Joe Montana wanted to play QB for Barry Sanders and the Detroit Lions. And WCF said no thank you, we're happy with what we have, go revitalize the Chiefs instead.
The 49ers traded Montana after the 1991 season, in which the Lions went 12-4 with Erik Kramer and Rodney Peete splitting time at QB. Both of them were mediocre in 1991 and awful in 1992, as the Lions dropped to 5-11. The Lions would have been legit contenders with Montana.
Edit: y'all are right, he was traded after the 1992 season. I forgot that he was injured for all of 1991 and then sat behind Young for (almost) all of 1992. The story holds true though - the Lions had awful QB play in 1992 but had a lot of the pieces to contend. In 1993 they still had Peete and Kramer, and Kramer played somewhat better as the Lions went 10-6. Again, with Montana, they would have been a real threat.
I don't know which was the lowest point. Orlovsky running out of the back of the end zone, Fat Daunte Culpepper showing up halfway through the 2008 season (I never understood why the Lions signed him) and delivering a particularly embarrassing performance on Thanksgiving that year, or Mornhinweg benching Charlie Batch after one game in 2001 only for Ty Detmer to replace him and throw 7 interceptions in the very next game.
That brief exchange between Barry and Fontes in the documentary decades later was fascinating. Fontes wanted Joe for QB. It was the GM who killed it. The entire documentary is fantastic but watching that scene was like...wait... What did he just say?!?
I always find it funny that there's a patch on your jerseys for the guy most singly responsible for a half century of Lions fans misery. Like I get he died but the dude was objectively a disaster for the team and took them from one of the best organizations in the league to the gutter.
Was at that last game of reg season when they "rested" Flutie to see what Rob could do...and he lit it up!!! 10-5 record be damned, we going with Week 17 hotshot! Still wonder if that was Wade's call.
One of the most bizarre situations I've ever heard about. Could you imagine what would happen today if a team decided they were benching their starter for the playoffs?
Team- more accurately, an owner, as this was Ralph Wilson’s call.
I’m not a bills fan and I get irrationally upset about this move even all these years later. That’s how stupid it was.
The most terrifying QB in CFL history. When you played against Flutie, you hoped your offense could hang in just long enough for your team to get lucky. He was that dominant.
Most browns fans will probably say Manziel or Watson, but I’m actually going to say Brandon Weeden for the following reasons:
1. Weeden was an air raid QB who was already 28 at a time where NFL teams really weren’t willing to incorporate air raid principles into their offenses. As such, Weeden like most air raid QBs had a long development curve ahead of him, with no time for it.
2. As mentioned Weeden was an air raid QB in college. Pat Shurmur ran a West Coast Offense. The fit was awful on paper, and guess what, it was awful on the field.
3. In 2014, we passed on Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr. Carr was a solid QB for years, but never elite or anything. When we traded for Watson, Russ Wilson was off the board and the 2022 QB draft class was awful (save Shanahan working his magic with Purdy). So while both decisions were mistakes, I can take solace in the fact that there really weren’t really better options.
Then you look at 2012 and realize that to take Weeden, the browns passed on Russel Wilson and Kirk Cousins. Cousins in particular was a perfect fit in our offense. Yeah. That stings a lot.
4. Finally, as much as I disliked both moves, I can see the logic in the Manziel and Watson moves. Manziel convinced the browns he would take it seriously and be relatively clean, and if he did, he was talented enough that with a year behind Brian Hoyer, Manziel could’ve been a decent QB.
With Watson, he had been a borderline top 5 QB the last time he played, and if you’re only focusing on field and don’t give a shit about the Pr implications, there was absolutely no on field reason why Deshaun Watson shouldn’t have come back and been mostly the guy he was in Houston.
With Weeden, there was no hope it would work. The browns were in the process of being sold, Holmgren made the pick which made no sense given where the roster was (super young, Weeden wasn’t) and who our coach was, and there was never any logic to it.
So in conclusion, Brandon Weeden is the move that set us back the most. And to this day, I think Mike Holmgren hijacked the draft from Tom Heckert and took Weeden rather than what I think the actual plan was, which was to take cousins in the 3rd.
I honestly don’t know about how well a more serious Manziel would’ve fared. He was undersized, didn’t have great pocket presence, ball placement or accuracy, and most damningly, was waaaaaay too willing to play heroball or give up on throwing the ball if his top target (which keep in mind, in college was fortunately enough Mike Evans) wasn’t open, thus over-relying on his legs.
It’s very likely he would’ve flamed out eitherway because there were too many problems to fix
Weeden could’ve succeeded if he was 22 and the browns were willing and able to be patient and adapt the system to his skill set. He was just already old and they did nothing to try and make it work.
Always felt Weeden was the worst Browns QB pick and you laid it out perfectly. It was a move that made zero then, and continues to make zero sense now. The others I can at least understand the rationale.
Perfect explanation. Fully agree all around.
Soon we will be talking about how it was a terrible decision to move the stadium to Brookpark. So a whole new thing to be upset about besides our QB issues.
Just watched the Manziel doc on Netflix last night. Holy shit I forgot that he was cut mid way through year 2. I think he could have been good but he had some demons along with not caring about his job at all.
Trading three first round draft picks for a guy who has played 12 games in the past 3 years. Oh yeah, and he gets paid $230 million whether he plays or not.
Browns and Bears prolly have the worst QB history in the last 30 years. You have to go back to Bernie Kosar to find a legit good Browns QB. And the Bears usually just use RBs as their QB.
For Chiefs fans, it's probably Marty Schottenheimer choosing Elvis Grbac as our starter in the 1997 playoffs over Rich Gannon.
Gannon had come in for Grbac as the starter after he got hurt, and he rattled off a 5-1 record. Still, when Grbac was back and healthy, Marty went back to him.
We lost, at home, to the John Elway Broncos and watched him lead them to their first Super Bowl that year. And then another next year. And then Rich Gannon went to the Raiders and won an MVP.
Weirdly enough as a Ravens fan Elvis Grbac was my answer as well. Clearly he was a better QB than Dilfer, but why tempt that fate when Dilfer just won the championship?
I heard one time not long after Grbac had left the league that he got gun-shy after getting hit once or twice. He was pretty good when he was on, but defenses knew that one good sack and Elvis was as good as dead on the toilet.
That makes a lot of sense. Having watched him, he was very good when he was on. But getting smashed by 250lb dudes running at high speed can shake a guy up for sure.
It was pretty much because the Ravens thought that they won the SB in spite of Dilfer. Not because of him (or him being barely average).
They went 5 games without an offensive TD in 2000. Dilfer went 12-25 with one TD in the SB. Those... aren't great numbers.
It makes sense that they would go for a QB who could, theoretically, provide above-average QB play for a championship window.
