Why are so many head coaches so awful at their jobs?

[CKSteeler]

The NFL is an insulated world in general when it comes to non-players. As much effort as gets made to find players under every corner (and the teams still may not succeed in that regard as much as they should), they look in the same old places for front office and head coaching material. Flip side to that is that the jobs in question may very well require expert knowledge that only those in that world can have. But the people who get that experience may not necessarily be the best overall candidates. The college and high school ranks don't really attract the required talent. And as more time passes, more distance is put  between the coaching ranks of the pro game and college (I can't support this statement with hard evidence at the moment). So the expectation of expert knowledge grows.

I'm more confident that we're seeing the best 32 best QB's in the world each Sunday than we are seeing the 32 best head coaches. Though, the solution may be to support head coaches with the knowledge with people who offset some of those responsibilities. Belichick has sort of done that with Erni, in my view. That's a guy who has a background in football and coaching, but who left for an extended period of time to go to Wall Street and then came back to work with his buddy. They've been together ever since. Seems to work out pretty well.

If I were an owner, I'd try to broaden the talent pool of people I hire in some way. But then we have the example of the Browns...

[BAConrad]

In regards to the person (er Geno Smith) @celestial defending McAdoo...it isn't just about being able to design an offense, which is basically the only point you're focusing on.

Head coaches have so many other things that they are judged by..like actually getting your players to play hard for you and to run your scheme, or literally coaching players (ie working with guys, sometimes certain positions depending on the coaches specialties) and working with them to make them better, or working with your staff and delegating, so forth and so on 

McAdoo is a prime example of a coach only suited to be a coordinator/assistant. The guy doesn't know how to run a team. His players didn't want to play for him. The guy has zero clue how to coach an entire roster.

Look at Pederson for A sample. (Note I'm using Dougie P because I know what he does BC Philly is my team). He works with his star QB all the time. They have weekly meetings where they discuss the offense and the playbook. Heck, he even let's Carson come up with his own plays and uses them.

You think McAdoo and Eli had that kind of relationship? Lol. No. And that's one of many reasons why Pederson is going to be coaching in January and McAdoo is not coaching anywhere

[Hunter2_1]

In the case of Ben McAdon't, wasn't Eli and Odell pushing for him to be hired? He was 'their guy'. Classic nepotism.

[Kip Smithers]

The truth is we don’t know what truly makes a great HC or a very good one because we base it on results. I think we over value their importance and just play the result. A few years ago we were praising Todd Bowles that dissipated. McAdoo was getting praise last year and now he is a laughing stock. I mean weren’t people saying Sean Payton should be fired? We honestly had people saying 2 years ago Coughlin should be fired now I am certain just recently some people say “they should’ve never fired Coughlin”. Very very few coaches we know are good. The rest lol we don’t know nearly as much as we think we know 

[Kip Smithers]

5 hours ago, celestial said:

Name the coaches who would have done better in McAdoo's position and explain how. Explain how he's going to stop Eli, when the offensive line played well in Philly and LA for example, from staring down receivers and throwing INTs, or throwing behind receivers, and still win games. 

Oh my goodness stop it with this.

[Kip Smithers]

3 hours ago, BAConrad said:

In regards to the person (er Geno Smith) @celestial defending McAdoo...it isn't just about being able to design an offense, which is basically the only point you're focusing on.

Head coaches have so many other things that they are judged by..like actually getting your players to play hard for you and to run your scheme, or literally coaching players (ie working with guys, sometimes certain positions depending on the coaches specialties) and working with them to make them better, or working with your staff and delegating, so forth and so on 

McAdoo is a prime example of a coach only suited to be a coordinator/assistant. The guy doesn't know how to run a team. His players didn't want to play for him. The guy has zero clue how to coach an entire roster.

Look at Pederson for A sample. (Note I'm using Dougie P because I know what he does BC Philly is my team). He works with his star QB all the time. They have weekly meetings where they discuss the offense and the playbook. Heck, he even let's Carson come up with his own plays and uses them.

