Points for new ownership to focus on

[philibusters]

If I were in shoes of the new ownership, this would be my philosophy on building the franchise:

 

1.  Have a plan to minimize the principal agent problem:  The ownership, management, the coaching staff, and the fans all want to win.  However everybody does have slightly different goals in addition to winning.  The owner wants to turn a profit, management and the coaching staff want to keep their jobs, and the fans want long term success.   I have been listening to a couple podcasts that have former General Managers as hosts: Thomas Dimitroff at the Sumer Sports Show and Rick Spielman over at CBS sports.  After listening to them I am more and more convinced that the principal agent problem is very important for teams (and is closely related to my second point of avoiding short-termism).  Management and the coaching staff had an interest in keeping their jobs and that creates two main areas where their interests deviate from ownership and fans. 

 

First management and coach are more short term thinking in terms of the management style.   Especially if they are in year 3, 4, 5 and beyond, they are not going to want to make moves that are long term winners, but hurt the team in next year or two.  You see that in how future draft picks are discounted severely.  There is no reason a 2025 pick is worthless than a 2024 pick from a teambuilding standpoint.  You are often talking about 25 to 30% discounts on next years draft picks.   This short term thinking is about drafting immediate needs rather than drafting high value positions.   Its about not front loading contracts during a rebuild that will allow you to sustain success as well long term.

 

Second, management's desire to keep its job leads them to discourage diverging opinions.  GM's and don't like it when scouts give opinions radically different from the consensus in the room.   Management wants consensus because its give them a good argument that if things go wrong with the decision, they can say, there were no other viable realistic options, there was a strong consensus on the point.   This is the collectivization of failure.  That said the literature on the point indicates organizations make better decisions where they lots of competing views.

Ownership can address these two divergences.  In terms of short term thinking, ownership can really emphasize to management that their priority is long term planning and that they are being judged on that criteria.   It also means giving management and the coaching staff some job security.  In terms of encouraging diverging views, ownership can ask management for alternative plans, ask them them to present the opposing views.

 

2.  Avoid short-termism: One of the more difficult parts of the NFL for me to understand as a fan is short termism.  I would be trading this year's pick for future picks given the discount.  I would focus on drafting the BPA at high value positions rather than filling needs in the draft (though obviously you are always doing a bit of both.  During a rebuild before the team is a contender or when I had a QB on a rookie contract, I would be trying to frontload contracts of my highest paid guys, I would refuse to a pay top dollar for good players who are not elite (sorry Daron Payne)

 

3.  Culture is important:  An organization should have a professional culture where people understand good work and behavior is rewarded and bad behavior and inappropriate behavior is punished.  The organization shouldn't play favorites.   Synder often failed on this point.   Ability to thrive in the relationship was based off personal relationships.  People close to Synder behaved inappropriately and were not fired and disciplined.

I do think on the football side of things, right now we have a good culture with Ron and Mayhew.   Players understand if they buy into the team it will help their career not hurt.  I think we are good on that front.   The goal should be to build that kind of culture on the business side of the organization.

 

4.  Trust your employees, but be well informed, and dictate the game plan:  I have already made this point indirectly, but I think the ownership sets the game plan and then lets management execute the game plan.  To me the Houston Texans had a disaster draft.  The GM, Nick Caserio, was not convinced any of Stroud, Levis, or Richardson were franchise QB's.  He wanted to draft Will Anderson, a very good draft pick, but probably a tier below Edge rusher like Chase Young, the Bosa's, and Myles Garrett.  He was more in the Aiden Hutchison tier of Edge players.  The problem is the owner wanted a QB, which is understandable, given that a QB can make a franchise.  The problem is ownership did not set the game plan from the start.  The owner needed to let Nick Caserio know from the start that the franchise was drafting a QB and set the gameplan immediately.  Then let Caserio pick who he thought was the best QB.     The result of not having that gameplan was that the Texans severely overpaid for the third pick.  I would argue that pick 12, pick 34, and a second rounder next year is fair compensation for pick.  Instead they traded pick 12, pick 34, next year's first rounder (lets say pick 8), a third rounder next year.    So instead of giving them pick 40 next year (estimating they pick 8th), they gave them pick 8 and pick 78 next year.  That is bad process and could have been avoided if ownership set the game plan from the start.

 

An owner is not a technical expert.  An owner should be wary of considering themselves an expert scout.  But an owner is often in a much better position to game plan for an organization.   An owner should dictate the game plan and the GM should execute the game plan.   And of course management will have input into a game plan, much like players have input in the weekly game plan, but don't get final say on game planning.

