SECTION 11
vibraslap
There's an article on rebuilding quickly in the NFL...
http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=1638422
http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=1638422
Any ESPN Insider subscribers?
- Thread starter SECTION 11
- Start date
During the 1980s and early '90s, when a new head coach or general manager would take over a struggling franchise, we used to hear them refer to the five-year plan. Decision-makers hoped to slowly implement a plan to make their teams credible by year three and challenge for a title in years four and five. But in the ever-changing, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately NFL, this is no longer the case.
It started with expansion teams such as Carolina and Jacksonville advancing to the playoffs in the second year of their building process. Team owners and fans alike are less patient these days, and a closer look might explain why.
Holmgren
Mike Holmgren, with an eight-year contract in Seattle, was the last one to cash in on the long- term way of thinking when he was lured away from Green Bay after the 1998 season and promised to lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl. He's now in year five of his deal, but he has made it this far probably only because he won the division and qualified for the playoffs in year one. Teams now look for results much more quickly in this impatient world of "win now."
And a look around the league tells us it's not unrealistic to expect more sooner. John Fox in Carolina, Mike Tice in Minnesota and Dick Vermeil in Kansas City all have shown it can be done in three years or less if you can evaluate talent and not be afraid to make some gutsy calls.
Mike Tice suffered through one bad year before the Vikings became competitive.
The key is that today's NFL offers many more ways to acquire talent than there were before the 1992 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the owners and players' union took effect. Before free agency, teams could only improve with the draft or an occasional waiver pick-up. Although the new, more flexible rules and guidelines have been in place for a decade, it has taken teams all this time to learn how to use them to their advantage. Now, whether it's through free agency, the draft, a trade or by picking up solid players cut elsewhere for salary cap reasons, the landscape in the NFL allows good decision makers to gain ground on the rest of the league at a much more accelerated pace.
The system is also set up better than ever for developing your own young players, with the NFL Europe league and the five-man practice squads available to each team. Every year, two or three players will contribute to each team after having been given experience in these venues.
The process starts with free agency. Teams have from roughly March 1 until the week before the draft to add talent from the free-agent pool. And, as this last offseason proved, it's not only unrestricted players that change teams. Must we be reminded how the Redskins acquired Laveranues Coles and Chad Morton? Even players who have been slapped with the dreaded "franchise" tag can move. A few years back, the Dallas Cowboys gave Seattle two No. 1 picks for Joey Galloway (who had been tagged by the Seahawks), and now he is finally paying dividends to Jerry Jones & Co.
The collegiate draft in April has always been a source of new players, but now it's only seven rounds, leaving a lot of undrafted talent available for teams to compete over. Much time and money, not to mention strategy, is spilled over into evaluating and signing players in the pool of undrafted college players. The Philadelphia Eagles had six such undrafted players make their original 53-man roster this year alone.
Godfrey
June 1 brings another opportunity for teams to acquire talent. After this date teams can release players for cap reasons and not have the pro-rated signing bonus money count until the following year's cap. It has become commonplace for teams to dump -- and acquire -- players in this way. This year, the Seahawks had tried unsuccessfully to sign a middle linebacker all offseason. But a month before training camp opened, the Titans dumped veteran Randall Godfrey in the Seahawks' laps because Tennessee couldn't afford Godfrey's large cap number. One team's trash is another's jewel. If you've done your homework and have some cap room, you can fill a hole in June that you couldn't in free agency or the draft. The salary cap has leveled the playing field by allowing good teams to keep only so many good players. A team can no longer keep and pay everyone.
Teams can, like always, improve themselves through trades, as well. This week, though, another trading deadline came and went without much activity or fanfare, indicating it might be time to look at this date. The NFL never has been much of a trading league, but I'm convinced that if the trading deadline were pushed back a couple of weeks it would open another window to acquire players. An NFL team needs six weeks to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Let's give them two more to make some deals.
The point is, today's NFL gives teams more ways than ever to improve themselves. This doesn't outweigh the impact an outstanding coaching job can have on a roster of average talent. As we've seen in Dallas this year, some teams and coaches don't even need three years.
You may be thinking that all these methods of acquiring talent has led to parity, and you're right. But it also has led to teams turning themselves around a lot more quickly than in the past. It shows that if you have an owner willing to spend some money and a coach and GM who get it, becoming competitive doesn't have to be a long-term project anymore.
It started with expansion teams such as Carolina and Jacksonville advancing to the playoffs in the second year of their building process. Team owners and fans alike are less patient these days, and a closer look might explain why.
Holmgren
Mike Holmgren, with an eight-year contract in Seattle, was the last one to cash in on the long- term way of thinking when he was lured away from Green Bay after the 1998 season and promised to lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl. He's now in year five of his deal, but he has made it this far probably only because he won the division and qualified for the playoffs in year one. Teams now look for results much more quickly in this impatient world of "win now."
