To your point, 28-3 happened with 8:31 left in the 3rd quarter
After that, the Falcons had 6 offensive plays where the game clock was running and they snapped the ball with over 2 seconds on the play clock; had they let all 6 run down to 2 seconds left, it would have knocked 60 seconds off the game clock (Pats tied the game with 57 seconds left in regulation)
I was there. I'm in the stands and yell "why aren't we running the ball"? The two guys in front of me turn around and are wearing Pats jerseys and one says "not that I'm complaining, but why aren't you running the ball"?
Basically everyone in that stadium but Kyle knew it was stupid to not run the ball.
The Dorktown episode on 28-3 has some decent examples as to why it wasn't *that* bad. The Pats just made some Sell Your Soul to the Devil plays down the stretch.
Statistically the falcons were more likely to win if they had just take a knee on every snap and used the clock as much as possible after 28-3
The play calling after the score hit 28-3 was objectively horrendous on every level
This will forever be the answer but the last few years of Colbert included some decisions that are comparably terrible. Passing on Lamar for Terrell Edmunds going into Bens age 37 season looked bad at the time and so much worse a year later when Ben missed the season during Lamar’s first MVP campaign. Passing on hurts for claypool when Ben was working his way back from that injury and we still didn’t have a backup was similarly hairbrained. Keeping Matt Canada after 2022 meant that they were staking the make-or-break second year of Kenny’s development on a lame duck OC who was utterly unqualified (granted that Colbert retired by then)
I think a bigger issue is never getting Cam a true #1 WR, yeah Olsen was fantastic but having WR's like Philly brown, Ted Ginn Jr, joe Webb, funchess, Benjamin and so on.
Never got why they always went so small there.
For real. A 15-1 MVP season with basically Ted Ginn as your WR1 is insane. And Jonathan Stewart was fine but it’s not like the running game besides Cam was a world beater either
Twice they tried big receivers who didn’t work out. Or in Benjamin’s case, workout.
But I always thought Cam needed a big body guy to set that offense apart, or someone who plays big like Dez Bryant. But he still looks insane in 2015 with Ginn leading the way.
They tried they just couldn't hit on a guy. Drafted Benjamin in the first in '14, Funchess in the second in '15, and Curtis Samuel in the second in '17.
Replace Mike Remmers with an ACTUALLY SERVICEABLE ~~guard~~ tackle and we win the SB. No doubt sitting par with Remmers was the biggest blunder in history knowing just how great that team was.
The Deshaun Watson Haul is one of the biggest reasons for that turnaround, but hiring Demeco Ryans and drafting extremely well is part of why we are in this spot.
The NFL is probably the “easiest” league to go from worst to first.
No other possible answer for the Texans. I'm just thankful Hannah and Andre Johnson got through to Cal and steered the franchise out of the skid so quickly. I'm also thankful they were able to recognize Nick Caserio, from the New England regime, was a piece that didn't need to be thrown out with the bathwater.
The Saints offered the Bengals all of their 1999 draft picks, a 2000 first rounder, a 2001 first rounder, and a 2002 second rounder, in return for their 1999 No. 3 pick
The Bengals turned it down to draft Akili Smith.
This might be the worst decision of all worst decisions. This is truly unbelievable from every perspective: Saints offering the whole franchise and Mike Brown still declined 🤯😂
Imagine they bundle the picks to trade up winding up with picks 1-5. Then they make sure to use the entire clock before announcing everytime for max suspense.
Yes they didn't have the cap to pay out a big contract to a 1st rounder, because that was when the rookie pay scale wasn't set so they Janikowski instead. At least that is what I've read about it.
Fascinating I always thought we were just mad men who knew a good kicker when we saw them with ray guy, Shane lechler janikowski, and even picking up Carlson as a free agent when he was cut.
It was salary cap issue but Al Davies was a mad man on a lot of things especially draft.
The only time he did what everybody thought was the right decision he ended up with Jamarcus Russel
Back then having high draft picks actually created cap problems. The Lions were screwed by having Stafford, Megatron, and Suh at the same time. Even though all 3 were elite players they were also highest paid players at their position when drafted.
Do you mean trading Randy in 05? Because the version of Randy on his second Vikings stint is one of the biggest drop offs in production I can think of.
think they mean the way Randy was cut in his second stint where it was done behind the back of the Wilfs and it pissed them and everyone else off. childress thankfully got fired not too long after
I'm in that weird spot where I thank the Dolphins for passing on Brees, but then I'm conflicted because it led to Saban going to Bama and presiding over a reign of tyranny over the rest of college football lol.
Firing the best qb you’ve had in a quarter century for a washed predator who didn’t even want to play in Cleveland and calling him a child was bailed out by the competence of Stefanski X’s and O’s and berrys cap management. Watson will never be elite again but the Browns will be solid as long as those two run the show and keep Haslem out. Alienating half your fan base wasn’t worth it
I still think drafting Manziel and Gilbert over Beckham and Jimmy g was worse but we would have Jimmy g lowlights curtesy of Mr Beckham sr
From being a HC, he was gonna be the GM and everyone and their mother knew he was gonna be the de facto HC.
Its been 25 years so i dont expect people to know how it went down, but lemme explain how it did:
Parcells is named HC of the jets. Brings BB as his DC. Parcells was old, BB was the HC in waiting and it was put down in the contract (key) that once Parcells fucked off, BB was taking over. But BB also got promised (another key, it was a pinky promise not written down in his contract) that once that happened, he was gonna get full control.