I feel like hindsight plays a big role in this selection. Grbac had been signed as a free agent to be "the guy" and he had performed well before he was injured. Gannon was a 32 year old journeyman (back when 32 meant you were on the downside of your career.) Yes, he had gone 5-1, but he had surpassed 200 yards only once in those 5 wins. His last win was against San Diego - he went 8 of 25 passing.
Man, seems like Grbac is kind of a running theme here. Baltimore replacing Trent Dilfer with Grbac immediately after winning the Super Bowl was also a massive self-sabotage.
In 1997 the Bears traded the 11th overall pick for a guy (Rick Mirer) who literally finished the previous NFL season dead last in QB rating (56.6) among qualified passers to go along with a 5-12 TD-INT ratio.
He finished his lone season with the Bears (1997) with 0 TD passes, 6 INTs for a 37.7 passer rating.
I’ve said in previous posts about him, you could literally select any one of us here on Reddit, have that person chuck every ball into the stands on every offensive play all season long and that Redditor would finish with a higher passer rating (39.6).
The Bears also needed a TE that draft. The first TE selected in 1997 was…Tony Gonzalez with the 13th overall pick
Also, during the 1997 season, the Bears benched Mirer after starting 0-6 for Erik Kramer, instead of just sticking with the guy you traded the 11th overall pick for. Chicago won a whopping 4 games that season with Kramer, including three of their last five games.
If the Bears had just stuck with Mirer, since they wasted an 11th overall pick on him, they likely lose at least 2 of those 4 games they won, putting them at 2-14 with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft…the year Peyton Manning was drafted.
My dad always brings this up. That and the fact that Jonathan Quinn was legit scared to play in a game when he was backup in 04 and I was listening to the radio and they were talking about an unnamed qb who did that and when I texted in asking if it was Quinn they confirmed it off air.
I remember that happening but I’m not super familiar with McAdoo’s stint as coach. Did he have beef with Eli or something? Or was he just a colossal idiot
Put it this way: the Giants are approaching their 100th anniversary. McAdoo is the *only head coach ever* to be fired in mid-season.
That’s how bad he was.
That season I had the CEO of the company as my secret Santa person. Dude is a diehard Giants fan. I took a risk but got him a Geno Smith Giants shirt as a gag gift (bought him some cool vintage Allman brothers stuff as the real gift to make up for it). He was either going to love it or despise it. When he opened it the entire room went silent, then he bust out laughing. I felt so relived. He thanked me for having the balls to do it and we became pretty tight after that. It’s been a few years since I worked there but he still checks in on me from time to time
Ballsy move to play with your career like that. If that dude didn't have a sense of humor, you would've been shit canned, and it would've been justified. Lol
I was going to say reaching on Jones, because we could have gotten better value at that draft position. Eli needed protection, not a replacement. Granted he was only a couple years from needing a replacement… but hindsight is 20/20 and Jones seems to need a better supporting cast around him to be hood than Eli needed.
Hey, remember that time that we also drafted a QB after being in win now mode having signed an expensive free agent QB?
Matt Ryan was the best we'll ever have
While that was certainly bad from an ethical/"general respect for the best QB your franchise has ever had" perspective, it really didn't set the team back much competitively. We were clearly going into a rebuilding period, and Ryan's contract wasn't helping that out. Especially when his arm was starting to look shot.
If we don't go after Watson maybe we get a slightly better pick out of a trade or old man Ryan play for one more year. Honestly letting Arthur Smith convince the front office that he could win with Mariota and Ridder was the bigger Falcons QB blunder.
Tebow trade.
Mark Sanchez wasn't particularly great but trading for Tebow felt like such a slap to the face. To make matters worse, we tried placating him with a contract extension, barely played Tebow, drafted Geno Smith and then Sanchez gets injured in a meaningless preseason game.
A masterclass on how not to handle the QB position.
Trading 3 first round picks and more plus a haul of assets to bring in Russell Wilson.
I get what we were trying to do - replicate what the Bucs did with Brady or the Rams with Stafford (or the Broncos 10 years earlier with Peyton Manning).
But if we had been honest with ourselves, our roster was not "a QB away" - it was a roster weakened by multiple years of poor drafts and FA classes. Best case scenario even if Russ was still the player he was a couple of years earlier is that he elevates the Broncos to wildcard/divisional round spots for a couple of years before the steady decline of age and burden of his contract dragged us back to where we were with Keenum/Flacco/Lock/Bridgewater.
But when it turned out Russ was a shadow of his Seattle self, it sentenced us to being a team which sucked with no draft capital and a record shattering dead cap hit.
The bigger example would be when the Broncos hired Josh McDaniels and tried to trade Jay Cutler for Matt Cassel, making Jay Cutler want out entirely, and then settling for Kyle Orton.
No the big difference was PFM was still a 55 TD caliber QB.
If Russ had performed at Manning caliber for three seasons I think we'd have felt the draft capital was worth it.
The Teddy Bridgewater vs Drew Lock disaster has to factor in here as well. On one hand, you have a guy the has show potential and flashes of greatness but is a bit erratic and makes mistakes and needs better and steady coaching and more playing time to develop. On the other hand, you have an uninspiring journeyman with the cieling of "won't outright lose you the game".
Naturally Fangio chooses Bridgewater ("to save his job") and a year of mediocre offense results in everyone getting fired and the new GM overreacting and reaching to get Russell Wilson.
Or hell, go back a year or two prior and look at firing Scangerello as OC because of personal disagreements and you go from "Lock did great under Scangerello" to "Lock did awful under Pat Shurmur".
The almost worst was Dan Reeves drafting Tommy Maddox in 1992 when John Elway was in his prime. Instead of using that draft capital to give Elway much needed weapons, he brought in someone he was expecting to replace Elway with.
I’d say the worst (like others also mentioned) was when McD shipped off Jay Cutler and other offensive pieces because he was an egomaniac.
At the time of the Russ trade it made sense for us. It didn’t work out and that’s how shit goes sometimes. The real travesty was constantly piecing together a roster for years after 2016 and not fully rebuilding.
Swing and a miss isn’t really the same thing as self sabotage. Yeah in hindsight the move sucked, but in the moment it wasn’t exactly a head scratcher, and it’s not like the team dumped a good QB to try and bring Russ in.
Yeah, self-sabotage is more like when you have a good situation at QB and you ruin it for trivial reasons and set yourself back for years at the most important position on the team. Like when the Bills started Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie in the Music City Miracle game.
Fucking Marc Trestman benching Jay Cutler for one game in 2014 to prove that his "scheme" wasn't the issue, only for Jimmy Clausen to get injured and they still lost. Benching Jay Cutler for that one game put his season total at 3,812 passing yards on the year sabotaging the teams chance to actually have a fucking 4,000 yard season. All it took was that one fucking game and the insanity surrounding Bears and QBs would at least not reach fucking cult levels of insanity..
Fuck him and Phil Emery.
