byau
Active member
Something on my mind with the whole Dan Quinn and coaching search and "do we wait or do we not?" thing going on... not to mention my company's own annual performance review process going on....
Got me thinking:
First, in context, I currently work in a company that spends a huge amount of time and resources on employee development. Besides the normal courses in conflict resolution, anti-trust policies, etc.etc (and I'm a computer engineer), a lot of time is also spent on performance review process and career development.
In reality, win-win for both company and employee. Mutually makes us better
You can probably see where I'm going with this.
The elite teams in the NFL? Hard to argue: Patriots, Packers, Seahawks (sorry Colts fans)
Let's use the "most important" position on the team as an example.
Tom Brady:
* Drafted in the 6th round.
* Rookie season he was a 4th string quarterback (4th string!!)
* This is also Coach Belchick's first year with the Patriots as well.
* Brady started his second season as the 2nd string QB behind Bledsoe.
* Bledsoe goes down with an injury in the 2nd game.
* Brady finishes the season spectacularly with a Pro-Bowl nod.
* In 2002, full of fire, the Patriots were... pedestrian. Finishing 9-7 with no playoffs.
* But in 2003, Brady's second season as starter, the Patriots go on to win the SB.
How can you not attribute this to a lot of patience and foresight by QB and Coach and front office? Who keeps a 4th string QB around anyway? Except seeing potential in that guy and developing him.
Aaron Rodgers:
* He was drafted to serve as a backup to Brett Favre.
* Rodgers ran the scouting team really hard to the point some players complained.
* Rodgers saw it as getting game time reps in
* Coach Mike McCarthy is brought in during Rodgers second year.
* Rodgers, not Favre, attends Mike McCarthy's "Quarterback School" to focus on skills and mechanics as a QB.
* Favre is still the starter, the guy who did not sacrifice the time to attend QB school
* What does Rodgers do? He spends a lot of time helping Favre acclimate to McCarthy's new system having gone through McCarthy's QB school
* Favre returns for a third season, again keeping Rodgers on the bench. Rodgers continues his hard work
* It is not until Rodgers 4th season he is named starter.
* In 2010, Rodgers' second season as starter: he takes his team to win the SB
Russell Wilson:
We all know his story, but it should familiar if you've read the above two. You can basically read the above but skip the part about sitting on the bench. While drafted to be a possible backup, he took the starting job right away. But interesting to note
* Second season as starter: he takes his team to win the SB
In all three cases, you have consistency with a coach and front office and player development.
What can you infer from these examples?
Elite teams look for more than physical talent:
Evaluating talent is a given. Everyone has to evaluate talent. But what about the intangible talent? That which cannot be measured at a combine? How many people would go through their coach's "Quarterback School" for hours a day, many days a week, then when they find out they are a backup to someone who did not attend the Quarterback School, do what they can to HELP the starter ease into the new system? This it the type of talent that is not easily seen, which means a person with this type of talent could easily fall to the third round in the draft. Or even in the sixth round
Elite teams develop that talent
We hear it over and over again. Player development. But do all teams REALLY know what it means? Because the reason you need to find this intangible talent? So you can develop them.
Players rarely come out of college ready to play, no matter what their raw skills just like a college diploma does not give you all the knowledge you need about a job.
Once you start that job, you learn on the job the specifics of that company and that company's product. Something as elite as a pro athlete, is that going to be different? Pro athletes need to develop to become elite.
It is not necessarily wrong to bring in athletes based on their physical skills, but if they are not coachable, if they cannot be developed, if they do not understand how to fit into a system, then they cannot be elite, and your team cannot be elite
What do non-elite teams do?
They don't wait three weeks for the right coach. Yes this post has been bubbling in my mind because of the whole coaching thing and Dan Quinn. While Dan Quinn may not be as good of a head-coach-type-material as some people might think (discussed in other threads), the point is, some teams might think he is the perfect head coach. But they don't want to wait three weeks for him to finish his playoff run and go and get the next guy
If player development was a priority, and you found the perfect coach to develop the players in a way you want to, wouldn't you wait for him?
Only if you want to be elite.
Sure you may end up making a mistake when you find out the development doesn't work as planned but that's the mentality you take to be elite: you hire, you bring in, you draft with the purpose of developing.
Whether coach or player, when you use this mentality, when it works out, hooooo boy does it work out (see Marshawn Lynch) and when it doesn't, you cut it quick and move on to the next thing (see Percy Harvin). The mentality of evaluating and developing shouldn't change.
Love these guys!!