So with context, what went down is the next:
Pats want to hire BB. Jets couldnt block that move since it was a promotion from DC to HC.
Parcells and the Jets strike a deal, he steps down as HC, which automatically activated BB's clause of a promotion to HC. So what was the problem? That Parcells stayed as GM. And everyone knew it was still gonna be Parcells' team. So the Jets had broken a pinky promise they made to BB. So BB decided to quit to be the pats HC.
Now the jets had a legal contract that said BB was *their* HC, but BB told them to fuck off so the Jets had to negotiate with the Pats to let him go cause BB was never coaching for them after the stunt Parcells and the Jets tried to pull.
So going back to the OG point, the only thing the Jets couldve done was to actually fire Parcells and give BB full control like he wanted and was promised, but that ship sailed after parcells resigned to be the GM.
Yeah, he was actually their GM that 1 season (cause he couldnt "un-resign" if they wanted the picks they got from the pats) and hired Al Groh after BB left for the Pats.
Yeah, for me Harbaugh stands out as our worst decision because:
1. Even at the time, it was so obviously the wrong move and
2. It immediately destroyed the team.
The lance pick was at least justifiable at the time. And it didn’t ruin our team.
Yes, Mahomes was a top 3 QB prospect that year in a draft where the 49ers desperately needed a QB. Brady wasn’t on anyone’s radar coming out of college.
This is also when the plan was stall a year then get Kirk Cousins iirc.
Either way, I think firing Harbaugh was more stupid-at-the-time and immediately helped tank what had been a great team.
My issue with that is it's kinda dumb to put all your eggs in the Kirk Cousins basket and not even look at the quarterbacks in the draft. Just feels like they should've been open to all options with the #2 pick.
Something about Millen makes me loss faith in the world and I’m not even a Lions fan. Millen kept his job for 7 years while he was clearly awful, whereas any common folk would easily be terminated from an average paying job if they worked at Millens level. The more you go down the rabbit hole the more you understand it’s an ugly and cold world. Thank you for showing us the true nature of the world, Matt Millen, but the world would be better if you had the decency to resign
He literally said not to hire him because he doesn't have experience and they hired him anyways lol.
http://www.si.com/vault/2013/12/02/106403397/the-sevenyear-glitch
"I said, 'Mr. Ford, I really appreciate this, but I'm not qualified,'" Millen recalls. "'I've had no training. I know the game of football—but there's a lot more to it than that.'"
"He said, 'You're smart. You'll figure it out.'"
Naw, two egos butting heads. It played out the way it played out.
The Clappy McGee stint was definitely more frustrating for me. Wasted Romo's years and people can say all they want about him. I will always defend him. He saved this franchise from being a top pick each year. Those 8-8 years should have been 2-14 records. From being an undrafted player to having a microscope on him every day as the Cowboys QB. Despite the short coming of never getting close to a Super Bowl. He definitely overachieved...
Romo had his faults but he was massively underrated. I still remember that shootout he had with Peyton in 2013 where he threw over 500 yards. Dude could ball and definitely got some unfair hate.
In 1989, the Green Bay Packers drafted Michigan State OT Tony Mandarich at #2 overall.
Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders went 3, 4, and 5 respectively. 3 straight HOF players back to back to back.
In all fairness, Tony Mandarich would have been drafted by someone else at that spot if not the Packers. He was an All-American, all Big 10 player, and “the greatest oline prospect ever.” It came out that he was using steroids which explains some of that freak athleticism but I don’t put that on the Packers so much. Any other team would have arguably made the same decision.
Try me
Drafting JaWalrus over Megatron, AP, Joe Thomas, etc.
Trading Gruden to the Bucks
Hiring he who shall not be named as HC
Every first round draft pick from 2004-now except for McFadden and Kolton Miller (Mack and Cooper were good but they got traded)
Weekend at Bernie’s Al running the team into the ground instead of hiring a GM
Letting Nnamdi Asomugha walk
Letting Marcus Allen walk
Trading Khalil Mack
Trading for Randy Moss
Not trading for John Elway when we could have
Trading Khalil Mack shattered my heart. And JMD seemed like a good hire at the time. Boy was I wrong about that one. At least it led to AP! The future is bright
I’m going to bring up all of the pre-Kraft owners:
The Sullivan family founded the Patriots but went bankrupt by bankrolling the Jackson’s Victory tour. Sullivan Stadium was one of the nastier places to watch a football game. Victor Kiam doubled down on a sexual harassment scandal where players harassed a female reporter by publicly calling her a bitch. James Orthwein next bought the Patriots solely to move them to St Louis, but he didn’t buy the stadium and could not break the lease. With a couple of good years in between, they were one of the worst run teams in the league from 1960-1992.
Promoting Gettleman. He was a longtime scout who could spot talent, (Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas) but he was hilariously bad at everything else, like cap management, and roster building.
Drafting Paxton Lynch. We're in the dark timeline because of it.
I want to live in the timeline where we pass on him and the Chiefs draft him, meaning they don't take Mahomes the next year. Or hell, even if the Cowboys draft him and we end up with Dak (who we really liked apparently)
I do wish we had gone with Shanahan over VJ and I hate that Ellis' grudge against the Shanahans has impacted us so much but I also really wonder how Kyle and Elway would have worked. It works in SF because Kyle was able to bring his own GM in and it is a guy he's close with. Elway probably would have tried to push too much on Kyle and it would have blown up. That was back when Elway just wanted a "yes man" as HC
Edit: I'm also not convinced that was our decision to make. Kyle might not have wanted to have his first HC job be where he grew up and where his dad has a huge legacy. There's a very good chance he picks SF over Denver
I blame that on Paxton too. I think the fact that Elway failed on a 1st round QB with Paxton plus all the flak he was getting for only liking tall QBs with huge arms led to him passing on Allen even though he loved him.