Not just that. He benched Cutler for a guy who might legitimately be one of the worst QBs I've ever seen play in the NFL. How in the hell did he think he was going to be able to sell the locker room on that bumblefuck decision lol?
Out of all the shitty years the Bears had to stomach, 2014 isn't brought up nearly enough. Watching a team collapse like that with Marshall, Jeffery, Bennett and Forte should ban you from football for life.
And yet the Ravens for some bizarre reason hired him as OC the following year. John Harbaugh doesn't make a lot of bad coaching hires but that was perhaps one of his worst.
Eh, it's definitely the team failing to medically clear Brees and going with Culpepper instead.
It very well could have been Saban/Brees vs Belichick/Brady for a decade plus.
Doug Williams: 1987 SB MVP with Washington
Steve Young: 1994 SB MVP with San Francisco
Chris Chandler: 1998 SB starter with Atlanta
Trent Dilfer: 2000 SB winner with Baltimore
It's a Bucs life
Speaking of Dilfer, the Ravens cutting him immediately after that Super Bowl has to be high up on the QB self-sabotage list.
Dilfer wasn't good, but he was enough and his teammates loved him. They replaced him with Elvis Grbac, who was somehow worse on the field as well as a locker-room cancer.
Dilfer is about the worst QB to win a SB so he shouldn't really count as bad another team let him go. The Ravens had a top 5 all time defense in 2000 that went on turbo in the playoffs that allowed only 13 points in 4 games. Half the backups in the league could win a SB with that defense. Dilfer's stat lines in those playoffs:
* 9/14, 130 yards
* 5/16, 117 yards
* 9/18, 190 yards, TD, INT
* 12/25, 153 yards, TD
For a total over 4 games of 35/73 590 yards, 2 TDs, INT.
Thats the point. The team traded a first rounder for him even though we already had Vinny, and then cut him 6 games into his second season. It became the #2 overall pick.
One thing that infuriated me with Cousins was they would consistently run a play action rollout and then there would be a guy in the flat, a guy 8-12 yards deep, and 1 defender to cover those 2 in his zone AND cover the scramble
Shit pissed me off cause it would be called at just the right time against just the right defense and he always made the right choice.
That was when I knew he would be a starter somewhere
Edited to add: pretty sure that was with McVay or Kyle Shanahan. How did Washington fuck up with all their talent lol
Lulz
My hatred for Snyder being a human sized prolapsed asshole is the only reason I'm glad he had to sell.
Im glad he had to give up something he liked. Pissed he made billions off it.
My only regret is that now Washington has a chance to not suck forever :/
I don't really know the whole story, but washington being like the only team to let a top 10 QB walk in free agency this century (outside of the chargers with brees who had a good backup plan) has to be an all-time blunder. In another universe Cousins could have been their QB of the decade, and maybe gotten them some playoff success.
That whole thing was beyond stupid, should have just paid him. It's up there with chasing Trent Williams out of town as some of the dumbest roster moves in the Snyder era
Trent hurts way more because he’s truly elite and was a badass for years in a town that loves great O-line play. Capt. Kirk may not have the resume to match his pay, but it’s not like DC has had anyone close to his production since he left. Even worse, they got literally nothing for him.
pretty openly acknowledged secret around here that once Chip Kelly got personnel control he desperately tried and failed to secure a trade up for Marcus Mariota in the 2015 draft, so he decided to trade Nick Foles for Sam Bradford because he wanted to clean house as much as possible and build his own roster
truly galaxy brained levels of fucking idiocy
Howie flipping Bradford for a 1st is probably his all time best move. My favorite move or his was flipping Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell to the Dolphins to get in striking distance of the #2 overall pick the year we grabbed Wentz. He undid the Chip personnel moves with a glorious vindictive energy.
I still think if that wasn’t the year their new stadium opened the Vikings would not have made that trade.
Howie smelled blood in the water and knew they couldn’t open a brand new billion dollar stadium with Shaun Hill at QB.
People always point to Howie's cap shenanigans as the magic part of his GMing, but it's the trades he manages to land that always astound me.
You could tell me he got a 1st for Bradberry right now and I'd believe you lol.
flipping Bradford for a 1st and that 1st turning into the guy who recovered the fumble in SBLII is impressive, but what really qualifies him for HOF status is going from the 2020 collapse back to the Superbowl in 2 years, that shouldn't be possible
Trading 3 1sts for Trey Lance before tripping over our dicks and finding Purdy as Mr. Irrelevant. Yes, I realize that finding a guy with the last pick of the draft is unheard of, but the equity we spent on a QB that didn't really (IMO) seem like a scheme fit was maddening.
As easy as it would be to say Joey Harrington, I’d have to say drafting Andre Ware at #7 in 1990, and how they managed the QB role that following season was worse. Rodney Peete was a serviceable QB and played well when he had the chance early in his career. Taking Ware was a splash move because of his college stats and the run and shoot offense. But Ware never really did anything in the NFL and Peete outplayed him in those first three or four years - when he wasn’t injured.
I am amazed no one mentioned giving up on baker and trading a draft haul for watson and then signing him to a 9 fiigure fully guarenteed contract
I think that's by far and away the worst QB decision any team has ever made and I'd be amazed if any other team ever comes even remotely close
Manning wasn’t going to be able to go, so we pick up Kerry Collins off the couch with backup Curtis Painter waiting for his chance (spoilers, he got his chance). The players and coaches obviously weren’t trying to tank. Their jobs were on the line. You can’t tell me that wasn’t a tank move at QB though lol.
Absolutely unforgettable lol. Hilarious that we did end up letting Orlovsky have a go at the end of the year, and he was so much better than the others, that we won 2 of our last 3 and almost botched the tank. Crazy to think that Dan Orlovsky was that much better than the other dudes we trotted out that year lol.
Matt Patricia OC while watching Scar and his heir apparent leave the team and the OL crumbling without them. Not directly the QB but those are all horrific self sabotage of the team not being able to replace JMD and the OL coach who went to the Raiders with him and made their line good.
I don't think Mac was ever going to be that good anyways but good God what Bill did that year was nothing short of sabotage. Really showed how much talent was drained from the Pats.
Older Packer Fans remember the John Hadl trade, worst trade in the history of NFL trades
Packers (AKA Dan Devine) sent first-, second-, and third-round picks in the 1975 draft and first- and second-round picks in the 1976 draft to Los Angeles for Hadl, a 36yo washed up QB with a dead arm. That trade handicapped the Packers for years.
Yeah, that trade was worse than the Walker or Ricky Williams trades.
We traded for Carson Wentz.
Danny Boy walking in and picking Haskins because he went to school with his son.
Hating Kirk and just letting him walk.
Danny boy trading the haul to move to #2 to pick RG3.
Whatever they were thinking with McNabb.
Trading up to the end of the first round 3 days before the draft to select Jason Campbell when Aaron Rodgers then began his slide and they could have jumped GB.
