Why hiring former players as HC with zero coaching experience is a bad idea

[Bobhaze]

This would not have been a serious idea twenty years ago, but in the celebrity media age we occupy today, the idea of hiring a former beloved player as a head coach because of their knowledge, success as a player and popularity has become a vogue idea. I’ve seen several threads over the last few weeks supporting the idea that guys like Jason Witten or Tony Romo without any NFL coaching experience could step in and be a success.

First of all, I have great respect for both those guys as former Cowboys players. Witten is a HOFer in waiting and Romo will probably make the ROH someday. But that does not mean they are ready to step in as an NFL HC with no prior experience. The degree of difficulty in the coaching profession is greatly misunderstood IMO.

There are some examples from NFL history of former players with no experience (or even just a little experience) that didn’t work out. One even recent. Here are some examples:

• In 2022, the colts hired their former great C and HOFer Jeff Saturday, who is an outstanding NFL analyst, as their interim head coach. Other than a brief stint being the head coach at a private Christian school, Saturday had never had any coaching experience. It was not a success. Saturday was the first NFL HC with no prior college or pro coaching experience since…..
• HOF QB Norm Van Brocklin was hired by the Vikings as HC in 1961, and in his 5 seasons there as HC was 29-51-4. Van Brocklin later coached the Atlanta Falcons and was a little better going 37-49-3.
• This next example of a great player who was a bad HC is Mike Singletary. The bears HOF great DID have a little NFL coaching experience - as in 4 years as an assistant coach before being named the niners HC in 2009. He was not a success going 18-22 as a HC there.

Let me repeat…I have nothing against Witten or Romo. I just believe being a HC in the NFL is a lot more than just knowing Xs and Os or having a great career as a player. Most great players don’t make great coaches because coaching is so much more than knowledge.

I was never a coach myself but one of my sons is a HS coach having coached basketball and football at the HS level. Obviously coaching HS is not the NFL, but I believe at all levels, coaching is not as easy as it looks, lol, even at the HS level.

Surely we can hire a head coach who has more experience than the broadcasting booth or a private school.

 

[Jarntt]

It's just dumb how some people think good player automatically means good Head coach

 

[CowboysRule]

I agree with this. We need someone who has a proven record, either in the NFL of College, of running a team. And preferably one who concentrates on running the team, not just the offense or defense. That's why we have coordinators. Let them call the plays, not the HC.

 

[fivetwos]

Those names are only out there because people know Jerry is a Kellen Moore rejection away from not having a clue as to where to turn.

 

[Whirlwin]

This would have not been a serious idea twenty years ago, but in the celebrity media age we occupy today, the idea of hiring a former beloved player as a head coach because of their knowledge, success as a player and popularity has become a vogue idea. I’ve seen several threads over the last few weeks supporting the idea that guys like Jason Witten or Tony Romo without any NFL coaching experience could step in and be a success.

First of all, I have great respect for both those guys as former Cowboys players. Witten is a HOFer in waiting and Romo will probably make the ROH someday. But that does not mean they are ready to step in as an NFL HC with no prior experience. The degree of difficulty in the coaching profession is greatly misunderstood IMO.

There are some examples from NFL history of former players with no experience (or even just a little experience) that didn’t work out. One even recent. Here are some examples:

• In 2022, the colts hired their former great C and HOFer Jeff Saturday, who is an outstanding NFL analyst, as their interim head coach. Other than a brief stint being the head coach at a private Christian school, Saturday had never had any coaching experience. It was not a success. Saturday was the first NFL HC with no prior college or pro coaching experience since…..
• HOF QB Norm Van Brocklin was hired by the Vikings as HC in 1961, and in his 5 seasons there as HC was 29-51-4. Van Brocklin later coached the Atlanta Falcons and was a little better going 37-49-3.
• This next example of a great player who was a bad HC is Mike Singletary. The bears HOF great DID have a little NFL coaching experience - as in 4 years as an assistant coach before being named the niners HC in 2009. He was not a success going 18-22 as a HC there.

Let me repeat…I have nothing against Witten or Romo. I just believe being a HC in the NFL is a lot more than just knowing Xs and Os or having a great career as a player. Most great players don’t make great coaches because coaching is so much more than knowledge.

I was never a coach myself but one of my sons is a HS coach having coached basketball and football at the HS level. Obviously coaching HS is not the NFL, but I believe at all levels, coaching is not as easy as it looks, lol, even at the HS level.

