Should Ruskell be Shown the Door?

[Cicero]

This is going to be an extremely critical offseason for this team. Walter Jones will be officially done, although he's been unofficially done for awhile. Hass will only have one year left on his contract. Our running game absolutely has to get fixed. Is Ruskell the guy we can trust to do this?

I'm at the point now where I say no. His philosophy as a GM appears to be keep the team competitive and take as few risks as possible. Do I think if Ruskell is our GM he's going to have the balls to trade up for a QB? No way. He drafts the low risk players. QB is my number one priority for this team and I really doubt that he's going to address that. His first round picks are all guys who were perceived as "safe."

The rest of his drafting has been nothing to write home about either. How many solid starters has he brought in? Hill, Tatupu, Curry, Unger, and Carlson. 5 impact players in 5 years and look at their positions. LB, interior OL, and TE. When it comes to positional value those are towards the bottom of the list. Tapp and Jackson have been alright but they don't really qualify as impact players. I'm not even sure if Unger belongs up there because unless you're great it's hard to make a lot of impact as an interior offensive lineman. Sims and Spencer, although starters, suck.

The sad thing I realized today was that I have no hope in this team. We're not a playoff caliber team, and with the way Ruskell runs this team we're not going to be one again anytime soon. Gives us a new GM who has a pair, get us a new QB, and give the fans a reason to have hope again.

[summond822]

This is going to be an extremely critical offseason for this team. Walter Jones will be officially done, although he's been unofficially done for awhile. Hass will only have one year left on his contract. Our running game absolutely has to get fixed. Is Ruskell the guy we can trust to do this?

I'm at the point now where I say no. His philosophy as a GM appears to be keep the team competitive and take as few risks as possible. Do I think if Ruskell is our GM he's going to have the balls to trade up for a QB? No way. He drafts the low risk players. QB is my number one priority for this team and I really doubt that he's going to address that. His first round picks are all guys who were perceived as "safe."

The rest of his drafting has been nothing to write home about either. How many solid starters has he brought in? Hill, Tatupu, Curry, Unger, and Carlson. 5 impact players in 5 years and look at their positions. LB, interior OL, and TE. When it comes to positional value those are towards the bottom of the list. Tapp and Jackson have been alright but they don't really qualify as impact players. I'm not even sure if Unger belongs up there because unless you're great it's hard to make a lot of impact as an interior offensive lineman. Sims and Spencer, although starters, suck.

The sad thing I realized today was that I have no hope in this team. We're not a playoff caliber team, and with the way Ruskell runs this team we're not going to be one again anytime soon. Gives us a new GM who has a pair, get us a new QB, and give the fans a reason to have hope again.

Your exactly right. He should be fired, even though I don't think he will be. He did what he was brought in here to do, get a good team over the top and he got us to the super bowl with some key FA acquisitions. However, he doesn't know how to build a team from the ground up. He keeps attempting to patch our holes with low round picks and old free agents.

Right now we're in a stage where we don't just need to patch the holes in this team, we need to get complete replacements. Hasselbeck is likely done after next season, assuming he makes it that far. Walter Jones says he wants to come back, but is he really going to want to go through another year with his health? I love Walter, but I want him to be able to lead a decent life (health wise) after he gets done playing. Forcing himself to play a last year, unless we're making a deep playoff push is going to not be worth it.

As we've seen in the past, Ruskell doesn't know how to evaluate offensive players. He got lucky with Carlson being as good as he is. No one thought that he would be this good coming out of Notre Dame. I mean how many starters have we gotten through the draft on offense (not counting the guys who are being forced to start because of injuries)? Spencer, Sims, Carlson, Unger (and I can't remember anyone else)? That is not a good sign. Ruskell needs to go if this offense ever wants to be successful.

I don't really blame the lack of offense this year on Mora, Knapp, or Hasselbeck. I blame this on Ruskell being incapable of identifying and drafting offensive players.

[Babylon]

Deliver Locker and then we'll go from there.