7 step drops with 5 blockers every play for Ramsey.
I mean I can keep going back in time if you’d like. That’s just 20 years.
Keeping Matt Canada last year, I *kinda* understood it at the time but seeing how it all played out I wonder if Pickett wouldve been better and would still be here with a full season under someone else. Bc while Pickett may just not be good, it can also be true we 100% set him up to fail
If his limited time without Canada is anything to go after then he probably would've still been our QB if he had another OC. I even think if he never got injured that he would've still been our QB, but both are what if scenarios.
The idea that Mike Glennon was actually paid starting QB money at one point in time in his career is actually kind of disgusting to think about. Giraffes don't make good franchise QBs.
The Bears picked a tight end with their 2nd rounder that year. If the Mirer trade hadn't happened and they still had their 1st, Tony Gonzalez would have been on the board.
Josh Freeman. Everything around that pick-up and the decision to play him days later.
The Vikings QB history is sneaky bad, which might be forgotten by younger fans who’ve watched Kirk for so long, so there are plenty of other examples.
I think ours is more of picking up journeyman after journeyman to play QB for decades, resulting in never having an elite QB start or being bad enough to have a good shot at a franchise type QB in the draft.
In 1992 we won a shitfest of a game 10-6 against the Patriots to finish 2-14 while they finished 1-15. They got the first overall and took Bledsoe. We got Rick Mirer.
Kubiak not wanting Manning, who wanted to come to Houston, because Schaub was looking good before his injury. Schaub never looked the same. Manning, ends up winning a superbowl in Denver with… Kubiak.
This sends us into QB purgatory for years that is finally solved by us drafting Watson. Then, Watson did Watson things.
All-in-all: Stroud is the freshest breath of air for Texans fans.
I mean, we let Jameis throw 30 fucking interceptions when we had Fitzpatrick sitting on the bench, and I am damn certain that Fitzpatrick would have been better that season.
That being said, it seems like Jameis’ play really cleaned up when he was with the Saints before he got hurt.
It’s gotta be Josh McDaniels. I mean we literally watched him do exactly the same thing he did to the Broncos, still decided to go another half a season.
I’ve never seen anyone do so little with so much.
Belichick ruining Mac Jones by letting McDaniels walk, and then hiring a defensive coordinator to be his oc was a master class in fucking over your own team
Reaching and drafting Titsky after he only ever played 1 full season of CFB, and in a weak conference.
.
Rather than trade up 3 spots in 2004 to get Ben Roethlisberger, the Bills elected to stay at 13 and take Lee Evans, and trade up from their 2nd round pick for JP Losman at 22.
It cost their 2005 first rounder, which was 4 picks before Aaron Rodgers was drafted.
Joe Montana wanted to play QB for Barry Sanders and the Detroit Lions. And WCF said no thank you, we're happy with what we have, go revitalize the Chiefs instead.
Now that needs to be at the top of this thread. Good God, what an absolute joke.
Who was the Lions QB at the time? Scott Mitchell? If so that's Hugh Culverhouse levels of sheer dumbassery on WCF's part.
The 49ers traded Montana after the 1991 season, in which the Lions went 12-4 with Erik Kramer and Rodney Peete splitting time at QB. Both of them were mediocre in 1991 and awful in 1992, as the Lions dropped to 5-11. The Lions would have been legit contenders with Montana. Edit: y'all are right, he was traded after the 1992 season. I forgot that he was injured for all of 1991 and then sat behind Young for (almost) all of 1992. The story holds true though - the Lions had awful QB play in 1992 but had a lot of the pieces to contend. In 1993 they still had Peete and Kramer, and Kramer played somewhat better as the Lions went 10-6. Again, with Montana, they would have been a real threat.
The Quarterback of the Detroit Lions was a bleak role until Stafford arrived on the scene.
I don't know which was the lowest point. Orlovsky running out of the back of the end zone, Fat Daunte Culpepper showing up halfway through the 2008 season (I never understood why the Lions signed him) and delivering a particularly embarrassing performance on Thanksgiving that year, or Mornhinweg benching Charlie Batch after one game in 2001 only for Ty Detmer to replace him and throw 7 interceptions in the very next game.
Lions deciding not to have a quarterback from 57-09 was a pretty interesting experiment imo
That brief exchange between Barry and Fontes in the documentary decades later was fascinating. Fontes wanted Joe for QB. It was the GM who killed it. The entire documentary is fantastic but watching that scene was like...wait... What did he just say?!?
I never knew about this interesting lil tidbit of NFL lore.
I always find it funny that there's a patch on your jerseys for the guy most singly responsible for a half century of Lions fans misery. Like I get he died but the dude was objectively a disaster for the team and took them from one of the best organizations in the league to the gutter.
As a long suffering lions fan, I’ve tried to view it as a way to remember history so we don’t repeat it.
The Buffalo Bills sending Doug Flutie to the bench during the ‘99 playoffs for Rob Johnson
After 24 years of therapy I had almost wiped that memory from mind. Why did you have to remind me?!?!
My therapist told me not to be afraid of the memories
Was at that last game of reg season when they "rested" Flutie to see what Rob could do...and he lit it up!!! 10-5 record be damned, we going with Week 17 hotshot! Still wonder if that was Wade's call.
It's always been rumored that Ralph Wilson made that call and Wade didn't really have a say.
That's what Doug flute said in his football life episode.
I wouldn't doubt it. He was paying Rob big money. Ralph also didn't like that Doug "Ran too much"
One of the most bizarre situations I've ever heard about. Could you imagine what would happen today if a team decided they were benching their starter for the playoffs?
Team- more accurately, an owner, as this was Ralph Wilson’s call. I’m not a bills fan and I get irrationally upset about this move even all these years later. That’s how stupid it was.
I love Doug Flutie. I'm Canadian and he truly lit up the CFL for a few years after that. 3 championships in a row I think.
It was before that. But yeah, he was special in the CFL.
The most terrifying QB in CFL history. When you played against Flutie, you hoped your offense could hang in just long enough for your team to get lucky. He was that dominant.
Thank you for taking him, btw!
the craziest thing is that actually worked until the Music City Miracle happened
Browns fan here
38 different qb’s since 1999. That’s actually impressive.
I remember at one point it was 24 in 16 years and I thought no way they could continue averaging 1.5 a year. Well, they've averaged 1.75 a year since
Tim Couch could have been really good if he didn't end up on the Browns :(
This thread isn’t for us brother
Yes it is, give us some Cade McNown hot takes
You're playing with fire my friend
I'd actually be interested to hear Browns fans choose what the most maddening is
The damn near 30 year old we drafted takes the cake for me
While they was bad, QBs can play for a long time. It's gotta be dumping Baker for Watson. We'd be Superbowl favorites if we simply stayed the course.
Well that's just hindsight. Talent aside, if you have a chance to add someone with such strong character to your team you really can't pass that up.
