Analyzing an Org from the Top and why we have long term HOPE

[SkinsNumberOne]

We clamored for a GM for years, but did we fully understand all of the implications? I was thinking we clamored for a GM to have football expertise making decisions - and it's true.

There is a hidden benefit to it, though.

GMs can be fired, which means resets without changing owners spring new hope, as long as the GM is empowered.

Setting up NFL teams as consistent winners is HARD. In many ways, impossible to predict with all of the variables (cough cough injuries anyone?).

So, how do we evaluate the jobs that the organization relies on for winning? How do we set up a long-term winner?

I want to look at 3 types of structures, starting at the top and going down to see how it affects things:
- Meddlesome owner
- Connected owner
- Disconnected owner

- Meddlesome owner
Well, I think we recognize this. The problem here is an owner can't (or generally won't) fire himself. So while fans appallingly watch the same script played out over and over again - the only hope is the owner themselves recognize "they are the problem." How often does this happen? I would suggest, not very often. It's somewhat opaque to fans when owners are truly meddlesome; we rely on the press and different "tells" or "leaks" but the level of "meddle" is hard to discern at times. Sometimes a bad team may get this kind of label attributed because it's convenient to suggest it when the truth may be different. Regardless, we know what this looks like.
---- owners involved in GM level decisions, heavy involvement potential in draft, HC hiring, structure.

- Connected owner
I think this is what Harris is. Here the owner wants some level of involvement, to know what's happening beneath him. This is what Lurie does. The GM is fully empowered, but the owner wants to know what's going on, and this gives the owner some insight on whether the GM is doing their job and opens the door for the owner to be able to advise the GM (or fire the GM potentially) when they are going astray. That is a big advantage here - early action or reaction - if it is applied in a smart way. It could be a negative if it's applied poorly, like in a knee-jerk way. You have to be able to evaluate the roles you are trying to evaluate for this to make sense as well. In this area, the owner can do "too much" potentially and add layers that don't help the structure flourish. It depends. This can happen if a "Team President" butts heads with the GM (a la, arguably, Bruce Allen and Scot Mcloughan potentially).

- Disconnected (but apparently patient) owner
How does a disconnected owner evaluate things? Likely with results only. Here the owner has to give a leash, and that leash could extend in the hierarchy - like this:
---- Owner waits on GM to go through 2-3 coaches. After that, owner has seen enough.
----- GM gives HC opportunity to go through 2-3 coordinators. After that, GM has seen enough.
----- HC gives coordinators 2 years. After that, HC has seen enough.
Taking the minimums, then:
HC gets 2 coordinators at 2 years a pop, so each HC gets 4 years.
Owner gives GM 2 coaches, so GM gets 8 years.

Even with the disconnected owner, hope springs eternal, but arguably at nearly a decade. Is this close to what Mara is modeling himself as? Sort of somewhere between connected and disconnected? Structurally to keep it simple, there is no Team President here, but that changes the dynamics a bit depending on how that role is defined. It seems to be fairly different across different organizations.

Obviously none of this is hard and fast, but I think there is some truth to it in a general sense. We are in good shape with our "Connected owner" as long as he is intelligent, which he appears to be. I do not think anyone who is well connected with the layers beneath them needs to wait so LONG to figure out there is a problem. This is the issue many have had with Quinn and Whitt. That may also speak of a problem with Quinn too. Quinn wanted to be the true "head coach" and manage his coordinators - in that respect it may have taken him an eye-opening long time here to move on from Whitt. We shall see how it all shakes out over the next year or two.

 

[DWinzit]

Good write up and feel very good with the current structure which would fit into the connected category

 

[Solitary Man]

Good job!

Adding my flavor to this. Just because an owner would like to know if Ben Sinnott or Kane Medrano will ever play significant roles, either this season or next doesn’t make him a meddlesome one. These are tough questions, and Peters might not even know the answers to. But if I were Josh I would ask.
Without jumping down anyone’s throat.

Our fan base is mostly too quick to anoint Peters the great saviour, and still in the ptsd stages from Snyder.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

This is also why, when people say they are losing interest - I don't know. I guess to me I look at it from an evaluation perspective, top to bottom.

How will the players, coaches, and even the FO react in this situation? Sure, I knew how the previous regime would react. Firings for most of the tenure. Very reactionary, very arrogant, full of blame and supposed immediate band-aids.
I can see, or we all can see, how the NYG react - more methodical, sure - but perhaps a bit slow.
I think with NEP, we can see a little faster reactions, fairly involved but from this vantage point (I don't read much of their media, not to that troubling meddlesome degree).
PHI, Lurie is connected - I think that is clear.
Harris looks a lot like Lurie, frankly, in terms of how he is treating the organization.
DAL is a special case where Jones is the GM. I think that doesn't fit in exactly because we are talking about orgs that have GMs.
The Jets are at the meddlesome level. He has had meetings with QBs on many occasions, he has given out a lot of griping about personnel... I would characterize him as meddlesome. He is heavily involved in drafts, he has talked a lot about HCs.

It's kind of tough to characterize and obviously these are larger buckets, but right now, that's how I see it with these particular teams.

 

[Conn]

This is what I’ve meant over the years when I’ve said “we all want to win, but what really matters post-Snyder is that we’re a normal franchise again”.

That means no one has to be the ‘savior’ to overcome inherent negatives in ownership, which is what we had to pray for before to experience even a modicum of success for even a moment.

We don’t need a savior anymore, we need a larger sample size to inform decisions. If Quinn isn’t the guy, AP probably gets one more HC hire if his roster construction has improved by then. Eventually, if AP isn’t the guy, we’ll attract the next AP and start again. And hope will flow, because there will be nothing inherently limiting us from building the next dynasty.

As a fan, that’s really all that matters to me. I don’t get overly attached to players or coaches. Or, now, GM’s. I don’t really watch the personal interest content or most of the pressers or interviews, beyond staying informed. Don’t watch the team social media content, don’t care about the personalities much off the field. I care about the franchise. The structure is sound, hope abounds. When the results aren’t good enough for a long enough period of time, leadership will change and we’ll have hope of getting it right then. That’s all you really need as a fan to justify caring, imo.

 

[skinsinparadise]

An owner who puts money into the facilities and makes the environment more conducive to success. The video below a great example of it.

 

[Conn]

The bar was low with PBJ’s on the team plane, but glad to see Harris is interested in raising the bar, not just beating it