The hiring of Tom Telesco was the first real surprise of the offseason for the Raiders, and not everyone was pleased when the team announced the decision on Tuesday.
The reviews on Telesco have been all over the approval spectrum, but a statement from ESPN radio host Ian Fitzsimmons on Thursday was, by far, the highest praise the Raiders’ new GM has received to date.
“I can understand why a faction of the fan base that is somewhat tempered when it comes to the hiring of Telesco to run your football organization,” Fitzsimmons said Raider Nation Radio’s Unnecessary Roughness with Q Myers. “But I can tell you this right now. He is in, in my opinion, the best evaluator of talent that there is. His problem was they hired the wrong head coaches.”
Telesco definitely hit on a handful of draft picks in his 11 years with the Chargers. In his time with the team he drafted seven players who made 17 combined Pro Bowls.
From the perspective of Mark Davis, that must have been an impressive detail on Telesco’s resume considering the many failed drafts the Raiders have turned in since he took over for his father in 2011.
And whether you like the Telesco hiring or not, there isn’t a Raider or Charger fan on the planet who wouldn’t agree that Brandon Staley was one of the worst head coaches in the history of the sport.
The ‘Boy Genius’ will be sorely missed.
twitter: @raidersbeat
He’s due to hit on a draft pick after round 2
I am amazed that anyone, (even the idiots at ESPN) could be that ignorant. He ranks in the bottom 5 in the last 10 years of draft rankings as a GM. He is even below the combined draft rankings of the Raiders. He has made bad trades and brought in worse free agents than his bad drafts. The biggest problem with the chargers was the simple fact that Tom has missed on just about every pick beyond the 2nd round and they never had depth because of it. So while anyone can express their level of ignorance, simple facts, data and elementary football knowledge says different. This was a complete and total miss on a GM hire.
Facts
The only way this would work is if Jim Harbaugh doesn’t want J. Herbert. It wouldn’t hurt to check down that road, the worse they could say is no. We’ll need more than a big FU to the absolute worst HC of the Raiders to get us through next few years. The division is now stacked within the other teams coaching ranks.