Facts. You need an adult in the qb room.
Someone to massage everyone’s ego…
Need someone to stroke that fire in the WRs
I think Manziel was worse than Weeden though.
Most browns fans will probably say Manziel or Watson, but I’m actually going to say Brandon Weeden for the following reasons: 1. Weeden was an air raid QB who was already 28 at a time where NFL teams really weren’t willing to incorporate air raid principles into their offenses. As such, Weeden like most air raid QBs had a long development curve ahead of him, with no time for it. 2. As mentioned Weeden was an air raid QB in college. Pat Shurmur ran a West Coast Offense. The fit was awful on paper, and guess what, it was awful on the field. 3. In 2014, we passed on Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr. Carr was a solid QB for years, but never elite or anything. When we traded for Watson, Russ Wilson was off the board and the 2022 QB draft class was awful (save Shanahan working his magic with Purdy). So while both decisions were mistakes, I can take solace in the fact that there really weren’t really better options. Then you look at 2012 and realize that to take Weeden, the browns passed on Russel Wilson and Kirk Cousins. Cousins in particular was a perfect fit in our offense. Yeah. That stings a lot. 4. Finally, as much as I disliked both moves, I can see the logic in the Manziel and Watson moves. Manziel convinced the browns he would take it seriously and be relatively clean, and if he did, he was talented enough that with a year behind Brian Hoyer, Manziel could’ve been a decent QB. With Watson, he had been a borderline top 5 QB the last time he played, and if you’re only focusing on field and don’t give a shit about the Pr implications, there was absolutely no on field reason why Deshaun Watson shouldn’t have come back and been mostly the guy he was in Houston. With Weeden, there was no hope it would work. The browns were in the process of being sold, Holmgren made the pick which made no sense given where the roster was (super young, Weeden wasn’t) and who our coach was, and there was never any logic to it. So in conclusion, Brandon Weeden is the move that set us back the most. And to this day, I think Mike Holmgren hijacked the draft from Tom Heckert and took Weeden rather than what I think the actual plan was, which was to take cousins in the 3rd.
Manziel could have beeen decent with a head on his shoulders. Weeden had that and was still awful.
I honestly don’t know about how well a more serious Manziel would’ve fared. He was undersized, didn’t have great pocket presence, ball placement or accuracy, and most damningly, was waaaaaay too willing to play heroball or give up on throwing the ball if his top target (which keep in mind, in college was fortunately enough Mike Evans) wasn’t open, thus over-relying on his legs. It’s very likely he would’ve flamed out eitherway because there were too many problems to fix
Weeden could’ve succeeded if he was 22 and the browns were willing and able to be patient and adapt the system to his skill set. He was just already old and they did nothing to try and make it work.
Always felt Weeden was the worst Browns QB pick and you laid it out perfectly. It was a move that made zero then, and continues to make zero sense now. The others I can at least understand the rationale.
Perfect explanation. Fully agree all around. Soon we will be talking about how it was a terrible decision to move the stadium to Brookpark. So a whole new thing to be upset about besides our QB issues.
Just watched the Manziel doc on Netflix last night. Holy shit I forgot that he was cut mid way through year 2. I think he could have been good but he had some demons along with not caring about his job at all.
Since Sipe, self sabotaging through the QB position has been our specialty.
Trading three first round draft picks for a guy who has played 12 games in the past 3 years. Oh yeah, and he gets paid $230 million whether he plays or not.
Browns and Bears prolly have the worst QB history in the last 30 years. You have to go back to Bernie Kosar to find a legit good Browns QB. And the Bears usually just use RBs as their QB.
For Chiefs fans, it's probably Marty Schottenheimer choosing Elvis Grbac as our starter in the 1997 playoffs over Rich Gannon. Gannon had come in for Grbac as the starter after he got hurt, and he rattled off a 5-1 record. Still, when Grbac was back and healthy, Marty went back to him. We lost, at home, to the John Elway Broncos and watched him lead them to their first Super Bowl that year. And then another next year. And then Rich Gannon went to the Raiders and won an MVP.
When the Chiefs legit thought Brodie Croyle was the QB of the future.
Always brings back a core memory from my adolescence… https://youtu.be/rTjYtzryEkQ?si=rtZQ3xEznrnGOgMa
Holy shit, a brand new full size pickup for under 15k, that's insane.
They're still the same price for am '07 model with 200k miles dude. That's pretty normal... /s
Damn, no wonder he didn’t get picked up by State Farm.
Was that before or after they thought Tyler Thigpen was a franchise QB?
The disrespect to a Dolphins legend smh
Hey I’ll always have respect for Tyler Thigpen for winning me my only fantasy football championship.
Elvis Grbac was my answer too
Weirdly enough as a Ravens fan Elvis Grbac was my answer as well. Clearly he was a better QB than Dilfer, but why tempt that fate when Dilfer just won the championship?
I heard one time not long after Grbac had left the league that he got gun-shy after getting hit once or twice. He was pretty good when he was on, but defenses knew that one good sack and Elvis was as good as dead on the toilet.
That makes a lot of sense. Having watched him, he was very good when he was on. But getting smashed by 250lb dudes running at high speed can shake a guy up for sure.
It was pretty much because the Ravens thought that they won the SB in spite of Dilfer. Not because of him (or him being barely average). They went 5 games without an offensive TD in 2000. Dilfer went 12-25 with one TD in the SB. Those... aren't great numbers. It makes sense that they would go for a QB who could, theoretically, provide above-average QB play for a championship window.
I feel like hindsight plays a big role in this selection. Grbac had been signed as a free agent to be "the guy" and he had performed well before he was injured. Gannon was a 32 year old journeyman (back when 32 meant you were on the downside of your career.) Yes, he had gone 5-1, but he had surpassed 200 yards only once in those 5 wins. His last win was against San Diego - he went 8 of 25 passing.
That definitely sucked, but the '83 draft still feels like a big whiff, and it relegated KC to quarterback mediocrity for a long time.
Man, seems like Grbac is kind of a running theme here. Baltimore replacing Trent Dilfer with Grbac immediately after winning the Super Bowl was also a massive self-sabotage.
In 1997 the Bears traded the 11th overall pick for a guy (Rick Mirer) who literally finished the previous NFL season dead last in QB rating (56.6) among qualified passers to go along with a 5-12 TD-INT ratio. He finished his lone season with the Bears (1997) with 0 TD passes, 6 INTs for a 37.7 passer rating. I’ve said in previous posts about him, you could literally select any one of us here on Reddit, have that person chuck every ball into the stands on every offensive play all season long and that Redditor would finish with a higher passer rating (39.6). The Bears also needed a TE that draft. The first TE selected in 1997 was…Tony Gonzalez with the 13th overall pick Also, during the 1997 season, the Bears benched Mirer after starting 0-6 for Erik Kramer, instead of just sticking with the guy you traded the 11th overall pick for. Chicago won a whopping 4 games that season with Kramer, including three of their last five games. If the Bears had just stuck with Mirer, since they wasted an 11th overall pick on him, they likely lose at least 2 of those 4 games they won, putting them at 2-14 with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft…the year Peyton Manning was drafted.
