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

[joru1000]

Dumb, incompetent people hire other dumb, incompetent people. 

 

 

[SteelKing728]

I think some are just unqualified for the position, but they get there because they are popular (good QB coach that fell into a great situation; a defensive coordinator who was under a great defensive minded head coach) or they have prior connections.

Humans are biased. These mistakes happen and continue to happen because we do a poor job of being objective and allow our feelings to make choices for us instead of logic. We're all at fault at this, and you see it pretty clearly in the NFL.

[lod01]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 11:06 PM, alfalcone said:

There is far too much nepotism in the hiring process for coaches.  Friends and family are hired at the expense of well qualified individuals.  Additionally, I think owners are far too risk adverse, which results in retread hires rather than innovators.

Nailed it. Additionally, many are actually dumb. You can see it in their faces. Fox is dumb, Caldwell is dumb. Lovie was dumb. Fisher was dumb. The NFL is no different than any profession. People get hired beyond their capabilities due to the above. Owners are football dumb and once they hire a loser, that loser will hire more losers. 

[khaosoy]

On 12/9/2017 at 10:09 AM, Malik said:

It's amazing how many people in front offices value things like "this guy has a strong handshake and looked me in the eye" when it comes to hiring people. Or simply coming from a football family. Rob Ryan was a defensive coordinator for over a decade while only having 2 seasons where his defenses landed in the top HALF in PPG.

A lot of it has to do with the 'eye test' that is so prevalent in sports (heck in business). Does he look like a football coach? He is from so and so football tree or his last name is the same as that one guy.....

There's also a reason why every movie is a remake or reboot. 

[PatriotsWin!]

Sometimes luck plays a part too. Some of these coaches are just stuck with bad players. Especially hard to succeed when you don't have a decent QB. The right coach-GM combo can make all the difference.

[Tugboat]

For one thing, i don't think it's near as "easy" a job as most fans like to make it out to be.

The other component though, is that a lot of coaches are frankly only about as good as their supporting cast...namely, the OC/DCs they can cobble together.  Which is tough, because the second you've got a good one for a year or two...they're quickly snatched away to be given their own shot as a HC somewhere else.  Which in turn, they're often not really cut out for, and also unable to put together a quality staff and set of top tier coordinators of their own as a fresh hire...which just contributes further to the pool of "bad head coaches".  And so round and round we go.

 

But also, the people hiring them are oftentimes a bit clueless in what they're doing in the first place (especially when ownership stick their nose into the process).  And in plenty of cases, you really never know quite what you're going to get from a "fresh hire" until you throw them into the deep end and find out.  But it can absolutely go sideways in an extremely public and embarrassing way that can easily bring down the rest of the front office along with them - which is where many managers tend toward risk averse retread hirings.  "High Floor" but "Low Ceiling" hires.