As if Saban passing on Brees wasn't a kiss of death for the franchise (given that Brees was coming into his own and prime), but now this comment comes out from the War Room when Miami was getting ready to make its selection in 2001 under Wanny....
I don't understand why people get worked up about this... it's never going to change so you may as well just come to terms with it.
We had 5 or 6 chances to draft Tom Brady, why don't we get worked up about that? People get less worked up about pasing on Aaron Rodgers.
"what can Drew Brees do that Jay Fiedler can't" Wanny was a complete tool. I could have drafted so much better than that moron. Eddie Moore?????
Even the Pats passed on Brady 5 times. If they had any inkling how good he'd be, they'd have not waited til the 6th round either.
No he wasn't. Belichick has gone on record saying one of his subordinates (can't remember who) asked them to take a shot at Brady. Bill didn't even know who he was. Called him Kyle Brady the first time they met I believe.
Sigh. And if Wanny had drafted him he would not have taken any effort to develop his skills and when forced to he would then have yanked him in and out of the starting line up like a yo-yo destroying any chance he may have had of developing and people would be saying "remember when we drafted Drew Brees over Jamar Fletcher". Wanny for all his flaws could coach veterans. As for developing rookies he was a disgrace, so he probably would have ruined Drew the same way he ruined pretty well all the rookies he drafted.
This. I love hearing the Pats get praised for their "brilliance" in drafting Brady. It's like a ****ing lottery winner being praised as a financial wizard.
I ain't spinning sh!t. Even the Pats admit they got lucky when they drafted Brady. So he was hardly on Belichick's radar on draft day as you inferred in the post I responded to.
I still do not think Brees would have developed well in Miami. One thing to remember is that Brees was a draft bust for the Chargers.
You have some pretty wide parameters for what constitutes a draft bust. Brees went to one Pro Bowl for SD, had 80 TD passes against 53 ints, an 84.9 passer rating. I'd hardly call that a bust, especially for a 2nd round draft pick.
It's a very simple metric. San Diego drafted Philip Rivers (well Eli Manning and then traded Eli for Philip and other stuff IIRC) to replace him and then declined to extend his contract before the season started because he hadn't produced up until then. The fact that the lights went on after they drafted his replacement doesn't alter the fact that San Diego considered him a draft bust for almost all of his tenure there. When faced with the choice of keeping their high 1st rounder or throwing their injured one year wonder to FA they let him walk. When he left San Diego he had exactly one good season and was coming off an injury that would be the kiss of death to most QB careers.
He had two good seasons, 2004 and 2005. Granted, he didn't really realize his potential until SD had drafted Rivers. It's not unusual for young QBs to not fully develop until their 3rd year starting. Some do sooner than that, and some never do however.
It's because we had a very legitimate need for a QB that year. Brees made perfect sense. I'll never forget the fan standing there at the Radio City Music Hall holding a sign that said "Pick 26 is a Brees". It should have been... Just me personally but I try not to hold GMs accountable for missing on a player when their wasn't a perceived need. I could be wrong, but wasn't Rodgers drafted after we had made the Culpepper (vomit) deal? And 32 other GMs passed on Brady 6 times, so hard to hold that against anyone. And after Henne's promising 2009 campaign I wouldn't have blamed Ireland for not drafting a QB. Instead they drafted Pat White in the 2nd (vomit).
You're right. I think fans not being upset that we didn't draft a QB in that draft has more to do with there was still a thought that NFL teams could win with a strong running game / strong defense, and mediocre QB play. Also even though in hindsight it seems ridiculous but Rodgers at #2 would have seemed like a real big reach. At least to most of us fans.
In all fairness, while any QB that gets drafted that late and winds up as good as Brady is certainly hitting on some luck, I do think the Patriots deserve some credit for scouting him and having him on their radar. As Bellichick has said, when they scouted him they thought he might be the type of QB that could work well in their system. There's a good chance a lot of NFL teams could have felt differently or thought Tom was just a scrawny little bastard that wouldn't hold up.
Wanny didn't want to hurt poor Fiedler's feelings by drafting Brees.. Instead he hurt thousands upon thousands of Dolphin fans by relegating this franchise to mediocre.. Doesn't surprise me he doesn't have any regrets, after all, punting isn't all that bad.
This is just another reminder of how a wishy washy Jimmy Johnson started the royal screwing of this team. He knew what he was doing and how to build a team, he just never had his heart in it. If we had a commited Jimmy Johnson the current state of the franchise would be quite different. Oh well.
Yeah, unfortunately JJ burned out alot quicker than anybody imagined. Even he was probably surprised.
If JJ had the same bravado he had in Dallas he could have turned this team around. In retrospect, it was time for Marino to go.. JJ couldn't handle the pressure of appeasing the Marino worship in Miami and didn't have the balls to do what he did in Dallas when he took over...
Well, he didn't have much choice. I think Huizenga;s one restriction on JJ was that he couldn't trade Marino. JJ's mistake was not drafting a young QB to groom so we would've been prepared for Marino's departure. Don't know who they could've taken, but we did nothing in that regard and signed retreads like Craig Erickson instead.
This is actually a healthy reminder of the damage done to a once great franchise. Wanny's disasters should never be forgotten (just as we don't forget the disasters of history). History is how you learn and it should not be forgotten. "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Mr. Clean, btw, is cleaning up on the Brees discussion. The fact is, even if Brees had taken a bit to develop, the facts are: 1) the Dolphins were never in a position to draft a Rivers or a Manning and would not have been; 2) Brees would have been better even with his SD #'s than any QB Miami has had since the year he was drafted. Passing on Brady is what every team did as others noted. Passing on Rodgers was also a tough call at the #2 pick with multiple teams rating him lower. But, Brees at the end of round 1 versus Fletcher? No brainer.
Brees was my guy that draft, I wanted his ***..Still haven't recovered..Gonna be the superbowl champion this year..again.. A team more stupid than we are...see San diego Chargers..
I think a player is drafted to be on the team for long term. Brees was let go after his contract was over and they drafted someone to replace him. Bust.
Bust? No. Brees may have underperformed a little his first couple of years but he put it together the year they drafted Rivers and had a great season. San Diego blew it by giving him the boot. They should have rode it out another year or 2 and then traded Rivers off for a boatload of picks. Then again AJ Smith has not shown himself the genius everyone thought he was.
Maybe it is just my opinion of a bust, however he was a bust as soon as they felt they needed to use a first round pick on another quarterback.
In response to the scout, Dave Wannstedt retorted, "Yeah, but that is what they THINK we are going to do. When are we going to be able to draft a terrible CB this low again?"