Which is worse?

[Mr. Scot]

What hurts more?

- Selling out to get a guy you wanted, only to watch him underachieve (like Sean Gilbert, Everette Brown or Armanti Edwards)

- Watching a guy you could have had or used to have do well elsewhere (like Eddie George, Clinton Portis or Julius Peppers)

If you're forced to choose one or the other, which one sticks in your craw more?

[Jackofalltrades]

Selling out because it usually takes years to recover from.

[Plewis]

The first one. Typically means that there is a deeper issue within the organization than just one guy. GM, coaches, scouts, etc.

[Murrican]

Watching a guy you could have had ball-out, because cpt hindsight

[Mr. Scot]

Selling out because it usually takes years to recover from.

Valid, but "what could have been" really sucks, especially when that guy you could have had or used to have plays against you and does great.

[top dawg]

Wasting draft picks, easily.  Seeing a star leave and do well is just part of the nature of the beast. It's not necessarily a mistake. But to spend a pick on a guy and see him fail while contemplating about all the good players that you could have had just makes me beside myself.  To be honest, I try not to think about it.

[PandaPancake]

PanthersUnited threads are always the worst.

[bdwork]

Without any hesitation, the former. The latter doesn't necessarily imply you totally swung and missed. 

[CRA]

Easily watching someone ball do it elsewhere...

In the NFL finding talent is a crapshoot therefore you and everyone misses and does so a lot.  So it should be expected to bust on guys.  Talent that stands out is rare...so watching it elsewhere hurts more

[magnus]

Both are hard.  Selling out might be harder, because you put resources into something that didn't work.  If Dom Capers believed Jason Peter was a better football player than Randy Moss, then he's blind, but I can understand feeling like Randy Moss is a player that isn't worth the risk. 

Trading back up for Randy Moss (I swear, do I remember Mike Ditka wanting to trade back up with 1999-2000 picks, for Randy Moss, after trading for Ricky Williams?) and watching him go Rae Carruth, would be more catastrophic.  Or to put it in more realistic terms, I'd have found trading Sean Gilbert's rights for the eventual Peter pick tough, but knowing that it cost them what it did for Gilbert plus the other picks (Peter, Marrow, and Wiley) hurts more.  I would've gladly in retrospect wanted Carolina to give up the 14 pick and be bad on the DL singularly, than give up 14, plus 1999, plus the 2000 pick, and the rotten return on the 1998 2nd for Rashard Anderson, and two thirds in 1998 for the same eventual outcome.

 

In comparison, I wish Julius Peppers had been here in 11, 12, 13, 14 but I get it.  That was just terrible timing and an owner doing what he thought was best, even if it took time to recoil from it.