Football Outsiders: Ranking the staffs 1-16

[broadwayjoe]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7071478

Some people accuse Bill Belichick of being arrogant. Whatever. After 111 wins and three championships, he has reached the point where he doesn't have to explain every decision or suffer every snippy accusation. Belichick innovated many of the defensive tactics that have become de rigueur in the NFL, yet he remains one step ahead of his imitators and protégés. His roster management and player development system keep the Patriots in the Super Bowl hunt year after year without bursting the salary cap. His on-field strategies might be fiendishly complex, but Belichick keeps it simple when assembling his roster: he acquires role players and teaches them to play their roles.

This is pretty interesting to read about the different coaching staffs around the league.

 

[patsox23]

Any list that has Belichick's staff anywhere but #1 is sketchy at best. It's silly, honestly. The Patriots coaching staff continues to be historically great.

 

[Flying Fungi]

Any list that has Belichick's staff anywhere but #1 is sketchy at best. It's silly, honestly. The Patriots coaching staff continues to be historically great.

I'm with you brother.

 

[marcus]

Notice the title is best STAFFS not head coach

I think where the Patriots lost points is for their coordinators:

1. Josh McDaniels- 27 years old with only 6 years experience
2. Dean Pees- last year was his first year.


No doubt Belicheck is far and away the best coach...but other than Scarnecchia they do not ahve well known or established staff

 

[Flying Fungi]

Re: Notice the title is best STAFFS not head coach

I think where the Patriots lost points is for their coordinators:

1. Josh McDaniels- 27 years old with only 6 years experience
2. Dean Pees- last year was his first year.


No doubt Belicheck is far and away the best coach...but other than Scarnecchia they do not ahve well known or established staff

Pees is a long time successful coach--no way do they lose points for him.

 

[patsox23]

Re: Notice the title is best STAFFS not head coach

I knew someone would make the mistake (IMO) of mentioning McDaniels and Pees. The fact is, Pees is a better DC than Mangini was. McDaniels they have an argument, I guess, albeit a cheap one (he did as well as he could with the putrescence at WR last year), but Pees is a long-standing, talented and now PROVEN DC, who led the Patriots D to a franchise-record points allowed mark last season. And Scar is the best in the business.

In terms of the total PRODUCT of what the staff teaches, schemes and develops, the Patriots remain EASILY the best, most effective staff in the NFL.

 

[PonyExpress]

I would probably put the Denver staff at 1. Shanahan is the best O Coordinator in the NFL, and Bates is a top 5 D-coordinator IMO. In comparison, BB is the best overall coach and the best D-coordinator, Seely is top-notch, but McDaniel still has something to prove. Reid is a goof with the game on the line and Jim Johnson's so-called "exotic" blitz schemes are good against bad teams but not very successful against disciplined opponents.

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

Reid's cool, I like him, his style and his assistants. But if you're looking for a 'more with less' example to set the bar for last year's coaching jobs then doesn't the Pats w/o a legit number 1 WR ( maybe even w/o a legit number 2) and a banged up Maroney, w/o the spiritual leader of the D - Rodney, going into the number one seed's home and taking them down count as the best?

 

[zippo59]

I would probably put the Denver staff at 1. Shanahan is the best O Coordinator in the NFL, and Bates is a top 5 D-coordinator IMO. In comparison, BB is the best overall coach and the best D-coordinator, Seely is top-notch, but McDaniel still has something to prove. Reid is a goof with the game on the line and Jim Johnson's so-called "exotic" blitz schemes are good against bad teams but not very successful against disciplined opponents.

I don't see how you can put a staff that has won one playoff game in the last nine years at number one. At least Reid consistently takes his team deep into the playoffs.

 

[patfanken]

The one that made me shake my head was the Ravens staff at #6. I would rate their FO as the best in procuring talent, though they loose points in cap management. However that staff under Billick has done LESS with more than any staff in the league. The great offensive guru Billick, hasn't been able to develop a QB in 8 years. His offense consistantly is ineffective. He's had a Probowl RB, the dominant LT of the last decade, plus a couple of other probowl OLmen, probowl TE, and some decent WRs....and then you go on the defensive side which is littered with probowler, though they now have one less.

Like I said, no one does LESS with MORE than the Baltimore staff. Up to this year they have been the polar opposite of the Pats. Can you say....OVER----RATED---- OVER----RATED

 

[PonyExpress]

I don't see how you can put a staff that has won one playoff game in the last nine years at number one. At least Reid consistently takes his team deep into the playoffs.

