The crux of the failure was not doing their due diligence on *all* of their options at QB. There are things that Jerry brings to the table that other teams don't that Dak could *lose*, but Jerry made it clear that there was no threat of that happening. Simply as a negotiating tactic, the "No option but Dak" stance left Dak secure that moving on from him wasn't an option, so that his only negotiating stance was "gimme more".
Beyond the negotiating tactic, there were obvious *credible* opportunities like Brady available. Rivers was an option too.
Don't know if Brees was locked into the Saints, but if not, he would have been the best option available. His QB rating was 115+ for the last 2 years, best in his career. He's not slowing down, he's speeding up. Likely a cyborg. Or gene therapy. He's clearly more than human.
As team management, I've been against the franchise QB for a while. I think they're overpriced. The supply of quality QBs has grown with more passing in college, and top pros seeming to last forever. Supply is up for starting QBs, still only demand of 32 spots. Supply up, demand fixed should drive the price down, but instead the price is skyrocketing *up*. It's a bubble. One that may be just about to break. Don't buy into the bubble. Such a huge advantage to play with a QB on the cheap.
- Spend real resources to find young QBs.
- Sign quality vets on the back end of their careers when you don't have one.
- Trade your franchise QB to other teams while you still can.
There was a chance to do that this year, and with McCarthy supposedly being the QB Whisperer, we now have a top HC to work a strategy of developing young QBs.
Having said that, the lack of offseason/preseason work this year makes transitioning to a new QB less likely to succeed than usual. Really sucks for us with a *great* draft class and what should have been *extra* time for us to develop them and the team in the offseason because we have a new HC.