Coaches
Football, more than any other sport is a coaches' game. In basketball and hockey most of the results will be from the players on the floor or ice (or you could switch ice and court for some gag-reel hijinks). In baseball coaching seems more granular; coaches show players how to pitch and hit and field, and then more or less let them play on game day (yes, they do make decisions during the game - I said "more or less").
In football, coaches are intimately involved in the pre-game and in-game decisions. A better coach will always win given equal talent. A better coach will often win with inferior talent.
My favorite quote about NFL coaching comes from former Oilers and Saint coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips, talking about why Don Shula is such a great coach:
When a team does poorly (or does not reach expectations) in other sports, firing the coach is often window-dressing. You can't fire the players, right? Well, not all of them.
In the NBA, there are fewer than a handful of coaches who make the slightest bit of difference for their teams. Certainly Larry Brown currently of the Knicks), Phil Jackson (back with the Lakers), Pat Riley used to have "it," but it's been a while. You have to give it to Gregg Popovich and his three championships with the Spurs. Sure, he has Tim Duncan, but lots of coaches have had future Hall of Famers on their teams and done nothing with them (you think Duncan is that much better than Patrick Ewing? Well, okay, maybe).
For the rest, it's just a challenge to keep the guys 'up' for 82 game and do the best with what the GM gives you. Success in basketball (and hockey) is much more a function of the GM. Is the talent on the court? The Toronto Raptors are having a bad season right now, but their coach, Sam Mitchell, hasn't necessarily done a bad job. His charges play hard every night, but he just doesn't have much talent on the floor. Game over.
Fire GM Rob Babcock.
In football, there is an expectation that the right coaching staff can make a winner out of a loser. The impact of the salary cap has been that teams can reverse their luck pretty quickly with the right coaching. This is because all the teams are in the same boat - they can't out-spend the next guy for talent. And the guys they draft go way up in price if they prove themselves, and most teams can't afford their own guys after three years.
It used to be that a young player could develop in practice until he was ready. A player could expect to play his career for one team, and take what they offered. A team like Dallas could dominate over decades because they kept their talent, and when one player retired a better player would step into the job.
Today, first round picks are expected to be impact players in their rookie year - even quarterbacks. Second and third round picks ("day one picks") are expected to be starters. The rest are expected to contribute, both in situational football and on special teams.
The coaches who've done well in this new world are the teachers. The coaches who understand that their teams must be better week 17 than they were week 1 thrive in the new system, none more than the Guru, Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
The other things a coach needs in today's game is a scheme. He needs a deep understanding of the game from the ground up, both tactically (what play do we call right now?) and strategically (what plays are working? What is the defense doing against us?).
The scheme doesn't have to be any one thing. Part of Belichick's genius is that he adapts his defense to every opponent to take away what they do best. Other coaches are known for certain aspects of their approaches. Tony Dungy made his rep as Defensive Coordinator of the Vikings and uses the soft "Tampa Two" defense (but more recently has ridden the coat-tails of Offensive Coordinator Tom Moore's Manning offense). The Steeler's Bill Cowher is known for running a 3-4 defense with aggressive attacking LB's.
Coach who fail are deficient in one or both of these. The other factor is their GM - is the talent on the field to begin with? Some coaches get trapped because there is a perception by fans and media that the team is talented and should win, but in reality they are lightweights and can't meet the high expectations.
There are currently six head coaching vacancies, - and there could be more soon. Let's take a look a the teams who hacked their coaches into unemployment:
The (New Orleans et.al.) Saints fired Jim Haslett. This is considered the kindest cut, as Haslett has apparently had enough of the circus that owner Tom Benson has run, especially (though not limited to) the period since Katrina devastated the city. Benson has made a sham of a mockery out of the team with his transparent machinations to move to San Antonio while people were still burying their loved ones in the ruined city. A dozen dancing bears would do a better job of running the team, and with so many coaching vacancies open right now, Haslett can be reasonably assured of landing on his feet.
Why that is so is an open question. In his tenure as head coach, there's been no more a 'trick or treat' team in the league than the Saints. You never know what you'll get from them. Some weeks they look like world-beaters, some weeks they've looked like the clowns that Benson uses re run the team. If consistency is the hallmark of a professional in any field, it's been the thing that has eluded Haslett in his coaching career.
