Why Caserio should be the Dolphins next General Manager
By Cyrus (@Cyruslassus on Twitter)
I have a feeling Nick Caserio will be the Dolphins new General Manager soon and I could not be happier about it.
A college quarterback who put in three years as a graduate assistant before joining the Patriots in 2001, Nick stands out as the best candidate for the job.
In his thirteen years in New England he went from Personnel Assistant to Offensive Coaching Assistant to Area Scout to Director of Pro Personnel to Wide Receivers Coach and finally, Director of Player Personnel, a title he has held since 2008.
I am most impressed by his year as wide receiver coach, as it coincides with Tom Brady’s NFL record 50 touchdown season, and his current run as the director of player personnel.
If you have yet to see him at work, make sure to check out the video from last year’s draft that shows him taking the call and closing the deal on a trade out of the 29th pick in the draft, which landed New England a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th round pick. You could see how satisfied Bill Belichick was to get four for one.
New England had 6 rookie starters and 14 saw the field in total. This is quite a contrast from the Dolphins, who only had one starter, a kicker who struggled mightily at times.
In recent weeks I had become very critical of the idea of building through the draft because it seems like a crapshoot and I have grown tired of watching players who never amount to anything bog down the roster at the expense of better alternatives via second tier free agents.
The Patriots are the perfect example of finding the balance between free agency and the draft. They miss in the draft and in free agency as much as anybody, but they consistently play the odds in their favor by not overinvesting on many players.
They allow marquee free agents to leave, which lands them compensatory picks. They sign multiple mid level players for a fraction of the cost of an elite player, allowing them to have true competition in camp and to have a Plan B in place when players inevitable miss time. Lastly, they draft many players, but they don’t keep players very long if their coach is not impressed.
These are things that I noticed about the Patriots organization going back to 2001, but this man knows much more about how and why they do things in New England.
That makes him the perfect candidate to figure out how to outsmart the smartest team in football.
If you can’t beat them, employ them.