HoneyB
Active Roster
Maybe it's just habit, but I still think of a HC as a powerful football guy who picks his owns players. He and only he is responsible and the buck stops there. I guess that's less common now, but for the life of me I still can't figure out how you consolidate two football minds into one. Or, sometimes three or four.
We had the trifecta before, and it didn't seem to work and in the end nobody was accountable. They said they didn't draft any player they didn't all agree on. That's like going into a restaurant and ending up with chicken fingers and fries, because one guy doesn't like eat fish so the lobster is out of the question, and the other two guys are arguing over getting the porterhouse or the filet minon, so steak is ruled out too.
We got out of that mess and down to two people, Philbin and Ireland. They started out fine, loving each other, with Philbin heavily influencing the process of player acquisition. The results reflected that, as Ireland chose OT Martin described as a "finesse blocker" and a non-Parcells type player who was smart and athletic, and would fit the zbs. Similarly, Lamar Miller was not Ronnie Brown, his thing was speed. FA picks were geared toward same thing, speed. But eventually, the blame game started again. Ireland, we hear, was complaining about Philbin and Sherman's way of running the team, and on Philbins part, I do recall at least one occasion where Philbin waved his hand when asked about players and saying scouting is not his job, that's the GM's job. I thought that was odd at the time, but dismissed it. In retrospect, it seemed to be early indications of CYA happening on both ends.
So here we are again, two people hired separately (Philbin and the unknown GM), who are going to try to work together, and not blame each other when and if we start losing.
So we'll see. Hopefully this new GM will know how to 1) draft players, 2) retain good players already on the roster, and 3) be the kind of guy that FA players would want to deal with.
Really, all I want is one guy who is a mastermind at the game of football, and knows how to handle people around him, and everything else falls into place. Ireland was not that guy. Philbin in year 2 was not that guy, but he could be in year 3 and he'll be the identity of this team. Or, the new GM may be a wiz, and he'll assert himself in the organization to the point where he actually wins the ability to hire/fire the coach. I think Ross is waiting for someone to step up, and this season we'll see.
We had the trifecta before, and it didn't seem to work and in the end nobody was accountable. They said they didn't draft any player they didn't all agree on. That's like going into a restaurant and ending up with chicken fingers and fries, because one guy doesn't like eat fish so the lobster is out of the question, and the other two guys are arguing over getting the porterhouse or the filet minon, so steak is ruled out too.
We got out of that mess and down to two people, Philbin and Ireland. They started out fine, loving each other, with Philbin heavily influencing the process of player acquisition. The results reflected that, as Ireland chose OT Martin described as a "finesse blocker" and a non-Parcells type player who was smart and athletic, and would fit the zbs. Similarly, Lamar Miller was not Ronnie Brown, his thing was speed. FA picks were geared toward same thing, speed. But eventually, the blame game started again. Ireland, we hear, was complaining about Philbin and Sherman's way of running the team, and on Philbins part, I do recall at least one occasion where Philbin waved his hand when asked about players and saying scouting is not his job, that's the GM's job. I thought that was odd at the time, but dismissed it. In retrospect, it seemed to be early indications of CYA happening on both ends.
So here we are again, two people hired separately (Philbin and the unknown GM), who are going to try to work together, and not blame each other when and if we start losing.
So we'll see. Hopefully this new GM will know how to 1) draft players, 2) retain good players already on the roster, and 3) be the kind of guy that FA players would want to deal with.
Really, all I want is one guy who is a mastermind at the game of football, and knows how to handle people around him, and everything else falls into place. Ireland was not that guy. Philbin in year 2 was not that guy, but he could be in year 3 and he'll be the identity of this team. Or, the new GM may be a wiz, and he'll assert himself in the organization to the point where he actually wins the ability to hire/fire the coach. I think Ross is waiting for someone to step up, and this season we'll see.