[aszumilo]

5.  Offensive Line

[DiscoBob]

Think WWDD... do the opposite 

[Redwards]

11 hours ago, DiscoBob said:

Think WWDD... do the opposite 

[DWinzit]

On 5/13/2023 at 12:07 PM, philibusters said:

If I were in shoes of the new ownership, this would be my philosophy on building the franchise:

 

1.  Have a plan to minimize the principal agent problem:  The ownership, management, the coaching staff, and the fans all want to win.  However everybody does have slightly different goals in addition to winning.  The owner wants to turn a profit, management and the coaching staff want to keep their jobs, and the fans want long term success.   I have been listening to a couple podcasts that have former General Managers as hosts: Thomas Dimitroff at the Sumer Sports Show and Rick Spielman over at CBS sports.  After listening to them I am more and more convinced that the principal agent problem is very important for teams (and is closely related to my second point of avoiding short-termism).  Management and the coaching staff had an interest in keeping their jobs and that creates two main areas where their interests deviate from ownership and fans. 

 

First management and coach are more short term thinking in terms of the management style.   Especially if they are in year 3, 4, 5 and beyond, they are not going to want to make moves that are long term winners, but hurt the team in next year or two.  You see that in how future draft picks are discounted severely.  There is no reason a 2025 pick is worthless than a 2024 pick from a teambuilding standpoint.  You are often talking about 25 to 30% discounts on next years draft picks.   This short term thinking is about drafting immediate needs rather than drafting high value positions.   Its about not front loading contracts during a rebuild that will allow you to sustain success as well long term.

 

Second, management's desire to keep its job leads them to discourage diverging opinions.  GM's and don't like it when scouts give opinions radically different from the consensus in the room.   Management wants consensus because its give them a good argument that if things go wrong with the decision, they can say, there were no other viable realistic options, there was a strong consensus on the point.   This is the collectivization of failure.  That said the literature on the point indicates organizations make better decisions where they lots of competing views.

Ownership can address these two divergences.  In terms of short term thinking, ownership can really emphasize to management that their priority is long term planning and that they are being judged on that criteria.   It also means giving management and the coaching staff some job security.  In terms of encouraging diverging views, ownership can ask management for alternative plans, ask them them to present the opposing views.

 

2.  Avoid short-termism: One of the more difficult parts of the NFL for me to understand as a fan is short termism.  I would be trading this year's pick for future picks given the discount.  I would focus on drafting the BPA at high value positions rather than filling needs in the draft (though obviously you are always doing a bit of both.  During a rebuild before the team is a contender or when I had a QB on a rookie contract, I would be trying to frontload contracts of my highest paid guys, I would refuse to a pay top dollar for good players who are not elite (sorry Daron Payne)

 

3.  Culture is important:  An organization should have a professional culture where people understand good work and behavior is rewarded and bad behavior and inappropriate behavior is punished.  The organization shouldn't play favorites.   Synder often failed on this point.   Ability to thrive in the relationship was based off personal relationships.  People close to Synder behaved inappropriately and were not fired and disciplined.

I do think on the football side of things, right now we have a good culture with Ron and Mayhew.   Players understand if they buy into the team it will help their career not hurt.  I think we are good on that front.   The goal should be to build that kind of culture on the business side of the organization.

 

4.  Trust your employees, but be well informed, and dictate the game plan:  I have already made this point indirectly, but I think the ownership sets the game plan and then lets management execute the game plan.  To me the Houston Texans had a disaster draft.  The GM, Nick Caserio, was not convinced any of Stroud, Levis, or Richardson were franchise QB's.  He wanted to draft Will Anderson, a very good draft pick, but probably a tier below Edge rusher like Chase Young, the Bosa's, and Myles Garrett.  He was more in the Aiden Hutchison tier of Edge players.  The problem is the owner wanted a QB, which is understandable, given that a QB can make a franchise.  The problem is ownership did not set the game plan from the start.  The owner needed to let Nick Caserio know from the start that the franchise was drafting a QB and set the gameplan immediately.  Then let Caserio pick who he thought was the best QB.     The result of not having that gameplan was that the Texans severely overpaid for the third pick.  I would argue that pick 12, pick 34, and a second rounder next year is fair compensation for pick.  Instead they traded pick 12, pick 34, next year's first rounder (lets say pick 8), a third rounder next year.    So instead of giving them pick 40 next year (estimating they pick 8th), they gave them pick 8 and pick 78 next year.  That is bad process and could have been avoided if ownership set the game plan from the start.

 

An owner is not a technical expert.  An owner should be wary of considering themselves an expert scout.  But an owner is often in a much better position to game plan for an organization.   An owner should dictate the game plan and the GM should execute the game plan.   And of course management will have input into a game plan, much like players have input in the weekly game plan, but don't get final say on game planning.

You have some very valid philosophical ideas. I particularly like the short term issues that arise and should try to be avoided. Seems this semi dysfunctional team has been dealing with these issues constantly through Dan's ownership from changing GM's HC's, OC, DC etc... Always appreciated a situation like the Steelers have had with HC's as constants. 

