Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry
Bono decision in 1995 was one where Montana kind of put them in a pickle. Montana didn't officially retire until April of that year. Kind of hard to go out in free agency or trade for a QB if you don't really officially know what Montana was going to do. Then kind of hard to replace a QB that just went 13-3 unfortunately. Takes a lot of stones to do that and most personal types won't do that do.
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Fair, but I also remember Montana being something of a Roaf situation (and Shields for a bit) where he didn't officially retire until fairly late in the game but the feeling around the organization and the city was that it was all but inevitable.
Dude was 38 years old and was clearly in sharp decline. He'd had significant injuries in like 4-5 straight years. You simply cannot feign shock when he retires. They had to have a backup plan in place and just...didn't. How do you NOT have a guy like Chris Chandler on hand? Or draft a Todd Collins or Rob Johnson since you know that Montana's gone in a year tops? Those were successful major college QBs who could've been had in the 2nd and 4th rounds.
I mean....I guess I can give them the benefit of the doubt and say that was their plan with Steve Stenstrom but...Yikes.
Ultimately I don't fault him for most of what went on at QB for those years. But man, the Bono thing was just so !@#$ing awful and with even moderately credible QB play, they could've nabbed a ring in there. Any team that goes 13-3 w/ Bono under center could've won a SB with Chris Chandler. And I guess it's also fair to point out that we
had Gannon, but that was on Marty. I think that was HIS major misstep. And not because he didn't play him, but because he simply didn't know how to use him. Gannon wasn't actually all that great here, but that was because Marty couldn't figure out what to do with him.