Ratings (out of 10):
Ability to teach: 7
Ability to scheme: 6
Used the talent he was given: 6
Dick Vermeil retires from the Kansas City Chiefs. The other amicable separation was 69-year-old Vermeil's exit from the game, again. Vermeil took a 14 year sabbatical from football coaching after losing a Super Bowl coaching the Eagles in 1980. He miraculously turned the Rams into a winner, and discovered Kurt Warner. He ran the 'Greatest Show on Turf" offense to a Super Bowl victory, then retired again. That only lasted a year.
Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz was given much of the credit for the Rams success (more on him below), but in his next incarnation as Chiefs coach, Vermeil showed who was the real brains behind the operation. He turned a cast-off RB into a record-setting league leader (Priest Holmes) and his Rams cast-off QB into a top performer (Trent Green). He didn't have a WR like Torry Holt or Isaac Bruce, but used guys like Eddie Kennison to compliment future Hall of Fame TE Tony Gonzales in the passing game.
His KC offenses became as unstoppable as his Rams teams had been, but their defense was far worse. The year he won his only Super Bowl, his Rams were first in overall offense and third in overall defense. Tough to beat that combination. His Chiefs teams were more of a tennis match - both teams scored constantly. The trick was to be the last to score.
In a memorable playoff loss to the Colts, there were no punts in the game. None.
Dick needed to fix the defense, but he never did. He also needed to lighten up. He was known for working himself to death as Eagles coaching his first go-around, spending nights at the office and putting in far too much of himself. When he came back, it was with the promise that that stuff would stop.
Which it did - he got much better at delegating. But he never stopped being extremely emotional about the game. Usually that's a good thing - professional athletes tend to be jaded and genuine emotion can bring out the best in them. But it also gets old after a while. Word was with the 1980 eagles that they'd tuned him out long before the Super Bowl. And the same word is making the rounds today - the Chiefs have heard all the weeping they ever want from their coach.
Whatever the truth is, the Chiefs missed the playoffs and Vermeil says he's done. Don't be surprised if he shows up coaching again as early as next year. With so many vacancies and his history of excellence, somebody's going to make him a pretty tough offer to refuse.
Ability to teach: 8
Ability to scheme: 8
Used the talent he was given: 8
The Texans fired Dom Capers. No surprise here. The only coach in Texans history had clearly topped himself out. Taking on his second expansion team (he was the first coach of the Panthers and took them to the NFC Championship game before flaming out), Capers made them better each year until this year. While he's a great Defensive Coordinator (as he's proven more than once with the Steelers), he's not really a head coach. His offenses have always been suspect.
This year, even the defense fell apart. The team was sloppy and unmotivated for most of the season. He was the first coach to extensively use the 'zone blitz' - but his current defense wasn't stopping anybody. His offensive lines were always bad - which you'd think a defensive coach would realize is important.
The team made way too much commitment to Dominick Davis, a marginal starter at RB. QB David Carr never developed because he was spending too much time on his back. He just got the living hell beat out of him year after year. Plus, he only had one decent receiver to throw to - what do you do when Andre Johnson is double-covered?
In the end, Capers deserved to be shown the door. Questions remain about GM Charlie Casserly. Was winning talent brought in? Did Capers do the best with what an over-rated Casserly drafted and signed? I think there's a lot of truth to that. Is David Carr a first pick bust? We won't really know until they start signing a coaching offensive linemen down there. You can't rate a QB when he gets that beat up. Is he gun-shy? Would you be? The question is whether he can get it back if the protection is good around him.
Ability to teach: 4
Ability to scheme: 6
Used the talent he was given: 5
The Packers fire Mike Sherman. Sherman was left with a winning legacy - a top team led by a future Hall of Fame QB and a Pro Bowl runner. As GM (until last year) and head coach, Sherman has seen it all crumble around him. The team is short on talent, especially defensively, and Brett Favre's final years of starting have been wasted. Sherman the GM failed to bring in the talent that Sherman the coach needed to win. When the GM job was taken away, Sherman the coach still couldn't win. Favre's had to try to win every game on his own, and as a result has pushed too much and lost games for them with too many gambles downfield.
