Mind Character

Interesting info. As long as McDaniel has his alcoholism under control and Stefanski hires a staff redundancy in case McDaniel falls off the wagon due to the stressors of the job, he's a brilliant mind and could give us the 49ers explosive play action offense mixed with Stefanski's explosive designs. Would prefer La Fleur not just because he lacks the off-the-field issues but also because according to people in the league he has the it factor and better coordination acumen.

The Truth ... there's no perfect candidates. What matters .. is that Organization set up structures, assistants, and support staff to Minimize the likelihood of failure for whatever Head Coach we hire, as well as minimize their weaknesses. That's the approach the Haslams should be focused on. They have to use all their resources and organizational experts to sketch out such plans and work with the Head Coach to see that certain training wheels and guide rails remain in place to prevent the situation from going off the rails or crashing. Some ways to minimize failure If it's McDaniels, 1.) The way to build around him is to give the GM/Personnel staff final say from the outset and have the GM/HC report to one another with a buffer in place to avoid political in-fighting and power competition much like the 49ers have it set up (Lynch/Shanahan report to one another and Martin Mayhew is the buffer between ownership). Assuming Ziegler or Cesario are GM our Buffer could be Paul DePodesta. This is especially important for McDaniels. 2.) Built-in Redundancies along the Offensive staff that can take over play-calling and or eventually step in as head coach in 3-years if necessary. 3.) Hire a Senior Assistant/ Assistant Head Coach with tremendous relational and problem-solving skills that Josh can lean on, be corrected by, and can help maintain positive relations with players in the locker room 4.) Hire a Program-leader strength/conditioning coach with high emotional intelligence that can help maintain buy-in from the players during the Patriots Way grind implementation 5.) Hire a QB coach that isn't a McDaniels yes man to protect the independent development of Baker; in general fill key positions in McDaniels staff with talented coaches that won't just be yes-men 6.) Hire a defensive Coach that can balance against McDaniels bouts of egomania without creating a defense versus offense divide in the locker room. 7.) Pair Dave Ziegler or Nick Cesario with trusted personnel execs that can keep the main thing the main thing and take the load/burden off of the first-time GMs. Have these Personnel execs not be political or yes-men to McDaniels. 8.) The worst of people comes out in high stress moments... surround McDaniels with a tremendous stress support staff off the field, as well as on-the field coaches that can take the burden of situational/higher level decisions off his plate in necessary times. Some ways to minimize failure risk If it's McCarthy 1.) Make one his hires be a QB coach with OC prowess that can be developed as either a successor and/or a reliable OC play-caller in the even that McCarthy is forced to take a step back from play-calling again. 2.) Add energy givers and energizing quality coaches to his staff to breath new life into the players as McCarthy's current staff is quite sleepy (has nothing to do with age as an Al Saunders was such an energy giving coach). 3.) Add a high quality defensive coach that can take over for Jim Haslett when he inevitably gets canned after a year. 4.)Selectively add members to his staff that can keep him at the cutting edge of 5.) Add a buffer between ownership so the seasoned veteran coach doesn't think he can easily usurp the younger GM (Eliot Wolf; Andrew Berry) or go over his head. 6.) Do not give all GM powers to Eliot Wolf; bring in an Andrew Berry or someone else as Wolf has some core deficiencies that don't hurt him as a scout per se but do as a lead GM. Some ways to minimize failure risk If it's Stefanski 1.) Have him start off not calling plays, but instead hire a quality play-caller (Shurmur); if he must call plays have him hire a young OC talent that has the OC title and helps take a major part of the burden of game-planning, installs, and/or situational calls off of the young HC (Mike La Fleur) 2.) Hire a situational decisions assistant/coach that help the first time head coach navigate the complexities of game managemetn. 3.) Hire an experienced veteran Defensive Coach that can take pressure and attentional focus off the HC (Wade Phillips) 3.) Build in talented Assistant coaches as part of his staff that can step in as HC and keep the ship sailing if Stefanski can't cut it. 4.) Add non-political, former Head Coaches or at least 1 to his staff to help him navigate the madness of first-year head coaching. 5.) Keep Brad Childress as far away from Baker Mayfield or real power in the organization as possible (He's a political animal; and runs his mouth about anything and everything whenever he gets a chance to; great offensive mind though). 4.) The way to build around him is to give the GM/Personnel staff final say from the outset and have the GM/HC report to one another with a buffer in place to avoid political in-fighting and power competition much like the 49ers have it set up (Lynch/Shanahan report to one another and Martin Mayhew is the buffer between ownership). So, power fever doesn't take anyone over. 5.) Let Eliot Wolf be Andrew Berry's 2nd in command, but give Berry an experienced GM assistant in a primary role.

