I know it’s tough sometimes not to be a homer and fall in love with our players. I see post after post defending Shack because we have players on our roster that are late round pick. For those who just can’t see past the Jaguars roster and see that what our GM does is below average, I posted the Steelers roster that we played on Sunday below.

They started 13 players that were 4^th round picks and later including 6 players that weren’t even drafted! I counted Nate Washington in this because he played a lot last night and scored. 13 players!!

All I am trying to say here, is we have to stop defending Shack for his “late round gems.” EVERY team has these players!! If you look at the Steelers roster, their late round gems dwarf ours. They beat us with a bunch of undrafted players and 4^th round picks.

The second argument is our first round selections. We have to stop defending Shack with “oh, they are coming around.” They were first round picks!! They shouldn’t have to come around! Look at the Steelers 1^st round picks below.

My conclusion is, the Steelers like so many other teams and GMs stike gold with their first round picks and then fill the holes with late round selections. People argue, “well shack drafted Bobby McCray.” Who cares?! Look around!! Every team has these players! Most of them actually have more late round gems than us. For some reason Shack Harris still has a job even though he has failed to strike gold even once in the first round and fills the holes with subpar talent.

DE Aaron Smith – 4^th round  
DT Chris Hoke – Undrafted

DE Brett Keisel – 7^th round

LB Larry Foote – 4^th round
LB James Harrison – Undrafted
LB LaMarr Woodley – 2^nd round
LB James Farrior – Free agent pickup

CB Deshea Townsend – 4^th round
FS Ryan Clark – Undrafted
CB Ike Taylor – 4^th round

RT Willie Colon – 4^th round
RG Darnell Stapleton – Undrafted
C Justin Hartwig – Free agent pickup
LG Chris Kemoeatu – 6^th round
LT Marvel Smith – 2^nd round

FB Carry Davis – Undrafted

WR Nate Washington – Undrafted
WR Hines Ward – 3^rd round

1^st Round Picks

QB Ben Roethlisberger
SS Troy Polamalu
WR Santonio Holmes
DT Casey Hampton
TE Heath Miller

He has found good players in the later rounds.

And if you want to blame Shack, blame Del Rio also. He has equal input in the draft.

And finally, let's compare Shack's first round record to Coughlin's.

His picks were Boselli, Stewart, Hardy, Wynn, Freddie T, Bryant (Fernando), R. Jay Soward, Stroud, and Henderson. If we go by successful picks here, Coughlin had four out of nine picks that were "great". I did not include Stewart and Hardy, because although they played well, they were not "home runs". Four out of ten is a 40% success rate.

For Shack, not including Harvey as the jury is still out on that one, he has had a 20% success rate, and I did not include Matt Jones and Reggie Williams, as even though they are playing well, the jury is still out on them. Nelson is his lone indisputable (IMO) great pick. Seeing that Shack has been here less time than Coughlin, really, he hasn't done much worse than Coughlin. If Matt Jones and Williams continue to pan out, that will be 3 out of 5, or a 60% success percentage. Again, we can't yet include Harvey.

So, it seems to me that while Shack hasn't had the best of 1st round picks, he is still doing somewhat well compared to Coughlin. And I didn't even bother to go into 2nd, 3rd, etc. round picks. I will do an analysis of that later.

"The quarterback must go down and he must go down hard" Visit the Jags Wikia, a wiki that any fan can edit, at http://jacksonvillejaguars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

You know I would have, but for some reason people see the name "The Mad Dog" and just start posting a bunch of ad hominem attacks.

He could say the sky is blue and people argue against him. I purposely left his name out of this hoping people could actually read an argument and facts without being influenced by other factors.

No one has commented on this thread yet, well...because the truth hurts. There is nothing to argue. We are running out of excuses here.

Overall, we had better players on the field.  They just did not produce.  Big Ben (who some argued we could have drafted if we did not waste a #7 on Leftwich the year before) was the difference in the game.  That and our injuries in the secondary.

NITRO PILLS FOR SALE! CARDIAC CATS ARE BACK!

EDIT: Wrong poster quoted.

"The quarterback must go down and he must go down hard" Visit the Jags Wikia, a wiki that any fan can edit, at http://jacksonvillejaguars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page