 

I do think this post could have fit well into the - The Front Office, Ownership and Coaching Staff Thread

[method man]

Winning fast needs to be the key. Every recent new ownership group has gotten off to a slow start. However, none of them had Harris's experience in sports

[Wyvern]

Harris will need to do a lot of house-cleaning.  From Jason Wright on down.  

 

Someone really needs to critically look at Washington's scouting staff too.

[bowhunter]

47 minutes ago, Wyvern said:

Harris will need to do a lot of house-cleaning.  From Jason Wright on down.  

 

Someone really needs to critically look at Washington's scouting staff too.

Yes, his GM. Who should make just about EVERY football related decision. Not Harris, not Magic. And if he wants to do this the right way, he will let the current structure run as is for at least this entire season without Dan and let them show their strengths (and weaknesses of course)

[Wyvern]

44 minutes ago, bowhunter said:

Yes, his GM. Who should make just about EVERY football related decision. Not Harris, not Magic. And if he wants to do this the right way, he will let the current structure run as is for at least this entire season without Dan and let them show their strengths (and weaknesses of course)

Agreed on the decision-making structure.  However, Wright has already shown he's "replacement-worthy."

[88Comrade2000]

The next head coach needs to be offense.  Just pair him with a good DC, which is something we failed to do in the Gruden era; the last time we had an offensive coach. Also, Shanny's DC sucked also.

[Warhead36]

On 5/18/2023 at 7:53 PM, method man said:

Winning fast needs to be the key. Every recent new ownership group has gotten off to a slow start. However, none of them had Harris's experience in sports

Can't sacrifice short term for long term though. Have a vision and execute it.

[Skinsinparadise]

Higher standards is good for any business. Culture.  Winning.  General approach.

 

Look at what the Giants did in short order.  They got a top rep personnel guy and made him GM -- they signed a top pedigreed assistant coach and made him head coach.  And they surrounded themselves with further top people.  Schoen brought one of Howie Roseman's top deputies.  And Daboll famously chased the best assistant coaches he can find regardless of not having prior relationships with him.  There was a long article from the Athletic about their process on that front.

 

I've been a Rivera backer in the context of Dan.  But I hate the idea of Rivera-Mayhew continuing with Harris is charge.  We can do better than this current team with Harris in charge because the standards are now higher.

 

I am not worried about it.  I think Rivera is a goner unless he has a surprise season.  As I've posted in another thread its pretty clear that it was the Harris group when it was mentioned by Russini this off season that a prospective ownership group talked to Sean Payton about coming here.

 

Dan has never had a future oriented regime.   They are about the present in some fashion or form just to different degrees.  Vinny would mortgage the future for the present.  The other regimes would also do that to some extent -- Ron less so but Ron also wasn't about trading assets for future gain.  Ron wouldn't blow up the future but also wasn't overly future oritented like the Eagles were when they needed to be.

 

What I am hoping for from Harris ownership is hire the best to run this team.  We don't have that now on any front IMO.  i am not one of these Ron critics who think he sucks or this FO.  I've been a Ron backer if anything.  I think they actually have done an above average job but I think they have a B ceiling.  And we deserve an A ceiling. 

 

Hiring the best of the best would be the first for this organization since the first Gibbs run.  That's my top desire for setting this future for success. 

 

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/for-commanders-new-ownership-five-key-steps-to-restore-once-proud-franchise

 

Decide who is in charge of the football operation

If the ultimate goal is to build a winning franchise again, this will be the most important decision the new owners make.

Right now, Ron Rivera is in charge, as he has been since 2020. Martin Mayhew was brought in a year later, but the head coach calls the football shots. Is that the structure Harris wants? And are those the people he wants in charge? He almost certainly won't make any changes now. But by the end of the season he needs to make a decision and a commitment.

 

The 61-year-old Rivera has been a respected, steady hand on a sinking ship in a sea of turmoil. But his three-year record — 22-27-1 without a winning season and just one playoff berth in a 7-9 season — doesn't inspire confidence. Of course, it could be argued the record is a miracle given Snyder's impact and the long-running quarterback issues. But it's still not good.

The situations are different, but for what it's worth: When Harris bought the Philadelphia 76ers, he fired GM Ed Stefanski on the same day the sale closed. But when he bought the New Jersey Devils in 2013, he kept GM Lou Lamoriello on for another two years.

By the end of the 2023 season, Harris needs to decide who he wants to lead the Commanders for the next five or so years.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[88Comrade2000]

On 5/18/2023 at 7:53 PM, method man said:

Winning fast needs to be the key. Every recent new ownership group has gotten off to a slow start. However, none of them had Harris's experience in sports

Not really.  Building the team the right way and building a team that can consistently contend.

 

If they feel they are only a few pieces away, they decide to just get the remaining pieces.

 

Or they decide, they want to tear it down completely. Trade the good assets for picks and rebuild.

 

Either way, take the time to do it right.  The winning will come.

 

People will be patient, if they know competent people are running things.

We rarely had that under Snyder.