Oh sh*t, I totally forgot he just got canned.. his work with Bradford, Keenum, Wentz, and Foles got him another HC job... would be a very strong option if he used his no nonsense techniques to develop Baker and without HC duties he's a quality OC.

No doub that OC/DC are vital, but HC is King and literally Everything. They are the Culture and Program Leader. That matters most.

Berry/Wolf/Stefanski + Mike LaFleur/Similarly Talented OC + NO Brad Childress + A really good QB coach ... then sign me up ...

double post.

Seeing what Belichick's assistants do outside of the organization is informative. It's funny to me how little Josh McDaniels time as OC in St. Louis is ever brought up in discussion. It's always Denver and New England. That year St. Louis had the Worst (32nd) ranked DVOA Offensive Efficiency Offense in the entire league. Interesting enough is that it was 32nd when Sam Bradford got injured 10 games into the season and it stayed 32nd. So, it wasn't just Bradford going down. They had deficiencies in terms of skill playmakers but Steven Jackson was still an impact player in the league. This was in 2011. Frank Cignetti Jr., McCarthy's primary offensive assistant and likely OC coordinated the 29th overall DVOA offense in 2015 with the Rams. Cignetti isn't thought to be a quality QB or offensive mind/coach either. If McCarthy comes here we need a better offensive staff. We need to pair him with some young stars.

Lost in the Stefanski love is the fact that the Vikings offense was struggling mightily earlier this season prompting big personalities like Stefon DIggs to request a trade and Adam Theilen publicly voicing frustration. Beat writers in Minnesota have reported that Gary Kubiak was given more power around the offensive planning and directed to merge more zone blocking, misdirection, and passing concepts into Stefanski's game planning. Kubiak also helped Stefanski resolve relational issues with Diggs. To me, as much as I think Stefanski has all the intangibles to be a good head coach, at this time I wouldn't want him to come in unless he's going to give full-time OC responsibilities to someone else out the game. I'd hope that person was a coach on the caliber of Mike La Fleur. Outside of such a coaching staff structuring if I have to push my chips into the middle of the table, I'd bet on Mike McCarthy, but would hope that we'd 1.) Bring Andrew Berry back no matter what to work with Eliot Wolf, and 2.) Could somehow force McCarthy to hire a young talented OC-in waiting candidate that could take over duties relatively soon. I don't believe in Jim Haslett as a DC nor do I believe in some of McCarthy's reported hires. In a non-perfect world in such a critical time, McCarthy with a vibrant, talented innovative staff recommendations along with bringing back Andrew Berry is likely the best option, but McCarthy staff is so uninspiring. Kevin Stefanski has his own problems and I worry about the staff he could put together. The good news is b/c of his youth he may be the most amenable to bringing in other young or older talented assistants.

None of Baker's issues this season are fatal issues yet as Baker can still grow, but we can't just simply sweep them under the rug rationalizing them like they were nothing or never happened. Baker still can have a bright future, but we like him have to at least acknowledge the issues as issues. The NFL is a Business. Baker Mayfield is a business professional. Professionals apart of football organizations understand that you do not speak about another man's business especially when the Business Executives publicly come out and say that your coworker/teammate " Is Not Expendable Yet." Also especially, if said player has been a hard worker, put it on the line for teammates, and a high character member of the locker room. Sheldon RIchardson, Christian Kirksey, Olivier Vernon, and Joel Bitonio all spoke to Baker about the Duke stuff according to Willie McGinest. The Duke situation showed ignorance and immaturity about NFL Business as it relates to good teammates, but it was not a fatal issue at all as young players have a lot to learn and Baker certainly isn't the only young player that way. "IF BAKER FELT BULLIED"... come on man this is Billion Dollar Entertainment business. Reporters goal in this entertainment business is not accurate reporting but instead to make headlines. As a leader in the organization, you have to restrain yourself and be prepared to receive and respond to media foolishness in a disciplined manner. Baker should've/could've handled the Grossi thing with emotional restraint/maturity. If he was in a New York market, he would've been obliterated. On the Odell thing, it would've been easy to elevate and stick up for OBJ without throwing others under the bus. It takes maturity to know how to do that. "Odell battles through injury every week like a warrior and we love him for that." Baker's Emotional Discipline and Lack of Awareness Issues on the Season were 1.) Talking about Duke's situation without awareness despite Dorsey initiating the issue with his comments 2.) Criticizing the Medical staff instead of just positively uplifting a teammate on their own merits 3.) Blowing up on a troll reporter fueling headlines when responding to such reporters takes emotional discipline 4.) Turning to Twitter to defend his actions as if justifying oneself to the the Twitter Troll Verse matters. 5.) Lacking the self-awareness to know troll entertainers like Colin Cowherd want him to engage in back and forths to boost $$$ and then engaging in twitter back in forths. 6.) Thinking the season would come easy and not putting in elite work in order to be elite 7.) Believing he can just go it alone mostly for his QB development in the off-season. ------ Everything we and Baker want for his career is still out there. He just has to continue to mature and develop. Hopefully he does so.