How much do you appreciate these Seahawks?!!
OH YEAH BABY!!! GO HAWKS!!
Got me thinking:
First, in context, I currently work in a company that spends a huge amount of time and resources on employee development. Besides the normal courses in conflict resolution, anti-trust policies, etc.etc (and I'm a computer engineer), a lot of time is also spent on performance review process and career development.
In reality, win-win for both company and employee. Mutually makes us better
You can probably see where I'm going with this.
The elite teams in the NFL? Hard to argue: Patriots, Packers, Seahawks (sorry Colts fans)
Let's use the "most important" position on the team as an example.
Tom Brady:
* Drafted in the 6th round.
* Rookie season he was a 4th string quarterback (4th string!!)
* This is also Coach Belchick's first year with the Patriots as well.
* Brady started his second season as the 2nd string QB behind Bledsoe.
* Bledsoe goes down with an injury in the 2nd game.
* Brady finishes the season spectacularly with a Pro-Bowl nod.
* In 2002, full of fire, the Patriots were... pedestrian. Finishing 9-7 with no playoffs.
* But in 2003, Brady's second season as starter, the Patriots go on to win the SB.
How can you not attribute this to a lot of patience and foresight by QB and Coach and front office? Who keeps a 4th string QB around anyway? Except seeing potential in that guy and developing him.
Aaron Rodgers:
* He was drafted to serve as a backup to Brett Favre.
* Rodgers ran the scouting team really hard to the point some players complained.
* Rodgers saw it as getting game time reps in
* Coach Mike McCarthy is brought in during Rodgers second year.
* Rodgers, not Favre, attends Mike McCarthy's "Quarterback School" to focus on skills and mechanics as a QB.
* Favre is still the starter, the guy who did not sacrifice the time to attend QB school
* What does Rodgers do? He spends a lot of time helping Favre acclimate to McCarthy's new system having gone through McCarthy's QB school
* Favre returns for a third season, again keeping Rodgers on the bench. Rodgers continues his hard work
* It is not until Rodgers 4th season he is named starter.
* In 2010, Rodgers' second season as starter: he takes his team to win the SB
Russell Wilson:
We all know his story, but it should familiar if you've read the above two. You can basically read the above but skip the part about sitting on the bench. While drafted to be a possible backup, he took the starting job right away. But interesting to note
* Second season as starter: he takes his team to win the SB
In all three cases, you have consistency with a coach and front office and player development.
What can you infer from these examples?
Elite teams look for more than physical talent:
Evaluating talent is a given. Everyone has to evaluate talent. But what about the intangible talent? That which cannot be measured at a combine? How many people would go through their coach's "Quarterback School" for hours a day, many days a week, then when they find out they are a backup to someone who did not attend the Quarterback School, do what they can to HELP the starter ease into the new system? This it the type of talent that is not easily seen, which means a person with this type of talent could easily fall to the third round in the draft. Or even in the sixth round
Elite teams develop that talent
We hear it over and over again. Player development. But do all teams REALLY know what it means? Because the reason you need to find this intangible talent? So you can develop them.
Players rarely come out of college ready to play, no matter what their raw skills just like a college diploma does not give you all the knowledge you need about a job.
Once you start that job, you learn on the job the specifics of that company and that company's product. Something as elite as a pro athlete, is that going to be different? Pro athletes need to develop to become elite.
It is not necessarily wrong to bring in athletes based on their physical skills, but if they are not coachable, if they cannot be developed, if they do not understand how to fit into a system, then they cannot be elite, and your team cannot be elite
What do non-elite teams do?
They don't wait three weeks for the right coach. Yes this post has been bubbling in my mind because of the whole coaching thing and Dan Quinn. While Dan Quinn may not be as good of a head-coach-type-material as some people might think (discussed in other threads), the point is, some teams might think he is the perfect head coach. But they don't want to wait three weeks for him to finish his playoff run and go and get the next guy
If player development was a priority, and you found the perfect coach to develop the players in a way you want to, wouldn't you wait for him?
Only if you want to be elite.
Sure you may end up making a mistake when you find out the development doesn't work as planned but that's the mentality you take to be elite: you hire, you bring in, you draft with the purpose of developing.
Whether coach or player, when you use this mentality, when it works out, hooooo boy does it work out (see Marshawn Lynch) and when it doesn't, you cut it quick and move on to the next thing (see Percy Harvin). The mentality of evaluating and developing shouldn't change.
Love these guys!!
How much do you appreciate these Seahawks?!!
OH YEAH BABY!!! GO HAWKS!!