You think McAdoo and Eli had that kind of relationship? Lol. No. And that's one of many reasons why Pederson is going to be coaching in January and McAdoo is not coaching anywhere

Or maybe you’ll be coaching in January because you have a great defense and a great o-line. How about that? 

This is what annoys me because when the results don’t go your way, all the stuff that you praise him for turns to criticism.

[BAConrad]

7 hours ago, Kip Smithers said:

Or maybe you’ll be coaching in January because you have a great defense and a great o-line. How about that? 

This is what annoys me because when the results don’t go your way, all the stuff that you praise him for turns to criticism.

I mean sure, those are contributing factors. But you're just being obtuse if youre going to say those are the only reasons.

Look at Dallas and then look at us. Both teams have been hit by injuries, including losing their elite LT. Only we have lost ours for the season about 8 weeks ago, whereas Dallas lost Smith for maybe 3 weeks. Only The Clapper isn't able to make adjustments. 

Hence where coaching comes in

[Kip Smithers]

1 hour ago, BAConrad said:

I mean sure, those are contributing factors. But you're just being obtuse if youre going to say those are the only reasons.

Look at Dallas and then look at us. Both teams have been hit by injuries, including losing their elite LT. Only we have lost ours for the season about 8 weeks ago, whereas Dallas lost Smith for maybe 3 weeks. Only The Clapper isn't able to make adjustments. 

Hence where coaching comes in

Only Dallas replaced their tackle with someone who gave up 6 sacks. Did you? They lost their all world RB? Did you? That’s what their team was built off. Their o-line and running game. You still have a great defense and your line has still performed very well. Dallas defense has always been a problem. 

It seems like it makes a difference because you’re winning. McAdoo gets praised for being so forward thinking, holding everyone accountable, allowing players to express themselves and because we are losing now he has lost control of the players, players aren’t playing for him blah blah. You guys do this all the time.

 

[BAConrad]

28 minutes ago, Kip Smithers said:

Only Dallas replaced their tackle with someone who gave up 6 sacks. Did you? They lost their all world RB? Did you? That’s what their team was built off. Their o-line and running game. You still have a great defense and your line has still performed very well. Dallas defense has always been a problem. 

It seems like it makes a difference because you’re winning. McAdoo gets praised for being so forward thinking, holding everyone accountable, allowing players to express themselves and because we are losing now he has lost control of the players, players aren’t playing for him blah blah. You guys do this all the time.

 

First off, who is "you guys"?

And as for the whole injury thing, I only brought it up because IMO, the better coaches in the league have shown that they can still win even if they lose some important players to injury. Its one of many aspects of being a head coach. Being able to adjust your game plan according to your personnel.

You bring up the 6 sacks as if they help your argument, when in reality they don't. Claiborne got those 6 sacks partly BECAUSE The Clapper failed to adjust his teams offensive strategy. He literally did NOTHING to help Green when he was in, and proceeded to do the same thing when Green went out and his replacement gave up 2 sacks. Just one example of what head coaches need to do to be successful.

Also, I'm not sure about you, but I don't believe that McAdoo had a lot to do with the Giants 11-5 season last year. They won those games in SPITE of his offense, which was constantly bad last year and seemed to always hold them back. 

You're a Giants fan, correct? 

I ask because based off what you said it seems like you are, but the fact that you honestly think that McAdoo was set up to fail and that no other coach could have done better in his shoes sort of contradicts that assumption. Since you must not watch much of the Giants if you think that truly

[Soko]

38 minutes ago, Kip Smithers said:

McAdoo gets praised for being so forward thinking, holding everyone accountable, allowing players to express themselves and because we are losing now he has lost control of the players, players aren’t playing for him blah blah. You guys do this all the time.

Right right, you were the one defending McAdoo this season & saying there’s no chance the team gives up on Eli until he wants to walk...

Yeah, McAdoo was never praised as a forward thinker or a guy who held player accountable. Not as a HC.

[Kip Smithers]

5 minutes ago, BAConrad said:

First off, who is "you guys"?

And as for the whole injury thing, I only brought it up because IMO, the better coaches in the league have shown that they can still win even if they lose some important players to injury. Its one of many aspects of being a head coach. Being able to adjust your game plan according to your personnel.