Circumstances are different. First of all, this is Bates' first season with Denver. Bates is generally acknowledged to be an elite defensive mind. Second, Denver is in the AFC, the harder conference. Third, Shanahan has won 2 Sbs. Reid has won none. Shanahan has already won with 3 different QBs, 7 different lead backs, and will win with Cutler too. IMO if you ask BB who (other than himself) the best HC in football is, he would say Shanahan without hesitation.

 

[PonyExpress]

The one that made me shake my head was the Ravens staff at #6. I would rate their FO as the best in procuring talent, though they loose points in cap management. However that staff under Billick has done LESS with more than any staff in the league. The great offensive guru Billick, hasn't been able to develop a QB in 8 years. His offense consistantly is ineffective. He's had a Probowl RB, the dominant LT of the last decade, plus a couple of other probowl OLmen, probowl TE, and some decent WRs....and then you go on the defensive side which is littered with probowler, though they now have one less.

Like I said, no one does LESS with MORE than the Baltimore staff. Up to this year they have been the polar opposite of the Pats. Can you say....OVER----RATED---- OVER----RATED

Billick has ridden Ozzie's coattails. His arrogant belief he could develop an inaccurate and skittish college QB like Boller into a pro star was an exercise in hubris, ruining a team that had dynastic talent on both sides of the ball.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

The perfect football coach is one who makes himself irrelevant on Sunday.

Great coaching is nearly invisible; it seeps into a team's pores. Great coaches clearly define roles and prepare well-suited players to fill those roles. Players become fundamentally precise and assignment-perfect. When the players are prepared and the gameplan is airtight, a great coach can afford to blow the occasional call or waste a timeout. No one will notice, because the score is 35-3. The perfectly-coached team just seems more talented. In fact, the players' talents were maximized, harnessed and channeled by great coaches.

I've highlighted the opening sentence to ponder it's implications. It seems to me the perfect football coach doesn't make himself irrelevant, he makes his players more relevant.

Let's take the San Diego game for example: when wingnut picked Tommy we then got to see the tragic difference between Belichick and Schottenheimer - player's playing to win the game, not the applause. Instead of protecting the ball and allowing his offense a chance to grind out the clock, we see an undisciplined player leave the ball out for Troy Brown to strip. Let's also note who recovered that ball, the intended recipient who didn't hang his head over his lost chance but instead hustled back to finish the play. Both head coaches were very relevant to that play, but only one of them had prepared his players to finish. The two Patriots hustled and out did the hot dog who forgot that his job was to play as part of a team, not just to pickoff passes and run around looking flashy.

Secondly on the irrelevant front: if Andy is irrelevant on Sunday, why is he the one standing there calling the offensive plays? Bill doesn't try to make himself irrelevant, but he does try to free himself to coach the game while his coordinators coordinate and position coaches coach the players. Yes we see him on the sideline telling guys to quit yacking and just play their assignments, but that's part of keeping himself free to coach the game, discipline. This was Schottenheimer's big downfall, it's what allowed Mangini to do so well last season, it's why Dungy has his teams in contention so often, and yes Andy Reid too.

I think Andy Reid is an excellent Head Coach, he and his staff have done great work to prepare their teams to be competitive year in and year out. Still, as long as FO's premise for a coaching staff revolves around the coaches being irrelevant on Sunday, I think they tanked this ranking right up front.

 

[captain stone]

Third, Shanahan has won 2 Sbs...

Only by deliberately circumventing the salary cap both (maybe more?) seasons. To me, the donkeys' SB wins are illegitimate, just as the backstabbing (literally and figuratively) ravens' win is.

 

[captain stone]

Re: Notice the title is best STAFFS not head coach

I knew someone would make the mistake (IMO) of mentioning McDaniels and Pees. The fact is, Pees is a better DC than Mangini was. McDaniels they have an argument, I guess, albeit a cheap one (he did as well as he could with the putrescence at WR last year), but Pees is a long-standing, talented and now PROVEN DC, who led the Patriots D to a franchise-record points allowed mark last season. And Scar is the best in the business.

In terms of the total PRODUCT of what the staff teaches, schemes and develops, the Patriots remain EASILY the best, most effective staff in the NFL.

Just think how good the staff would be if it had a quality DB coach, plus a couple of extra assistants. I wouldn't miss Seeley if he were replaced, either.