Hoofbite;5082328 said:
Belichick has taken on players Dallas wouldn't in the last few years.
RKG for Belichick is someone who will get with the program first and foremost. He'll take on a guy like Haynesworth or even Ocho at lost cost because he has nothing to lose if they fail and everything to gain if they succeed. He is the authority on that team and what he says goes. Wouldn't surprise me if they overlook character flaws so long as a player will fall in-step.
RKG for Garrett seems to be a guy that Garrett knows he won't have to worry about. Likely because any sort of turmoil will be mediated by Uncle Jerry. Garrett doesn't have the skins on the wall or the ultimate authority to make the threat of reprimand stick.
To me they are only similar in name.
RKG for Bill is a guy who doesn't cause trouble because that player knows not to cross the guy.
RKG for Jason is a guy he knows won't cause trouble because trouble gets sent to Jerry and will likely undermine Jason's position.
Down the road (provided Jason is successful) Jason could probably be in a position where guys know not to cross him. If he turns the team around and gets the clout to be able to flex his muscle on people, I could see him going for higher character risk guys right now. Until then, he's likely not really wanting to deal with it because it has the potential to allow Jerry to get too involved.
I think you're wrong about what RKG is to Garrett. It is not simply a player who is not going to cause him any trouble. I think it is a far more nuanced notion of a player who is
1. intelligent
2. works hard off the field physically in training
3. works hard cognitively with the coaches and in film study
4. has a good team first attitude
5. plays with hustle to and a bit through the whistle
6. plays physically
7. plays with confidence
8. has a high football IQ with good instincts
I do think the changes he instituted has started to turn this team around. I think this team was in gradual decline from its peak in 2007 to its trough in the middle of the 2010 season with a 1-7 record. He inherited a team where most of its best players were already past their peaks so people over-estimated the talent he had (Bigg, Gurode, Barber, RW11, Colombo, TNew, Rat) and the young players on the roster were just not developing into quality starters worth keeping (Felix, Mike Jenkins, MartyB, Free). So you combine a bunch of vets declining and a 4 consecutive poor drafts from 2006-9 and you have a veteran laden team that is declining and without any youth waiting in the wings to pick things up.
Right now the only guys who were starters when Wade was here and are projected as starters next year are:
Romo
Witten
Miles Austin
Demarcus Ware
Anythony Spencer
Jay Ratliff
That's it - 2.5 years later and only 6 starters are left on the team and 3 more may be gone next season possibly leaving only Romo, Witten and Ware. Jerry doesn't like to talk about rebuilding but that kind of roster change is rebuilding basically. But Garrett managed to rebuild while having to deal with multiple bad contracts handed out by his incompetent GM and GM's son, lots of dead cap space, only one top 10 choice which was a #9 pick (we had to trade up and give up a second rounder for Mo), no extra draft picks that were generated by selling off players from the old regime and 4 poor drafts leaving very little ascending core players to develop (this is where Jim Harbaugh's situation was different - the 49ers were drafting well for years before he got there so there was a ton of young and ascending talent already there). I think it is very impressive what he managed to do with so little in the way of resources to get the job done and while being forced to always focus on the short-term with Jerry wanting to go to the SB every year despite how unrealistic that may be.
I think Garrett has done a good job turning the roster around. I think only the injuries on the defense and Center, generally very poor season from guys along the OL and Romo throwing too many interceptions last year kept us out of the playoffs. Right now I do expect us to be a much improved team and the moves made over the last 2.5 years under Garrett are about to pay dividends.