One point in Sherman's favor has been the perception that Favre would retire if the team started over with another coach. That didn't stop them from canning Sherman, and Favre will have to make his decision based on who they bring in. I hope he plays another year, but limits his role. A defensive-minded coach could do wonders up there, especially if he puts in a conservative offense that doesn't call for more than 25 passes a game.
Ability to teach: 5
Ability to scheme: 5
Used the talent he was given: 5
Vikings Fire Meathead. Mike Tice is finally gone. The surprising thing is that he lasted four years in the first place. The former offensive line coach made his bones by talking tough with Randy Moss. There was a story, played up in the media, about Tice telling Moss to move when he took the seat from a team booster on a bus. Yeah, Tice could handle Moss. He handled him with a "Randy Ratio" scheme, where 40% of all passes would go to Randy. That could have made Moss the greatest receiver in the game's history (statistically), if it wasn't completely stupid.
You can't throw that many passes to one guy. It's an insult to pro defensive coordinators. Oh, yeah, then Meathead got busted scalping Super Bowl tickets. Which coaches from every team have always done (there are tickets made available to them), but Meathead got busted for it and killed it for everybody. Then there was the "love boat." Great team discipline, Meathead.
Look: Tice worked for cheap, and former owner Red McCombs was a cheapskate. New owner Zyg Wilf (yes that's his name) is showing signs that he'll spend money to field a winner. Job one was firing Tice.
Ability to teach: 4
Ability to scheme: 4
Used the talent he was given: 3
The Rams fired Mike Martz. It's hard to say who was the loonier faction: team management or "Mad" Martz. Martz always had an offense that was innovative and could move the ball. His defenses got weaker and weaker as the Vermeil era players left the team. He was always given too much credit for the team's success in the super Bowl years, and the expectations on his were too high. In his first year as head coach, he reached his only Super Bowl, a historic loss as a 14 point favorite to Bill Belichick's Patriots.
I always thought the key to that game was that Belichick baited him to stay with a passing offense. At a time when Marshall Faulk was completely utterly unstoppable in the running game, Belichick used his defensive schemes to challenge Martz. "Prove it" he said with his defenses; "show me you're more of a passing game genius than I am at stopping passing games."
Ten more carries for Faulk would have won the game for the Rams. Hell, maybe one more carry (he was that good). But Martz kept passing. And Belichick was ready for him. The Pats DB's knew every route. They were told: "don't play the man, just play your assignment." They stayed with their roles and knew what they faced. And they were physical all over the field. The Rams were coached to go down immediately and don't let a tackler hit you hard. The Pats were coached to get there one step ahead of the receiver and get a lick in.
Martz has had some health issues this year, but I think he'll get an offer from somebody to coach somewhere.
Ability to teach: 6
Ability to scheme: 9 offense, 6 defense
Used the talent he was given: 8
Brian "the Brain" Billick saved his job for a year, probably because it's going to be so difficult to replace a head coach with so many vacancies at once. He come to Baltimore as an offensive guru (the OC who set the all-time team scoring record with the 15-1 Vikings), but never had a decent offense in Baltimore. He won a Super Bowl on the strength of Marvin Lewis's defense. He'll be gone next year.
Mike "Mini Meathead" Mularkey might be out of the Buffalo job. Rumours (thanks to Pro Football Talk) have GM Tom Donahoe out first. A new GM may want to bring in his own coach, or could stick with Mularkey. Donahoe has been inconsistent as GM, building a pretty decent defense but making some serious mistakes on offense - including the continued failure to build a decent OL.
And Norv Turner will soon be fired by Al Davis in Oakland. Turner is absolutely hopeless. You know when he's hired that he will soon be fired and the team will regress. Honestly - how does he keep getting jobs? It's just another example of how Davis has completely lost touch with the game - and the business - of football.
Stay tuned - the ride will get bumpier from here.
By The Way...
And did you see Doug Flutie's historic drop-kick for an extra point on Sunday? First drop-kick in the NFL in 60 years.
And first overall pick Alex Smith of San Francisco has thrown one (1) TD pass and eleven (11) picks in 7 starts and 165 attempts.
230th overall pick, seventh round Matt Cassell of the Patriots - who didn't start in college behind two Heisman Trophy winners at USC - threw two (2) TD passes and no (0) picks in 20 attempts against the dolphins Sunday.