Surely we can hire a head coach who has more experience than the broadcasting booth or a private school.

Because some of them have intelligence, team captains, Sean Lee could probably make a good head coach

 

[Whirlwin]

Those names are only out there because people know Jerry is a Kellen Moore rejection away from not having a clue as to where to turn.

Kellen Moore grew up with football since he was five years old. It’s actually bread into him.

 

[fivetwos]

Kellen Moore grew up with football since he was five years old. It’s actually bread into him.

My comment had nothing at all to do with Moore’s qualifications.

 

[Bobhaze]

Those names are only out there because people know Jerry is a Kellen Moore rejection away from not having a clue as to where to turn.

And too many of our fellow fans don’t understand that Jerry hires HCs based on his personal comfort, not based on who gives us the best chance to win. It’s depressing but it’s the truth.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Then there is Dieon who does have HC experience in college.... a lot of it. He's proven that he can teach, motivate, and communicate effectively which are the cornerstones of any good HC. So, he's not in the same category as a Romo or Witten who only has high school coaching experience.

We couldn't wait to get rid of Moore a few years ago. Kinda bizarre so many look to him now as some kind of savior. He washed out of SD taking the same job in Philly. I don't see him as HC material.

 

[ApolytonGP]

Being an outstanding player does not necessarily correlate to being a great coach:

1. Playing football is different than coaching it. They are just different skill sets. Many good NFL coaches have no NFL experience at all.

2. Often great athletes (especially "naturals") are not great coaches, because the game came easy to them and they don't understand the issues weaker athletes have. I see this all the time with ex-R1 math Ph.D.'s trying to teach junior college remedial courses and having no concept of how someone might be weaker than them.

3. If you restrict yourself to great players, you are greatly reducing the sample size to pick from, even from the "ex NFL player" set. Even, if I'm wrong on point [2], you are still not considering a vast amount of potential coaches who were JAGs as players, but might coach well.

4. There seems to be a desire to elevate these great players to the highest coaching position (except maybe being HC/GM), when they have not had significant intermediate coaching experience.

5. There is probably some financial and even reputational motivation that a weaker ex player (or even "never in the NFL") guys has versus a superstar. The superstar has earned a lot of money and can still do commercials and the like. Is he going to suck it up when things get tough in coaching, when he has a trophy wife, young kids, a mansion, and a lot of egoboo from his playing career. Someone who was a scrub has more motivation to try to make the coaching career work no matter what.

 

[fivetwos]

And too many of our fellow fans don’t understand that Jerry hires HCs based on his personal comfort, not based on who gives us the best chance to win. It’s depressing but it’s the truth.

I truly believe they aren’t prepared for this.

They didn’t want to extend MM, but they didn’t know what to do when he didn’t want to return for minimal money. Shocker.

Stephen said they didn’t think about it, yet there’s boxing matches and Netflix all over the place. There’s plenty of time for that.

 

[Kumala808]

I agree with this. We need someone who has a proven record, either in the NFL of College, of running a team. And preferably one who concentrates on running the team, not just the offense or defense. That's why we have coordinators. Let them call the plays, not the HC.

They can lead but like dan Campbell it's the pieces around him that is making it work

 

[ApolytonGP]

And too many of our fellow fans don’t understand that Jerry hires HCs based on his personal comfort, not based on who gives us the best chance to win. It’s depressing but it’s the truth.

I have no clue how Comstock hires executives, but why doesn't Jerry pay someone to help run the search for him for a HC. I have heard of franchises doing that. Even if he still goes with his gut, he'd have help with the tactical aspects of the process and some outside consulting voice, to at least consider.

In an ideal world, he would already have done this and just be keeping his cards close to the chest. I don't know him well enough to guess if this is likely or unlikely to already be in motion.

 

[EST_1986]

Hiring an experienced coach that can’t pick his own staff or players is equally disastrous

 

[CyberB0b]

This would not have been a serious idea twenty years ago, but in the celebrity media age we occupy today, the idea of hiring a former beloved player as a head coach because of their knowledge, success as a player and popularity has become a vogue idea. I’ve seen several threads over the last few weeks supporting the idea that guys like Jason Witten or Tony Romo without any NFL coaching experience could step in and be a success.

