Ghost of

I think mental makeup combined with the physical tools is what you need at QB. There's a guy who basically never loses (State Title in Illinois, IMG Academy National Title, College Football National Champion) and has significant ability to run and make NFL throws (but lacks consistency, partially because I think the running game can make you get out of rhythm) that may or may not be available. But as for Mahomes, I think he's way more reliant on improv plays than people think and one reason he's had struggles isn't just because a receiver dropped a ball (which is true a lot this year) but because he is not a great pocket QB, he's a great hybrid. He does struggle breaking down a defense at times and that's one reason he seems more vulnerable/beatable than the guys who are in the GOAT conversations.

Really? You don't think the fact that nearly every coordinator and great offensive head coach is not a former tailback matters? It's not that being a RB means you will want to run the ball, but that how you process the game (running backs are not regarded as cognitively demanding positions like QB, offensive line, possibly TE maybe) is laid down in your playing days and subsequently limits or enhances your ability to master an offense and call the plays in the most advantageous ways (as well as innovate.) That's like talking about head coaches and saying there's nothing to the fact that offensive coaches and offensive continuity are seemingly valued highly right now.

Yes, I think people are wanting the charismatic/"Great Man" style leader for GM, when what you want is someone who is an expert at instituting administrative structures, cultural values, and competencies. Because if Peters were to get sick, to retire or simply leave, you'd want continuity, not a Diadochi crisis.

I have a simple question: When is the last great offensive coordinator (let alone coach) who began his college and professional career as a running back (tailback, not FB)?

There's a phrase "complementary football." Tom, even in his career infancy, was excellent in pressure moments not just in big games but the mid-season contests. When your defense can rely on relatively mistake-free passing game from its QB, there is more they can do in terms of not only risks but even bend-but-not-breaking. There is a synergy there, which is why you usually see the very high-flying offenses not paired with a good defense, not due to lack of talent but the effects on the defense due to a high scoring and fast offense. For a good example of complementary football, see Michigan 2023. Bill's value as a coach was likely in setting the foundation in organizational culture and attention to detail but he needed Brady to actually win. Also, we expect truly great coaches to have assistants that go out and excel (not all but some.) The New England assistants have been enormous, and at times, embarrassing flops. That lends credence to the idea there was some emergent property in NE that was only properly catalyzed by Tom Brady and his leadership.

Aaron Glenn is no longer an excellent cornerback for the Jets but a head coaching candidate. I feel older than usual.

You forget he went to the SB with the Niners? Lmao what a **** take.

Yeah like have you ever heard people talk like this just because they had a new coordinator. It's the nfl. Except the QB no one should be bumping heads. And I love the "well he's a consistent asshole" answer non-answer.

I have to say it's bizarre that he is in this same position again. How does he keep getting away with it?!

I don't think Harbaugh would want total control. That need was colored by his experience in San Francisco. He interviewed with the Vikings who definitely have a GM. He may want veto power on roster rather than actual selecting people by himself. But I think it's pointless as I do not believe he's coming here at age 60.

How would you have watched Harbaugh since his playing days unless you watched and closely followed the Big Ten? As for cheater I'm going to dismiss that out of hand since both the covid dead period violations and the sign stealing are ginned up nonsense misunderstood or deliberately distorted. Compared to the practice of Saban and others who used to do oversigning and medical dismissals, pay players when it was illegal etc Meanwhile Jim drew heat from lloyd Carr about his criticism over academics and Jim has coached at two programs that actually have standards unlike many of his peers in college. And his teams play clean unlike how Spartans have had serious and even criminal assaults during or after games for years since Dantonio first coached. I may not like OSU but Michigan Ohio games are pretty respectful and clean. And the guy with the Niners seemed like he ruined that relationship being a liar and schemer himself. Clemson fans don't typically have a strong feeling about Harbaugh without it being entirely second or third hand and even then. So which Big Ten team are you a fan of?

Nope just leave no doubt and get blown out.

