While listening to Casserly, several big ideas struck me.
1) An NFL general manager is just like a high-level executive in any business. He's a chief of staff who must spend a huge portion of his time doing non-glamorous tasks like supervising his subordinates and processing data. First-round picks and major trades are just the tiny tip of a vast procedural iceberg.
2) It's easy for a team to lose its way. When a coaching staff and front office have been in place for a few years, everybody knows everybody else's needs and responsibilities. When a team keeps changing coaches or shuffling executives, it can lead to miscommunication and breakdowns. The Dolphins spent most of this decade trying to merge last year's front office to next year's coaching staff. The results: squandered draft picks, quarterback-of-the-month free agent signings, and other evidence that the scouts didn't know what the coaches wanted, or vice versa. Bill Parcells brought in Jeff Ireland and a new top-down management system, and the improvement was so sudden that it was nearly historic.
At the same time, it's possible that a well-oiled front office can atrophy, with everyone so entrenched in their roles that they cannot change. That may be what happened in Denver: The Broncos have changed some pieces in the front office over the years, but Mike Shanahan called nearly all of the shots, and his system reached the point of diminishing returns about three years ago. The Eagles may have reached that point: The scouts and Tom Heckert know what Andy Reid wants, Reid knows what his execs can give him, and everyone has forgotten how to question or adjust the system. It's easy to see how a team like the Colts becomes more Colts-like every year under Bill Polian and Tony Dungy, with scouts churning out lists of affordable linebackers and coaches filling their Santa lists with top-shelf receivers and linemen who can pass protect on the fly. The Broncos, Eagles and Colts have been successful, and the alternative is far worse, but all teams need a shake-up once in a while.
3) This NFL stuff really is complicated. Aaron and I asked very few questions during Casserly's informal lecture. Jaws and Cosell asked the questions, and it was exciting to be part of a collegial environment where everyone wanted to learn more about football. But if Jaws and Cosell needed more information on the day-to-day life of a general manager, then it's clear that most of us are completely clueless. The television commentators know nothing. The talk radio hosts know nothing (surprise). I just told you everything I know, and it is all second-hand from Casserly; if I spoke to Polian or Ozzie Newsome, I would probably get a whole different story.
The minutiae of the NFL can be awe-inspiring. The general manager, flying to college campuses to talk to strength coaches about a player's work ethic. The scouts, carefully grading cornerbacks on their footwork and hip placement. The coordinators, watching one play 50 times in search of breakdowns and improvements. The team signs Matt Ryan and we cheer, or they sign Ryan Leaf and we scoff and accuse everyone of incompetence. But there's so much going on in those offices and film rooms that even the most respected experts need to educate one another.
So when a Schottenheimer or Pioli is hired, we may think immediately about his track record, his boom-and-bust personnel moves, and other products of that exec's last stop. We really should be thinking about the process: The new hire's skills as a communicator, delegator, and time manager. We have no way of measuring these attributes, of course, but these invisible skills will determine what makes or breaks teams like the Browns and Chiefs.
