Content available exclusively for subscribers
This isn’t fantasy football.
And when you are running a pro sports personnel department, it’s not just about acquiring talent, but together a cohesive team with the requisite complimentary parts.
Why do you think so many NBA Dream Teams have failed.
All the parts need to fit together.
Look at the Boston Celtics, who recently won the NBA Championship.
GM Brad Stevens, whose basketball IQ is through the roof, put together the best team, didn’t just add talented players and hoped it works out.
This Davante Adams to the Jets talk is fantasy football stuff.
The Jets already have two #1 receivers – Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams. So now they should add a third, a third #1 receiver?
How often does it work out when a team has two or three #1 receivers needing the ball?
How many #1 receivers did the Kansas City Chiefs have the last two seasons, two campaigns that ended with that winning an NFL Championship?
None.
As an NFL coach said last year, “This isn’t fantasy football, we are just trying to win.”
And also, the Jets have kind of been in belt-tightening mode in recent months with the economy not in the best place.
They eliminated the assistant GM position and moved on from three people from the conditioning/sports science department.
After the cuts to their conditioning/sports science department, Robert Saleh said, “There’s certain things that we feel like we need to improve on and certain things that we felt like we could do as our current staff exists.”
Very revealing quote. He was basically saying that they can get the job done with three less staffers in that department.
And they also asked defensive end John Franklin-Myers to take a certain pay cut, and when he wouldn’t, they traded him to Denver.
They are also engaged in a contract dispute with defensive end Haason Reddick, a player they acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles this off-season in a trade.
So do you think they are want to go out now and acquire another big recevier contract, when they are paying Wilson, Williams and Allen Lazard, who got a 4-year, $44 million deal last year?
Things didn’t go great for Lazard last year, in part due to substandard QB play, but perhaps will go better this year with Aaron Rodgers at QB who knows how to use him.
But whether it goes better or not, he’s got a big cap number this year, so he’s not going anywhere.
And when players are asked about whether their team should trade for Adams, it’s probably best to farm their own land.
Players play, coaches coach and GMs pick the players.
Why not just say, “He’s a great player, but I don’t make personnel decisions. Those are made by our GM Joe Douglas.”
While nobody means to do this, when a player says they should add a player at a certain position, that means a teammate currently at that position is going to lose their job.
So it’s best to stay out of it.
And it is probably best for the Jets to stick with who they have a receiver, unless somebody prominent gets dinged of course.
July 15, 2024
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Tuesday.
