klos63 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) Throughout the past week , I've found it very interesting how most posters react to a hire. It's basically, how the player/players he most recently coached performed, maybe league ranking, but really not much of a thought out critique encompassing factors such as player quality, team quality, full body of work, the situation they will be coming into.... Roman for example was a hot commodity 2 years ago for a head coach after Kaepernicks great Super Bowl season, now since he took a step back this year, some think Roman is a bad choice. I seems like those who want to criticize the hire will find one negative and attribute it to the new hire and condemn it. Would like to know your thoughts on a fair way to assess a new hire. Edited January 17, 2015 by klos63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Jackson Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 This is an interesting topic. For me, judging a new hire is based on the philosophy of the hire. Does what this coach wants to do match the talent on the roster? In Rex's case he wants to play a physical attacking defense and a power running game. The Bills defense can flourish in a variety of systems. I'm not sure that his is the best fit but it's a good fit. On the offensive side of the ball they are going to have to make some changes to their personnel to make that work. They need to improve the line and need a power back (Todd Gurley, Adrian Peterson). Obviously the QB will play a huge role but that was the case regardless of the hire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugny Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Speaking with regard to a HC hire, I try to base it on how they've done with a healthy, talented team, for the most part. Also, how they've done with teams who've been hit by the injury bug. Other questions that I consider: How much talent were they given? Did they have a meddling owner who undermined his decisions? How have his players responded? Have his teams in the past shown that they know how to "win" or "close" games? For a coordinator: Did he find ways to get his playmakers involved? Did he have a HC who held him back? Did he make good in-game adjustments based on what the opposing D was doing? Or is he stubborn? Did he create an offense that plays to his roster's strengths, but also avoids his roster's weaknesses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockinon Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Who says it has to be fair when you are in an environment where the HC is seeking out the best he can find? Often in his mind it is the guy that he knows he can work with. Sometimes he needs to fill a position with who thinks is the best man available and the guy left over from the previous regime is the odd man out....even if he did a good job. Fair? Seriously? You are at the mercy of the one who is doing the hiring. Even if you are excellent at your job, if the person doing the hiring doesn't like you, you are dead in the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) This is a great post. Ideally, you look at what the position coach achieved with the hand he was dealt. But this is hard for a couple reasons. First, we Bills fans are usually not great talent evaluators when it comes to other teams. I know I'm not. Second, position coaches work for coordinators who devise/implement schemes that might make the position coaches look better - or worse - than they really are. To get past these two problems, I try to look at the coach's achievements over the years with different teams. When a guy is successful where ever he goes, you start to believe it's not the players beneath him or the coaches above him. It's him. I also tend to get encouraged when a position coach keeps getting hired by top-flight coordinators and HCs. It suggests he's got a good reputation in the coaching community. If a guy has a long tenure as a position coach, but always works for losers, it gives me pause. Edited January 17, 2015 by hondo in seattle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeviF Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Knee-jerk reactions the day of said hire, obviously. Haven't you been here before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffaloed in Pa Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Their is none. Time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klos63 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Their is none. Time will tell. That's my view as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffaloed in Pa Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That's my view as well. Yeah others will make up mumbo jumbo. Been there seen that many,many times. Time will tell all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Linen Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 There's a million different ways to look at this and there's so much criteria you could look at it makes my head spin. Most would agree that if you have a top QB things get expeditiously easier on coaches to win. It can make coaching mistakes easier for a team to absorb - so if you don't have a top QB those mistakes become much more difficult to overcome in a given game and season for that matter. The front office missing on draft picks, failing in free agency, getting the club in salary cap trouble all contributes to coaches ability to succeed or fail. My point is we have a capable coach. Rex has a vast amount of experience and has been around NFL football for a very long time and his knowledge is not debatable. So IMO all things need to come together. We can win even if we solve the QB situation in the short term because Rex has the ability to lead a team. If we can solve the QB situation long term we can become a perennial contending team. My message to fellow Bills fans is enjoy the opportunity to see what this fantastic coach can do. We all know everything may not come together but if a lot does we will be a team that can win. It's much harder but there's examples