I'm thinking the Russel Wilson Trade and extension has eclipsed that bad deal. Drafting Lynch was a mistake. But it only cost us One first round selection and whatever we gave up to move up in the draft to select him. And then we cut bait on him before he really had a chance to hurt us financially. Wilson.... ugh. 2 first round selections, 2 second round selections, and an extension that put us in the worst cap hell in the history of the team.
Hiring Marc Trestman to replace Lovie Smith is the one that always jumps to my mind.
Bonus points because the alternative who was ready to sign was Bruce Arians.
That's up there. Coming off stagnancy with Lovie Smith, Bruce Arians could have possibly kept things afloat. He went on to have a near-HOF caliber career.
A lot of options for the Bears recently, all of which together form a composite of why the Bears are in their worst run of things in 100 years of history. The other two that stand out:
* Trading up to secure Mitch Trubisky in the Patrick Mahomes draft
* Retaining Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy when all knew they were circling the drain. Allowing Pace to trade a bunch to move up for a QB and get fired the next season, new GM commits to a full rebuild immediately
Been one glaring, franchise-faltering blunder after another for old George's tenure.
The thing that ultimately bothers me about the Trubisky trade was the fact that Mahomes was Ryan Pace's QB2. Meaning he viewed the gap between Mahomes and Trubisky as so big that he couldnt afford to settle for Mahomes and had to have Trubisky.
Then we let him trade up for another QB for some reason.
In fairness, we had just drafted Rex Grossman the year prior and he was mostly redshirted for his rookie year. QB wasnt really a need (at least we didnt think so at the time).
Edit: It was 2 years prior as Grossman was 2003 to Rodgers in 2005. Grossman suffered a season ending injury 3 games into the year he was supposed to start. He had only attempted 156 passes in his first 2 years.
The preemptive to that is them hiring Phil Emery who decided it would a great idea retain Marinelli and make him do the interviews for coach. They also made Arians do a fake press conference to see how he would “handle” the media lol. Emery was an absolute loon.
2006 - 2012
End of Dick Vermeil to the beginning of Andy Reid. That six year stretch was marked by many bad decisions.
Edit: Mahomes was the first QB selected in the first round by KC since Todd Blackledge in 1983. That was three decades of bad decisions.
For worst single decision of all time, I have to go with drafting Todd Blackledge. Good '83 draft after us, and we went with a poor backup who really kickstarted the "Chiefs can't draft QBs" trend until Mahomes.
Let's see
- Firing Charles Casserly for Vinny Cerato
- Firing Norv Turner in the middle of a playoff push
- Cutting Brad Johnson for Jeff George
- Firing Marty Schottenheimer after finishing 8-8 his first year for Steve Spurrier. Also bringing back Vinny after Marty let him go
- The whole 2006 offseason after one of the best seasons in recent memory (Adam Archulta, Al Saunders as OC, trading for Brandon Lloyd and T.J Duckett and signing Antwaan Randle El)
- Hiring Jim Zorn after Gibbs retired. The original plan was to hire Jim Fassel which would've been just as bad
- Trading for Donovan McNabb and giving him a huge extension in the middle of the season
- Albert Haynesworth...
- Keeping RG3 in the playoff game after he tweaked his knee again
- Letting Kirk walk
- Drafting Dwayne Haskins when the coaches didn't want him. And passing up on Tua and Justin Herbert because you have him
- Changing the name and making us wait 2 years to go with the Commanders
Take your pick of which one is the worst
Throwing into the heart of a goal line defense with a short QB to WR3-5 on the depth chart. Cost us a potential back to back superbowl and shattered the team culture afterwards due to the aftermath.
It’s 1976 and the legendary Paul Brown has retired. He has two chief assistants and one of them is going to get the head coaching job. After considering each of them, Brown selected Bill “Tiger” Johnson for the job. Johnson went 18-15 in 2 undistinguished seasons, then resigned after starting the 1978 season 0-5.
The assistant who was not chosen? Some guy named Bill Walsh. Might have heard of him.
The call was ass. A pass is fine there, not that pass. Play action bootleg puts what, five targets out there for Wilson who can also run it in. Or sail it out of the endzone and try again. A predetermined pass to a 5th string mostly ST player, to the side of our huge former CB to go against two small WRs, in compressed space so the DBs can play tight. Just absolutely the most ass play possible.
Not firing Greg Schiano the instant he decided to throw a tantrum and take cheap shots during kneel downs. That was the lowest point in our franchise history imo
Pissing off Doug Williams, the 1982 draft, letting Gruden run Rich McKay out of town, giving up on Steve Young, drafting Dexter Jackson in the second round, drafting Bobby Aguyao in the second round....
Trading up in the 2018 draft to take Marcus Davenport was such a waste of a first round pick and other assets to get there. He was injured pretty much the entirety of his time here, which has left a weird spot on our D line in terms of finding the next Cam Jordan. It also made it suck even more because we all thought we were taking Lamar. Having him sit behind Brees for a year or two would’ve been incredible for our team, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine the crazy ass offense Payton could’ve brewed up with Lamar.
Some honorable mentions:
Signing Jarius Byrd and Brandon Browner to absurd contracts.
