Gil Brandt on Matt Johnson

[SDogo]

So basically if I understand Plankton we are going to burn the guy at the stake for the same thing that has claimed many of the greats such as our own Tom Landry. Age and progress and the effect age has on keeping up with the demands.

Got ya.

Being a PSU fan and JoePa supporter I find something that was said about Joe late in his career that could apply to Gil and his evaluation in this case. It was said on a week to week hustle Joe struggled to keep up with the game but if you gave him time to prepare at his pace such as before a bowl game he could still coach them up with the best of them. I could only assume with out the demands of scouting 350+ prospects and only being asked to recall as needed Gil could evaluate the best of them under the table. Just as I'm sure he was asked to do in this situation.

[jobberone]

Originally Posted by Sitting Bull

Anyone questioning Gil Brandt as a top authority on draft prospects should listen to his radio show on satellite. They take tons of calls from listeners and gets put on the spot with no real prep time. He's very plugged-in, but its most amazing to hear him rattle off detailed, personal backstory about no-name college prospects from all over the country. He's a national treasure of the NFL and its fans.

This.

[Rockytop6]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

Gil Brandt is Cowboys royalty and should be treated as such - show a little respect for our tradition. He is the last living of the 3 that built this franchise and should be revered from what he accomplished.

He is basicallly the guy who invented modern day scouting.

It is reported that he was the first to use computers in evaluating talent for the draft.

[shaketiller]

A quick note in defense of Gil Brandt, who really requires no defense: While it's true that poor drafting played a role in the eventual decline of the Landry-era Cowboys, it really is an oversimplification to imply that Brandt "lost it."

Consider that from 1978-1988 the Cowboys with Brandt leading the scouting department chose a total of 21 players who appeared in at least 100 NFL games. Over those 11 drafts Brandt and the Cowboys found nearly two players per year who would enjoy NFL careers of more than six years in length based on a 16-game season. In all but one of those drafts (1982) the Cowboys found at least one such player.

One major contributor to the team's apparent lack of draft success: Some of the better players chosen had strong careers in other uniforms. Todd Christensen, Mike Wilson, Mike Walter are three examples. Brandt identified them as good NFL prospects. The coaching staff or circumstances dictated that they enjoyed their careers elsewhere.

It's also true that the Cowboys had a remarkable run of truly poor luck. Anyone who saw Mike Sherrard and Robert Shaw play could see that those guys were destined to be Pro Bowl caliber stars. Shaw might have been the best center Dallas ever drafted. Sherrard was as good a deep threat as any Cowboys player this side of Bullet Bob. Injuries cut short their careers. Beyond those two Billy Cannon Jr. gave all the appearances of being an upper-level NFL linebacker but also saw his career ended -- like Shaw's, in its infancy.

Cowboys draft choices in those 11 years played in a collective 21 Pro Bowls, but Christensen recorded five of those with the Raiders. The Cowboys identified him as a great TE, but he refused the move from fullback, which prompted a trade. I wouldn't lay that one off on Schramm.

It's also notable that Jim Jeffcoat was never voted to a Pro Bowl, though he was one of the most consistent pass rushers the Cowboys ever had. He was also a gifted playmaker.

Finally, after a period of time in which the Cowboys truly did stumble in the war room, Brandt appeared to find his legs once more. From 1985 through 1988, the Cowboys chose Herschel Walker, Kelvin Martin, Kevin Gogan, Michael Irvin, Ken Norton and Chad Hennings, all key contributors to the great Super Bowl run -- Walker in an ironic fashion.

The Cowboys also chose Sherrard in 1986. While I have mused many times on how great his career might have been had injuries not intervened, it might be that Dallas wouldn't have spent a first round pick on Irvin in 1988 had Sherrard not become a question mark. We'll never know. I do think a healthy Sherrard paired with Irvin would have been recalled as one of the greatest WR pairings of all-time.

Don't get me wrong. The Cowboys made some awful missteps in the war room from 1978-1988, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest Brandt could still identify top-quality NFL talent. They missed at the quarterback position, in part because Danny White didn't manage to climb the mountain at least once and get to a Super Bowl, which given that he followed Staubach might have caused the coaches to abandon him more quickly than they otherwise would have. In any case, White's failure to win the big one seemed to take some life from him in the latter stages of his career, and the Cowboys hadn't prepared an adequate successor.

It's also true that Staubach retired while still at the top of his game as a result of concussions.