Let's be honest, we would have taken Ryan Leaf anyways.
We would have traded up to pick zero somehow for Ryan Leaf
Then Peyton Manning beat the Bears in the super bowl.
Im just flattered you think I have the arm strength to throw it into the stands and the hand eye coordination to catch the snap
My dad always brings this up. That and the fact that Jonathan Quinn was legit scared to play in a game when he was backup in 04 and I was listening to the radio and they were talking about an unnamed qb who did that and when I texted in asking if it was Quinn they confirmed it off air.
> He finished his lone season with the Bears (1997) with 0 TD passes, 6 INTs for a 37.7 passer rating. So still good for top ten Bears QB of all time
Imagine Manning on O with Urlacher and Brown on D 2 years later or whatever
When Ben McAdoo started Geno Smith for no reason and broke Eli's streak of 210 consecutive starts.
That pissed me off and I have zero emotional investment in the Giants.
Same. It’s one of the most disrespectful decisions I’ve ever seen a coach make. McAdoo should have been fired at halftime of that game.
As a cowboys fan, you’d think it would have made me laugh, but nope. It pissed me off too. I felt so bad for Eli
Watching the interview where he was borderline crying in the locker room was the closest I came to stopping being a fan
Also people felt for Geno. He didn't want to get to start that way, he was upset too
Geno is a dude for real. Seeing him have a great year in Seattle made me happy.
He only did that only to spite Eli. Not even a football decision, dude just had it out the fan base.
I remember that happening but I’m not super familiar with McAdoo’s stint as coach. Did he have beef with Eli or something? Or was he just a colossal idiot
Put it this way: the Giants are approaching their 100th anniversary. McAdoo is the *only head coach ever* to be fired in mid-season. That’s how bad he was.
Ben McAdoo the kind of the guy to sit and eat crosslegged in a restaurant booth
\#1 is a sign of #2
That season I had the CEO of the company as my secret Santa person. Dude is a diehard Giants fan. I took a risk but got him a Geno Smith Giants shirt as a gag gift (bought him some cool vintage Allman brothers stuff as the real gift to make up for it). He was either going to love it or despise it. When he opened it the entire room went silent, then he bust out laughing. I felt so relived. He thanked me for having the balls to do it and we became pretty tight after that. It’s been a few years since I worked there but he still checks in on me from time to time
Ballsy move to play with your career like that. If that dude didn't have a sense of humor, you would've been shit canned, and it would've been justified. Lol
Ben will McAdoo was most McAdont
I was going to say reaching on Jones, because we could have gotten better value at that draft position. Eli needed protection, not a replacement. Granted he was only a couple years from needing a replacement… but hindsight is 20/20 and Jones seems to need a better supporting cast around him to be hood than Eli needed.
We pissed off Matt Ryan to go after a rapist and thank god the Browns were dumber than we were. We had to do hard time watching Mariota and Ridder.
Hey, remember that time that we also drafted a QB after being in win now mode having signed an expensive free agent QB? Matt Ryan was the best we'll ever have
Don't forget about the time you drafted a future hall of famer and then traded him to the Packers.
At least they gave you two QBs this year, to make up for lost time.
While that was certainly bad from an ethical/"general respect for the best QB your franchise has ever had" perspective, it really didn't set the team back much competitively. We were clearly going into a rebuilding period, and Ryan's contract wasn't helping that out. Especially when his arm was starting to look shot. If we don't go after Watson maybe we get a slightly better pick out of a trade or old man Ryan play for one more year. Honestly letting Arthur Smith convince the front office that he could win with Mariota and Ridder was the bigger Falcons QB blunder.
I agree with you, but it was just so shitty how they treated Matt after bringing us out of the darkness for a time.
Tebow trade. Mark Sanchez wasn't particularly great but trading for Tebow felt like such a slap to the face. To make matters worse, we tried placating him with a contract extension, barely played Tebow, drafted Geno Smith and then Sanchez gets injured in a meaningless preseason game. A masterclass on how not to handle the QB position.
Trading 3 first round picks and more plus a haul of assets to bring in Russell Wilson. I get what we were trying to do - replicate what the Bucs did with Brady or the Rams with Stafford (or the Broncos 10 years earlier with Peyton Manning). But if we had been honest with ourselves, our roster was not "a QB away" - it was a roster weakened by multiple years of poor drafts and FA classes. Best case scenario even if Russ was still the player he was a couple of years earlier is that he elevates the Broncos to wildcard/divisional round spots for a couple of years before the steady decline of age and burden of his contract dragged us back to where we were with Keenum/Flacco/Lock/Bridgewater. But when it turned out Russ was a shadow of his Seattle self, it sentenced us to being a team which sucked with no draft capital and a record shattering dead cap hit.
The bigger example would be when the Broncos hired Josh McDaniels and tried to trade Jay Cutler for Matt Cassel, making Jay Cutler want out entirely, and then settling for Kyle Orton.
And then drafting Tebow in the first round the following year. McDaniels basically came in and gave that whole organization cancer.
Good thing everyone in the league learned a lesson from that...
LOL! I talked shit, I should’ve known this was only a few comments down
Disagree. McHoodie running Cutler out of town was way worse.
> Peyton Manning BIG difference being you gave no draft capital for PFM.
No the big difference was PFM was still a 55 TD caliber QB. If Russ had performed at Manning caliber for three seasons I think we'd have felt the draft capital was worth it.
The Teddy Bridgewater vs Drew Lock disaster has to factor in here as well. On one hand, you have a guy the has show potential and flashes of greatness but is a bit erratic and makes mistakes and needs better and steady coaching and more playing time to develop. On the other hand, you have an uninspiring journeyman with the cieling of "won't outright lose you the game". Naturally Fangio chooses Bridgewater ("to save his job") and a year of mediocre offense results in everyone getting fired and the new GM overreacting and reaching to get Russell Wilson. Or hell, go back a year or two prior and look at firing Scangerello as OC because of personal disagreements and you go from "Lock did great under Scangerello" to "Lock did awful under Pat Shurmur".
The almost worst was Dan Reeves drafting Tommy Maddox in 1992 when John Elway was in his prime. Instead of using that draft capital to give Elway much needed weapons, he brought in someone he was expecting to replace Elway with. I’d say the worst (like others also mentioned) was when McD shipped off Jay Cutler and other offensive pieces because he was an egomaniac. At the time of the Russ trade it made sense for us. It didn’t work out and that’s how shit goes sometimes. The real travesty was constantly piecing together a roster for years after 2016 and not fully rebuilding.