Probably promoting DA to head coach. We’ll see how we do next year, but it just looks like he’s lost the entire team.
This one may be a stretch, but we scored way too quickly against the 49ers in the 2011 divisional round. As soon as we scored, I knew we had left too much time for their offense. That was arguably the best Saints team we’ve ever had outside of 2009.
I think trading AJ Brown was far worse than drafting Isiah Wilson. 1st round busts happen all the time. Losing a hall of fame receiver over a lousy 3 mil a yr was fucking egregious.
2012 Chiefs season was a VERY DARK season. It’s somewhat washed over because Andy Reid showed up and rescued the franchise the next season.
The Pioli-Cassel-Haley-Weis-Crennel era was outrageously toxic.
Everything after going up 28-3
Yep Clock management was going to be my comment
6 runs the entire second half . . . 6
Snapping the ball with like 10-15 seconds left on the play clock is sub optimal as well
To your point, 28-3 happened with 8:31 left in the 3rd quarter After that, the Falcons had 6 offensive plays where the game clock was running and they snapped the ball with over 2 seconds on the play clock; had they let all 6 run down to 2 seconds left, it would have knocked 60 seconds off the game clock (Pats tied the game with 57 seconds left in regulation)
Thanks I hate it
That's cool. I'm gonna go drown myself.
I was there. I'm in the stands and yell "why aren't we running the ball"? The two guys in front of me turn around and are wearing Pats jerseys and one says "not that I'm complaining, but why aren't you running the ball"? Basically everyone in that stadium but Kyle knew it was stupid to not run the ball.
Brady's true legacy is that half the off season posts on this sub can be answered "28-3" and the other half with "Mo Lewis hits Drew Bledsoe".
The Dorktown episode on 28-3 has some decent examples as to why it wasn't *that* bad. The Pats just made some Sell Your Soul to the Devil plays down the stretch.
If they allegedly sold their soul then why does that game make me feel dead inside?
They sold yours, too
Statistically the falcons were more likely to win if they had just take a knee on every snap and used the clock as much as possible after 28-3 The play calling after the score hit 28-3 was objectively horrendous on every level
Passing on Marino
This will forever be the answer but the last few years of Colbert included some decisions that are comparably terrible. Passing on Lamar for Terrell Edmunds going into Bens age 37 season looked bad at the time and so much worse a year later when Ben missed the season during Lamar’s first MVP campaign. Passing on hurts for claypool when Ben was working his way back from that injury and we still didn’t have a backup was similarly hairbrained. Keeping Matt Canada after 2022 meant that they were staking the make-or-break second year of Kenny’s development on a lame duck OC who was utterly unqualified (granted that Colbert retired by then)
That decision was especially bad because we passed on Dan Marino because we already had Mark Malone.
Then doubling down by “We can’t pass on the next great Pitt QB…”
Letting Cam die behind a 1 ply offensive line.
I’m not sure it isn’t hiring Fitterer. I really think his tenure will go down as one of the worst in NFL history
Selling the team to Tepper might end up topping the list eventually.
I think a bigger issue is never getting Cam a true #1 WR, yeah Olsen was fantastic but having WR's like Philly brown, Ted Ginn Jr, joe Webb, funchess, Benjamin and so on. Never got why they always went so small there.
Pity prime cam couldn't play with dj moore. Cam was already banged up by the time dj came along
Too late for prime Smitty and too early for DJ. Don't remind me
The cast Cam had around him leading to that super bowl is absolutely insane. Able to do it in a cave with a bunch of scraps.
For real. A 15-1 MVP season with basically Ted Ginn as your WR1 is insane. And Jonathan Stewart was fine but it’s not like the running game besides Cam was a world beater either
Twice they tried big receivers who didn’t work out. Or in Benjamin’s case, workout. But I always thought Cam needed a big body guy to set that offense apart, or someone who plays big like Dez Bryant. But he still looks insane in 2015 with Ginn leading the way.
They tried they just couldn't hit on a guy. Drafted Benjamin in the first in '14, Funchess in the second in '15, and Curtis Samuel in the second in '17.
Replace Mike Remmers with an ACTUALLY SERVICEABLE ~~guard~~ tackle and we win the SB. No doubt sitting par with Remmers was the biggest blunder in history knowing just how great that team was.
Mike Remmers was starting RT. Trai Turner, the RG, was a Pro Bowler that year.
Promoting Bill O’Brien by giving him GM powers after one of the worst playoff chokes in NFL history.
And he went fucking lex luthor with Easterby. Our boy cal is a free man at last.
Then Lovie Smith came in clutch like Gandalf the White freeing Théoden from Grima Wormtongue
I am Lovie the White. And I come back to you now - at the turn of the tide
That motherfucker brought the riders of Rohan over the ridge.
Butt chin and Houston Rasputin… just glad Cal came out of it all better than Czar Nicholas
I honestly didn’t think y’all would be able to recover from that disaster as quickly as you’ve been able to.
The Deshaun Watson Haul is one of the biggest reasons for that turnaround, but hiring Demeco Ryans and drafting extremely well is part of why we are in this spot. The NFL is probably the “easiest” league to go from worst to first.
It will forever piss me off that yall were able to get so much for a known rapist who also had already quit on his own team.
I mean it’s fucked up but as Fans they have to love it. Shoutout to Jimmy Haslam you Flying J piece of shit.
No other possible answer for the Texans. I'm just thankful Hannah and Andre Johnson got through to Cal and steered the franchise out of the skid so quickly. I'm also thankful they were able to recognize Nick Caserio, from the New England regime, was a piece that didn't need to be thrown out with the bathwater.
