Game Planning A Winner, Part 2

THE HEAD COACH

A few weeks back we discussed ownership and the head coaches that owners need to hire if consistent success on the NFL playing field is their goal.

Here’s our hypothetical “Head Coach Formula” in a pistachio shell:

• Create the business model you want to run. GM and Coach or one head-man of all football operations. Compare Cleveland’s or Oakland’s messy situations to Indy or New England for the approach that has clearly worked since the salary cap became a reality.
• Get a very young and successful coordinator, preferably from the defensive side of the ball, ala Mike Smith in Atlanta, Jim Schwartz in Detroit, Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. The reason we stress defense is that in December and January, the teams with better defenses usually win more games than those relying on offense. That’s a big reason why Big Ben has two Super Bowl wins and Peyton Manning one.

However, Josh McDaniels and Sean Payton make the case that young offensive minds can turn around the fortunes of a struggling franchise as well.

The formula’s key words are very successful. For example, the Denver Broncos are never going to have a problem on offense. Josh McDaniels learned from Scott Pioli (now in KC), and Bill Belichick (three-time Super Bowl winner), arguably the best at knowing how talent fits into their systesm and finding players who possess that talent–and the young McDaniels is a hell of a play caller in his own right.

• Let your new coach put together his staff and let your fans know–depending upon the quality of the team he is inheriting–how many years it might take for your team to make the playoffs a reality. For example, Jim Schwartz will need five good drafts and a couple fortuitous trades to break Detroit’s vice grip on losing. Steve Spagnulo in St. Louis and KC’s Todd Haley are working in similar situations. Conversely, Mike Tomlin was expected to succeed out of the gate, as was his predecessor, Bill Cowher. Sean Payton turned around the Saints from a three-win team to a play-off team in his first year.
• After the hire, if you are the owner, get the hell out of the way and let your coach and/or GM run the show. Give them the financial support they need to make the football decisions you aren’t qualified to make. Give your opinion if asked. Expect to play a lot of golf. Have a good time–you’re rich–and find something to spend your money on. The Dallas Cowboys might have 8-10 Super Bowl wins if Jerry Jones had followed the path outlined above.

So, armed with your young coach who is very successful on one side of the ball, what happens next?

THE REAL GAME PLANNERS

Every new NFL head coach should review the meaning of one word:

co·or·di·na·tion noun 1. movement of parts together: the skillful and balanced movement of different parts, especially parts of the body, at the same time. 2. coming or working together: the combining of diverse parts or groups to make a unit, or the way these parts work together.

If choosing a head coach is an owner’s most important decision, that coach’s choice of offensive and defensive coordinators is the decision that very often determines his success or failure.

I’m most familiar with Steeler history. I’ll use their last two hires as my primary examples. When Bill Cowher replaced Chuck Noll in 1992 he kept offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt. The Steelers went on to make the playoffs the next three years losing one AFC championship and one Super Bowl.

Cowher fired Erhardt after the ‘95 season and promoted the very young Chan Gailey to run the offense; Gailey was rumored to be leaving for another team’s OC position, so “The Jaw” felt he had to promote him.

The Steelers were transitioning from Neil O’Donnel to Kordell Stewart at quarterback. In his first two years, Gailey kept much of Erhardt’s system to ease the transition for Stewart. After implementing Gailey’s own system with all new terminology, then ultimately losing Gailey to a HC job, the Steelers missed the playoffs for the next three years.

Two important facts:

1.) During this change in offensive coordinators, Pittsburgh’s defense never ranked lower than 12th in the NFL. In fact throughout Cowher’s 15-year tenure in Pittsburgh, the Steelers ran his defense that finished out of the top ten only two other times.

That is why we insist on a “very successful young coordinator” as the best option for franchises looking for a long-term coach. If there is a change on the other unit, at least the side of the ball the HC specializes in will perform consistently well throughout that coach’s tenure.

2.) Most other owners would have fired a coach after three consecutive losing seasons. The Rooneys extended Cowher’s contract during his third losing campaign.

Beyond Pittsburgh, look at the improvement of the Colt’s defense after Tony Dungy arrived from Tampa. The offensive coordinator Dungy retained from the previous regime was Tom Moore. Under Moore no offense has been consistently greater than the Colts’. Sean Payton tapped Gregg Williams as the Saint’s DC. Williams might get another shot at being a head coach, but Payton knows the defense will excel as long as Williams is in New Orleans.