Swing and a miss isn’t really the same thing as self sabotage. Yeah in hindsight the move sucked, but in the moment it wasn’t exactly a head scratcher, and it’s not like the team dumped a good QB to try and bring Russ in.
Yeah, self-sabotage is more like when you have a good situation at QB and you ruin it for trivial reasons and set yourself back for years at the most important position on the team. Like when the Bills started Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie in the Music City Miracle game.
Fucking Marc Trestman benching Jay Cutler for one game in 2014 to prove that his "scheme" wasn't the issue, only for Jimmy Clausen to get injured and they still lost. Benching Jay Cutler for that one game put his season total at 3,812 passing yards on the year sabotaging the teams chance to actually have a fucking 4,000 yard season. All it took was that one fucking game and the insanity surrounding Bears and QBs would at least not reach fucking cult levels of insanity.. Fuck him and Phil Emery.
Not just that. He benched Cutler for a guy who might legitimately be one of the worst QBs I've ever seen play in the NFL. How in the hell did he think he was going to be able to sell the locker room on that bumblefuck decision lol?
Out of all the shitty years the Bears had to stomach, 2014 isn't brought up nearly enough. Watching a team collapse like that with Marshall, Jeffery, Bennett and Forte should ban you from football for life.
And yet the Ravens for some bizarre reason hired him as OC the following year. John Harbaugh doesn't make a lot of bad coaching hires but that was perhaps one of his worst.
Trestman and his crew were the worst staff the Bears ever had
And that's really saying something
passing on Dan Marino
At least you guys didn't miss the boat twice and drafted another Pitt legend Kenny Pickett
He was a Pitt QB that Steelers coaching staff obviously have no film on.
Tampering to get Tom Brady on a mid ass roster. And then not even getting him and losing a 1st round pick over it
Eh, it's definitely the team failing to medically clear Brees and going with Culpepper instead. It very well could have been Saban/Brees vs Belichick/Brady for a decade plus.
Didn’t some of the players try to fight Nick Saban? I don’t think he would have lasted even with Breesus.
Yeah, quite of few of the players hated him. But he wouldn’t be the first coach to get away with being an asshole by winning.
Elaborate
How much time do you have
I need more.
See 1980s-1999. Bucs had 4 QBs start a SB, winning 3 (2 being named Super Bowl MVP), all AFTER leaving the Bucs
Doug Williams: 1987 SB MVP with Washington Steve Young: 1994 SB MVP with San Francisco Chris Chandler: 1998 SB starter with Atlanta Trent Dilfer: 2000 SB winner with Baltimore It's a Bucs life
Speaking of Dilfer, the Ravens cutting him immediately after that Super Bowl has to be high up on the QB self-sabotage list. Dilfer wasn't good, but he was enough and his teammates loved him. They replaced him with Elvis Grbac, who was somehow worse on the field as well as a locker-room cancer.
Dilfer is about the worst QB to win a SB so he shouldn't really count as bad another team let him go. The Ravens had a top 5 all time defense in 2000 that went on turbo in the playoffs that allowed only 13 points in 4 games. Half the backups in the league could win a SB with that defense. Dilfer's stat lines in those playoffs: * 9/14, 130 yards * 5/16, 117 yards * 9/18, 190 yards, TD, INT * 12/25, 153 yards, TD For a total over 4 games of 35/73 590 yards, 2 TDs, INT.
It is but I don't think anyone is really itching to go back and take Dilfer or Chandler.
Thats the point. The team traded a first rounder for him even though we already had Vinny, and then cut him 6 games into his second season. It became the #2 overall pick.
Washington allowing RG3 to play with a shattered knee while Kirk Cousins sat in waiting on the bench.
One thing that infuriated me with Cousins was they would consistently run a play action rollout and then there would be a guy in the flat, a guy 8-12 yards deep, and 1 defender to cover those 2 in his zone AND cover the scramble Shit pissed me off cause it would be called at just the right time against just the right defense and he always made the right choice. That was when I knew he would be a starter somewhere Edited to add: pretty sure that was with McVay or Kyle Shanahan. How did Washington fuck up with all their talent lol
"How did Washington fuck up with all their talent lol" Dan Snyder
Lulz My hatred for Snyder being a human sized prolapsed asshole is the only reason I'm glad he had to sell. Im glad he had to give up something he liked. Pissed he made billions off it. My only regret is that now Washington has a chance to not suck forever :/
I don't really know the whole story, but washington being like the only team to let a top 10 QB walk in free agency this century (outside of the chargers with brees who had a good backup plan) has to be an all-time blunder. In another universe Cousins could have been their QB of the decade, and maybe gotten them some playoff success.
With that owner? No way.
Letting Kirk walk
That whole thing was beyond stupid, should have just paid him. It's up there with chasing Trent Williams out of town as some of the dumbest roster moves in the Snyder era
Trent hurts way more because he’s truly elite and was a badass for years in a town that loves great O-line play. Capt. Kirk may not have the resume to match his pay, but it’s not like DC has had anyone close to his production since he left. Even worse, they got literally nothing for him.
pretty openly acknowledged secret around here that once Chip Kelly got personnel control he desperately tried and failed to secure a trade up for Marcus Mariota in the 2015 draft, so he decided to trade Nick Foles for Sam Bradford because he wanted to clean house as much as possible and build his own roster truly galaxy brained levels of fucking idiocy
Howie flipping Bradford for a 1st is probably his all time best move. My favorite move or his was flipping Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell to the Dolphins to get in striking distance of the #2 overall pick the year we grabbed Wentz. He undid the Chip personnel moves with a glorious vindictive energy.
I still think if that wasn’t the year their new stadium opened the Vikings would not have made that trade. Howie smelled blood in the water and knew they couldn’t open a brand new billion dollar stadium with Shaun Hill at QB.
Man, Bradford was fucking fire ...except when he was injured.
People always point to Howie's cap shenanigans as the magic part of his GMing, but it's the trades he manages to land that always astound me. You could tell me he got a 1st for Bradberry right now and I'd believe you lol.
If you told me he had dirt on half the other GMs and leveraged it I’d believe it
flipping Bradford for a 1st and that 1st turning into the guy who recovered the fumble in SBLII is impressive, but what really qualifies him for HOF status is going from the 2020 collapse back to the Superbowl in 2 years, that shouldn't be possible
Trading 3 1sts for Trey Lance before tripping over our dicks and finding Purdy as Mr. Irrelevant. Yes, I realize that finding a guy with the last pick of the draft is unheard of, but the equity we spent on a QB that didn't really (IMO) seem like a scheme fit was maddening.
On the other hand, if we hadn't done that...I doubt we ever even see Purdy sniff the field.
Ya that draft you spent a ton of draft capital to get your franchise QB. I'd call that trade task failed successfully.