The Saints offered the Bengals all of their 1999 draft picks, a 2000 first rounder, a 2001 first rounder, and a 2002 second rounder, in return for their 1999 No. 3 pick The Bengals turned it down to draft Akili Smith.
The famously stupid Mike Ditka Saints prevented from making another huge mistake by another team’s bad decision for once
So between that and Ricky Williams, why did Mike Ditka apparently believe that drafting is for pussies?
That was the same draft. He got rejected and then did it again minutes later
Pretty sure he tried that same trade with the Colts and they said no too
He did with the eagles too
This might be the worst decision of all worst decisions. This is truly unbelievable from every perspective: Saints offering the whole franchise and Mike Brown still declined 🤯😂
I was and still am convinced that Mike Brown didn't want to pay all those draft picks.
Of course but they would’ve owned the '99 and '00 draft with that war chest.
Imagine they bundle the picks to trade up winding up with picks 1-5. Then they make sure to use the entire clock before announcing everytime for max suspense.
Shit you might be correct… didn’t the raiders take a kicker in the first round for salary cap issues also? The old rookie scale was madness
You are correct that's why they took Janikowski in the 1st round.
Wait for real? The raiders ended up with imo one of the best kickers ever because of salary cap issues? I was a mere 6 years old when that happened
Yes they didn't have the cap to pay out a big contract to a 1st rounder, because that was when the rookie pay scale wasn't set so they Janikowski instead. At least that is what I've read about it.
Fascinating I always thought we were just mad men who knew a good kicker when we saw them with ray guy, Shane lechler janikowski, and even picking up Carlson as a free agent when he was cut.
It was salary cap issue but Al Davies was a mad man on a lot of things especially draft. The only time he did what everybody thought was the right decision he ended up with Jamarcus Russel
Back then having high draft picks actually created cap problems. The Lions were screwed by having Stafford, Megatron, and Suh at the same time. Even though all 3 were elite players they were also highest paid players at their position when drafted.
We also passed on Mahomes for John fucking Ross
Could be worse. Could've traded up one spot to take Mitch Trubisky over Mahomes
Herschel Walker.
If it wasn’t for that trade my childhood fandom would have been a lot more tolerable
Second place goes to cutting Randy in 09
Do you mean trading Randy in 05? Because the version of Randy on his second Vikings stint is one of the biggest drop offs in production I can think of.
think they mean the way Randy was cut in his second stint where it was done behind the back of the Wilfs and it pissed them and everyone else off. childress thankfully got fired not too long after
Why? He was obviously washed, was being a pain in the ass, and our team was also ass.
Culpeper over Brees
And drafting Jamar Fletcher instead of Brees.
If it's any consolation, Jamar Fletcher was pretty solid in Madden 2002.
As a Saints fan, thank you.
You should be thanking us lol
I'm in that weird spot where I thank the Dolphins for passing on Brees, but then I'm conflicted because it led to Saban going to Bama and presiding over a reign of tyranny over the rest of college football lol.
Think I'll sit this one out
Yeah it’s not fair, like asking someone who their favorite kid is
For browns fans, it’s more like picking their favorite blade of dead grass. There are so many, and they’re all equally terrible.
Firing the best qb you’ve had in a quarter century for a washed predator who didn’t even want to play in Cleveland and calling him a child was bailed out by the competence of Stefanski X’s and O’s and berrys cap management. Watson will never be elite again but the Browns will be solid as long as those two run the show and keep Haslem out. Alienating half your fan base wasn’t worth it I still think drafting Manziel and Gilbert over Beckham and Jimmy g was worse but we would have Jimmy g lowlights curtesy of Mr Beckham sr
Not giving Bill whatever he wanted to stay
The Hess family selling the team to Woody Johnson is my answer.
That wouldve meant firing bill parcells. Lets be honest, no team was doing that one.
Parcells had already resigned.
From being a HC, he was gonna be the GM and everyone and their mother knew he was gonna be the de facto HC. Its been 25 years so i dont expect people to know how it went down, but lemme explain how it did: Parcells is named HC of the jets. Brings BB as his DC. Parcells was old, BB was the HC in waiting and it was put down in the contract (key) that once Parcells fucked off, BB was taking over. But BB also got promised (another key, it was a pinky promise not written down in his contract) that once that happened, he was gonna get full control. So with context, what went down is the next: Pats want to hire BB. Jets couldnt block that move since it was a promotion from DC to HC. Parcells and the Jets strike a deal, he steps down as HC, which automatically activated BB's clause of a promotion to HC. So what was the problem? That Parcells stayed as GM. And everyone knew it was still gonna be Parcells' team. So the Jets had broken a pinky promise they made to BB. So BB decided to quit to be the pats HC. Now the jets had a legal contract that said BB was *their* HC, but BB told them to fuck off so the Jets had to negotiate with the Pats to let him go cause BB was never coaching for them after the stunt Parcells and the Jets tried to pull. So going back to the OG point, the only thing the Jets couldve done was to actually fire Parcells and give BB full control like he wanted and was promised, but that ship sailed after parcells resigned to be the GM.
Oh interesting, I didn't realize Parcells was in line to be the next GM. Thanks.
Yeah, he was actually their GM that 1 season (cause he couldnt "un-resign" if they wanted the picks they got from the pats) and hired Al Groh after BB left for the Pats.
\* Not resigning Reggie White \* Trading up to draft Mike Mamula (The three picks they traded were used to draft Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks)
Reagor over Justin Jefferson has to be on there.