of teams without a top QB that make runs or even win the super bowl and that's our situation. We have an extremely talented roster that I'd argue is as loaded as any of the great teams in the NFL. I believe we have the right coach for a team without a proven QB that gives us that chance to be one of the few teams without one to succeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmotionallyUnstable Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 How does the HC relate to the current roster philosophically and personally. Full body of coaching work is a fair as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler#81 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 As expressed by T. Pegs, hiring an experienced HC with success goes a long way toward his established relationships. I won't profess to be expert about any of Rex's hires, I'm just on board with his significant knowledge of his colleagues and what they're capable of. This said, there's a monster thread going by 'experts' who claim he hired a Rat Fink.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffaloed in Pa Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 As expressed by T. Pegs, hiring an experienced HC with success goes a long way toward his established relationships. I won't profess to be expert about any of Rex's hires, I'm just on board with his significant knowledge of his colleagues and what they're capable of. This said, there's a monster thread going by 'experts' who claim he hired a Rat Fink.. Ha,ha ha. Like the rat fink thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campy Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 <snip> Would like to know your thoughts on a fair way to assess a new hire. You wait a year before passing judgment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Throughout the past week , I've found it very interesting how most posters react to a hire. It's basically, how the player/players he most recently coached performed, maybe league ranking, but really not much of a thought out critique encompassing factors such as player quality, team quality, full body of work, the situation they will be coming into.... Roman for example was a hot commodity 2 years ago for a head coach after Kaepernicks great Super Bowl season, now since he took a step back this year, some think Roman is a bad choice. I seems like those who want to criticize the hire will find one negative and attribute it to the new hire and condemn it. Would like to know your thoughts on a fair way to assess a new hire. A new hire should be based on all the many variables you outline, and certainly not purely on a single, tunnel-visioned stat like wins and losses in a single year or even a few years. I would evaluate the man on the man. Identify the job duties you want him to perform at a high level, and then assess whether or not that individual can perform those duties at that high level. This has been talked about before recently at this forum. Namely, what do you want your coach to do? What is a good coach? He has to do 7 or 8 things very well. Coordinate, lead, inspire, communicate, prepare, dissect opposing offense and defense and devise ways to defeat them in a very Xs and Os tactical kind of way. He has to be a field general, a game manager, an on-the-spot thinker who more often than not judges the right thing to do, at the right time, without any time to think about it. And he has to manage the clock. A fair way to evaluate Rex, for example, is look at his entire NFL body of work as a head coach, and then try to rate his performance in these areas. Clearly he is a great communicator, leader, and someone who can inspire. We know his players tend to love him and love playing for him. He excels in these areas, and we got a taste of it at the introductory PC. We know his Xs and Os tactical knowledge, on defense, is superlative. Some would say it is as good as anyone in the game today. That's good. Regarding offense? Probably not nearly as strong, but he has an OC for that. Game generalship? Clock management? On-the-spot tactical/strategic thinking during a game? This is where he has been perhaps most heavily criticized in the NYC press. It's one of Rex's weaknesses. It was addressed at the PC and he said he needs to improve in these areas. I think Rex will make sure every player will know his job and know what the team expects from him. I think he will inspire and prepare the team well each week. I think he is a great Defensive coach. How will the offense behave under his command? Just how good or bad is Rex's game management? Those are the 2 biggest questions for me. Time will tell. The last thing I would do is critique/analyze Rex based on the Jets' record in the last year or 2. There are 10 million variables muddying the waters in that kind of an analysis and it's not really useful data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnwalter Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 wait two and a half years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffaloed in Pa Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 wait two and a half years. That's all you can do. Again and again and again. When will it stop ? Hopefully soon. I`m not getting any younger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BackInDaDay Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 whether he owns more than three visors.. obviously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealityCheck Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 I judge them by their 40 times and the Wonderlic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) You wait a year before passing judgment. Based on that, Danny Crossman was a horrible hire. Going back further, you'd have to question the hiring of Marv Levy too. He went 2-5 in his first partial year with the Bills, after going 3-6 in his last (partial) year with KC. Maybe you need more than a year? Edited January 17, 2015 by hondo in seattle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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