Fitterer vs. Morgan

[kungfoodude]

I was perpexled by our early offseason moves but there does seem to be a rhyme and reason to this pretty dramatic overall roster shaping. At the moment it's hard to say the overall result but, I will say Morgan really seems to be distancing himself from the Scott Fitterer moves of the past. Definitely a higher percentage of logical moves.

What is your overall feeling of how the current regime compares to the last, if only in terms of appearances?

[strato]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

I was perpexled by our early offseason moves but there does seem to be a rhyme and reason to this pretty dramatic overall roster shaping. At the moment it's hard to say the overall result but, I will say Morgan really seems to be distancing himself from the Scott Fitterer moves of the past. Definitely a higher percentage of logical moves.

What is your overall feeling of how the current regime compares to the last, if only in terms of appearances?

Want to caution against buying into names. We only have to go back a single year to remember the things said all over this place at the time. It is morphing into that more with every signing. 

I do like to think that Morgan knows a lot more about what a dawg in the NFL is than Fitterer. And I think with some of the departures that was uppermost in his mind.

The moves that we really don’t see a clear reason for, I am leaning towards that being a larger factor. 

But I have no strong feeling really, yet.  I think the procedure of vet acquisition they are following is pretty much similar with the coaches getting players they want. We had a good bit of that last year. 

I don’t know if I much like the plan at center.

Here is the part that people don’t want to hear. We are not starting a rookie QB anymore, the 'best chance to win’ standard should be back in play. I want QB competition, so that when they take the field they know they are going out there without one hand tied behind their backs. Which is what last year was. 

[csx]

I can only hope we bring in players that have some drive and leadership.

Way too early to tell but at least there seems to be a noticeable blueprint 

[ECHornet]

I like the building up of the trenches. 

I like the idea of giving Dionte a tryout as #1WR.

I like that we allowed Evero to get his guys for his defense.

I like that we didn’t just reward guys with long term contracts that weren’t helping us win football games.

 

[NAS]

Fitterer didn’t seem to ever have a strategy, just bargain shopped and would publicly convince himself that they are going to be amazing

[rayzor]

One thing is crystal clear.

Morgan is not Fitt.

There was a lot of concern that Morgan was tainted by Fitt and was basically the same ...guilt by friendship and employment.

Turns out that's just horse poo.

[MHS831]

This may mean nothing and it could even be a detriment, but Morgan brings a perspective we have not had before--from a former player.

Gettlemen was the closest thing we had to a player--he was a very successful high school football coach.

Marty Hurney was a sports reporter for a now defunct Washington newspaper--and was hired as a PR guy.

Scott Fitterer was a baseball player.

The difference?  The interviews--maybe this is what Morgan said when he talked about Dawgs.  The mindset of the player.  Of all the measurables, speed, strength, etc.  He was saying that he values heart and intelligence above all else. 

He has also been true to his word so far.  I am not seeing a lot of can kicking---he is going to find good players.  I always wondered if extensions and overpaying players was a result of an inept or even lazy GM.  Remember that CB we signed to start opposite Horn?  He was a 7th rounder that Morgan found and promoted.

Finally, I think Hurney was good at the first round because that is where the chances for success are high and he drafted pretty safely--but the great teams are built on days 2 and 3.  Morgan seems to have an eye for the talent there.

Before you say this is nonsense, that there have been a lot of good GMs who never played, just consider what it takes to be an elite MLB in the NFL.  You have to know your defense and you better know the offense.  Remember when Luke was calling out plays before the snap?  You have to know both sides of the ball, and Morgan had success.  He knows dawgs.  I am not crowning him, but I am saying this start seems different.  We need different.

 

[ForJimmy]

The GM’s job is to build a good roster. All things considered it’s starting to look better than expected on paper so far. If the product on the field can’t match the expectations of a good roster (if ours becomes one), that falls on the coaching staff to a degree vs the GM. Morgan still has a lot to do, but the roster is further along than I thought it would be at this point in the season. 

We still need another starting OLB like Young or Clowney before going into the draft IMO. If we can land Mike Williams AND one of these guys we can pretty much draft  BPA.

[WhoKnows]

1 hour ago, rayzor said:

One thing is crystal clear.

Morgan is not Fitt.

There was a lot of concern that Morgan was tainted by Fitt and was basically the same ...guilt by friendship and employment.

Turns out that's just horse poo.

After the first draft, people were lauding Fitterer. I’m waiting a bit to laud Morgan for getting bent over on the Burns trade value after taking so long that we looked desperate to take any offer.

I’m slowing my roll until the draft. Two guards and Diontae aren’t making us contenders. The draft (the next 2-3) is the only way we get back to the playoffs.

[rayzor]

12 minutes ago, WhoKnows said:

After the first draft, people were lauding Fitterer. I’m waiting a bit to laud Morgan for getting bent over on the Burns trade value after taking so long that we looked desperate to take any offer.