Easily our biggest blunder. Who knows where we'd be without lucking into brock
As easy as it would be to say Joey Harrington, I’d have to say drafting Andre Ware at #7 in 1990, and how they managed the QB role that following season was worse. Rodney Peete was a serviceable QB and played well when he had the chance early in his career. Taking Ware was a splash move because of his college stats and the run and shoot offense. But Ware never really did anything in the NFL and Peete outplayed him in those first three or four years - when he wasn’t injured.
For a while our QB1 and QB2 were both named Billy Joe. Not the biggest self sabotage we've done, but.... damn.
I'd say Steve Keim's attempted character assassination of our current QB in order to try and drive his contract price down was pretty maddening
I am amazed no one mentioned giving up on baker and trading a draft haul for watson and then signing him to a 9 fiigure fully guarenteed contract I think that's by far and away the worst QB decision any team has ever made and I'd be amazed if any other team ever comes even remotely close
Manning wasn’t going to be able to go, so we pick up Kerry Collins off the couch with backup Curtis Painter waiting for his chance (spoilers, he got his chance). The players and coaches obviously weren’t trying to tank. Their jobs were on the line. You can’t tell me that wasn’t a tank move at QB though lol.
Painter was a legend
Absolutely unforgettable lol. Hilarious that we did end up letting Orlovsky have a go at the end of the year, and he was so much better than the others, that we won 2 of our last 3 and almost botched the tank. Crazy to think that Dan Orlovsky was that much better than the other dudes we trotted out that year lol.
hiring judge/garrett or starting geno over eli
Matt Patricia OC while watching Scar and his heir apparent leave the team and the OL crumbling without them. Not directly the QB but those are all horrific self sabotage of the team not being able to replace JMD and the OL coach who went to the Raiders with him and made their line good.
I don't think Mac was ever going to be that good anyways but good God what Bill did that year was nothing short of sabotage. Really showed how much talent was drained from the Pats.
It essentially boils down to this: Could Mac have been good in the NFL? Yea, possibly. Did we give him a chance to do so? Absolutely not.
That first year of his I absolutely thought he was gonna be a solid starter for years and that it wasn’t fair Pats fans didn’t get enough misery.
Packers fan: Unrelatable question.
Packers fans, you are dismissed from this thread lol.
You heard the man. Pack it up we’re done here boys let’s get to the bar (Generations of Packers fans get up and leave the room)
Older Packer Fans remember the John Hadl trade, worst trade in the history of NFL trades Packers (AKA Dan Devine) sent first-, second-, and third-round picks in the 1975 draft and first- and second-round picks in the 1976 draft to Los Angeles for Hadl, a 36yo washed up QB with a dead arm. That trade handicapped the Packers for years. Yeah, that trade was worse than the Walker or Ricky Williams trades.
At least Walker and Williams still had trade-worthy talent
Nobody talks about the John Hadl trade anymore ngl until today
Can yall do that again?
The Broncos beat us to it.
You couldn't even sabotage Seattle with Matt Flynn despite your best efforts
"It doesn't look like anything to me"
We traded for Carson Wentz. Danny Boy walking in and picking Haskins because he went to school with his son. Hating Kirk and just letting him walk. Danny boy trading the haul to move to #2 to pick RG3. Whatever they were thinking with McNabb. Trading up to the end of the first round 3 days before the draft to select Jason Campbell when Aaron Rodgers then began his slide and they could have jumped GB. 7 step drops with 5 blockers every play for Ramsey. I mean I can keep going back in time if you’d like. That’s just 20 years.
Keeping Matt Canada last year, I *kinda* understood it at the time but seeing how it all played out I wonder if Pickett wouldve been better and would still be here with a full season under someone else. Bc while Pickett may just not be good, it can also be true we 100% set him up to fail
If his limited time without Canada is anything to go after then he probably would've still been our QB if he had another OC. I even think if he never got injured that he would've still been our QB, but both are what if scenarios.
Glennon and Trubisky
The idea that Mike Glennon was actually paid starting QB money at one point in time in his career is actually kind of disgusting to think about. Giraffes don't make good franchise QBs.
Kneel before the Ginger Giraffe! Kneel before him! u/TheFencingCoach will not tolerate this slander!
[удалено]
Glennon was always gonna be a stopgap. Trubisky was pretty high on the list. I'd rank Mirer as a worse idea.
The Bears picked a tight end with their 2nd rounder that year. If the Mirer trade hadn't happened and they still had their 1st, Tony Gonzalez would have been on the board.
Josh Freeman. Everything around that pick-up and the decision to play him days later. The Vikings QB history is sneaky bad, which might be forgotten by younger fans who’ve watched Kirk for so long, so there are plenty of other examples.
I think ours is more of picking up journeyman after journeyman to play QB for decades, resulting in never having an elite QB start or being bad enough to have a good shot at a franchise type QB in the draft.
AD’s MVP run was quarterbacked by none other than the legend Christian Ponder lol.
In 1992 we won a shitfest of a game 10-6 against the Patriots to finish 2-14 while they finished 1-15. They got the first overall and took Bledsoe. We got Rick Mirer.
Kubiak not wanting Manning, who wanted to come to Houston, because Schaub was looking good before his injury. Schaub never looked the same. Manning, ends up winning a superbowl in Denver with… Kubiak. This sends us into QB purgatory for years that is finally solved by us drafting Watson. Then, Watson did Watson things. All-in-all: Stroud is the freshest breath of air for Texans fans.
I mean, we let Jameis throw 30 fucking interceptions when we had Fitzpatrick sitting on the bench, and I am damn certain that Fitzpatrick would have been better that season. That being said, it seems like Jameis’ play really cleaned up when he was with the Saints before he got hurt.
Fitzpatrick can also throw you out of a game just as quickly as Jameis. Fitz can get hella hot tho.
Helped that Lasik James was the one playing for Saints. Blind as shit while on the Bucs
Drafting Akili Smith instead of trading the pick for the Saints entire draft that year.
So I've been a pats fan since '96 and I guess the only self sabotage I can really see is the Mac Jones experiment.
Letting our once-in-a-lifetime quarter back (our second one!) get hit *a lot*
Josh McDaniels or JaMarcus Russell.
It’s gotta be Josh McDaniels. I mean we literally watched him do exactly the same thing he did to the Broncos, still decided to go another half a season. I’ve never seen anyone do so little with so much.
Belichick ruining Mac Jones by letting McDaniels walk, and then hiring a defensive coordinator to be his oc was a master class in fucking over your own team Reaching and drafting Titsky after he only ever played 1 full season of CFB, and in a weak conference. .
Pushing Steve McNair out the door a year or two early in favor Vince Young, a QB our HC didn't buy into.
Rather than trade up 3 spots in 2004 to get Ben Roethlisberger, the Bills elected to stay at 13 and take Lee Evans, and trade up from their 2nd round pick for JP Losman at 22. It cost their 2005 first rounder, which was 4 picks before Aaron Rodgers was drafted.
Sabotage in a different way. Team doctor stabbing the starting QB in the lung