13-3

What's batty is that the guys Gettleman has brought in have mostly been terrible. Remmers has been adequate, but that was by luck and not design. Remmers was available to any team before the 2014 season and Gettleman could not have been any less interested. He only got signed after injuries forced them to pick up someone. Coleman has been a revelation, so due credit there, but at the time of the signing he was described as a depth safety and a contributor on special teams. Not only did Gettleman get rid of Smitty, he also told LaFell and Ginn to piss off. We're lucky that Arizona didn't use Ginn properly and allowed him to come back.

In the 2013 draft, Star was a no-brainer that everyone wanted, but Gettleman deserves massive credit for taking Short in the second round. He might be Carolina's best player and I shudder to think how bad the pass rush would be without him. Kugbila was idiotic, Klein has been ok, and I couldn't believe they took Barner over Ellington. In 2014, Gettleman made another great pick with Trai Turner. Benwikere is pretty solid for a fifth round depth piece but we've seen now that the team is actually better without Cam forcing the ball to Benjamin, while the rest of the picks were garbage. As for 2015, it's much too early to decide if any are busts but no one from this class looks good so far.

Meanwhile Gettleman arrogantly neglected the offensive line in free agency, and frankly we're lucky as shit that Cam is so sturdy because he has taken an absolute beating the last three seasons. The 2013 free agent contributors were supposed to be Domenik Hixon and Drayton Florence. 2014 saw Jerricho Cotchery made a de facto starter after Smith and LaFell were jettisoned. Through twenty-six games with the team he is averaging 36.2 yards per game and 0.12 touchdowns per game. Roman Harper was also gifted a starting job and has been garbage. Remember Antoine Cason? Remember Tiquan Underwood? Remember Thomas DeCoud? And while Ed Dickson did make a phenomenal catch on Sunday he's been largely anonymous as a receiver while being below average as a blocker. Then Michael Oher was supposed to be the solution at left tackle this off-season only to be by far the team's worst offensive lineman. Kurt Coleman has been huge. Even though I don't think Gettleman expected him to become a starting safety, I'll still give him credit there. So out of three off-seasons Gettleman has hit big on one free agent while completely neglecting the offensive line, defensive end, wide receiver, cornerback, and signing two garbage safeties before bringing in the really good one.

 

Hes a return man.

 

Dude, how many drops does he have?

 

Essentially, Gettleman is the Hillary Clinton of NFL general managers. People think he's good because he's been successful but when you ask someone what his accomplishments are they can't come up with much.

 

What do you consider an accomplishment for a GM? Is it about winning, or is that a coach/quarterback thing?

I'm not being a smart ass, it's an honest question.

 

Im not looking for a list. Just in general, broad terms. How do you measure success for an NFL GM?

 

Newton hasn't lost yet so I don't see it happening against the 6-7 teams they are facing in the last three games.

 

And here we sit. About to possibly blow a championship game berth due to secondary issues but nonetheless a beautiful 13-0. 17 straight regular season wins. The players and coaches are doing this though. Gettleman's job is to listen to his scouts and coaches, and sell the players on playing here (that has, obviously, become an easy job).

 

Making good moves and avoiding dumb ones. Gettleman is better than Hurney simply because he hasn't traded first round draft picks or crippled the franchise with huge contract extensions. The reasons that the Panthers have won seventeen games in a row have little to do with Dave Gettleman. He deserves credit for keeping Rivera, drafting Short, drafting Turner, and signing Coleman. That's it.

 

You're usually pretty astute, but this is probably one of the stupidest fucking things you've ever said.

You realize you sound like a poster at the Huddle? Hehehehe....love ya man.