Can these guys find talent or what?
In football, coaches are intimately involved in the pre-game and in-game decisions. A better coach will always win given equal talent. A better coach will often win with inferior talent.
My favorite quote about NFL coaching comes from former Oilers and Saint coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips, talking about why Don Shula is such a great coach:
"He can take his 'uns and beat your 'uns, and he can take your 'uns and
beat his 'uns."
When a team does poorly (or does not reach expectations) in other sports, firing the coach is often window-dressing. You can't fire the players, right? Well, not all of them.
In the NBA, there are fewer than a handful of coaches who make the slightest bit of difference for their teams. Certainly Larry Brown currently of the Knicks), Phil Jackson (back with the Lakers), Pat Riley used to have "it," but it's been a while. You have to give it to Gregg Popovich and his three championships with the Spurs. Sure, he has Tim Duncan, but lots of coaches have had future Hall of Famers on their teams and done nothing with them (you think Duncan is that much better than Patrick Ewing? Well, okay, maybe).
For the rest, it's just a challenge to keep the guys 'up' for 82 game and do the best with what the GM gives you. Success in basketball (and hockey) is much more a function of the GM. Is the talent on the court? The Toronto Raptors are having a bad season right now, but their coach, Sam Mitchell, hasn't necessarily done a bad job. His charges play hard every night, but he just doesn't have much talent on the floor. Game over.
Fire GM Rob Babcock.
In football, there is an expectation that the right coaching staff can make a winner out of a loser. The impact of the salary cap has been that teams can reverse their luck pretty quickly with the right coaching. This is because all the teams are in the same boat - they can't out-spend the next guy for talent. And the guys they draft go way up in price if they prove themselves, and most teams can't afford their own guys after three years.
It used to be that a young player could develop in practice until he was ready. A player could expect to play his career for one team, and take what they offered. A team like Dallas could dominate over decades because they kept their talent, and when one player retired a better player would step into the job.
Today, first round picks are expected to be impact players in their rookie year - even quarterbacks. Second and third round picks ("day one picks") are expected to be starters. The rest are expected to contribute, both in situational football and on special teams.
The coaches who've done well in this new world are the teachers. The coaches who understand that their teams must be better week 17 than they were week 1 thrive in the new system, none more than the Guru, Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
The other things a coach needs in today's game is a scheme. He needs a deep understanding of the game from the ground up, both tactically (what play do we call right now?) and strategically (what plays are working? What is the defense doing against us?).
The scheme doesn't have to be any one thing. Part of Belichick's genius is that he adapts his defense to every opponent to take away what they do best. Other coaches are known for certain aspects of their approaches. Tony Dungy made his rep as Defensive Coordinator of the Vikings and uses the soft "Tampa Two" defense (but more recently has ridden the coat-tails of Offensive Coordinator Tom Moore's Manning offense). The Steeler's Bill Cowher is known for running a 3-4 defense with aggressive attacking LB's.
Coach who fail are deficient in one or both of these. The other factor is their GM - is the talent on the field to begin with? Some coaches get trapped because there is a perception by fans and media that the team is talented and should win, but in reality they are lightweights and can't meet the high expectations.
There are currently six head coaching vacancies, - and there could be more soon. Let's take a look a the teams who hacked their coaches into unemployment:
The (New Orleans et.al.) Saints fired Jim Haslett. This is considered the kindest cut, as Haslett has apparently had enough of the circus that owner Tom Benson has run, especially (though not limited to) the period since Katrina devastated the city. Benson has made a sham of a mockery out of the team with his transparent machinations to move to San Antonio while people were still burying their loved ones in the ruined city. A dozen dancing bears would do a better job of running the team, and with so many coaching vacancies open right now, Haslett can be reasonably assured of landing on his feet.
Why that is so is an open question. In his tenure as head coach, there's been no more a 'trick or treat' team in the league than the Saints. You never know what you'll get from them. Some weeks they look like world-beaters, some weeks they've looked like the clowns that Benson uses re run the team. If consistency is the hallmark of a professional in any field, it's been the thing that has eluded Haslett in his coaching career.
