Originally posted by English:
Originally posted by SanDiego49er:Yes it is on Baalke. We could have had JJ Watt. The best defensive player in the league. Instead we got a gangster and a drunk who got himself kicked out of the league in a few short years. Character matters. Off the field behavior matters. If it gets you kicked right out of the league how are you helping your team? If you spend all your time getting arrested and in drug rehab how are you helping your team? That's terrible for a GM to overlook so many character flaws of a player drafter so high. He killed his team with that pick. We should have a great and productive player from that pick still. Instead we got absolutely nothing.
The character flaws were not apparent at the time of drafting. The responsibility lies with Smith.
It's the GM's job to dig deeper. Evaluate the character. Talk to the players friends, coaches, and talk to people in the neighborhood he grew up in. Behavior like that doesn't come out of nowhere one day suddenly. It would be there if you dig deep enough.
A total failure of scouting and background check. It says really bad things about Baalke to make a top 10 pick like that.
