still showing PCT. That now changed from over an hour to less then 10 mins. I scurried out of Home Depot and started heading towards home. Knowing I could not make that drive before the draft started I detoured. Browns Social house had just reopened. It wasn't ideal but the best I could find in a panic.
So Here I am listening to the Draft Radio show with my Iphone on speaker and sipping A Social Lager with a side of Clamato juice. Getting both Neal and Breck as guest hosts was top notch additions. Neal has a radio presence that screams knowledge of madden. Though, he like all of us, base some of it purely on his opinion and maybe not fact. Breck also has that calming radio demeanor. Nothing like how he posts online and in the forums. Then you have Commissioner GM William Cook. Seasons of radio shows are really starting to show in his radio presence. The three of you meshed very well. I think if you polled the league you get a large vote in favour for multiple rounds of Live analysis. No pressure though!.
After Arizona started things out as we all expected, the Broncos followed suite with WR Matt Jones. Tom chimed in with I'll go down playing the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. "Great Balls of Fire"! We moved along the board pretty status quo from most mock drafts. The big Question would start at pick 10. The Rams where playing around with a couple of options. Either a MLB that was 'best of the rest' or the best QB in the draft. They chose MLB Odell Thurman. Now this set the stage to see the Bears take Orton at likely 13. Once the Saints picked we had heavy chatter about the Bears options at back to back picks with 1.12 and 1.13. I did workout both Carlos Rogers and Corey Webster. Man that was not an easy choice. While I did want to use my whole allotted time GMs starting ringing me with missed pick alerts. The make or break for me taking QB Kyle Orton or not was the Skew of WR Vincent Jackson. Up and Orton keeps sliding, down and Orton is a Chicago Bear. Well Jackson skewed up and I just couldn't pass at that point.
Bingo! The San Francisco 49ers were sitting in the best case scenario. Kyle Orton is on the board and its pick 14 of the first round. No brainer as Kyle Orton was selected and has a new franchise to lead for years to come. These moves Pushed two very quality tackles down the board. Herremans and McMahon both were quickly snatched by the Chargers and Jets.
As the board started to develop Stud DE Marcus Spears fell to the Panthers at 24 also the Colts also made great picks. Taking both Tackle Jammal Brown and Corner Justin Miller. Though they did give up a future first for the 29 spot. I also made a move late. Trading up for QB Alex Smith with the Cleveland Browns. This was interesting as getting into my 3rd beer at that point plus having my phone with around 20% battery. I was getting concerned about having to auto draft for the second round. I did end up getting back to my pickup and grabbing my charging cable. The booth I was in had a USB port under the table so disaster avoided. As the secon round started and i was clearly getting a buzz from the draft beer and Clamato juice! It felt like the draft radio show was getting better and better. oh ya, I almost forgot to mention when Norbert came on live to talk about his draft selection! Wow, Norbert's voice is amazing....I think someone mentioned mad scientist....for sure. You just needed that sinister laugh at the end to cap the cameo off right. Maybe next time. I mean shit I would like to hear more of us on there nest year. I probably should of chimed in, I don't remember getting asked anything really though. Next year!
So that was pretty much most of what I can remember as the beers didn't stop until later that night so if I missed any moments just Chime in below and let me know!
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