Ratings (out of 10):
Ability to teach: 7
Ability to scheme: 6
Used the talent he was given: 6
Dick Vermeil retires from the Kansas City Chiefs. The other amicable separation was 69-year-old Vermeil's exit from the game, again. Vermeil took a 14 year sabbatical from football coaching after losing a Super Bowl coaching the Eagles in 1980. He miraculously turned the Rams into a winner, and discovered Kurt Warner. He ran the 'Greatest Show on Turf" offense to a Super Bowl victory, then retired again. That only lasted a year.
Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz was given much of the credit for the Rams success (more on him below), but in his next incarnation as Chiefs coach, Vermeil showed who was the real brains behind the operation. He turned a cast-off RB into a record-setting league leader (Priest Holmes) and his Rams cast-off QB into a top performer (Trent Green). He didn't have a WR like Torry Holt or Isaac Bruce, but used guys like Eddie Kennison to compliment future Hall of Fame TE Tony Gonzales in the passing game.
His KC offenses became as unstoppable as his Rams teams had been, but their defense was far worse. The year he won his only Super Bowl, his Rams were first in overall offense and third in overall defense. Tough to beat that combination. His Chiefs teams were more of a tennis match - both teams scored constantly. The trick was to be the last to score.
In a memorable playoff loss to the Colts, there were no punts in the game. None.
Dick needed to fix the defense, but he never did. He also needed to lighten up. He was known for working himself to death as Eagles coaching his first go-around, spending nights at the office and putting in far too much of himself. When he came back, it was with the promise that that stuff would stop.
Which it did - he got much better at delegating. But he never stopped being extremely emotional about the game. Usually that's a good thing - professional athletes tend to be jaded and genuine emotion can bring out the best in them. But it also gets old after a while. Word was with the 1980 eagles that they'd tuned him out long before the Super Bowl. And the same word is making the rounds today - the Chiefs have heard all the weeping they ever want from their coach.
Whatever the truth is, the Chiefs missed the playoffs and Vermeil says he's done. Don't be surprised if he shows up coaching again as early as next year. With so many vacancies and his history of excellence, somebody's going to make him a pretty tough offer to refuse.
Ability to teach: 8
Ability to scheme: 8
Used the talent he was given: 8
The Texans fired Dom Capers. No surprise here. The only coach in Texans history had clearly topped himself out. Taking on his second expansion team (he was the first coach of the Panthers and took them to the NFC Championship game before flaming out), Capers made them better each year until this year. While he's a great Defensive Coordinator (as he's proven more than once with the Steelers), he's not really a head coach. His offenses have always been suspect.
This year, even the defense fell apart. The team was sloppy and unmotivated for most of the season. He was the first coach to extensively use the 'zone blitz' - but his current defense wasn't stopping anybody. His offensive lines were always bad - which you'd think a defensive coach would realize is important.
The team made way too much commitment to Dominick Davis, a marginal starter at RB. QB David Carr never developed because he was spending too much time on his back. He just got the living hell beat out of him year after year. Plus, he only had one decent receiver to throw to - what do you do when Andre Johnson is double-covered?
In the end, Capers deserved to be shown the door. Questions remain about GM Charlie Casserly. Was winning talent brought in? Did Capers do the best with what an over-rated Casserly drafted and signed? I think there's a lot of truth to that. Is David Carr a first pick bust? We won't really know until they start signing a coaching offensive linemen down there. You can't rate a QB when he gets that beat up. Is he gun-shy? Would you be? The question is whether he can get it back if the protection is good around him.
Ability to teach: 4
Ability to scheme: 6
Used the talent he was given: 5
The Packers fire Mike Sherman. Sherman was left with a winning legacy - a top team led by a future Hall of Fame QB and a Pro Bowl runner. As GM (until last year) and head coach, Sherman has seen it all crumble around him. The team is short on talent, especially defensively, and Brett Favre's final years of starting have been wasted. Sherman the GM failed to bring in the talent that Sherman the coach needed to win. When the GM job was taken away, Sherman the coach still couldn't win. Favre's had to try to win every game on his own, and as a result has pushed too much and lost games for them with too many gambles downfield.
One point in Sherman's favor has been the perception that Favre would retire if the team started over with another coach. That didn't stop them from canning Sherman, and Favre will have to make his decision based on who they bring in. I hope he plays another year, but limits his role. A defensive-minded coach could do wonders up there, especially if he puts in a conservative offense that doesn't call for more than 25 passes a game.
