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Originally Posted by booger
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It would be easy to lump all these men into the same category, but the situations of Gettleman, Dorsey and even Baalke fall on an entirely different spectrum. These are all men who attacked the job with a certain aggressiveness that ironically made it easy for them to become expendable.
They all had their strengths and lorded over a noteworthy amount of success within their respective organizations. They also all made public gaffes that came back to haunt them in the end.
Dorsey didn't inspire the same level of acrimony with players that Gettleman had -- Dorsey's decision to release wide receiver Jeremy Maclin in June via a voicemail left on Maclin's phone was his most notorious move --
but there was plenty to question during his time in Kansas City.
Yes, Dorsey was responsible for the roster of a team that won at least 11 games in three of the last four years.
He also oversaw a team that routinely found itself in salary-cap hell, wound up paying more money to Pro Bowler Eric Berry on a long-term deal that was consummated after Berry excelled while playing under the franchise tag, and lost two draft picks for tampering related to the contract Maclin signed in 2015.
That might be the ultimate blessing for the Panthers and the Chiefs. Sure, their owners could've found successors in-house if they had moved quicker on the terminations (the Chiefs watched director of football operations Chris Ballard go to Indianapolis in January as a general manager, while the Panthers saw assistant general manager Brandon Beane replace Whaley in Buffalo in May).
However, there's something to be said for recognizing when a mistake has been made. The lesson to be learned here is that there's a lot more to being a general manager these days than simply picking the players.