During reasonably significant parts of the 11-year period being discussed, the Cowboys felt little need to draft a QB. Their choices at the position were limited to Hogeboom, a 5th round pick in 1980; Reggie Collier, a 6th round choice in 1983; Steve Pelluer, a 5th round pick in 1984; Stan Gelbaugh, a 6th round choice in 1986; Kevin Sweeney, a 7th round pick in 1987; and Scott Secules, a 6th round pick in 1988. I doubt seriously that Brandt overrode the wishes of Landry and Schramm to choose not to invest better than a 5th round pick in the QB position during a period of 11 years.

Brandt has claimed that Joe Montana was the top player on the Cowboys' board at one point in the 1979 draft but was passed when available because Staubach appeared destined to play a few more years and White was the QB in waiting. I have no idea whether that is true, but it makes sense. Yes, it can be construed as self-serving of Brandt to point it out, but it would have been an understandable decision by the braintrust to look to another position given the existing depth chart.

Again, it's fair to criticize Brandt's track record in the 11-year period mentioned, but it's hardly fair to imply that he had lost his ability to identify NFL talent. Luck, good and bad, always plays a role in determining our fate. Yes the Cowboys gambled too often on draft day and began to throw snake eyes rather than 7s and 11s. But there is room for perspective.

Brandt deserves enough respect to offer it.

[Eskimo]

Interesting points you just made about Brandt's later years with the Cowboys.

About Joe Montana and our 3rd round pick that year, Tex Schramm admitted that Montana was our top ranked player at that point in the draft but they needed a TE more so chose Doug Cosbie instead.

About Michael Irvin, he was our #1 player on the board that year so I think we still would have chosen him that year even if Sherrard had not been injured.

You also need to remember that we had also tried to draft Jerry Rice in 1985 only to have the 49ers trade up ahead of us and grab him.

I think Brandt knows how to spot talent and he is truly a legend in the scouting world.

[a_minimalist]

I just wanted to say that this has been, by far, the coolest and best thread I've read while being a member to this forum so far. It's only been a month and I'm only 27 but just reading what all of you have written has been beyond educational, so thank you.

The only thing I can really say from gathering what's been discussed in this thread is that in any job people tend to remember what somebody did last rather than take a step back and examine their body of work. IMO everyone should be judged on their body of work, not how they started and not how they finished.

Now I'm going to have to do some resJearch on Gil Brandt.

[xwalker]

The decline of the Cowboys in the late 80s was primarily due to the following:

In 1984, H.R. "Bum" Bright purchased the Dallas Cowboys from Clint Murchison, Jr.


Bright had financial problems that affected the team, including the scouting department.

[EGG]

Originally Posted by Plankton

You're absolutely right - it wasn't talent that led them to be 1-7 in the second half of 1986, 5-7 in non-scab games in 1987, and 3-13 in 1988. One draft in 11 years does not make up for the utter ineptitude shown by Brandt and company in the draft once the event moved from January to April.

Keep one other thing in mind - not one NFL team looked to hire him once he was fired by Dallas. What does that tell you?

That's okay, he gets plenty of respect from peers and people who know better,,,

[BAT]

Originally Posted by xwalker

The decline of the Cowboys in the late 80s was primarily due to the following:

In 1984, H.R. "Bum" Bright purchased the Dallas Cowboys from Clint Murchison, Jr.


Bright had financial problems that affected the team, including the scouting department.

Amen. Plus Landry and Schramm did not always agree with Brandt's scouting team.

And teams finally learned how to neutralize Landry's Flex Defense. His players knew it, Schramm knew it, but Landry would not admit to it. Unlike Buddy Ryan's 46, the Flex was effective for almost 20 years.

[mortboy]

I am blown away when I listen to Brandt on Sirius. He has to be somewhere in his 80's and has a remarkable memory. Not just with today's player, but 30 years ago he can remember a 10th round pick's mom and dad's names as well as the high school that kid went to. The memory he has is insane for a guy his age.

[trueblue1687]

Gil is getting old for sure, but he still knows football. I guess what I didn't understand was the purpose of the indictment on him from Plankton. If you don't like the guy's picks in the past, I'm ok with that....but if you're gonna lump him in with Kiper and Mayock (not specifically mentioned, but left me wondering if they were some of the 'others' he mentioned as being better) who have essentially no chops, or some of the former scouts floating around on the web (for a reason most likely), then the argument loses some steam. Drafting players isn't a science...it's a gamble, no matter how long you sit in front of a TV...or in Gil's case back in his day: a projector screen. I thought the guy did pretty well overall.

[visionary]

Originally Posted by bleedin' blue

I know people don't seem too happy with the pick but
Gil Brandt was all over it yesterday saying that if he had played
last year that he would have likely been a very high draft pick....
Said he kind of fell of the radar because of an injury at the end
of the prior season...encouraging,just thought I'd share

good enough for me
lets wait and see