Safety Kurt Coleman
"Bené is a close friend of mine, so it's tough. But I always say — especially when I was the guy getting cut — you can't take things personally. This is hopefully a great opportunity for him to go get picked up from another team and blossom because I know he has so much talent."
Cornerback Robert McClain
"Going into my seventh season, I've seen it a lot. It's happened to me. It's tough. You come into training camp with 90-some people and you cut it down to a 53-man roster. So you make good friends on the way to that 53-man roster, but it's tough because you have close relationships with these guys and it's a tough business."
Cornerback Teddy Williams
"I've seen a lot of this stuff and I've been a part of this stuff in my six years. You really never get used to it because it's a production-based business. You just have to come in and put your best foot forward every day. We lost a brother today and we love Bené. But at the end of the day, it's a business and that's how it happens. You never know. You always have to be ready and prepare yourself even if you're a starter."
Linebacker Thomas Davis
"I don't think they made a move like that just based on one game. I think it was a decision they made that they felt would be best for the team moving forward. For Bené and his family, I hope he catches on somewhere quick. If not with another team, hopefully at some point he'd be able to sign back here if that's possible."
Head Coach Ron Rivera
"We decided to move on. We've got a group of young guys that we're looking to play and get them out on the football field. It's no different than a few years back when we had a couple of young guys we wanted to get up and that's what we've decided to do."
There are obviously a lot of aspects of the GM job, and one has to presume that DG is good at most of them given that’s he’s still employed. However, I am finding it harder and harder to conclude that he’s good at drafting when things like this happen – at least insofar as CBs are concerned. Not only did it look like he was throwing a wet sock against the wall to see what sticks during the 2016 draft for CBs, it now looks like that trend is continuing with the active roster. I get that Bene was out of position (a lot), and maybe the coaching staff just could not get him to get it, but it seems that part of the evaluation process for young players is nailing down whether they can get the system you are going to use them in, and not just evaluating their individual physical talents.
There’s no doubt that DG is a better balancer of the books than Hurney, and there’s a great case to be made about DG’s ability to scout undrafted and veteran players, but I’m now just about ready to give the conclusive edge to Hurney where the draft is concerned.
Hurney built the team that went to SB50 (in no particular order of precedence): Newton, Kuechly, Norman, TD, Stewart, Kalil, CJ. Throw in DeAngleo Williams, Julius Peppers, Jon Beason, DeShaun Foster, Jeff Otah, Jordan Gross, Greg Hardy (personal issues notwithstanding), Gary Barnidge, Chris Gamble, and the Captain to boot,
and they far outweigh the Jimmy Clausen- and Armanti Edwards-type selections IMO. To be fair, some of these picks had the advantage of being top-10 to top-15, but a lot were comparable to what DG’s worked with, and although the timeframes involved are not apples-to-apples, it just seems to me that Hurney was a better evaluator of entry-level (draft) talent so far.
By comparison, the only notable picks that have flashed thus far for DG have been Turner, KG, and KK (the latter two for just one season apiece, so it’s not like they’re solidified legends yet). Star hasn’t put up staggeringly great
numbers; AJ is solid depth, so I’ll give him a + there. Ealy is starting to look like a perennial underperformer, as is Boston. The jury’s still out on the 2015 choices, though Shaq looks like he has all the goods, but Williams and CAP do not seem to have the coaching staff’s confidence if week-to-week roster statuses are any tell. He’s not
bad at drafting, per se, but he definitely seems to not be so good at evaluating talent at the CB and RB positions at any rate.
Either way, this team is just a mess right now.
Nailed it my man, no one ever talks about the team DG fell into. Only missing piece was DT and it was so obvious. He took two in his first draft in short and star. Hurney would of no doubt invested in a DT early in that draft as well.
This is the second time he has dismantled a winning team bc of his hard headedness and ego. He dismantled the 2013 team that was 12-4 by releasing smitty and gutting the entire wr and cb units. We ended up 7-8-1 but he got lucky and made the playoffs so everyone kinda overlooked that screw up. Next year, we go 15-1 go to the super bowl and he’s at it again.
My favorite quote of his: “what keeps me up at night is if I’m not providing Rivera with the players needed to win”
I wonder how well he’s sleeping knowing our corners going into Monday night at McClain, Sanchez, Worley, and teddy Williams. Haha what a joke.
Kelvin Benjamin and Funchess look like solid picks, Philly brown seems to me like an Ok to Solid udfa pickup, other than Kalil, who on last years #1 offense was hurneys guy I Know olsen was a trade so that wouldn’t count. Everything looks good when you’re winning but all of a sudden we want to compare nearly 10 years worth of collected draftes to 3 ?? Pump the breaks is all I ask.
Definitely doesn’t seem like it was Riveras idea. He does not seem happy about it and definitely does not seem to want to talk about it.