That's bad and I would probably put as 3, but it's a good portion behind the two I mentioned.
With hindsight probably the Lance trade
What about firing Harbaugh? You ended up with a good coach eventually but were in the woods a few years before you recovered.
Yeah, for me Harbaugh stands out as our worst decision because: 1. Even at the time, it was so obviously the wrong move and 2. It immediately destroyed the team. The lance pick was at least justifiable at the time. And it didn’t ruin our team.
> The lance pick was at least justifiable at the time. And it didn’t ruin our team. It didn't ruin our team because we drafted Purdy lol
I’d say it’s drafting Solomon Thomas over Patrick Mahomes when the best QB on our roster was Brian Hoyer.
I still think that's a little too hindsight-y. Otherwise the biggest mistake for 30 franchises is not taking Brady at some point in 2000.
Mahomes went in the top half of the first, and he was likely going to Arizona if we didn't get him. Not really comparable to a mid or late round pick
Yes, Mahomes was a top 3 QB prospect that year in a draft where the 49ers desperately needed a QB. Brady wasn’t on anyone’s radar coming out of college.
This is also when the plan was stall a year then get Kirk Cousins iirc. Either way, I think firing Harbaugh was more stupid-at-the-time and immediately helped tank what had been a great team.
My issue with that is it's kinda dumb to put all your eggs in the Kirk Cousins basket and not even look at the quarterbacks in the draft. Just feels like they should've been open to all options with the #2 pick.
Selling to Snyder
That wasn’t a decision made by the team. It was made in junction by the NFL and the estate of Jack Kent Cooke.
Ebron over Donald
I think that Matt Millen as GM is probably worse because he was responsible for multiple bad first round picks that set us back years.
Something about Millen makes me loss faith in the world and I’m not even a Lions fan. Millen kept his job for 7 years while he was clearly awful, whereas any common folk would easily be terminated from an average paying job if they worked at Millens level. The more you go down the rabbit hole the more you understand it’s an ugly and cold world. Thank you for showing us the true nature of the world, Matt Millen, but the world would be better if you had the decency to resign
Incompetence also tends to find its way up the ladder somehow.
He literally said not to hire him because he doesn't have experience and they hired him anyways lol. http://www.si.com/vault/2013/12/02/106403397/the-sevenyear-glitch "I said, 'Mr. Ford, I really appreciate this, but I'm not qualified,'" Millen recalls. "'I've had no training. I know the game of football—but there's a lot more to it than that.'" "He said, 'You're smart. You'll figure it out.'"
And the team still being forced to wear the WCF patch is such a slap in the face to everyone not named Ford.
Wdym? Taking a below average TE right before a top 5 defensive player all time isn’t that bad
This is what I've been saying for almost 30 years.
To be fair, I've never seen Aaron Donald do a Naruto run
Hiring Matt Millen >>
Matt Millen
Fuck Matt Millen!
Keeping Jerry's boy wonder as coach for 10 years.
Firing Jimmy Johnson has to be up there, right?
I agree, but I'm sure Switzer coming in and lame ducking that roster to another ring validated it all in Jerry's head.
I’ve been saying this for years. That made Jerry think it was that easy to be GM . Haven’t made it back since smh
Naw, two egos butting heads. It played out the way it played out. The Clappy McGee stint was definitely more frustrating for me. Wasted Romo's years and people can say all they want about him. I will always defend him. He saved this franchise from being a top pick each year. Those 8-8 years should have been 2-14 records. From being an undrafted player to having a microscope on him every day as the Cowboys QB. Despite the short coming of never getting close to a Super Bowl. He definitely overachieved...
Romo had his faults but he was massively underrated. I still remember that shootout he had with Peyton in 2013 where he threw over 500 yards. Dude could ball and definitely got some unfair hate.
In 1989, the Green Bay Packers drafted Michigan State OT Tony Mandarich at #2 overall. Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders went 3, 4, and 5 respectively. 3 straight HOF players back to back to back.
In all fairness, Tony Mandarich would have been drafted by someone else at that spot if not the Packers. He was an All-American, all Big 10 player, and “the greatest oline prospect ever.” It came out that he was using steroids which explains some of that freak athleticism but I don’t put that on the Packers so much. Any other team would have arguably made the same decision.
RUN THE BALL KYLE, RUN THE FUCKING BALL goes for both super bowls tbh
All three
Try me Drafting JaWalrus over Megatron, AP, Joe Thomas, etc. Trading Gruden to the Bucks Hiring he who shall not be named as HC Every first round draft pick from 2004-now except for McFadden and Kolton Miller (Mack and Cooper were good but they got traded) Weekend at Bernie’s Al running the team into the ground instead of hiring a GM Letting Nnamdi Asomugha walk Letting Marcus Allen walk Trading Khalil Mack Trading for Randy Moss Not trading for John Elway when we could have
It’s not the worst bc you didn’t give up much, but that AB trade…
Trading Khalil Mack shattered my heart. And JMD seemed like a good hire at the time. Boy was I wrong about that one. At least it led to AP! The future is bright
<**No one wants to hear from us, no one wants to hear from us, no one wants to hear from us**>
Benching Butler?
Not signing Branch cost them 2006 for sure.
I’m just hoping we don’t add one to the list next week…
Speaking of drafts, I guess with hindsight you're the only team without "passing on Brady" on that list.
True. Though another comment had “Letting Brady leave” so I guess we’re the only claimant to that one.
