Already Gone
- Wade Phillips (DAL)
Guaranteed To Get Fired After This Year
- Lovie Smith (CHI)
- Brad Childress (MIN)
- Jack Del Rio (JAX)
- John Fox (CAR)
- Jason Garrett (DAL)
Tipping On The Tightrope
- Marvin Lewis (CIN)
- Mike Singletary (SF)
Playoff Or Bust
- Gary Kubiak (HOU)
- Mike McCarthy (GB)
- Norv Turner (SD)
Should Be Fired But Too Young (On Team)
- Josh McDaniels (DEN)
- Mike Shanahan (WAS)
- Chan Gailey (BUF)
- Jim Schwartz (DET)
Neutral
- Tom Cable (OAK)
- Jim Caldwell (IND)
- Tony Sparano (MIA)
Shouldn't Be Fired And Are Too Young (On Team)
- Pete Carrol (SEA)
- Steve Spagnolo (STL)
- Todd Haley (KC)
- Raheem Morris (TB)
- Eric Mangini (CLE)
- Rex Ryan (NYJ)
Have Earned Respect (This Year and In Past) To Stay On Team
- Andy Reid (PHI)
- Sean Peyton (NO)
- Tom Coughlin (NYG)
- Ken Wisenhunt (ARI)
- Mike Smith (ATL)
- John Harbaugh (BAL)
Safest Job In The NFL
- Mike Tomlin (PIT)
- Jeff Fischer (TEN)
- Bill Belichick (NE)
Showing posts with label NFL head coach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL head coach. Show all posts
Forbes NFL's Top Five Management Teams
Forbes has ranked the NFL's Top Five Management Teams including the general manager and head coach based on the last two seasons performance and payroll. Their formula is:
The top five teams according to Forbes are:"The grading system is based on the number of wins per player payroll (including
salaries, bonuses and benefits) relative to the rest of the NFL, averaged
over the 2007 and 2008 season. Postseason wins count twice as much as regular
season wins. A score of 120 means that the team achieved 20% more victories per
dollar of payroll compared with the league average."
These are the teams that are getting the most wins for their buck!1. New York Giants
2. Tennessee Titans
3. Pittsburgh Steelers
4. San Diego Chargers
5. Philadelphia Eagles
Coaches Discussion Part II- Brief NFL Coaches Blurb
Jeff Fisher. Tennessee Titans. A great coach this year. Helped play to his teams strengths and expose opponents weaknesses. Helped his 8-8 talent last year be 13-2 this year (that last game didn't count)
Tom Coughlin. New York Giants. He helps in the locker room but that team was 12 games this year because of the great talent on the O-line and in pass rushers more than what Coughlin did.
Mike Tomlin. Pittsburgh Steelers. Benefited hugely from the great talent from his predecessors have put together and done exactly what Bill Cohwer has done with essentially the same talent. His in game decisions is suspect. He goes for a lot of unnecessary 4th and long which costs his teams games. If in five years, the Steelers are still continually making the playoffs then I'll change my mind but right now my view on Tomlin is very low
John Fox. Carolina Panthers. Another case of where his GM put together some great O and D lines but Fox gets a lot of credit for keeping this talent together and winning 12 games.
Tony Dungy. Indianapolis Colts. If Peyton Manning could get CoY votes he should get all the votes Tony gets. This team is mainly Peyton Manning. Dungy should get mad props for building up this Colts defense because before he got there, it was shit. And now it's a powerhouse. A sustainable one. But let's be realistic. This team wins games because of Peyton Manning.
John Harbaugh. Baltimore Ravens. He should get a lot of credit for turning an aging defense that only won 5 games last year into an 11 win team, but no way does he help expose other teams weaknesses. If he did, that offense sure was pitiful. It will be interesting to see if this rookie head coach can sustain this success. I'm guessing he can't.
Mike Smith. Atlanta Falcons. The GM should get more credit than Smith for getting Matt Ryan and Michael Turner but for the most part, Smith inherited the same team has last year and was able to do a lot more for a team in the dumps. He was able to utilize his talent extremely effectively to help make the playoffs this year. But still, Matt Ryan and Michael Turner helps a lot on this turnaround.
