When Poles came in, the defense was aging and Roquan wanted out. The offensive line was a mess, and there wasn’t much to work with aside Mooney and Fields.
Here are some of his picks from 2022 that filled needs: Kyler Gordon, Brisker (both 2nd rounders), Braxton Jones (5th rounder), and Elijah Hicks (7th rounder)
None of these guys are stars, but they’re really good players considering where we got them. Im really happy with the Braxton Jones pick he plays solid when he’s in.
As for 2023: Darnell Wright (first rounder), Gervon Dexter (2nd rounder), Tyrique Stevenson (2nd rounder), Roschon (4th rounder), Terell Smith (5th rounder).
This is only to name a few. Wright has been great so far. Dexter had an amazing game on Monday and is benefiting from the Sweat trade. Stevenson broke out the Detroit game with a pick and a good special teams play. Roschon while not perfect showed capability as a blocker on Monday. Terell Smith did good for a 5th round corner on Monday.
Poles def has the team going in the right direction. He turned it around quicker than I expected the team to get turned around. He has made mistakes but so far both of his drafts look really good. If even argue both of his drafts are better than any draft Ryan Pace had in his 6 years.
Let me know your thoughts!
I mean, the dude had a supremely talented but raw QB in his second year and, rather than even try to build an offense for him and develop him, gave him a historically bad offense and figured it would work for some reason.
He gets credit for tanking for the first overall pick as if he didn’t fall ass backwards into that. The Chase Claypool trade isn’t loathed because the player ended up sucking, it happens. It sucked because it showed just how delusional Poles was with this roster that he thought the team would be better off trading their second round pick for a castaway wide receiver in the last year and a half of his contract. If a GM actually knows he’s getting the first overall pick, that move makes zero sense.
So despite being handed one this phenomenonally exciting QB prospect, he completely mishandled his development, wasted his critical development years, and now we’re supposed to laud him for a rebuild that only cost us the most exciting QB prospect of our lives.