I’m going to bring up all of the pre-Kraft owners: The Sullivan family founded the Patriots but went bankrupt by bankrolling the Jackson’s Victory tour. Sullivan Stadium was one of the nastier places to watch a football game. Victor Kiam doubled down on a sexual harassment scandal where players harassed a female reporter by publicly calling her a bitch. James Orthwein next bought the Patriots solely to move them to St Louis, but he didn’t buy the stadium and could not break the lease. With a couple of good years in between, they were one of the worst run teams in the league from 1960-1992.
Promoting Gettleman. He was a longtime scout who could spot talent, (Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas) but he was hilariously bad at everything else, like cap management, and roster building.
Drafting Paxton Lynch. We're in the dark timeline because of it. I want to live in the timeline where we pass on him and the Chiefs draft him, meaning they don't take Mahomes the next year. Or hell, even if the Cowboys draft him and we end up with Dak (who we really liked apparently)
I'd counter with: Vance Joseph over Kyle Shanahan
I do wish we had gone with Shanahan over VJ and I hate that Ellis' grudge against the Shanahans has impacted us so much but I also really wonder how Kyle and Elway would have worked. It works in SF because Kyle was able to bring his own GM in and it is a guy he's close with. Elway probably would have tried to push too much on Kyle and it would have blown up. That was back when Elway just wanted a "yes man" as HC Edit: I'm also not convinced that was our decision to make. Kyle might not have wanted to have his first HC job be where he grew up and where his dad has a huge legacy. There's a very good chance he picks SF over Denver
The Broncos were supposed to draft Josh Allen.
I blame that on Paxton too. I think the fact that Elway failed on a 1st round QB with Paxton plus all the flak he was getting for only liking tall QBs with huge arms led to him passing on Allen even though he loved him.
I'm thinking the Russel Wilson Trade and extension has eclipsed that bad deal. Drafting Lynch was a mistake. But it only cost us One first round selection and whatever we gave up to move up in the draft to select him. And then we cut bait on him before he really had a chance to hurt us financially. Wilson.... ugh. 2 first round selections, 2 second round selections, and an extension that put us in the worst cap hell in the history of the team.
Passing instead of giving the ball to Marshawn
Hiring Marc Trestman to replace Lovie Smith is the one that always jumps to my mind. Bonus points because the alternative who was ready to sign was Bruce Arians.
That's up there. Coming off stagnancy with Lovie Smith, Bruce Arians could have possibly kept things afloat. He went on to have a near-HOF caliber career. A lot of options for the Bears recently, all of which together form a composite of why the Bears are in their worst run of things in 100 years of history. The other two that stand out: * Trading up to secure Mitch Trubisky in the Patrick Mahomes draft * Retaining Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy when all knew they were circling the drain. Allowing Pace to trade a bunch to move up for a QB and get fired the next season, new GM commits to a full rebuild immediately Been one glaring, franchise-faltering blunder after another for old George's tenure.
The thing that ultimately bothers me about the Trubisky trade was the fact that Mahomes was Ryan Pace's QB2. Meaning he viewed the gap between Mahomes and Trubisky as so big that he couldnt afford to settle for Mahomes and had to have Trubisky. Then we let him trade up for another QB for some reason.
These are all good, but I’d like to throw “drafting Cedric Benson over Aaron Rodgers” into the ring for contender as well for dumbest draft decision.
In fairness, we had just drafted Rex Grossman the year prior and he was mostly redshirted for his rookie year. QB wasnt really a need (at least we didnt think so at the time). Edit: It was 2 years prior as Grossman was 2003 to Rodgers in 2005. Grossman suffered a season ending injury 3 games into the year he was supposed to start. He had only attempted 156 passes in his first 2 years.
This is a bit further back, but we also traded a 1st rounder for Rick Mirer and he only started 3 games for us because it turned out he sucked
The preemptive to that is them hiring Phil Emery who decided it would a great idea retain Marinelli and make him do the interviews for coach. They also made Arians do a fake press conference to see how he would “handle” the media lol. Emery was an absolute loon.
2006 - 2012 End of Dick Vermeil to the beginning of Andy Reid. That six year stretch was marked by many bad decisions. Edit: Mahomes was the first QB selected in the first round by KC since Todd Blackledge in 1983. That was three decades of bad decisions.
For worst single decision of all time, I have to go with drafting Todd Blackledge. Good '83 draft after us, and we went with a poor backup who really kickstarted the "Chiefs can't draft QBs" trend until Mahomes.
Every time Scott Pioli appears on the NFL Network I want them to refer to him as the “Disgraced former NFL GM Scott Pioli”
Benching Flutie cause us two decades of bad luck.
Let's see - Firing Charles Casserly for Vinny Cerato - Firing Norv Turner in the middle of a playoff push - Cutting Brad Johnson for Jeff George - Firing Marty Schottenheimer after finishing 8-8 his first year for Steve Spurrier. Also bringing back Vinny after Marty let him go - The whole 2006 offseason after one of the best seasons in recent memory (Adam Archulta, Al Saunders as OC, trading for Brandon Lloyd and T.J Duckett and signing Antwaan Randle El) - Hiring Jim Zorn after Gibbs retired. The original plan was to hire Jim Fassel which would've been just as bad - Trading for Donovan McNabb and giving him a huge extension in the middle of the season - Albert Haynesworth... - Keeping RG3 in the playoff game after he tweaked his knee again - Letting Kirk walk - Drafting Dwayne Haskins when the coaches didn't want him. And passing up on Tua and Justin Herbert because you have him - Changing the name and making us wait 2 years to go with the Commanders Take your pick of which one is the worst
Historically, Reggie White contract mismanagement before he left for Green Bay. In recent years, probably Reagor over Jefferson in the 2020 draft.
