Reason(s) for offseason improvement

[CasualFan]

Is it just me, or does it seem to the rest of you that the front office and coaching staff have done a much-improved job of getting good players in the draft and free agency in the last few seasons? Maybe it's a bit premature to discuss this right before the start of training camp, when we'll get to see the early returns on just how good this draft was, but given how slow it is this time of year I thought I'd pose the question of why people think things seem to have gotten better. Is it that

1. Shanahan is finally learning the GM role.
2. Shanahan has cleared out the deadwood on the coaching staff, who are now giving him better position-specific advice.
3. Ted Sundquist is improving.
4. The scouts are better.
5. Denver and maybe a few other teams like the Patriots have figured out a secret, more quantitative system for evaluating talent.
6. The bad drafts of yesteryear were just bad luck.
7. There hasn't actually been any improvement to speak of.
8. Other.

If you choose "Other" please state on this thread what factor(s) you think are behind the improvement. Note that this is multiple choice, so you can select more than one factor in the poll.

[mxbronco13]

Well I bet if it wasn't for Bates we wouldn't have drafted 3 d-lineman because Shanahan is usually offense-1st when it comes to the draft.

[Dream]

You can thank Jim Bates for about all of the defensive shifts and moves from this off-season. At least he has what it takes to get everything in line.

[Hoserman117]

I think it's Jim Bates, at least on the defensive side of the ball. He was the guy that had to guts to cut Wilson to free open cap space for people like Graham, Henry, and Bly. He obviously had influence in our draft this year.

There need to be a 'Jim Bates' option up there.

[Hoserman117]

And we don't know if these players are any good yet. They could all be total busts. Not likely but it's possible, we can't judge the draft yet, but we can judge how we filled our needs through it. Which I think we did very well.

[CasualFan]

I think it's Jim Bates, at least on the defensive side of the ball. He was the guy that had to guts to cut Wilson to free open cap space for people like Graham, Henry, and Bly. He obviously had influence in our draft this year.

There need to be a 'Jim Bates' option up there.

The Jim Bates option is subsumed under option #2: "The coaching staff is giving Shanahan better advice." Bates is part of the coaching staff.

[JoRo]

I believe both Shanny AND Sundquist are getting better.

We were one of the first teams to really take advantage through free agency, but once the rest of the league caught on, life became more difficult.

We've drafted good defensive linemen in the past, we just couldn't keep them when their contracts expired (Bertrand Berry, Reggie Heyward, Trevor Pryce - who was cut for financial reasons).

We're copying the Redskins a bit with our practice of shifting salary into bonuses, and it's buying us more wiggle room. We needed more firepower for our offense - and we got it. We needed players to fit the new defensive schem - and we got that too.

Gotta love it, this team has a shot at contending damn near every year

I am still kinda concerned this will catch up to us eventually