Fortunately Merriman flamed out early or Accorsi's career would be defined by making one of the worst trades in NFL history. Since it's really just turned out to be Eli vs. Rivers, it was just a bad one, not historically bad.
He's retired and been retired a while now. He was George Young's boy for much of his career (that we speak of) and it's his drafting/scouting ability that many credit as to why the Giants are phenomenal at drafting DEs. One of the last things he did was draft Kiwi when everyone balked at the idea. Kiwi was a very impressive young DE until Coughlin had the bright idea to play him at LB and became infatuated with it. He was Accorsi is the only GM I know of that ever went to a message board or newsgroup and chatted with fans. We should all praise the guy for that and hope today's GMs listen.
The Giants went from the BB and BP years to Handley and in a real downward spiral til Accorsi came along and started helping with drafts in 93 or so.
He had been the guy that somehow built a winner in Cleveland yet they let him get away and all he could do was help Young, not be the actual GM....amazing teams weren't falling all over for him. The Browns seemed to go from great old team to Kosar/accorsi's teams and everything in between was bad. The guy really didn't get enough credit...ever
Accorsi did not build the Browns. Most of the talent was already on the Browns when Accorsi showed up in 1985. They had their best year in 1986, at 12-4, and then bad draft after bad draft slowly eroded the talent level. Marty realized Accorsi sucked at being a GM so he wanted total control to draft the players. When Marty didn't get it, he knew the writing was on the wall and got out of town.The team imploded under the weight of Accorsi's horrible drafts in 1990, going 3-13.
As a Browns fan for years, I remember all of us constantly complaining that Accorsi failed to shore up the offensive line. It surprised NOBODY that Kosar suffered a horrible arm injury in 1988. We could see it coming. He was getting killed back there.
Heckert BTW is actually doing a phenomenal job. His first two drafts have been wonderful. With the Browns luck, Heckert will get struck by lightning on his way to work though. i think that's the only way the Browns franchise doesn't turn around in 2-3 more years.
I don't agree entirely. It's not easy to recall everything from back then.He takes over in 1985 and rolls til 1992 and they make the playoffs most of those years...one sec, at PFR, five of those years.
So you're beating him up for Carson not working out and having an interim coach...OK I guess every GM deserves that IF he hired him. Did he? Or was it the owner? I remember Carson with a top Jets defense (if not actually, then by reputation for their sack exchange stuff) and why not get a chance to coach?
If he is the goat that hired Carson, is he a genius or wrong or given a pass on hiring BB? What's the thinking there?
I have stated a thousand times that I believed BB killed that franchise when he benched Kosar for Testaverde. (Been there done that quick summary, anyone other than the guy that threw a million INTs would have been a better decision)
Re-drafts, I do see names, plenty of them like Metcalf, Slaughter etc. Dawkins throws me was he really that old?
You wrote about his choice of linemen and I flat out don't see that he drafted many. He did draft Winters who played in 231 games for the Browns. Surely a fine pick.
1990 and 1991(you had me focus there) seem like fine drafts because I recognize names.
I DO see gaps and holes. I can't recall Randy Hilliard but Dalton of the Saints. There's a bunch of who was that? type bad picks, no doubt. The thing is though, every team does that.
Eric Metcalf was a phenomenally useful player (for Atlanta too ) the rarity that could play WR or RB and do both well. Wasn't Turner the safety for a long time?
Leroy Hoard is like a classic Browns name to me. Burnett and Pleasant were probably supposed to be more (as every DL is the second coming) but they had lengthy careers which make them good picks.
Are you mocking Touchdown Tommy Vardell? Does the dawg pound rescind your membership if you do that?
What about the other Michael Jackson?
There's enough above that he didn't stink at drafting.
Here's my thinking on the Browns-possibly the most unbelievable misery I've seen was when they made the championship game twice(under Accorsi mind you) and both times fumbled away the ball when they had a chance to win. Holy ...I couldn't imagine that. Accorsi could have been a scapegoat. Marty proved he couldn't win the big games with the Chiefs (and Montana) but Accorsi curiously had a Giants team fall just shy too. The Browns were an odd team. Everyone adored Marino for his million yards a year he threw for to the wonderful Marks brothers and here was the other U of Miami guy that didn't throw for all that many yards but almost never made a mistake. Ya'all loved him like few sports icons I've ever read about and in a way that doesn't really happen in today's NFL. He was your Elway, your Sweetness, your big star you guys adored.
OK we lost two nailbiters with dopey fumbles and the new coach is going to replace our legend with this guy that threw INT after INT for Tampa? I get the frustration, I sooo get it. (Didn't he draft Fridge's younger brother?)
BB brought ya Pepper Johnson who had over 200 tackles one year and was a machine at MLB, but really didn't do much good there. He goes onto greatness with the Pats while you either don't have a team or are believing that Couch to KJ is THE connection for the next decade and woohoo you got the top back in the draft named William Green.Even when you get a team there's an almost ghost like Staph Infection epidemic haunting the team and taking away good players. Dude I so get the frustration.
I think it's misguided at Ernie is all
I don't think it is as simple as saying, "San Diego was #1 in both total yards on offense and yards per play last season," and then therefore concluding that it proves that all of the players were used effectively. They weren't first in point scored, so there was obviously room for improvement. Probably the biggest loss of the season was the home loss to the Raiders in early December, and Sproles touched the ball twice (one rush and one catch). Not saying more touches absolutely would have made the difference, but Sproles is a difference maker when used properly in the right situations, and him only getting three carries per game last year really stands out. Yes, he was effective when he was used, but he could have been even more effective had he touched the ball more, and the offense might have been even better.
