Week 11 AMA: Rizzler Ball
Thank you for doing this. I was wondering what your process and plan would be for this team if you were hired as the next head coach? What players would you try to keep? What positions would you prioritize upgrading? What positional coaches might you keep and what qualities would you be looking for in any new coaches or staff (medical, therapeutical, etc)? Are there any changes you would make to practices, training camp, etc?
I know this is an exercise that is very subjective to you and can only be based off of information that you have/are privy to (including a not so great but seemingly malleable salary cap), but just curious what you would try to do to turn us back into contenders given your own expertise and where we are now.
Well, sit back b/c this answer will take a while. In the interest of "brevity" (HA!), I'll skip all the politicking and management end of things.
The first thing I would do is bring in a staff I trust. One thing I've learned in 15-ish years of coaching is that resumes are barely relevant in the hiring process. When I was first starting out it was frustrating, but having been on the HC side of the equation for a while now, I get it. Coaching is such a high-stress environment, so you want to hire people who you can stand being stuck in an office with for 16 hours a day. Who you know can handle stress and your coping mechanisms won't rub up against each other. This is why coaches constantly hire people they've worked with before. Of course, familiarity with your system, your messaging, and your personality all plays into that.
So I get my guys for core positions. If I'm an offensive minded coach that starts with the offensive staff and vise versa. If you don't have a coordinator for the other side who you know who is on the market, then you begin interviews to find the right guy and once he's hired, I'd want to interview each assistant coach he wanted for his side of the ball to make sure we're all on the same page.
Before that's even done I'm reviewing film from the previous season and probably sending it to outside scouts I trust, as well as scouts in the current PPD that I'm keeping around--but I'm getting eyes I trust on it for sure. I'm evaluating players, mostly, and I'm looking for effort, first and foremost. Who, even when the chips were down, was still going balls to the wall on the field. I'm also reading notes, taking a look at "hall files" (material about player and personnel reputation and conduct). I'm even calling and having lengthy conversations with the coaches from the previous staff to zero in on any cancers or problematic personalities within the team. Putting together a sort of amateur psychological profile of certain guys--particularly those who are at a premium on talent/production, but have a reputation for being potentially more trouble than they're worth.
The goal is to root out the
coach killers--those guys who are high-production/talent players, but are malcontents, egoists and the like. I'll flag those guys and prioritize conversations (preferably face-to-face... the ones who can't make time for more than a phone call are putting themselves at the top of the "purge" list, for lack of a better term). Once I've had those conversations, I'll take the guys who I think are more trouble than they're worth and work with the scouts to figure out their potential trade value and the rest of the PPD/front office to figure out cap hits.
While I'm doing that, I'm also applying grades to all of the players and putting short files on staff who are interested in staying around. I add this because some coaches stick around through a number of staffs.
A friend of mine, Don Clemons, is now coaching out here in Europe, and he was the Detroit Lions LB coach and S&C coach for something like 27 years... on a team that was constantly turning over coaches. If you can find that guy in the building, he has survived multiple coaching changes, he's invaluable.
So now let's get more Saints-specific. It's very hard for me to say which players would apply to the purge list, so I'll move onto the more affirmative side of things. I'd be calling the leaders of the team and having conversations, just getting to no them. Not coming in like a hard*ss, but speaking to them on a human level. Kamara, DD, Carr, McCoy, Mathieu. Like Kubiak, I'd probably make a personal visit to Taysom Hill b/c he's so valuable to what I'd want to do on offense (and he's a player where it seems that coaches haven't always had a clear vision for him... and that can be frustrating). I'd also do the same with Alontae Taylor and Pete Werner because they're the furture of the team and are players who would be a top priority for me to keep around. I'd also be talking to the medial staff about Olave (the concussions are an issue and I'd want to figure out where exactly he's at, both for his well-being and to know how we need to proceed as a team).
Then there would be more conversations with the front office about cap numbers and resources--particularly when it comes to some of the aging players. There'd be cold conversations about who can restructure and who we should we release.
There's a lot more detail on all that early phase stuff, but to get to your last part--how I'd run camp and practices and all that. Well there aren't that many different ways to do this, so you look at what has and hasn't worked for you in the past vs. what has and hasn't worked for the team. I'm a big believer in accountability, attention to detail, and clear communication. Everyone knowing exactly the size and shape of their lane (players, coaches, and staff) so they can navigate it effectively. So I'd start by communicating this with the staff, usually through a presentation, where as a coach you kind of introduce yourself and your vision/philosophy and lay out not just your primary goals for the season, but the process through which you get there.
Then you do the same with the players. This is why teams all have slogans--the one-liners they put on the back of t-shirts and the front of hoodies, etc. Snappy phrases that remind them what this team is about. "Big Team little me" has been the Saints' under DA, which is just "check your ego at the door" type stuff. So I'd try to find something originally that reenforces our process and goals.
So yeah, from there it's a lot of college scouting, pro scouting, draft, OTAs, filling needs. That would really depend on the staff and some of the current positional decision on who we're keeping and who we're moving on from. Coaches don't only just like to bring in assistants they're familiar with--they also like to bring in players they know. Especially for depth and role playing spots. The dime package DB, the nickel LB, the slot receiver, the 2nd TE, etc.
That's a long diatribe so I'll cut it off there :). But if you have any parts you'd like me to narrow in on, I'll try.