You bring up the 6 sacks as if they help your argument, when in reality they don't. Claiborne got those 6 sacks partly BECAUSE The Clapper failed to adjust his teams offensive strategy. He literally did NOTHING to help Green when he was in, and proceeded to do the same thing when Green went out and his replacement gave up 2 sacks. Just one example of what head coaches need to do to be successful.

Also, I'm not sure about you, but I don't believe that McAdoo had a lot to do with the Giants 11-5 season last year. They won those games in SPITE of his offense, which was constantly bad last year and seemed to always hold them back. 

You're a Giants fan, correct? 

I ask because based off what you said it seems like you are, but the fact that you honestly think that McAdoo was set up to fail and that no other coach could have done better in his shoes sort of contradicts that assumption. Since you must not watch much of the Giants if you think that truly

You guys are guys that tend to over value these intangibles.

It could’ve been 3 sacks and my point would still stand. Philly put in a competent replacement. Dallas didn’t. They put in a liability. Also you act like helping a struggling player is revolutionary. It’s not. We’ve have done that with Flowers quite a number of times.

Believe me I know why we were successful last year. You don’t need to tell me. My point is that there was none of this criticism last year when we were winning but now he’s a laughing stock why because we’re losing even though he is same coach. That’s why I say how view coaches is simply by playing the results.

Yes, a lot of this is on personnel. Defense has taken a step back. We have been stripped of all our receivers in an offense that is quite reliant on receivers winning their matchupsand we have an immobile QB playing behind a calamitous OL. Yeah there really is that much do there. And we have adjusted hence why ELi’s YPA is low and gets the ball the quickest by far than any QB in the league.

[swede700]

17 hours ago, Bolts223 said:

Why are so many NFL head coaches so awful or mediocre at their jobs? I feel as if there are far more awful head coaches as there are good ones.

Why do you (or anyone else) suck at your/their job?  There's a multitude of factors that are no different than really what happens in most workplaces.  Do they have the proper preparation?  Do they have the proper support?  Are their strengths/weaknesses suited to be successful in that position?  McAdoo did not have the PR strength necessary to do the job in the NY media market.  Would he have been more successful in a smaller market like Buffalo or Cleveland?  Maybe.  But maybe he didn't have the strengths of being a lead manager of people either...I don't know.  

Jeff Fisher had some strengths, but he also had some glaring weaknesses...as in his inability to adapt to the changes that took place in the NFL as far as offensive scheming.  He was a great manager of men in the locker room, but he did not have the general awareness of the need to change what had worked for him in the past.  The same occurred with Norv Turner in Minnesota as the OC.  The same is probably occurring with John Fox.  The same has happened over and over throughout history.  It happened with Tom Landry, it happened with Chuck Knox. Who knows, maybe in 5 years, it may happen with Bill Belichick.    It doesn't necessarily mean that they suck at their jobs.  

I also don't believe that nepotism plays all that much of a part in why some suck, as often, nepotism can be a strength, such as was the case with Belichick.  If he hadn't been given a 2nd chance in New England, would we ever have known how brilliant he was?  

[swede700]

15 hours ago, Yin-Yang said:

The better question is why do certain owners/GMs feel content hiring guys with long records of failure? 

What teams are those?  Which coaches with long records of failure have recently been hired?  

[Kip Smithers]

18 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

Right right, you were the one defending McAdoo this season & saying there’s no chance the team gives up on Eli until he wants to walk...

Yeah, McAdoo was never praised as a forward thinker or a guy who held player accountable. Not as a HC.

Well given how he was benched and then reinserted back as a starter due to the expected uproar, how am I wrong? He’s still a Giants player right? Furthermore why I said is because we are the Giants and we tend to treat our most decorated players in a different way? 

Yes McAdoo was praised for that. Last year but obviously people will ignore that because, well, it was last year. He was praised for his preparations, altering training camp, player friendly etc. 

[One Punch Man]

Plenty of people suck at their jobs, regardless of profession.

It’s easy to criticize cause of the platform.