Tony Sparano. Miami Dolphins. A great coach that was able to do so much with so little
Bill Belichick. New England Patriots. One of the best coaches ever. You better not have a weakness on your team because Belichick will expose it.
Brad Childress. Minnesota Vikings. He is able to utilize his talent very effectively. Run Adrian Peterson. Run him every chance you get. He made a great decision to bench Tavaris Jackson early because he fucken sucks. He has one of the best defensive lines in the NFL which also helps him win games.
Andy Reid. Philadelphia Eagles. When you have Brian Westbrook AND a healthy Donovan McNabb, you should have a winning record. But you shouldn't use McNabb more than Westbrook. That's so retarded. There's a reason this Eagles offense does almost better without McNabb, because Reid is forced to run the ball. There's absolutely no fucken reason to not utilize Westbroook to his full potential, yet Reid doesn't. But on the bright side, he helps with great defensive schemes to be the NFC leader in sacks.
Norv Turner. San Diego Chargers. Very few teams had the expectations that the Chargers had and very few teams had the talent that the Chargers had. Granted they made the playoffs, but to only go 8-8 with this team seems to show you the true Norv Turner.
Ken Whisenhunt. Arizona Cardinals. For a team that always seemed to be loaded with talent, Whisenhunt finally got this team into the playoffs. But with that much talent that the Cardinals had on defense, it's sort of pitiful how bad that defense. But I do like what Whisenhunt has done with this organization and where he's taking it.
Wade Phillps. Dallas Cowboys. The most talented team in the NFL. Also one of the most poorly coached teams. Yes Phillips did a great job on defense but a team also needs an offense and Wade didn't do anything to help it. He didn't keep a cohesive locker room and he didn't do a good job by any stretch of the imagination in terms of managerial skills. It's pathetic this talent-rich team didn't even made the playoffs
Lovie Smith. Chicago Bears. I will talk about him more in depth is my next post but he's a terrible coach and needs to get the AXE!
Jon Gruden. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I still think he's an above average coach that's able to maximize his talent of his players so it's a huge disappointment to me that his team had the chance to make the playoffs and didn't. I would also like to see how well his defenses are without Monte Kiffin.
Eric Mangini. New York Jets. His team executives spent so much money improving this team that Mangini deserves a lot of the blame for only finsihing 3rd in his division. Especially considering the position they were in 11/12 games into the season. Brett Favre throwing 22 INTS didn't help his offense any but with the O and D lines he had, he should have made the playoffs. He deserved to get fired.
Gary Kubiak. Houston Texans. I think he's done a lot for this organization. It's really really really hard to start a franchise from scratch so he inherited a bad situation but I think he's doing a damn fine job building up this team in the tough division he's in. However, he needs to start improving his team and getting winning records to deserve to keep his job.
Sean Peyton. New Orleans Saints. Done a damn fine job maximizing his offense but hasn't done shit trying to improve his defense and that's why I feel he's on thin ice.
Mike Singletary. San Fransisco 49ers. This team was much improved since Singletary took over. In fact, if it wasn't for Mike Martz fucking up that goal line stand in that MNF Cardinals/49ers game, the 49ers would be in the playoffs. Singletary has done a fantastic job bringing life to this dead organization and his players love him and, to quote every ESPN "expert", they have bought into his schemes. Singletary seems to be the coach of the future and the ones SF needs.
Jim Zorn. Washington Redskins. If he stays on, he needs to do a better job handling his players so they can follow his schemes.
Mike Shannahan. Denver Broncos. Winning two Superbowls can and should only go so far. You still need to at least get your teams into the playoffs every so often. In 2006 and 2008 (just SOME examples) he had the opportunity in the last week to make the playoffs and didn't. His game planning and game management has not been very good in recent years and he absolutely deserved to get fired. He has simply not done a good job in the past five years. The coaching he did in 98 and 99 really seems to be the great talent he had more than it was Shannahan. Some people say "You don't forget how to be a great coach" Well, if that's the case Shannnhan didn't do anything in his later part of his tenure to prove hat saying to be correct.
