Making changes to GMs, HCs, and Coordinators causes a lot of disruption to a football team.
There is a lot that goes into these changes besides just listening to the fans wail and then saying “Oh, ok, I guess I’ll go fire everyone then.” Finding replacements is a big deal from identifying talent to interviewing and vetting, to hoping your hot new coaching candidate doesn’t end up being the next Ben McAdoo. Then you have to wonder how the new guy will mesh with the rest of the staff, how players will react, if the move actually divides the players, what kind of message the move sends to the rest of the staff, p!ssg matches over salary and parking spots, and a whole bunch of other headaches that teams shouldn’t invite.
These moves should only happen when there is a damn good reason
In the case of GM, I firmly believe that Ted’s new role was based on his health. He can do the full GM role, but it’s hard on him and the best of his skills are spent on draft evaluation, so now he can focus there more.
In the case of DC, Capers has been slipping for years. The teams knows how much disruption a move incurs and tried to get by with him, tried to see if he could be good enough for the offense to carry just one more time, but the production of the defense was so consistently bad that it demanded a change.
These moves weren’t made because it was “time for a new voice.”
If someone is doing good, changing the voice isn’t going to make it better – the candidate that replaces them has to be better. If you haven’t identified the reason for sub-optimal performance, you’re just going to repeat your mistake and keep making more messes.
Good reasons for getting rid of someone:
- Failed miserably at their job
- Molested children
- Killed somebody
- Committed some other felony
- Admitted to doing their job wrong on purpose to hurt the team
- Made a pass at the owner’s spouse (not a vague, raised-eyebrow, test-the-waters one, either, but a full-blown Trump style come-on)
Notice what’s not on that list?
New voice.
That’s an excuse for making a move when you’re too lazy to think things through, you have no idea what’s going on, or you just need to fire a scapegoat because you’re terrible at your job and want to make it look like it was someone else’s fault.
Please stop saying we should fire someone else just because it’s “time for a new voice” or “as long as we’re making changes.” There’s a lot that goes into running a football team and those kind of pointless, hopeful, see-what-happens moves make it ten times harder.
True Story.