Former Panthers GM Dave Gettleman calls NFL draft analysts ‘clowns’
Dave Gettleman is still as old school as it gets.
The former Carolina Panthers and New York Giants general manager was recently interviewed by Neil Stratton of Inside the League. And Gettleman, included in what appears to be a weekly newsletter from the publication, had some pretty harsh words for NFL draft analysts.
The excerpt reads:
It’s way different from when I started and much more problematic, and on top of that, you have the media now. I finally broke down and got a subscription to The Athletic, partly because it was a $1 a month, but it’s like anything else.
You got this guy giving every team grades, but you gotta be kidding me. Who are you? What have you done? When have you put your nuts on the line? But sadly, you got owners listening to these clowns, and even GMs listening to these clowns. The NFL has become a very tough job, and scouting is difficult.
Well, he’s not wrong about scouting being difficult. Just look back at his track record in the draft for Carolina.
Gettleman had a few very big misses in 2014 first-rounder Kelvin Benjamin, 2015 second-rounder Devin Funchess and 2016 first-rounder Vernon Butler. But, to his credit, he also reeled in a handful of key players including linebacker Shaq Thompson and offensive tackle Taylor Moton—both of whom are still with the organization to this day.
If there’s one thing that we all should’ve learned about the draft by now, it’s that it can be a crapshoot. Sometimes people are right about prospects and sometimes they’re wrong—whether those people are league executives or draft analysts.
And when it comes to Gettleman, we’ve learned that you can’t teach 6-5, 240 nor an old dog new tricks.