Dick Jauron. Buffalo Bills. He is a bad coach. He always always been a bad coach. There's absolutely no reason, once the Bills fire him, that he deserves another chance.
Mike McCarthy. Green Bay Packers. Let's go with a poker metaphor here. When a coach is the chip leader, he looks amazing. When his chips are down, good and great head coaches will earn their money back. Last year, McCarthy had a young healthy team so he became the chip leader. This year when injuries caused him to lose his chips, he showed he was not really a good head coach because he didn't get his chips back
Mike Holmgren. Seattle Seahawks. See Mike McCarthy. It's actually more pitiful than McCarthy because McCarthy at one point could still win the division. Holmgren had just as many injuries as the Packers yet his team BLEW! I mean thy blew donkey balls. Absolutely pathetic and pitiful the coaching job he's done this year.
Romeo Crennel. Cleveland Browns. See Dick Jauron. He sucks as well. More proof how awesome Bill Belichick is.
Jack Del Rio. Jacksonville Jaguars. There's only so much a QB and RB do when an O-line gets depleted due to unmitigated circumstances so it's hard to fault Del Rio on the lack of offensive play. He should get some flack for the defensive slip but in reality they didn't slip too far. He's still a darn good coach in my mind who got some shit luck
Tom Cable. Oakland Raiders. The only way any coach will succeed in Oakland is either: 1) Al Davis dies or 2) Al David stops controlling the team. Until either two happens, the head coach will remain useless
Marvin Lewis. Cincinnati Bengals. See Wade Phillips. The only bright side in Marvin Lewis' tenure has been his offense because of Carson Palmer. Once he got injured of course this team has gone to shit. Lewis can't control his locker room but he wouldn't matter because his game calling his shit. He hasn't done shit with his defense. At all. It's always been shit and you can't have a shit D for this long. He sucks and must be blowing the owner to be keeping his job.
Herm Edwards. Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout his coaching tenure he hasn't really proven to be all that good of a head coach going 54-74 with a .422 sample size. This year was no exception. But with a good organization and some smart drafting last year I wouldn't be surprised if the Chiefs win a lot of games next year. But it won't be because of Herm Edwards.
Jim Haslett. St. Louis Rams. The only two games the Rams won are the two games where Steven Jackson was healthy (essentially). When you have 14 games when you don't have your starting RB, you still need to win some fucking games. Lack of talent and loads of injuries don't help a head coach but Haslett hasn't done anything to make him worthy enough to keep his job.
Rod Maranelli. Detroit Lions. I don't care how untalented your team is (and the Detroit Lions were by far one the most untalented team of all time? you have to win at least one game. At least ONE FUCKING GAME! Come one really!? No wins. 0-16!? Now let's be fair, it's not 100% his fault. He had one of the worst GMs of all time (Matt Millen) and a really tough schedule but when you have games against Jacksonville, Packers, San Fransisco, Houston, and Washington and you don't win one game, you're a bad fucking coach.
Tom Coughlin. New York Giants. He helps in the locker room but that team was 12 games this year because of the great talent on the O-line and in pass rushers more than what Coughlin did.
Mike Tomlin. Pittsburgh Steelers. Benefited hugely from the great talent from his predecessors have put together and done exactly what Bill Cohwer has done with essentially the same talent. His in game decisions is suspect. He goes for a lot of unnecessary 4th and long which costs his teams games. If in five years, the Steelers are still continually making the playoffs then I'll change my mind but right now my view on Tomlin is very low
John Fox. Carolina Panthers. Another case of where his GM put together some great O and D lines but Fox gets a lot of credit for keeping this talent together and winning 12 games.
Tony Dungy. Indianapolis Colts. If Peyton Manning could get CoY votes he should get all the votes Tony gets. This team is mainly Peyton Manning. Dungy should get mad props for building up this Colts defense because before he got there, it was shit. And now it's a powerhouse. A sustainable one. But let's be realistic. This team wins games because of Peyton Manning.