Ability to teach: 5
Ability to scheme: 5
Used the talent he was given: 5
Vikings Fire Meathead. Mike Tice is finally gone. The surprising thing is that he lasted four years in the first place. The former offensive line coach made his bones by talking tough with Randy Moss. There was a story, played up in the media, about Tice telling Moss to move when he took the seat from a team booster on a bus. Yeah, Tice could handle Moss. He handled him with a "Randy Ratio" scheme, where 40% of all passes would go to Randy. That could have made Moss the greatest receiver in the game's history (statistically), if it wasn't completely stupid.
You can't throw that many passes to one guy. It's an insult to pro defensive coordinators. Oh, yeah, then Meathead got busted scalping Super Bowl tickets. Which coaches from every team have always done (there are tickets made available to them), but Meathead got busted for it and killed it for everybody. Then there was the "love boat." Great team discipline, Meathead.
Look: Tice worked for cheap, and former owner Red McCombs was a cheapskate. New owner Zyg Wilf (yes that's his name) is showing signs that he'll spend money to field a winner. Job one was firing Tice.
Ability to teach: 4
Ability to scheme: 4
Used the talent he was given: 3
The Rams fired Mike Martz. It's hard to say who was the loonier faction: team management or "Mad" Martz. Martz always had an offense that was innovative and could move the ball. His defenses got weaker and weaker as the Vermeil era players left the team. He was always given too much credit for the team's success in the super Bowl years, and the expectations on his were too high. In his first year as head coach, he reached his only Super Bowl, a historic loss as a 14 point favorite to Bill Belichick's Patriots.
I always thought the key to that game was that Belichick baited him to stay with a passing offense. At a time when Marshall Faulk was completely utterly unstoppable in the running game, Belichick used his defensive schemes to challenge Martz. "Prove it" he said with his defenses; "show me you're more of a passing game genius than I am at stopping passing games."
Ten more carries for Faulk would have won the game for the Rams. Hell, maybe one more carry (he was that good). But Martz kept passing. And Belichick was ready for him. The Pats DB's knew every route. They were told: "don't play the man, just play your assignment." They stayed with their roles and knew what they faced. And they were physical all over the field. The Rams were coached to go down immediately and don't let a tackler hit you hard. The Pats were coached to get there one step ahead of the receiver and get a lick in.
Martz has had some health issues this year, but I think he'll get an offer from somebody to coach somewhere.
Ability to teach: 6
Ability to scheme: 9 offense, 6 defense
Used the talent he was given: 8
Brian "the Brain" Billick saved his job for a year, probably because it's going to be so difficult to replace a head coach with so many vacancies at once. He come to Baltimore as an offensive guru (the OC who set the all-time team scoring record with the 15-1 Vikings), but never had a decent offense in Baltimore. He won a Super Bowl on the strength of Marvin Lewis's defense. He'll be gone next year.
Mike "Mini Meathead" Mularkey might be out of the Buffalo job. Rumours (thanks to Pro Football Talk) have GM Tom Donahoe out first. A new GM may want to bring in his own coach, or could stick with Mularkey. Donahoe has been inconsistent as GM, building a pretty decent defense but making some serious mistakes on offense - including the continued failure to build a decent OL.
And Norv Turner will soon be fired by Al Davis in Oakland. Turner is absolutely hopeless. You know when he's hired that he will soon be fired and the team will regress. Honestly - how does he keep getting jobs? It's just another example of how Davis has completely lost touch with the game - and the business - of football.
Stay tuned - the ride will get bumpier from here.
By The Way...
And did you see Doug Flutie's historic drop-kick for an extra point on Sunday? First drop-kick in the NFL in 60 years.
And first overall pick Alex Smith of San Francisco has thrown one (1) TD pass and eleven (11) picks in 7 starts and 165 attempts.
230th overall pick, seventh round Matt Cassell of the Patriots - who didn't start in college behind two Heisman Trophy winners at USC - threw two (2) TD passes and no (0) picks in 20 attempts against the dolphins Sunday.
Can these guys find talent or what?
posted by fiduciary at 10:13 AM
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