And a look around the league tells us it's not unrealistic to expect more sooner. John Fox in Carolina, Mike Tice in Minnesota and Dick Vermeil in Kansas City all have shown it can be done in three years or less if you can evaluate talent and not be afraid to make some gutsy calls.
Mike Tice suffered through one bad year before the Vikings became competitive.
The key is that today's NFL offers many more ways to acquire talent than there were before the 1992 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the owners and players' union took effect. Before free agency, teams could only improve with the draft or an occasional waiver pick-up. Although the new, more flexible rules and guidelines have been in place for a decade, it has taken teams all this time to learn how to use them to their advantage. Now, whether it's through free agency, the draft, a trade or by picking up solid players cut elsewhere for salary cap reasons, the landscape in the NFL allows good decision makers to gain ground on the rest of the league at a much more accelerated pace.
The system is also set up better than ever for developing your own young players, with the NFL Europe league and the five-man practice squads available to each team. Every year, two or three players will contribute to each team after having been given experience in these venues.
The process starts with free agency. Teams have from roughly March 1 until the week before the draft to add talent from the free-agent pool. And, as this last offseason proved, it's not only unrestricted players that change teams. Must we be reminded how the Redskins acquired Laveranues Coles and Chad Morton? Even players who have been slapped with the dreaded "franchise" tag can move. A few years back, the Dallas Cowboys gave Seattle two No. 1 picks for Joey Galloway (who had been tagged by the Seahawks), and now he is finally paying dividends to Jerry Jones & Co.
The collegiate draft in April has always been a source of new players, but now it's only seven rounds, leaving a lot of undrafted talent available for teams to compete over. Much time and money, not to mention strategy, is spilled over into evaluating and signing players in the pool of undrafted college players. The Philadelphia Eagles had six such undrafted players make their original 53-man roster this year alone.
Godfrey
June 1 brings another opportunity for teams to acquire talent. After this date teams can release players for cap reasons and not have the pro-rated signing bonus money count until the following year's cap. It has become commonplace for teams to dump -- and acquire -- players in this way. This year, the Seahawks had tried unsuccessfully to sign a middle linebacker all offseason. But a month before training camp opened, the Titans dumped veteran Randall Godfrey in the Seahawks' laps because Tennessee couldn't afford Godfrey's large cap number. One team's trash is another's jewel. If you've done your homework and have some cap room, you can fill a hole in June that you couldn't in free agency or the draft. The salary cap has leveled the playing field by allowing good teams to keep only so many good players. A team can no longer keep and pay everyone.
Teams can, like always, improve themselves through trades, as well. This week, though, another trading deadline came and went without much activity or fanfare, indicating it might be time to look at this date. The NFL never has been much of a trading league, but I'm convinced that if the trading deadline were pushed back a couple of weeks it would open another window to acquire players. An NFL team needs six weeks to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Let's give them two more to make some deals.
The point is, today's NFL gives teams more ways than ever to improve themselves. This doesn't outweigh the impact an outstanding coaching job can have on a roster of average talent. As we've seen in Dallas this year, some teams and coaches don't even need three years.
You may be thinking that all these methods of acquiring talent has led to parity, and you're right. But it also has led to teams turning themselves around a lot more quickly than in the past. It shows that if you have an owner willing to spend some money and a coach and GM who get it, becoming competitive doesn't have to be a long-term project anymore.
kerouac9
Klowned by Keim
I was going to post this article, too. Personally, I think that Randy Mueller would be a great replacement for Rod Graves. The guy obviously wants to get back into football, and he's re-built two franchises in Seattle and New Orleans into perennial contenders.
It's obvious that Mac has utterly failed as a head coach. It's time for him to leave. At this point, the Cards should be a contender for the division, and they've gotten worse every season.
Now Graves is on the clock. I'm not sure if this ownership group has the stomach two wait another three years for a competitive team, but he has his chance. It's possible that if Graves puts together another 4-win season next year, he'll be out of the job.
This team just needs to improve, but the one over the first 6 weeks of the season looks no better than the one that ended last year. Maybe worse.
It's obvious that Mac has utterly failed as a head coach. It's time for him to leave. At this point, the Cards should be a contender for the division, and they've gotten worse every season.
Now Graves is on the clock. I'm not sure if this ownership group has the stomach two wait another three years for a competitive team, but he has his chance. It's possible that if Graves puts together another 4-win season next year, he'll be out of the job.
This team just needs to improve, but the one over the first 6 weeks of the season looks no better than the one that ended last year. Maybe worse.
With the league establishing the parity so nicely it causes something else.
With this little quality margin between the teams errors or miscues are far more punishing than before.
One injury, one wrong draft decision or one unlucky play and you are on the bottom of the pack.
I believe that this years cardinals are much better than their record indicates. While there is no denying that this seems like it every year this year is a good example.
If you take away the one big problem turnovers, what record could we have by now.
