ex-GM Michael Lombardi on Gettleman situation

[Chaos]

I haven't weighed in on this whole Gettleman-Hurney deal, but I do remember like it was yesterday that Richardson fired Hurney following a disappointing home loss to the cowboys in mid-season, basically acknowledging that he had fugged our cap and personnel situation. I can't totally buy that JR has this man crush on Marty, there's way more to it.

[Proudiddy]

1 hour ago, Saca312 said:

"Gettleman sucks because he wasn't GM when we drafted Cam and Luke so obviously Hurney's the one for the reason we're so successful lol hur-dur."

Do people not even realize how stupid this argument is? That has nothing to do with what Gettleman can or can't do. He decided to build our roster around these two talents, and worked slowly to do so with a horrible cap situation. 

For Luke, he worked by getting him a ferocious set of DTs and front four to help him. For Cam, he worked by giving him one of the league's best interiors and working within the cap restraints to get him some quality tackles and half servicable receivers.

No GM in their right mind would come in and not try and build around a core that's already in place. But that core wouldn't work without the right players around them.

But I guess it's Gettleman's fault he didn't come in a situation where he had to literally rebuild an entire team with no core, right? And it's his fault he didn't find superstars at every position with a terrible cap, right?

Some of you guys amaze me with your stupidity.

And some of you Gettleman-worshipers amaze me with your stupidity as well.  I am also equally amazed at your heightened sensitivity to anyone or anything that seems to slight your savior.

You falsely distill the argument down to a level of stupidity that there is no sense in countering it.  No one said it should be held against Gettleman that a core was already in place.  The point is, the core was already in place, so his job was easier as a result.  Yet, he still could NOT win in consecutive seasons and all of his worshipers struggle to acknowledge his shortcomings directly resulted in losing - EVEN WITH CAP SPACE.  Hurney made two once-in-a-lifetime picks, yet all we get from Gettlemanites is, "hur dur, satan hurney sucked and put us in cap hell."  The bigger picture behind the whole argument is, you can't have it both ways.  If Hurney sucked for cap mismanagement, then he also was a boss for having the balls to draft Cam and Luke, and trade for Olsen.  If Gettleman was upheld as a boss for waving around the big D in negotiations and sticking it to the players for the betterment of the cap while occasionally hitting on budget bargains, then he needs to be just as reviled for his lack of people skills and ego-fueled stubbornness that resulted in the destruction of multiple legacies and player-organization relationships (which also happened to result in losing seasons).

You can't have it both ways, and for you to deduce it down to "well don't blame Lord Gettleman for walking into a good talent-laden situation xdxdxdxd" while rebuking Hurney for destroying our roster for the sake of trying to build a strawman to deflect from Master Gettleman's shortcomings is laughable.

Truth is, a lot of y'all are just salty.  Just like true fans of the team had to grin and bear it when he publicly humiliated our all-time greatest player (at the time), or when he did the same to our homegrown, fan favorite, best-on-the-market CB, now you all are getting a taste of your own medicine.  Your hero is no more.  Sucks, doesn't it?

But, I'll leave you all to your mourning parties to help you finish grieving the loss of an overrated, egotistical, self-absorbed, braggadocious, false savior of a GM.  

But, man, I couldn't wait to see him take us to another winning season that falls short of a championship due to positions he neglected for years while our gamechanging QB gets the living poo beat out of him, and his pussy-hearted staff and players do NOTHING in said QB's defense...  then we follow that "success" up with drafting a luxury player, or maybe letting the best player at his position on the market walk for nothing because you waited a year too long to sign him to an extension and got your feelings hurt...  then instead of a luxury player, we can draft 3 players of the same position, because fug the rest of the roster, amirite?  That's an efficient use of resources if I've ever saw one, because Lord Gettleman never makes mistakes.  And all of that will come together beautifully with a sweet sub-.500 season, then another winning season, then another losing one, and so on and so forth, and it will never be his fault because Lucifer Hurney set him up to fail and cap space stuff infinity...

Lol.

If people can't get over it and their hate for Hurney, then it probably would be better if most of these crybabies mourning Gettleman's firing just find another team to pull for.  To quote the "reasonable" people after the Smitty and Norman debacles, " the main board is losing their minds.  I wish we could have non-emotional, rational football discussion."  But, hero worship and all...  enjoy.