The actual video presser gives all context. It's not about headlines or misreading Baker. It's not just a misreading or misperception of some tongue-in-cheek comment. He was asked specifically, "Some of those little things you're talking about working on would you see someone for that." His response was similar and dismissive of external QB training help as he's been in the past in his comments and actions. The beach swimming thing is an embellishment of course but reflective of how little he thinks of such help. There's also a common thing that happens in human public communication called statement fixing. It's when people often say things first that reveal their real feelings and when they hear their words out loud and know that it might not be received well they throw on a phrase or 2 to clean things up public perception wise with the 2nd or 3rd thing not really being indicative of their overall point but instead a rhetorical device to blunt their original words. As a person that's studied communications, that's so very clearly what Baker was doing by throwing in the "Throughout this process, I have had people help me out along the way and try and take things from different people. Anytime I am around somebody, I ask questions. Do not act like I have it all figured out" line; that is, he himself is aware while saying it that he may come off as "sounding like he knows it all" so he threw in a line there before returning to the fact that he dismisses the value and need for seeking out QB training help which is what he concluded with. Contrary to your assessment, I think it is Very Clearly a person that isn't going to work with people in the off-season. I"m not sure how you could conclude otherwise. Beyond just this or past pressers, coaches and even Ryan Lindley have revealed that Baker isn't going to seek out such help. Around the 8:15 mark. That'

I agree that Caserio is on different level compared to Ziegler. I updated Caserio/Ziegler as the poll option. Interestingly enough Caserio beat out McDaniels for the starting QB position at John Carroll and the two have a more eye to eye relationship. Caserio would not be his subordinate but instead his equal and co-worker. Ziegler is thought to be more of the George Kokinis to Eric Mangini in terms of GM/HC power dynamics. After Houston tried to get Caserio last year, apparently Caserio was extremely upset that the Patriots basically blocked his joining them by filing tampering charges with the league. To make the peace with Caserio, it's been reported that Kraft has a standing godfather offer on the table for Caserio should he choose to stay. That's led many reporters including those that as recently as a month ago thought Caserio was leaving New England for certain to now believe that Caserio will stay in New England. There's the outside chance that Caserio could still leave. Will be interesting to see what's what in the next few weeks.

Even taking into account draft position and missing high round picks, there have been plenty of analysis articles on the quality of the Patriots draft selections. Contrary to popular belief, the team thrives through player development with its 1st to 3rd round picks fizzling out or becoming complete non-factors. A Wolf-Berry Front office would likely be stronger than a Ziegler-McDaniels front office where the Coach serves as the leading force in personnel decisions. I really hope we can pair Wolf and Berry together as opposed to picking one over the other. It would also be interesting to pair Wolf-Berry with Mike McCarthy.

Could end up changing, but Albert Breer, Adam Schefther (plugged in to New England especially), Jason La Canfora, and many others have all reported that Caserio is not at all likely to leave New England to join McDaniels and that it would be Ziegler and/or Scott Pioli instead with Ziegler being the hands down favorite in McDaniels mind.

