No question JD had a real shot until Dolphins entered sweepstakes. He beat out other 10 teams, as there were total 12 interested reportedly. Once Dolphins were in though, Hill said he was going there regardless, not much JD could do.
Since JD will never go on record about Hill I guess we will have to take the word from Drew, his agent. Be skeptical.
well his suggestions were based on fixing where the Jets are today though. Starting with a blank slate you would want to build a team differently Clearly running an offense predicated on completing short passes with a QB that can’t complete them isn’t working. They should not try to “hope” that it does
Cleveland turned out to be right, and JD misread the market. It's OK even for a JD fan to admit he is not perfect. 20 mi is a lot of money, yes, and Amari was one of the first ones off the table with the trend being contract restructure with large sign in bonuses, which reduce the CAP, coming in later. They even got Deshaun like this too. Cleveland deserves credit for this as they are now top 10 in SB odds. And make no mistake, JD realized that too, which is why he correctly went all out for Hill. Unfortunately Miami was in on it too and Hill picked them. The problem is JD realized it later than the Browns did. It can still work out if hits the WR draft picks, just lesser chance now than if we had Amari in fold. If he does hit on them, it will be a blessing in disguise, but I personally like the odds of having Amari and 1 WR premium pick vs 2 WR premium picks.
This is actually wild to read. He's using the exact same excuses for JD as he did with Mac. Blaming past coaches, too early to make judgements on any players, calling obviously bad draft picks not bad. He probably spawned the #InMacWeTrust hashtag. It's total blind faith in yet another GM despite it being very clear that we shouldn't have blind faith in anyone and should adjust our judgement of them according to the good and bad things they do along the way. I think my views on JD have been very fair along the way. He's very stingy in FA, which is way better than being overly spendy in FA, but you also have to know when to pay and JD is often stingy to a fault. JD's been absolutely elite in getting value out of trades. He's had one bad draft and one good one. That's pretty fair and balanced, right? But I'm "one of the most negative people ever and just hate JD" according to him. It's ridiculous.
Why though? It doesn't make sense if that's the case. Cooper has been extremely productive, about 90% as productive over his career as Hill has been over his. Cooper could've been had for 66% of the cost JD ultimately tried to pay for Hill. All of a sudden JD, Mr. Value at All Cost, didn't like the sound of that?
I know, and that IMO was a mistake, which he later realized when he went full MacCagnan on Hill. Cooper is 4 time Pro Bowler who is 27 years old who was available for a later round pick due to CAP issues with Dallas, who were forced to decline his 20 mil team option otherwise and he would have become FA. It didn't even have to be a one year rental - they had a team option for next few years. Browns offered a 5th round pick plus exchange of 6ths, then worked on restructure successfully later. JD presumably offered something a bit better (maybe our 5th rounder which is higher), but required to work out a deal with Amari first. Difference in the offer wasn't worth the hassle for Dallas, so they gave to Browns. We could have easily had him for almost nothing. If that deal were done, we would be all praising JD. But he misread the WR market, as simple as that, which is why he did all he could with Hill. There is no other logical explanation.
he has his red flags. doesn't perform well on the road, was traded twice off teams. remember GMs know a lot more then we do overall about players. maybe he didn't feel cooper was a good fit. dallas didn't get much for him, i'm sure they shopped him around to a lot of teams and JD had to have said no. I doubt he wasn't aware cooper was available. he simply didn't want him. I can't say why but there was a reason in there
I think you are looking at it from a fan point and not a JD point. real life isn't madden on xbox. the raiders didn't think he was worth that contract so they traded him. dallas gave up a 1st and paid him big. then traded him away for basically nothing. there is a reason those 2 things happened. hill is not a good person but JD wanted him for his talent and was willing to give up a lot of picks and pay him huge. JD must know something we don't and didn't want him. you are making a lot of assumptions and a whole different reality then what happened and then holding JD responsible for your made up scenario.
I don't know, Gased, yeah the guy is not Hill, but he is still a 4 time Pro Bowler who is in his prime. Hard to find guys like that to help your young QB. And if he doesn't work out - don't pick up a team option next year - you only paid a 5th rounder. Just doesn't make sense to pass on him, but then throw balls to wall for Hill of 4 years 30 per. It's a timing thing, he simply underestimated the WR market when Cooper happened, and then adjusted later.
Connor Hughes report indicated he did want him, but contract restructure had to happen first. I thought this was a missed opportunity at the time it happened, and losing out on Hill kind of makes it hurt a bit more, but it is what it is. I am rooting for Amari to suck next year, and for JD to score big on draft picks.
again you don't understand the other part. we signed a bunch of free agents or were going after free agents. JD only has so much cap space and can't be over. making the trade for cooper without a restructure 1st could have cost us laken tomlinson and DJ reed. you have to have a plan for your cap space and adding 20 mil unexpectedly isn't always a great idea. there is also the option cooper didn't want to be here or wasn't willing to and could say no to the restructure and then we are stuck with the cap hit. it sounds to me JD was being smart
He will look smart if he drafts studs who are better than Cooper and others on rookie deals. Right now Browns look extremely smart for getting Cooper for a 5th rounder and having him count 5 mil against the CAP.
I mean have you seen this shit show today from the watson conferences? i'm assuming not. nobody is thinking the browns are looking smart right now and nobody even cares about cooper. Just because a move looks good on paper to a fan doesn't mean it would actually work out. I like cooper. i wanted him. i think 20 mil is too much but i'm ok overpaying when we have it. There are 32 teams all looking to improve. it's not madden, you can't just get everyone. JD has done a great job with this FA class. he landed 2 quality TEs which was a desperate need. a pro bowl RG to plug the big hole that position has been for the past few years. he added a good starting CB who knows the system and who saleh is familiar with. he added a good box safety who won a SB 2 years ago. and all those players have no injury concerns. he has 4 picks in the top 38 of the draft. what i'm trying to say here is if you look for the negative you miss the positives. what you are doing is hitting the lotto and instead of enjoying all the money you are complaining about the taxes you'll have to pay on it.
HUH? You're just not paying attention. His strategy is to build from the lines out; to try and acquire his best talent through the draft; to not overpay FAs nor get saddled with killer contracts he can't get out of, but at the same time spend "big" if circumstances warrant it. These are things all good GMs do - using all the tools in your toolkit. Sorry you're confused.
you have to hope that the qb improves enough to run the offense well if he’s not the guy then you move on … there’s no point in wasting resources in an effort to prop him up with some half baked offense
No I didn't see press conference, what happened? I am not looking for negatives, I am a fan of JD and overall 95% of my feedback on him is positive. However, I do point out if some things I disagree with, like in this case not getting a good veteran WR, in spite of opportunities like Cooper being there. And I give JD credit for making an adjustment and going after Hill, it's just too bad Miami also got involved, and he lives there. I wonder if they kept Flores and didn't get McDaniels from 49ers, if Hill would be a Jet now. It's a moot point though, right now the focus to address WR is on the draft.
it had the vibes of a funeral. the media went hard after watson and the browns and they just tried to deflect and it was brutal. nobody looked happy there. we have picks to address WR and it's a deep class. you can't win them all. what if getting cooper cost us tomlinson and reed? is it worth that? I don't think it is personally