I know that it's not that easy as I paint it here. But if you can be up fast you can be down as fast as well. The smaller the margin is in which you move the more this is true.
With this little quality margin between the teams errors or miscues are far more punishing than before.
One injury, one wrong draft decision or one unlucky play and you are on the bottom of the pack.
I believe that this years cardinals are much better than their record indicates. While there is no denying that this seems like it every year this year is a good example.
If you take away the one big problem turnovers, what record could we have by now.
I know that it's not that easy as I paint it here. But if you can be up fast you can be down as fast as well. The smaller the margin is in which you move the more this is true.
JeffGollin
ASFN Icon
Sounds easy, but isn't as simple as it sounds.
The two criteria the former NO GM mentions are (a) guts and (b) shrewd talent evaluation. Later on he adds (c) coaches who "get it."
Although the Cards did dump Plummer and Boston during the off-season, I'm not sure they made gutty enough personnel decisions to turn the ship around.
Nor am I fully sold yet on their ability to evaluate talent.
And - whether we remain believers in Mac or have written him off -we have to admit that, in terms of game planning/scheming, game-day strategy and player development, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
So - while in theory, the Cards could be turned around in short order, I think it's fair to ask whether the guys we have in the front office and as coaches are capable of getting it done in 3 years.
The other issue that, no doubt, will dog Cardinal fans forever is - If we lose patience and make wholesale changes, did we give up only 3 - 6 months from actually turning around?
I'm the kind of guy who would rather take action and drive several miles "around" a traffic jam rather than sit in traffic "hoping that it will clear up soon." I'm not always right, but I feel much better doing something (anything!).
So the question is: Do we do something to make us feel better? (i.e. automatically dump the coaching staff at the end of the year?) Or do we do what we think will be right for the team (i.e. either dump 'em or continue to be patient?)
The two criteria the former NO GM mentions are (a) guts and (b) shrewd talent evaluation. Later on he adds (c) coaches who "get it."
Although the Cards did dump Plummer and Boston during the off-season, I'm not sure they made gutty enough personnel decisions to turn the ship around.
Nor am I fully sold yet on their ability to evaluate talent.
And - whether we remain believers in Mac or have written him off -we have to admit that, in terms of game planning/scheming, game-day strategy and player development, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
So - while in theory, the Cards could be turned around in short order, I think it's fair to ask whether the guys we have in the front office and as coaches are capable of getting it done in 3 years.
The other issue that, no doubt, will dog Cardinal fans forever is - If we lose patience and make wholesale changes, did we give up only 3 - 6 months from actually turning around?
I'm the kind of guy who would rather take action and drive several miles "around" a traffic jam rather than sit in traffic "hoping that it will clear up soon." I'm not always right, but I feel much better doing something (anything!).
So the question is: Do we do something to make us feel better? (i.e. automatically dump the coaching staff at the end of the year?) Or do we do what we think will be right for the team (i.e. either dump 'em or continue to be patient?)
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IT's absolutely the case though we SHOULD have beaten Detroit and SHOULD have beaten Baltimore. As badly as the Rams dominated us, if Blake doesn't fumble and we score there we COULD have beaten the Rams. IT's not all that hard to go from 1-5 to 3-3 or even 4-2.
The problem is good teams make their own breaks and we don't, we turn it over more than anybody, and force less TO's than anybody else and that's a terrible combination.
Blake keeps saying teh right things and I really want to believe him, but Jake said the right things for 6 years and his TO's never stopped. That's why so many people are calling for Blake to be benched we don't want to hear another QB say I gotta stop turning it over,we want to see it. I'll give him more starts because frankly I am convinced he's our best QB by far, will ultimately do better here than Jake ever did, and benching him now will kill the season. But at about 10 games if he's still doing this stuff, he will get benched.
There are a lot of good things Jeff has done on the field and given he's playing hurt and playing with such inexperience at WR you can't expect great numbers, but I didn't expect this many bad numbers in picks and fumbles.
kerouac9
Klowned by Keim
Fortunately, I think that in this case, the question is going to be one and the same: Firing Mac at the end of the year would both make fans feel better now (regardless of what columnists say, if the next coach can get 7 or 8 wins, no one is going to remember Mac) and be better for the team in the long run. It's apparent that this team, through Mac's tenure, has gotten worse, not better. Remember that at the start of the 2002 season, the Cards were an up and coming team that could challenge in the "League's Toughest Division". Now, we're a laughingstock, and have been for 16 weeks.
For me, Graves gets a little bit of slack because he's still the new guy ("Slack" meaning that I'm not calling for his head; I think he's made stupid moves this offseason, on balance). Mac and his staff of Tobin holdovers are not working.
I only hope that Graves has the foresite to bring in Dan Reeves if he gets fired in the ATL.
WOW! is that how the cap works.. Looks like Graves missed that memo also...
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