[pantherphan96]

41 minutes ago, SmartyHurney said:

That's sort of bullshit considering Gettleman decimated the Panthers wide receiver corps, and defensive back field twice. And has left question marks on the offensive line ever year he was with the Panthers. He also at one point destroyed the punt return/kick return specialists and had players like Brenton Berson attempting to field punts and failing. And god only knows what the tight end group would look like without Olsen, absolute garbage depth there as well.

He was good at stacking the defensive line interior, and linebackers. Where else has he created depth? The only other place I can think would be the runningbacks, but really he's just maintained depth. 

Dave also traded away too many draft picks to develop depth. The Panthers have had to least amount of drafted players since he's taken over. Yeah, he signed lots of guys in free agency, most who weren't on the team the next season, but he had too because of having the fewest draft picks in the league, and deciding to destroy a position group of his choosing after every winning season.

Decimated is a bit much. We lost a solid #1 in Smith and a mediocre #3 option in Lafell and replaced them with a 1st round pick and some veteran players. As for the CBs, it was already pretty thin behind Norman, with Tillman coming off a torn ACL and retiring, and starting guys like Cortland Finnegan and Robert McClain. Not like GMan cut multiple starters for sh!ts and giggles. These were positions that needed to be addressed regardless and would have been a liability even if roster moves were not made.

[Basbear]

Say you give equal resources to both herniay and Gettleman. 10 years to build an NFL team, how would it turn out? IMO Players 1-8, slight advantage herniay. Players 9-22, advantage Gettleman. Players 23- 53 in a LANDSLIDE gettleman. Practice squad, another landslide for gettleman.

 

 

[heel31ok]

2 hours ago, countryboi said:

Gettleman is that guy at your job that's amazing at his job but is a fuging dick to deal with. Hurney is that guy the boss loves, the business partners love him but he is kinda poo at his job. Gettleman is always the guy that gets fired.


Sent from my iPhone using CarolinaHuddle

Lol...he is the guy that ticks everyone off and has no standing when success stalls...he did this to himself...live by the sword..he got what he gave...it's just business...this is life in the NFL...

[SmartyHurney]

7 minutes ago, pantherphan96 said:

Decimated is a bit much. We lost a solid #1 in Smith and a mediocre #3 option in Lafell and replaced them with a 1st round pick and some veteran players. As for the CBs, it was already pretty thin behind Norman, with Tillman coming off a torn ACL and retiring, and starting guys like Cortland Finnegan and Robert McClain. Not like GMan cut multiple starters for sh!ts and giggles. These were positions that needed to be addressed regardless and would have been a liability even if roster moves were not made.

LaFell I feel like was very underrated by Carolina fans. He had a bad drops, but the he was overall a pretty good #2 WR. He was a hell of a blocker, and his production was good for an offense that focused so much on the run. His production had increased and remained good for the teams he's played on since leaving Carolina. If Panther fans can accept Funchess as a #2 wide receiver then I don't understand how they couldn't accept LaFell.

As for the defensive backs, it wasn't just 2015. In 2014 the position group had a makeover that including signing Cason, DeCoud, Melvin White, Robert Lester. Cason and DeCoud being particularly bad signings, while White and Lester did their best as UDFA.

[pantherphan96]

11 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

The point is, the core was already in place, so his job was easier as a result.  

Define core. Sure the franchise QB was there and a great MLB, but that team doesn't make the playoffs without additions like Star, KK, KB, Turner, Norwell, Ealy, Shaq. Hurney is inheriting a much better core coming into this season than Gettleman did, and without the baggage of being over the cap and with multiple players on massively inflated contracts.

Quote

Yet, he still could NOT win in consecutive seasons and all of his worshipers struggle to acknowledge his shortcomings directly resulted in losing - EVEN WITH CAP SPACE.  

If this is the entirety of your argument it's a pretty poor one. The fact that multiple starters on the OL retired following the 12-4 season in 2013, combined with the lower draft pick in each round as a result of going 12-4, and the fact that the OT draft class was weak as hell are all reasons why the team went under .500 (barely) in 2014. 

If the crux of your argument hinges on a missed FG (Bengals game) and a fumbled read option (Seahawks game), its a flimsy argument.