John Harbaugh. Baltimore Ravens. He should get a lot of credit for turning an aging defense that only won 5 games last year into an 11 win team, but no way does he help expose other teams weaknesses. If he did, that offense sure was pitiful. It will be interesting to see if this rookie head coach can sustain this success. I'm guessing he can't.
Mike Smith. Atlanta Falcons. The GM should get more credit than Smith for getting Matt Ryan and Michael Turner but for the most part, Smith inherited the same team has last year and was able to do a lot more for a team in the dumps. He was able to utilize his talent extremely effectively to help make the playoffs this year. But still, Matt Ryan and Michael Turner helps a lot on this turnaround.
Tony Sparano. Miami Dolphins. A great coach that was able to do so much with so little
Bill Belichick. New England Patriots. One of the best coaches ever. You better not have a weakness on your team because Belichick will expose it.
Brad Childress. Minnesota Vikings. He is able to utilize his talent very effectively. Run Adrian Peterson. Run him every chance you get. He made a great decision to bench Tavaris Jackson early because he fucken sucks. He has one of the best defensive lines in the NFL which also helps him win games.
Andy Reid. Philadelphia Eagles. When you have Brian Westbrook AND a healthy Donovan McNabb, you should have a winning record. But you shouldn't use McNabb more than Westbrook. That's so retarded. There's a reason this Eagles offense does almost better without McNabb, because Reid is forced to run the ball. There's absolutely no fucken reason to not utilize Westbroook to his full potential, yet Reid doesn't. But on the bright side, he helps with great defensive schemes to be the NFC leader in sacks.
Norv Turner. San Diego Chargers. Very few teams had the expectations that the Chargers had and very few teams had the talent that the Chargers had. Granted they made the playoffs, but to only go 8-8 with this team seems to show you the true Norv Turner.
Ken Whisenhunt. Arizona Cardinals. For a team that always seemed to be loaded with talent, Whisenhunt finally got this team into the playoffs. But with that much talent that the Cardinals had on defense, it's sort of pitiful how bad that defense. But I do like what Whisenhunt has done with this organization and where he's taking it.
Wade Phillps. Dallas Cowboys. The most talented team in the NFL. Also one of the most poorly coached teams. Yes Phillips did a great job on defense but a team also needs an offense and Wade didn't do anything to help it. He didn't keep a cohesive locker room and he didn't do a good job by any stretch of the imagination in terms of managerial skills. It's pathetic this talent-rich team didn't even made the playoffs
Lovie Smith. Chicago Bears. I will talk about him more in depth is my next post but he's a terrible coach and needs to get the AXE!
Jon Gruden. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I still think he's an above average coach that's able to maximize his talent of his players so it's a huge disappointment to me that his team had the chance to make the playoffs and didn't. I would also like to see how well his defenses are without Monte Kiffin.
Eric Mangini. New York Jets. His team executives spent so much money improving this team that Mangini deserves a lot of the blame for only finsihing 3rd in his division. Especially considering the position they were in 11/12 games into the season. Brett Favre throwing 22 INTS didn't help his offense any but with the O and D lines he had, he should have made the playoffs. He deserved to get fired.
Gary Kubiak. Houston Texans. I think he's done a lot for this organization. It's really really really hard to start a franchise from scratch so he inherited a bad situation but I think he's doing a damn fine job building up this team in the tough division he's in. However, he needs to start improving his team and getting winning records to deserve to keep his job.
Sean Peyton. New Orleans Saints. Done a damn fine job maximizing his offense but hasn't done shit trying to improve his defense and that's why I feel he's on thin ice.
Mike Singletary. San Fransisco 49ers. This team was much improved since Singletary took over. In fact, if it wasn't for Mike Martz fucking up that goal line stand in that MNF Cardinals/49ers game, the 49ers would be in the playoffs. Singletary has done a fantastic job bringing life to this dead organization and his players love him and, to quote every ESPN "expert", they have bought into his schemes. Singletary seems to be the coach of the future and the ones SF needs.
Jim Zorn. Washington Redskins. If he stays on, he needs to do a better job handling his players so they can follow his schemes.