I’m slowing my roll until the draft. Two guards and Diontae aren’t making us contenders. The draft (the next 2-3) is the only way we get back to the playoffs.

I'll admit to being happy with Rhule initially and then Fitt. I'll admit to being wrong about them.

The thing, though, that Fitt did incredibly well was make draft day trades that first year. That was fun to watch. He just didn't have the right set of goggles to choose the best players. At the time analytics was all the rage so we jumped in. I jumped in. It was just a phase and I think we've all just realized that there's nothing like trusting the eyes of people who truly know the game.

[WhoKnows]

1 hour ago, MHS831 said:

This may mean nothing and it could even be a detriment, but Morgan brings a perspective we have not had before--from a former player.

Gettlemen was the closest thing we had to a player--he was a very successful high school football coach.

Marty Hurney was a sports reporter for a now defunct Washington newspaper--and was hired as a PR guy.

Scott Fitterer was a baseball player.

The difference?  The interviews--maybe this is what Morgan said when he talked about Dawgs.  The mindset of the player.  Of all the measurables, speed, strength, etc.  He was saying that he values heart and intelligence above all else. 

He has also been true to his word so far.  I am not seeing a lot of can kicking---he is going to find good players.  I always wondered if extensions and overpaying players was a result of an inept or even lazy GM.  Remember that CB we signed to start opposite Horn?  He was a 7th rounder that Morgan found and promoted.

Finally, I think Hurney was good at the first round because that is where the chances for success are high and he drafted pretty safely--but the great teams are built on days 2 and 3.  Morgan seems to have an eye for the talent there.

Before you say this is nonsense, that there have been a lot of good GMs who never played, just consider what it takes to be an elite MLB in the NFL.  You have to know your defense and you better know the offense.  Remember when Luke was calling out plays before the snap?  You have to know both sides of the ball, and Morgan had success.  He knows dawgs.  I am not crowning him, but I am saying this start seems different.  We need different.

 

Again, I recall you telling us how good Elflein and/or Erving were when Fitterer signed them. There’s a lot more we need to see and I am still hearing the same stuff like Morgan/Fitterer has filled every hole so we can go BPA and talking up guys who aren’t additions like Tyreke Hill or AJ Brown. We had posts in here about why Teddy was going to go for 4000-30.

Also, Morgan was not elite. Luke was elite. John Lynch was elite. Ozzie Newsome was elite. Matt Millen was even a good player who won 4 SBs, which I didn’t know, but only two as a key cog. I’m not saying Morgan will be as bad as Millen but just because you were a good player, it doesn’t mean anything on your eye for talent. So far, I haven’t seen anything from anyone associated with Fitterer’s crew that should be given any benefit of the doubt until we see actual results.

[jfra78]

IDK, I'd rather be happy with the direction and hopeful that we have a competent GM than just being miserable and not seeing the good things happening

[Khyber53]

There's been a lot of activity and we've grabbed quite a few "Who's that guy" players with some decent stats. We've stayed out of the races for the star players and on paper it doesn't look like we've sold the moon to get anyone.

But right now, it's all on paper.

We've been down this road before. Sometimes there's magic, sometimes there's a lot of nothing. My knock on Morgan has been that his scouting team and training have basically been Fitterer's. And that doesn't give me any confidence in him.

I want him to prove me wrong on this. I really want him to prove me wrong. I'll happily eat roasted crow in exchange for a winning team with grit and determination.

[WhoKnows]

2 minutes ago, rayzor said:

I'll admit to being happy with Rhule initially and then Fitt. I'll admit to being wrong about them.

The thing, though, that Fitt did incredibly well was make draft day trades that first year. That was fun to watch. He just didn't have the right set of goggles to choose the best players. At the time analytics was all the rage so we jumped in. I jumped in. It was just a phase and I think we've all just realized that there's nothing like trusting the eyes of people who truly know the game.

Just like turning down the Rams deal, I don’t recall us fleecing anyone. People were just excited because we were making moves. The results of the moves and the value of the moves were terrible and meh.

I hope Morgan is way the fug better, but I’m still way on the skeptical side because Morgan was here and lauding him for getting rid of bad Fitterer guys isn’t meaningful. Everyone knows the team’s talent in 2023 was poo. Finally getting that isn’t some amazing thing.

Fitterer was so bad it’s comical and Morgan is going to have to blow the doors off to get us there. Sucks for him because we are truly in a bad spot and we may or probably will find after this year that our QB problem is still not solved. If the 2025 QB class is like the 2022 class, it may be in 2026 before we even have a chance at being a decent team and we still have to nail the 2024/2025 drafts. We were a hair away from the first 0-17 team. It really does suck for Morgan because he really does need to be almost perfect or we won’t be competing for 5 more years.