You could even go back and say it started going bad w/ the Amari Cooper trade. Now, Amari is a good player, but we gave up way too much and then paid him way too much.
Why did this make it go bad? Because it was another kneejerk reaction by Jerry because he'd once again done a very poor job evaluating talent. Howso? We went into that season w/ Allen frickin' Hurns as our #1. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
So, why was it so bad? Because while Amari is a good player, he's a low end #1, and then add to it that we had to pay him huge immediately. And that led to the Trysten Hill draft.
Soooo, I kept hearing at the time no one else would've been available. Is that so? If we let that season play out, we'd prolly have been drafting top 15. So, who was there? Brian Burns, Noah Fant, Dexter Lawrence, Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders, Deebo Samuel, Jeffrey Simmons, Montez Sweat. And a host of others.
By making that trade, Jerry started the downslide that is now wildly apparent. Easy to see coming when you add in the others, Mazi, Schooner, Kelvin. Guys who should be the heart of our team.
Yup, just Jerry's usual crapp. It's OK for fans to tout our 5 bazillion pro bowlers or all pro or whatever, but it is not OK for the GM to use that as an excuse to draft horribly.