Did Floyd Reese get a bad rap in Tennessee?

Congrats to Floyd Reese for his new gig in New England. I’ve always liked Floyd and thought he did a pretty good job as the Titans GM. And please don’t give me any bull about Floyd screwing up the Titans’ salary cap. Floyd did exactly what he was told to do by Bud Adams – he restructured contracts, robbing Peter to pay Paul, for as much time as he could buy to keep the Titans’ window of opportunity open, in the drive for another Super Bowl opportunity. Almost like he was kiting checks. It almost worked, too.

 

And when Floyd departed, he left the Titans in good shape – back well under the cap and with a core group of players who led the Titans to the best record in the league last year.

Let’s take a look at this current group of core players who Reese was either responsible for drafting or for signing in free agency:

 

O-line: Roos, Mawae, Stewart, Amano

TE: Scaife

FB: Hall

QB: Collins, Young

D-line: Haynesworth, KVB, Brown, Kearse

LB: Bulluck, Thornton, Tulloch

DBs: Hope, Finnegan, Harper, Fuller

 

This is not a bad group of players to have. There’s a saying in the business that there is no such thing as a warm bed, but that’s what Mike Reinfeldt inherited when he took over as Tennessee’s GM. Floyd Reese left him with a lot of talented players and with a lot of salary cap room.

 

And in earlier years, Reese also did pretty well. Everybody says Bud Adams wanted to draft Steve McNair, which is true, but Floyd wanted him also. The following year, Floyd traded up and down a couple of times to maneuver into a position to draft Eddie George, gaining a couple of extra draft picks in the process. He did the same thing in 1999 to acquire a linebacker from Florida, who the Titans converted into a defensive end. All Jevon Kearse did was to completely change the defense, garnering All-Pro, Pro Bowl and defensive rookie of the year honors in the process.

 

Oh, and let’s don’t forget that Floyd was the man who targeted Big Albert and drafted him.

 

One of the best things Floyd ever did was after the 1994 season. He was the new GM in Houston and recommended to his boss, Bud Adams, that Jeff Fisher should be hired as the new head coach. 

 

Here’s an interesting thing I learned just a few days ago. When Floyd broke into coaching in the NFL, as the strength and conditioning coach with the Lions, he had a little snot-nosed kid assigned to him as his gofer. You know, go for this, go for that. Go get me another cup of coffee. Pretty much like what a graduate assistant does in college. The name of that assistant was Billy Belichick, the man he’ll be working for and with in Boston.

 

By the way, if anybody is interested in the power struggle that eventually developed between Reese and Fisher, what I’ve heard about it and my take on it, please let me know and I’ll write it soon. Otherwise, I figure that’s just one of the things I’ll just save for a rainy day. 

 

So what are your thoughts about Floyd Reese? Did he do a good job in Tennessee? Did he get a bad rap? Or was it a good thing when he left?