Mike Shannahan. Denver Broncos. Winning two Superbowls can and should only go so far. You still need to at least get your teams into the playoffs every so often. In 2006 and 2008 (just SOME examples) he had the opportunity in the last week to make the playoffs and didn't. His game planning and game management has not been very good in recent years and he absolutely deserved to get fired. He has simply not done a good job in the past five years. The coaching he did in 98 and 99 really seems to be the great talent he had more than it was Shannahan. Some people say "You don't forget how to be a great coach" Well, if that's the case Shannnhan didn't do anything in his later part of his tenure to prove hat saying to be correct.
Dick Jauron. Buffalo Bills. He is a bad coach. He always always been a bad coach. There's absolutely no reason, once the Bills fire him, that he deserves another chance.
Mike McCarthy. Green Bay Packers. Let's go with a poker metaphor here. When a coach is the chip leader, he looks amazing. When his chips are down, good and great head coaches will earn their money back. Last year, McCarthy had a young healthy team so he became the chip leader. This year when injuries caused him to lose his chips, he showed he was not really a good head coach because he didn't get his chips back
Mike Holmgren. Seattle Seahawks. See Mike McCarthy. It's actually more pitiful than McCarthy because McCarthy at one point could still win the division. Holmgren had just as many injuries as the Packers yet his team BLEW! I mean thy blew donkey balls. Absolutely pathetic and pitiful the coaching job he's done this year.
Romeo Crennel. Cleveland Browns. See Dick Jauron. He sucks as well. More proof how awesome Bill Belichick is.
Jack Del Rio. Jacksonville Jaguars. There's only so much a QB and RB do when an O-line gets depleted due to unmitigated circumstances so it's hard to fault Del Rio on the lack of offensive play. He should get some flack for the defensive slip but in reality they didn't slip too far. He's still a darn good coach in my mind who got some shit luck
Tom Cable. Oakland Raiders. The only way any coach will succeed in Oakland is either: 1) Al Davis dies or 2) Al David stops controlling the team. Until either two happens, the head coach will remain useless
Marvin Lewis. Cincinnati Bengals. See Wade Phillips. The only bright side in Marvin Lewis' tenure has been his offense because of Carson Palmer. Once he got injured of course this team has gone to shit. Lewis can't control his locker room but he wouldn't matter because his game calling his shit. He hasn't done shit with his defense. At all. It's always been shit and you can't have a shit D for this long. He sucks and must be blowing the owner to be keeping his job.
Herm Edwards. Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout his coaching tenure he hasn't really proven to be all that good of a head coach going 54-74 with a .422 sample size. This year was no exception. But with a good organization and some smart drafting last year I wouldn't be surprised if the Chiefs win a lot of games next year. But it won't be because of Herm Edwards.
Jim Haslett. St. Louis Rams. The only two games the Rams won are the two games where Steven Jackson was healthy (essentially). When you have 14 games when you don't have your starting RB, you still need to win some fucking games. Lack of talent and loads of injuries don't help a head coach but Haslett hasn't done anything to make him worthy enough to keep his job.
Rod Maranelli. Detroit Lions. I don't care how untalented your team is (and the Detroit Lions were by far one the most untalented team of all time? you have to win at least one game. At least ONE FUCKING GAME! Come one really!? No wins. 0-16!? Now let's be fair, it's not 100% his fault. He had one of the worst GMs of all time (Matt Millen) and a really tough schedule but when you have games against Jacksonville, Packers, San Fransisco, Houston, and Washington and you don't win one game, you're a bad fucking coach.
The Qualifications of a NFL Head Coach
This post will help set up two later posts. First, who deserves to be Coach of the Year? Secondly, which coaches deserve to get fired, specifically, Lovie Smith.
Football more than any other sport, requires specific and careful game planning and coaching. In baseball, all a manager has to do to decide at the beginning of the year decide what order to place his healthy players in a line up and decide when to pull pitchers and who to replace them with. A very easy job. How a team does doesn't really matter on a baseball manager but which players a baseball GM chooses. Basketball, hockey, and soccer. Well those sports are even easier. Very little game planning by the head coach. All they have to do is decide which players to replace and have the players on the court/field/rink etc run around and have them make plays.
