I think we agree a lot on what good management looks like.
I don't have a problem with a guy who's managing, what, 80-90 odd people doing a lot of delegation. 53 man squad, practice squad, coaches... that's a lot of people. He should be delegating a bunch. I don't see a problem with him delegating a lot of the bad cop stuff either.
I also don't see - with caveats - a lot of problems with him letting the players sort things out among themselves. Maybe that's a cultural thing, you'll hear about rugby coaches in the UK letting the players make the rules on what's late and what's the punishment and internal stuff like that, but to me it makes a lot of sense a lot of the time. I believe that group chosen and enforced standards are often what sticks best.
However, we reach the caveat here and that is it needs the right players. My belief, based on what I've heard, is that when Tomlin arrived here, he had the right players (and coaches too) to let the veterans handle a bunch of stuff themselves so he did. That standard of internal professional excellence has never wavered on the defensive side of the ball but on the offence? It wobbled bad. They're practically two different teams in terms of drama. I'm guessing it wobbled bad during the Killer B years, and then it wobbled even more when pretty much every good player on the offence left in about two years and a bunch of kids had to rebuild things from scratch.
I think Tomlin learned a few things from that which is why we seem to be hearing such an emphasis on character with the recent draft picks. I don't think he's mailing anything in, I think he's have to adapt to a new situation. That keeping Antonio Brown in line with Big Ben to give him the desired numbers is different to keeping Johnson/Claypool/Pickens in line without him and he needs to be more ruthless about shipping guys out. We'll see if he can adapt to this or not but I think you can see he's learning and trying to.
Yup we agree more than we disagree on this topic.
To your point about delegation- yes a top level CEO can't manage all these people. You've got 53 players, plus who knows how many support staff. That's too much for 1 person. But when you delegate, you better hand it off to someone capable. But look at who Tomlin brings in as coaches. Outside of Art Smith, there has been no one with any pedigree. They are all castoffs or new guys trying to cut their teeth. It's ok to have those types sprinkled into your staff, but they can't all be green. This is the core problem with development on this team- the positional coaches suck at their jobs. The guys that get the most 1:1 time with players are bad coaches.
Here are general guidelines for managers:
- He should be delegating the support/medical staff to someone else since that's not his area of expertise. Tomlin isn't a doctor. I assume he does this.
- Same goes for the support people like waterboys, equipment managers, etc. I assume he does this too.
- His top people and difference makers should be getting 20 percent of his attention. Letting them know they are valued, etc.
- 40% of his time should be spend with the middle of the road players. To try and get them to that top echelon.
Stopping there it seems much of that isn't happening. Harris came in and was wanting to learn everything, but MT just brushed him aside and directed him to his position coach. That's terrible optics. In my job if I wanted to learn about sales I"m going to my Prez who is a dyed in the wool sales type. Dude knows everything in our industry. He'd spend an hour with me and THEN direct me to the Director of Sales if I wanted more details.
If the Prez brushed me off like Harris got, I'd be kinda pissed that I'm a 1st round pick and the coach can't spend time with me honing details of my game? I don't think McVay or Kevin O Connell does that.
There are too many high potential guys that get drafted and then plateau or crater after a successful rookie year. Benton took a step back, JPJ, B Jones, I can go on. This isn't a coincidence and I'm tired of people telling me that the sky isn't blue after 19 years.