Yeah my bad lol. Thanks. Just updated the thread, added the polls., and made it so votes are public. It will likely go as previous searches have gone... Key elements suggest one thing (McDermott, McDaneils, Stefanski again) and Jimmy/the Haslam's going with their gut in another direction (Hue, Freddie, McDaniels this time). When inevitably the Haslam's ignore DePodest or key members of the Strategy/Coaching Search team, let's just hope the 3rd time they do so it does end in epic failure as it has time and time and time again.

It's pretty clear who the real finalists are for this job in terms of GM/Coaching pairings. It's down to 3 HCs/GMs GM: Dave Ziegler/Nick Caserio, HC: Josh McDaniels GM: Andrew Berry, HC: Kevin Stefanski GM: Eliot Wolf, HC: Mike McCarthy ----- Aside from the quality of the individuals, the structure of power dynamics between the Head Coach and Lead Personnel Exec is meaningful. For me, there's more power balance with the Berry/Stefanski and Wolf/McCarthy pairings as Dave Ziegler has no GM experience and is thought to basically be the de facto GM in title with Josh McDaniels having the real power in the organization. It's been recently reported that Nick Caserio may no longer be likely to leave New England to join McDaniels as he may have a standing godfather deal from Robert Kraft. Previously, Caserio desired to leave because of how New England blocked his hiring with the Texans. Berry out of the 3 GMs has proven to be the least political being based on reports out of Cleveland, New England, and Green Bay. Who's your preferred pairings?

Technical Semantics. Letting the contract "run out" and firing him are the same thing as "letting him go" is the same thing as being fired.

As much as I question the agenda and want to say "get off our lawn." This guy's dialed in. Those illusioned by the success in 8 games never paid attention to the fact that the HC decision was bout the next 5 years.

He already gets got us before the got gettin needed to be got... We are him and he is us... we are one ... start the fun... and sign me up... Wears Brown and Orange... What a time..

Looks like only 3 other teams (not including Washington) will have HC openings that the Browns coaching search team will have to compete with. Browns: -- Reports that Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler -OR- Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry could be front-runners Panthers: -- Reports that Eric Bieniemy is a potential front-runner Giants: -- Reports that Matt Rhule may be a potential front-runner Cowboys: -- Jason Garrett not yet fired Washington: -- Hired -- HC: Ron Rivera; DC: Jack Del Rio

Kevin Stefanski, Greg Roman Mike McCarthy Robert Saleh Josh McDaniels Dennis Allen Eric Bieniemy Brian Daboll Mike McDaniel Mike LaFleur Matt Rhule (Declined Interview) ----- Interestingly, thus far only 3 previous Head Coaches (McDaniels, McCarthy, Allen). and no college coaches outside of Rhule. or ST coaches.

I just don't understand why at this point in the rebuild where everything is on the line... where if we miss we will reset the window... why would we risk it with a person where the conversation has to start with, "Assuming he's changed and matured..." OR "If he's learned from the last time..." We're not talking about first time coach issues... we're not talking about the first time coach failures and ego issues that happen often... we're talking about an EPIC collapse where Verified reports of McDaniels not having a clue of how to treat others and work with them. And I'm not talking about what my family said. I'm talking about other reports that to this point I've disregarded. You and others convinced me that there's no harm in just hitting a double or a single at this point when we've been striking out constantly. Why not be boring and avoid risk of total collapse. Even if no believes what I'm saying or what my b.i.l says, isn't there enough to know that this is a risky hire. I mean we're talking about things that a guy did at 34 years old. Not in his teenage years. After that he blew up and repeated issues in St Louis as OC then returned to New England to only then years later disregard the families of coaches he hired to the Colts and dip out on that job. We have no evidence or indicators of growth other than the belief that humans tend to grow and learn from there mistakes... I just don't get it.. why we'd do this now.. with so much on the line.. after suffering so much through the years... It's not about being an "arrogant prick" What about the last decade makes you think now the job is about Xs and Os and not leadership.... Chalking things up to "he's like Shanahan and Belichick" undermines the difference in the nature of their immaturity issues. McDaniels was on an entirely different scale. It's not just "he's gruff and has a hard time relating and sometimes can come off as a jerk"... it was far deeper issues that speak to one's ability to lead a group of men and an organization... ... i don't get why people are returning to the "Man he has a nice offense and worked for Belichick" arguments... round and round we go...

^^^ Top 5 most dialed in of all time...and might not be 2-5 ...