When Mike Tomlin was hired to replace Bill Cowher three years ago, he retained Dick LeBeau. Tomlin was a disciple of Dungy’s 4-3 “Tampa Two” defense–actually the Steelers’ ’70s defensive scheme conceived by Bud Carson.

LeBeau invented the 3-4 Fire Zone Blitz defense, (15 years ago, under Cowher), to thwart the growth of “West Coast” style offenses.) The two defensive philosophies are polar opposites. One attacks, the other “bends but doesn’t break.” Tomlin let LeBeau run the defense and became the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. (It should also be noted Tomlin kept Bruce Arians as his offensive coordinator.)

New England is another success story. Known as a very successful DC under Bill “The Tuna” Parcells, Belichick kept Charlie Weiss as offensive coordinator, thereby assuring the Patriots of having the most balanced,consistently excellent on both sides of the ball, franchise in the last ten years. The result: three Super Bowl wins.

Conversely look at the teams who stink year in, year out. How many coaches/coordinators have the Lions, Rams, Buccaneers, Raiders, and Redskins had in the last ten years?

For all his oceans of money, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has unraveled the championship fabric of a once great franchise. He has hired the best coaches, coordinators and executives–over and over and over again. And he will again after this year.

Jerry Jones hires and fires coaches like I change underwear–almost daily. Dallas has more pure athletic and football talent than any team in the league. Jones’ personality, organization, and football team lack cohesiveness, direction, and discipline… and have not won a playoff game in 15 years.

In one year, the Titans have gone from 13-3 to 4-6. In 2008 their defense ranked 7th; this year, 26th. In the previous seven years, the Titans had one of the best defenses in the NFL under Jim Schwartz–hired in January by the Lions as head coach.

Besides success, another determinate in finding the perfect head-coaching candidate is his career status, which often translates to his age.

Bill Cowher again provides the most useful example. At 35 years of age, when the Steelers chose him, Cowher consistently hired younger, hungry, coordinators, whose ambitions were to become head coaches. Dom Capers, Chan Gailey, Ray Sherman, Kevin Gilbride, and Mike Mularkey are just a few of the young guns he hired as coordinators during his 15 years at the helm of the Steelers. Many of them went on to be head coaches or coordinators for other teams–their departures took a toll on the Black and Gold.

Would it be unreasonable to conclude that Cowher has an impressive coaching tree, without deep roots? Had “The Jaw” kept the older, less ambitious Erhardt throughout his tenure, would Kordell Stewart have been a better quarterback? Would it have taken Cowher 15 seasons to win a Super Bowl?

When a very young coach comes into a new situation, history has shown his chance for success greatly increases if he retains successful coordinators and/or hires coordinators who are either too old to have or have already had a shot at being head coaches. Nobody is going to give Dick LeBeau another shot at head coaching. He’ll be the Steelers defensive coordinator until he retires. As long as Big Ben thrives in Pittsburgh, Bruce Arians will be the OC.

To get eleven players executing effectively and consistently, each player has to know his own and every teammate’s assignments. If any player stops to think about what he is supposed to do, the unit breaks down.

Only organizational continuity and stability can guarantee that level of coordination.

MAN SCOUTS

Of course, all of the above depends on the quality of your scouting department.

I’m a writer and an admitted Steeler fanatic; I’ve never worked in a football organization. I could draft the first two rounds for any NFL team successfully. The key to good drafting is picking quality players in rounds 3 through 7 and signing quality undrafted free agents.

Matt Schaub was a third rounder. Willie Parker, Tony Romo, Kurt Warner and James Harrison were free agents; future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady, a sixth rounder.

No team in the league defies the experts more than New England. Every April Mel Kiper’s hair catches fire because “they just picked a guy late in the first round that I had going in the mid-fourth.” First, New England always picks late because they end up winning a lot of January football games. Second, the players they “reach for” on draft day invariably become Pro Bowlers. They know the exact skill set new players need to thrive in their system.

Ah, yes, the players…

We will talk about them in our next installment…

• November 25, 2008 -- EnEfElquality (0)
• February 6, 2010 -- Super Bowl XLIV Saints vs Colts – NFL Football (1)
• January 31, 2010 -- Pro Bowl Before the Super Bowl – NFL Football (2)
• January 23, 2010 -- AFC Championship & NFC Championship Picks – NFL (3)
• January 16, 2010 -- NFL Divisional Round Playoff Games (3)