Hard to 'blame' Wayne when he's been gone two years, and all he ever did was go out and get the best guys on the market. Jimmy, Saban, Parcells......who wasn't on board with that? All were the #1 prizes on the board. Every expert/analyst/etc. lauded those moves. You hear people clamoring for Bill Cowher. In 1995, Jimmy Johnson was Bill Cowher times three. Two Super Bowls and an NCAA title in seven years. He'd turned the University of Miami into a juggernaut and rebuilt a downtrodden NFL team into the league's best as coach/GM. It doesn't get any bigger than that. Wayne got him. The NFL had been trying to get Saban for 10 years. He turned down multiple NFL jobs offering him the keys to the kingdom. Wayne got him. Is there a bigger fish with a better track record of rebuilding franchises than Bill Parcells? Wayne got him, stole him from Atlanta. And he delivered a division title the first year. Biggest turnaround in NFL history. That era ain't over yet, so we shouldn't judge it at Week 10 in Year 3. If you think the Parcells Era is already a failure and Atlanta got it right, just remember that they wanted Parcells. Thought they had a deal with him. Dimitroff was their fallback guy. So in that light, it's better to be lucky than right sometimes.
Wayne takes WAY too much heat. He always did what he felt was in the best interest of winning and he ALWAYS opened up his wallet to attempt to bring in the best. Allowing Jimmy to talk him into hiring Wanny and sticking with him was his biggest mistake. Started the whole downward spiral. But seriously Wanny was personally vouched for by Jimmy Johnson. Why would an owner have ignored that type of referral? I respect Wayne and think he just had a lot of bad luck.
Great post. Bottom line we haven't been lucky. And, no one knows what the rest of the season will bring. I could add a ton of factors to this. Just look at the QB position - there's just no accounting for what QB's will turn out. Who would have predicted Tom Brady? And, it was very possible Chad Henne could have been a very good QB - hey, he may still be a good QB (Brett Favre couldn't break in with ATL after being a 2nd round pick and then was pretty wild his first couple of seasons at GB - in a highly sophisticated attack). The point is, So many things have to fall into place. Imagine if SD had the worst record the year Peyton Manning came into the league? Where would the Colts be?
I dont think you could ask for a better owner than Wayne H. He was hands off and supplied the resources needed to build a winning team. You will miss him once the new owner begins to put his stamp on this team .
I blame Wanstedt for this mess. If not for him, Marino would still be playing today! Not only that, I just like blaming Wanstedt for everything.
I know you were being somewhat sarcastic, but that theory has credence. Why on earth, when your 38 year old franchise QB retires, would you NOT draft a QB? We didnt when Danny was on his last legs, or when he retired or even the years after that. Not until this regime have we even attempted to develop a young QB. For that we have been suffering. Add to that years of neglect to our offensive line and adding young players to our defense, its no wonder this regime still can't get it right, and I see why, its extremely difficult to build a team 2-3 years time what took over 10 years to neglect and eventually implode which it did in 2007. Now it looks like this rebuilding experiment is just about over. Still, even though JJ/Wanny/Saban/Cam contributed to this, its no excuse for being in year 3 and still feeling like were back to square one. The only position set is Offensive Tackle. That is the one position we're set at, after all the hard work and drafting and cutting players and resetting depth charts, for three years, offensive tackle is the only position we got figured out. Pretty damn sad if you ask me.