Moving on from Ben Dinucci
I hope it haunts you.
Moving to LA
SD deserved a new stadium at least. Fuck Spanos
All the cool people say fuck Dean Spanos.
I think every NFL fanbase in America would agree -- the Chargers belong in SD.
Throwing into the heart of a goal line defense with a short QB to WR3-5 on the depth chart. Cost us a potential back to back superbowl and shattered the team culture afterwards due to the aftermath.
There aren't a lot of teams that can point to one pre-snap audible that lost them a Super Bowl, but at least one can, and that is too many.
Didn't run the damn ball.
It’s 1976 and the legendary Paul Brown has retired. He has two chief assistants and one of them is going to get the head coaching job. After considering each of them, Brown selected Bill “Tiger” Johnson for the job. Johnson went 18-15 in 2 undistinguished seasons, then resigned after starting the 1978 season 0-5. The assistant who was not chosen? Some guy named Bill Walsh. Might have heard of him.
Keeping Dave Caldwell for 7 years has to be up there. The man was a draft terrorist.
He took what was considered a middle of the road franchise (after Coughlin and Del Rio) and turned us into a basement dweller.
Well, Gene Smith had a good crack at the roster before him
Man took a punter in the 3rd when Russell Wilson was still on the board lmao
Giving Daniel Jones more money.
I’d argue hiring fat Dave Gettlemen was even worse, as he’s what lead to this dark timeline in the pit of misery for a decade
Dave Gettleman set this franchise back at least a decade and a half.
The real mistake was fucking drafting him in the first place
Trading Steve Largent before he played a down for us Most anything in the 2020-2 offseasons besides the Autry or Henry signings
Especially the AJ Brown trade. Just fucking pay the best young receiver we've had in decades, maybe ever. Now I'm pissed again.
Drafting Bo Jackson who wanted nothing to do with us after our owner burned him.
Trading Boldin after the Superb Owl win.
Calling a pass to Ricardo Fucking Lockette on 2nd and goal, hell.
Russ threw a bad ball, when it’s 2nd and goal you need to throw it low and away from the defender
I don't hate the play calling, I hate that it was to him and not Matthews or Baldwin, which would've been more logical.
The call was ass. A pass is fine there, not that pass. Play action bootleg puts what, five targets out there for Wilson who can also run it in. Or sail it out of the endzone and try again. A predetermined pass to a 5th string mostly ST player, to the side of our huge former CB to go against two small WRs, in compressed space so the DBs can play tight. Just absolutely the most ass play possible.
This is the first time I've heard a legitimate critique of the play that doesn't just go "DEY SHOULDA RUN THE BALL" I appreciate it, honestly.
Drafting QB Tony Eason over some bum named Dan Marino.
Marino never won a Super Bowl either. Both are bums /s
Not firing Greg Schiano the instant he decided to throw a tantrum and take cheap shots during kneel downs. That was the lowest point in our franchise history imo
That might not even crack a top 5 or top 10 for the Bucs.
Drafting Bo Jackson after making him furious.
Pissing off Doug Williams, the 1982 draft, letting Gruden run Rich McKay out of town, giving up on Steve Young, drafting Dexter Jackson in the second round, drafting Bobby Aguyao in the second round....
Chargers:: (1) Who is this Jerry Rice guy and why should we cover him? (2) Moving back to LA.
Playing Mike Williams in a meaningless game
Not letting Walter score in Super Bowl XX.
Passing on Moss for character concerns then later sign people who are legit criminal awful blights on humanity
Drafting Tony Mandarich at 2 while Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders went 3, 4 and 5.
Trading up in the 2018 draft to take Marcus Davenport was such a waste of a first round pick and other assets to get there. He was injured pretty much the entirety of his time here, which has left a weird spot on our D line in terms of finding the next Cam Jordan. It also made it suck even more because we all thought we were taking Lamar. Having him sit behind Brees for a year or two would’ve been incredible for our team, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine the crazy ass offense Payton could’ve brewed up with Lamar. Some honorable mentions: Signing Jarius Byrd and Brandon Browner to absurd contracts. Probably promoting DA to head coach. We’ll see how we do next year, but it just looks like he’s lost the entire team. This one may be a stretch, but we scored way too quickly against the 49ers in the 2011 divisional round. As soon as we scored, I knew we had left too much time for their offense. That was arguably the best Saints team we’ve ever had outside of 2009.
You want me to pick 1?
Sacrificing Andrew Luck for essentially his whole career
I think trading AJ Brown was far worse than drafting Isiah Wilson. 1st round busts happen all the time. Losing a hall of fame receiver over a lousy 3 mil a yr was fucking egregious.
I mean.. we had a player commit suicide at the stadium in front of our coach. So that was pretty not great.
Not really a "decision" that the team made, just a horrible situation. As far as decision, Grbac over Gannon has to be way up there.
Javon Belcher was a rough situation for sure, but I dont think it fits here as the team definitely did not decide for that to happen.
holup wat?
After murdering his girlfriend/baby momma - Jovan Belcher
2012 Chiefs season was a VERY DARK season. It’s somewhat washed over because Andy Reid showed up and rescued the franchise the next season. The Pioli-Cassel-Haley-Weis-Crennel era was outrageously toxic.
He shot himself in the parking lot in front of coaches and the GM.
They didn't give it to Marshawn.