First of all, I have great respect for both those guys as former Cowboys players. Witten is a HOFer in waiting and Romo will probably make the ROH someday. But that does not mean they are ready to step in as an NFL HC with no prior experience. The degree of difficulty in the coaching profession is greatly misunderstood IMO.

There are some examples from NFL history of former players with no experience (or even just a little experience) that didn’t work out. One even recent. Here are some examples:

• In 2022, the colts hired their former great C and HOFer Jeff Saturday, who is an outstanding NFL analyst, as their interim head coach. Other than a brief stint being the head coach at a private Christian school, Saturday had never had any coaching experience. It was not a success. Saturday was the first NFL HC with no prior college or pro coaching experience since…..
• HOF QB Norm Van Brocklin was hired by the Vikings as HC in 1961, and in his 5 seasons there as HC was 29-51-4. Van Brocklin later coached the Atlanta Falcons and was a little better going 37-49-3.
• This next example of a great player who was a bad HC is Mike Singletary. The bears HOF great DID have a little NFL coaching experience - as in 4 years as an assistant coach before being named the niners HC in 2009. He was not a success going 18-22 as a HC there.

Let me repeat…I have nothing against Witten or Romo. I just believe being a HC in the NFL is a lot more than just knowing Xs and Os or having a great career as a player. Most great players don’t make great coaches because coaching is so much more than knowledge.

I was never a coach myself but one of my sons is a HS coach having coached basketball and football at the HS level. Obviously coaching HS is not the NFL, but I believe at all levels, coaching is not as easy as it looks, lol, even at the HS level.

Surely we can hire a head coach who has more experience than the broadcasting booth or a private school.

Jason Garrett is another example.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Those names are only out there because people know Jerry is a Kellen Moore rejection away from not having a clue as to where to turn.

loooooooooool

 

[Coogiguy03]

And too many of our fellow fans don’t understand that Jerry hires HCs based on his personal comfort, not based on who gives us the best chance to win. It’s depressing but it’s the truth.

post of the afternoon!!!

 

[Mannix]

Those names are only out there because people know Jerry is a Kellen Moore rejection away from not having a clue as to where to turn.

Kellen Moore is a bad idea too....there is no way this guy is gonna command a room, and change the culture. Give me Gruden or Glenn.

 

[blueblood70]

This would not have been a serious idea twenty years ago, but in the celebrity media age we occupy today, the idea of hiring a former beloved player as a head coach because of their knowledge, success as a player and popularity has become a vogue idea. I’ve seen several threads over the last few weeks supporting the idea that guys like Jason Witten or Tony Romo without any NFL coaching experience could step in and be a success.

First of all, I have great respect for both those guys as former Cowboys players. Witten is a HOFer in waiting and Romo will probably make the ROH someday. But that does not mean they are ready to step in as an NFL HC with no prior experience. The degree of difficulty in the coaching profession is greatly misunderstood IMO.

There are some examples from NFL history of former players with no experience (or even just a little experience) that didn’t work out. One even recent. Here are some examples:

• In 2022, the colts hired their former great C and HOFer Jeff Saturday, who is an outstanding NFL analyst, as their interim head coach. Other than a brief stint being the head coach at a private Christian school, Saturday had never had any coaching experience. It was not a success. Saturday was the first NFL HC with no prior college or pro coaching experience since…..
• HOF QB Norm Van Brocklin was hired by the Vikings as HC in 1961, and in his 5 seasons there as HC was 29-51-4. Van Brocklin later coached the Atlanta Falcons and was a little better going 37-49-3.
• This next example of a great player who was a bad HC is Mike Singletary. The bears HOF great DID have a little NFL coaching experience - as in 4 years as an assistant coach before being named the niners HC in 2009. He was not a success going 18-22 as a HC there.

Let me repeat…I have nothing against Witten or Romo. I just believe being a HC in the NFL is a lot more than just knowing Xs and Os or having a great career as a player. Most great players don’t make great coaches because coaching is so much more than knowledge.

I was never a coach myself but one of my sons is a HS coach having coached basketball and football at the HS level. Obviously coaching HS is not the NFL, but I believe at all levels, coaching is not as easy as it looks, lol, even at the HS level.

Surely we can hire a head coach who has more experience than the broadcasting booth or a private school.

agreed...

 

[Coogiguy03]

Hiring an experienced coach that can’t pick his own staff or players is equally disastrous

so true!!!!!!!!! I wonder what these coaches ask for during interviews, and if they need to start holding Jerry accountable if he doesn't stick to his word