But football. Oh no. You can't just throw out players. You need to design specific schemes. Very meticulous game planning. But really, how much does the head coach do?
The game calling is done by the offensive coordinators (for the most part). Most of the heavy lifting is not done by the head coach himself. So what exactly does a head coach do or need to do? What makes a great head coach? Is a teams record an accurate judge of how well a head coach does?
Simple answer: Yes. But life is not so simple is it? The first person a team should blame on their success or failures is the GM. They are responsible for the players that are on the field. They draft and make trades to determine who starts.
Things an NFL coach IS responsible for:
1) The overall game plan
2) Second half adjustments
3) Ability to keep a cohesive locker room
4) Random game time decisions (like whether to go for it on 4th and X and when to challenge, etc)
And that's it. That's all they have to do.
The biggest thing you can blame a coach for is can they play to their strengths and expose another teams weaknesses. Now a coach is not responsible for the talent on the field but he can control what he does with that talent. You may inherent a team that has sub-par talent but if you're a good coach you still have professional athletes on your team and they still have some strengths. Is your offensive line kind of crappy? Use a lot of dink and dumps. Is your defensive line kind of crappy? Help design smart blitz schemes. Great coaches can do more with less. Any casual fan can notice that if your team is playing an offense that can run the ball well but not pass, then pull your safeties up to the line of scrimmage and force the team to pass (Maybe not THAT specific, but you get the idea). Not necessarily how your team does on one or two plays but how does your team play throughout the game. And if the GM has blessed your team with talent, as a head coach, you need to make sure that talent performs on the field.
After a head coach has seen what their opponent has done for two quarters, they need to adjust. Especially if your team is losing. A smart coach can analyze what their team and their opponent has done well and done poorly. Then you need to make adjustments. Even if you are winning, your opponent is making adjustments. You need to make some changes to win football games
You also need to have 53 players believe in you and each other (or most importantly the 22 starters). If a head coach does not have a cohesive locker room, then he can not effectively do what else he needs to do. If people don't listen or respect what the coach has to say, then the head coach can not initiate his game plan effectively. The vast majority of what a coach has to do is manage the personalities of his players. Like Wade Phillips. His players don't really listen to him. Therefore they don't really play the way Philips wants them to play and thus he can not initiate his will on the field. Basically, head coached need to be high paid babysitters.
Lastly, the coach needs to make quick, smart decisions on what to do in random situations on the field. He is the ultimate decider on whether to challenge a play. He is the ultimate decider on whether to do something like squib kick with 15 seconds of the game when only up by one and allow the opponent lots of yardage to kick a last minute winning field goal. He is the ultimate decider on whether or not to do a prevent defense on the last drive of the game to allow your opponents to score a game winning touchdown. He is the ultimate decider on whether or not to go for it on fourth downs. It's these multiple game time decisions that weed out the good coaches from the bad ones.
A head coach also has a big say in determining which coordinators the team has. So while coordinators do a lot of the heavy lifting, it is not unfair to blame a head coach for the follies of his coordinators. The head coach does have the ability to override what the coordinators do and have to continually agree with coordinators decisions, but individual game calling is not on the head coaches shoulders.
If a coach can effectively do all four things well, he is a coach worthy of Coach of the Year votes. If he fails to do all four things, especially year after year, he deserves to get the axe.
A part of what a head coach realistically HAS to do is play the expectations game. If his team is expected to win a super bowl and misses the playoffs, he will get fired. If he isn't expected to win many games and wins his division, he'll get a 3 year extension. If a team is expected to do well, then the team NEEDS to do well in order for a head coach to keep his job. But if the team isn't really expected to do anything, then the head coach is kinda safe. (However, a head coach can not be bad year after year. He can keep his job like one or two years if the team is expected to do bad but not for long. a team needs to show improvement.) It sucks, but that's what a head coach needs to do.
Blowing the owner also helps a head coach keep his job.
Football more than any other sport, requires specific and careful game planning and coaching. In baseball, all a manager has to do to decide at the beginning of the year decide what order to place his healthy players in a line up and decide when to pull pitchers and who to replace them with. A very easy job. How a team does doesn't really matter on a baseball manager but which players a baseball GM chooses. Basketball, hockey, and soccer. Well those sports are even easier. Very little game planning by the head coach. All they have to do is decide which players to replace and have the players on the court/field/rink etc run around and have them make plays.