[pantherphan96]

2 minutes ago, SmartyHurney said:

LaFell I feel like was very underrated by Carolina fans. He had a bad drops, but the he was overall a pretty good #2 WR. He was a hell of a blocker, and his production was good for an offense that focused so much on the run. His production had increased and remained good for the teams he's played on since leaving Carolina. If Panther fans can accept Funchess as a #2 wide receiver then I don't understand how they couldn't accept LaFell.

As for the defensive backs, it wasn't just 2015. In 2014 the position group had a makeover that including signing Cason, DeCoud, Melvin White, Robert Lester. Cason and DeCoud being particularly bad signings, while White and Lester did their best as UDFA.

Cason and DeCoud sucked but CB was already a glaring weakness pre-Gettleman. Cheap stopgaps like White and Lester did admirably for a team that went 12-4.

Lafell had one productive season in a juggernaut offense before having a terrible 2nd season, getting cut, and ending up the 3rd/4th option on the Bengals. Not to mention Lafell was 24 when he was drafted by the Panthers and Funchess just turned 23.

[Fan01]

To me it comes down to how your GM makes the decisions concerning the team. 

Gettlemen was heavy on analytics, tape, probability and math.

Hurney was good at people skills and keeping players happy.

Both seemed to be good at putting together a good team around them of scouts and personal and utilizing them.

Who do you want making decisions?

[The Lobo]

4 hours ago, frash.exe said:

i don't know exactly what a jiggling sack of gold doubloons sounds like, but i bet that's what the players hear when he walks down the hallway.

you nailed it. he's very popular with the players. so much so that they all tweeted about how they were displeased that he was let go and couldn't understand it. while they were 1-5. lol.

Pie for doubloons. You are Michael aren't you?

[uncfan888]

3 hours ago, Proudiddy said:

Meaningful, as in differentiating...  still couldn't win in any consecutive seasons and 0 Superbowl Championships.  And for all his "winning" it was with Hurneys core.  

Like I said, yes, it's subjective and my own opinion, but I doubt Gettleman would've even taken Cam if he had been GM during that draft.  So, again, credit where credit is due.  I'd give Gettleman more credit if he hadn't sabotaged us multiple times by cutting/releasing the best player at a position because his feelings were hurt...  can't so much blame 7-8-1 on any one thing directly, but 6-10 was without a doubt, his fault.

But, I know it's pointless to debate it because many have now made Gettleman some sort of demigod and refuse to acknowledge for all he did right, it could be argued he did just as much wrong.  We will just have to agree to disagree.

 

 

Good lord... 

[Pejorative Miscreant]

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

I haven't weighed in on this whole Gettleman-Hurney deal, but I do remember like it was yesterday that Richardson fired Hurney following a disappointing home loss to the cowboys in mid-season, basically acknowledging that he had fugged our cap and personnel situation. I can't totally buy that JR has this man crush on Marty, there's way more to it.

When someone speaks that has an avatar of Dom Delloise in a wrestling mask I must take him seriously no matter what.  Despite my default reaction I tend to agree wth you.  

[frash.exe]

25 minutes ago, The Lobo said:

Pie for doubloons. You are Michael aren't you?

if you took a bunch of doubloons and stacked them end-to-end towards the moon until you reached its surface, you would have more gold than the entire local group galaxies.

[SmartyHurney]

1 hour ago, pantherphan96 said:

Cason and DeCoud sucked but CB was already a glaring weakness pre-Gettleman. Cheap stopgaps like White and Lester did admirably for a team that went 12-4.

Lafell had one productive season in a juggernaut offense before having a terrible 2nd season, getting cut, and ending up the 3rd/4th option on the Bengals. Not to mention Lafell was 24 when he was drafted by the Panthers and Funchess just turned 23.

CB wasn't a weakness pre-Gettleman. The Panthers had Christ Gamble, and from what I recall Gettleman never offered him contract so he decided to retire.

LaFell was a good to sometimes great number 2 WR. In New England he had a great first year, and was on pace his second year with 515 yards in 11 games, but he was hurt and missed 5 games. On the Bengals he had a spectacular resurgence with a 862 yard season. He's a fan favorite for Bengals fans now, go check out their forums.

Devin Funchess has a total of 844 career yards in two seasons on a team in need of anyone that can catch a ball. His rookie season he had a chance to be the go to target with Kelvin Benjamin out for the season, but barely managed 473 yards.