How? Like even rivals who don't like Jim don't think he mistreats players or doesn't care about academic standards. His players love him and he seems to have mellowed so being irritating (not same as POS) which was an nfl player complaint seems less likely. He advocates pretty consistently for players interests outside the lines. Can't say I know as much about John. Seems like you would have a stronger case with Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly or any number of other coaches.

McCarthy is going to be a good pro and is going to make a lot of people regret passing on him unless he goes back.

What a dumb sequence. They should have been prepared during review to run a play and not burn a timeout trying to draw offsides. Even if stopped, they could have had 3 TOs left.

Here's a hypothesis totally untested. Because of the offensive orientation of today's NFL it produces at least two observable effects: 1. Hiring offensive coaches is the norm. Corollary: the statistics cited above happen in a league where offensive coaches are most likely to last lead. 2. Due to rules and system changes (mobile QBs were once just a bonus, college spread and read option used to be a detriment as recently as a decade ago), it is likely seen as the best way to invigorate a moribund offensive team to hire a new "genius" coordinator. Looking at Shanahan it's hard to argue against it. However if there's one axiom it's that change is a constant What I think I mean is that the two greatest organizations in the NFL for last 2 decades are the Patriots and Ravens and both have been headed by non offensive guys. That's not to discount the Chiefs or Eagles but only Reid stands out as a constant whereas Eagles experienced discontinuity and change. Patriots are on a decline because it all comes to an end and Brady the organizational leader and symbol was more important than Bill B.

I'm old. I saw Slowik and thought of his father and thought "pass."

Unfortunately several key changes in both the college and pro game have made it harder (and in some ways, easier) to understand the pro potential of QBs. It used to be besides Peyton you could basically dismiss SEC QB prospects. You could just about always dismiss option QBs, then Run n Shoot variants like Andre Ware. Now I don't really know. I remember objections re Sam Bradford and looking to the sideline for playcalls (less so the offensive system.) Now I'm confused and that big chart confuses me more. So I'd rather go on intuition mixed with physical tools. I don't know enough about Maye to comment. I really like both QBs in the national title game. They both seem like fantastic teammates from good organizational cultures AND great physical talent. Penix can move and throw with touch anywhere on the field. Cool as a Cucumber and has command of the offense. McCarthy is probably top 2 of QBs career wise to ever play at Michigan and it's clear he puts team ahead of his stats or profile. He's mobile, a winner and can make NFL window throws but less so than Penix. He also has not had elite NFL talent at wideout but has had a tendency to make plays that win games when up against the wall. In a league with Daniel Jones, I don't see why he wouldn't have more potential. Something about Caleb Williams is appealing but ultimately he just seems less likely to blow up positively but I can imagine him having a really good early career due to his talent and extending plays. I would like an analysis of what contributes to a QB success from college to pro aside from the various derivatives that might be in use. Does organizational culture matter? How do we define a regime in college? Does Caleb Williams need to be understood as someone almost crippled by being at USC vs. even a Louisville? What made Buckeye QBs such a guaranteed miss in the NFL across multiple regimes and offensive systems? (And now seems to have changed with Stroud. I won't count Burrow since he did his thing at LSU)

You don't know anything about the circumstances though because you just compared him to Staley. Staley inherited a Wade Phillips built defense on a team that sold out to win a title and had ONE year as a pro coordinator. McDonald was hired to improve Michigan and beat Ohio State after Don Brown just couldn't adjust to the times. McDonald was part of a massive culture and attitude shift at Michigan. And after that he went to Baltimore to be coordinator. Keep in mind that John Harbaugh told his brother to choose between him and Minter. Both are great coordinators at the college level and McDonald proves it at the pro level. One thing that stands out to me is this organization was so dysfunctional it could no longer even make bold fast decisions like hiring Kyle Shanahan or McVay. But even that is marrying oneself to a trend. The offensive coordinator hire has its merits but they are as likely to flame out. What you want is people not just saying a guy is a good coach but is creative, innovative, a master of details and dealing with players. I find that a defensive or special teams coach (Harbaugh of the Ravens) may represent a way to maintain continuity at least on the non offensive side as every offensive guy on a successful team gets scooped up except Bienemy. More importantly, I think this team showed how behind the time it has been by drafting Alabama players. Yes they get talent but they got by too long on that superiority and their development and organizational model seems stagnant. The WCs should be looking at the Michigan-Baltimore pipeline. A long time ago this board talked about Eric Dacosta and others with Baltimore. It's time to dive in as I think their model is superior to Philadelphia or KC and Baltimore now gives you a possible entree with one of the premier college organizational cultures in the country.