But football. Oh no. You can't just throw out players. You need to design specific schemes. Very meticulous game planning. But really, how much does the head coach do?
The game calling is done by the offensive coordinators (for the most part). Most of the heavy lifting is not done by the head coach himself. So what exactly does a head coach do or need to do? What makes a great head coach? Is a teams record an accurate judge of how well a head coach does?
Simple answer: Yes. But life is not so simple is it? The first person a team should blame on their success or failures is the GM. They are responsible for the players that are on the field. They draft and make trades to determine who starts.
Things an NFL coach IS responsible for:
1) The overall game plan
2) Second half adjustments
3) Ability to keep a cohesive locker room
4) Random game time decisions (like whether to go for it on 4th and X and when to challenge, etc)
And that's it. That's all they have to do.
The biggest thing you can blame a coach for is can they play to their strengths and expose another teams weaknesses. Now a coach is not responsible for the talent on the field but he can control what he does with that talent. You may inherent a team that has sub-par talent but if you're a good coach you still have professional athletes on your team and they still have some strengths. Is your offensive line kind of crappy? Use a lot of dink and dumps. Is your defensive line kind of crappy? Help design smart blitz schemes. Great coaches can do more with less. Any casual fan can notice that if your team is playing an offense that can run the ball well but not pass, then pull your safeties up to the line of scrimmage and force the team to pass (Maybe not THAT specific, but you get the idea). Not necessarily how your team does on one or two plays but how does your team play throughout the game. And if the GM has blessed your team with talent, as a head coach, you need to make sure that talent performs on the field.
After a head coach has seen what their opponent has done for two quarters, they need to adjust. Especially if your team is losing. A smart coach can analyze what their team and their opponent has done well and done poorly. Then you need to make adjustments. Even if you are winning, your opponent is making adjustments. You need to make some changes to win football games
You also need to have 53 players believe in you and each other (or most importantly the 22 starters). If a head coach does not have a cohesive locker room, then he can not effectively do what else he needs to do. If people don't listen or respect what the coach has to say, then the head coach can not initiate his game plan effectively. The vast majority of what a coach has to do is manage the personalities of his players. Like Wade Phillips. His players don't really listen to him. Therefore they don't really play the way Philips wants them to play and thus he can not initiate his will on the field. Basically, head coached need to be high paid babysitters.
Lastly, the coach needs to make quick, smart decisions on what to do in random situations on the field. He is the ultimate decider on whether to challenge a play. He is the ultimate decider on whether to do something like squib kick with 15 seconds of the game when only up by one and allow the opponent lots of yardage to kick a last minute winning field goal. He is the ultimate decider on whether or not to do a prevent defense on the last drive of the game to allow your opponents to score a game winning touchdown. He is the ultimate decider on whether or not to go for it on fourth downs. It's these multiple game time decisions that weed out the good coaches from the bad ones.
A head coach also has a big say in determining which coordinators the team has. So while coordinators do a lot of the heavy lifting, it is not unfair to blame a head coach for the follies of his coordinators. The head coach does have the ability to override what the coordinators do and have to continually agree with coordinators decisions, but individual game calling is not on the head coaches shoulders.
If a coach can effectively do all four things well, he is a coach worthy of Coach of the Year votes. If he fails to do all four things, especially year after year, he deserves to get the axe.
A part of what a head coach realistically HAS to do is play the expectations game. If his team is expected to win a super bowl and misses the playoffs, he will get fired. If he isn't expected to win many games and wins his division, he'll get a 3 year extension. If a team is expected to do well, then the team NEEDS to do well in order for a head coach to keep his job. But if the team isn't really expected to do anything, then the head coach is kinda safe. (However, a head coach can not be bad year after year. He can keep his job like one or two years if the team is expected to do bad but not for long. a team needs to show improvement.) It sucks, but that's what a head coach needs to do.
Blowing the owner also helps a head coach keep his job.
