Loomis' one unforgivable decision
And I remember well the commentary on television when we made the trade up to 14. The talk was that we had moved up to take Jackson. It was a surprise when the Davenport selection was announced. Jackson was the first of the true running quarterbacks who showed that his legs could be a weapon. There was concern about his accuracy--Bill Polian, whom I respect greatly, suggested he should play wide receiver. Baltimore's front office has been playing chess rather than checkers for many years. Teams failed to understand that Jackson could play the position differently and his athleticism easily outweighed the accuracy concerns. (Also, I want to say that Jackson refused to run the 40, which hurt his draft status.)
And sometimes God watches over drunks and NFL general managers. In 2008, we made a huge trade offer to move up to pick defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, which fortunately was not accepted--over the years, our desperation to acquire defensive linemen has far exceeded our ability to evaluate them. And of course, we were incredibly close to signing Deshaun Watson.