That Joe Barry got another opportunity in this league tells you all you need to know.

I don't really remember how active I was at the time anymore, but I recall wanting to fire Gruden and hire McVay right out (people were so effusive in praise of him, I thought that unlikely he wasn't at least somewhat talented.) Gruden actually killed my engagement with the team and considering we were usually mediocre rather than god awful during his tenure, that is saying something about that level of futility one feels. Nonsense that you try to sneak in the fan critique with the organizational one. The organization let go of some of those great kickers because they really were struggling, missed key kicks at critical times, or sometimes really was just stupidly impatient. Tell me, were fans: a. Wanting RG3 pulled out vs Seattle once he started limping again? or b. Wanting him to stay him, damn the next several years and his long-term health? Who was responsible for that boneheaded decision? What fan revolt led to getting rid of...Graham Gano, Kai Forbath, Dustin Hopkins and many others? If anything the last decade plus tells me that fans are too patient. A few nitwits on a message board being overly critical or lacking in perspective is not leading to these decisions, nor is it really that important.

As I said before, he was drafted because he was one of the best in the country while at Michigan. I cannot for the life of me understand why he was doing another technique unless something about what he did before was being exploited when he was picking up a block? A lot of people assume (especially because of Snyder) that the very best leaders delegate and are not expert in every aspect of their organization. While I don't expect the CEO of GM to know the best way to make a particular weld on a particular part, I do expect that a football coach look at an aspect of the football field performance and know enough to intervene if the people to whom he delegates are failing. Often on a board such as this, you will have people defending a decision based on the fact that I cannot give you (offhand, anyway) the best way to defeat a specific defense, and therefore any opinion is invalid. But that isn't really true, and you find this even in highly technical fields. "Expert" people get things wrong, or make decisions for nonrational reasons that the "rational" orientation of someone wanting, say, a successful long snap, cannot fathom or agree with. And very often, the lay person is correct. Explicit technical knowledge is not always a substitute for other forms of knowledge, intuited by the sort of years-long piecing together of the "picture" of a football game and successful football (or whatever sport) that happens from dedicated fans of the sport. Why was Ron a bad coach? You might find that answer both more simple and more complex than you'd like. The answer is not in "personality" or "management style," though some aspect of those domains may bear upon the final results. Is good organizational decision making more the result of the interaction of extremely gifted individual talents and the emergent properties of an organization (meaning a Sean McVay would have failed here)? Perhaps. What is clear is that Ron is not (as currently constituted) a talented football head coach or general manager or football personnel guy.

He was great at Michigan.

I was at the training camp in '91 and even with the Posse, it was clear that McCardell was very talented and already looked like he belonged on an NFL field. So much so that I always remembered who he was and didn't understand why we let him escape when it was obvious the Posse were on their way out in the next 2 or so years.

To me this is less about Howell than about not having the chance to take Marvin Harrison, Jr. If the Bears keep Fields, then that opens up Harrison for them. But I'd really prefer to spend that not even on offensive line talent but on a potential HoF wide receiver who has all the attributes you're looking for and his a big target for Howell. I think even my critique of Harrison being a little soft is more to do with protecting himself until he gets to the pros. It's one thing if you have a Caleb Williams ready to go (though I have my doubts on him) but I'm more skeptical on the rest. For everyone hot to trot on QB, just grab yourself MH and then draft JJ McCarthy next year.