For those who follow me on Twitter, you might have caught the conversation. For those who didn't, you really missed out. We had a discussion last night about the role of Shack Harris, Gene Smith, and Jack Del Rio in past drafts. The conversation began with a tweet by me on the failed logic some are using to absolve Jack Del Rio. It was presented that if you want to hold Del Rio accountable for the personnel mistakes of 2003-2008, you must hold the personnel department accountable for the coaching. That's a big mess of fail. Del Rio helped with personnel, personnel didn't help with coaching. Not a fair comparison or analogy.
Anyway, former Jaguars beat writer Mike Wright saw the conversation and joined in. He shed some light to a lot of Jaguars fans of how things went down. It's part of why I've always said, while not a good personnel guy, 100% of the blame on him isn't necessarily fair or correct.
I'll try to paste these in their original format as best I can, from Twitter. I'll add reference notes in paranthesis.
(Mike Wright) Or won't defend himself. RT @AlfieBCC: Here's the rub: It's easy to pile 100% fault on a guy (Shack) who can't defend himself
(MW) You're not. Have heard story from both sides. RT @AlfieBCC: @mikecwright People act like I'm crazy on this Shack thing man. Kills me.
(MW on bad picks) @PhilSenichBTFM Well, if JDR would've had his way a bunch of times, could've been much worse. Trust me. And u know JDR is my boy.
(MW) @gooner_ @AlfieBCC Well, JDR is only one who wanted him gone (Byron Leftwich). Even Koetter preferred Byron. Crazy thing is JDR was gonna let DG go earlier. and it was Shack who convinced JDR to keep DG (as a back up in 2004 when DG would have hit FA).
(MW) Not really true. He wanted Kolb. RT @FeelTheTeal: @mikecwright I remember JDR wanting Brady Quinn.
(MW on if Shack had total control) @BjornTouraque Not exactly total, but close. If he & JDR couldn't agree, Weaver made final call. So they tried hard 2 come 2 consensus.
(MW on where Gene Smith stood on the picks) @BjornTouraque Believe it or not, often on Shack's side. Gene was the college scouting expert. Pro scouting was Shack's bag. Shack had a lot of trust in Gene's opinion.
(MW on who picked who) @gooner_ Williams and Nelson on Shack. JDR wanted Jones. JDR and Shack both played role in those FA additions.
(MW on JDR wanting Quinn) @SamBorden Was a smokescreen JDR later admitted to me.
(MW) All three "Consensus picks" as Shack would say. @iktriad By the way who made the case for Marcedes and MJD? Shack; Jack or Gene?
Take it as you will. This is a lot of stuff I've known for a while, and if you pay attention I try to hint at a lot. Mike was in a talkative mood about the Jaguars last night however, so he dropped some knowledge for us twitter folk.