One Number Proves Belichick is Smarter Than Everyone Else...
Jan 30, 2018 11:47:33 GMT -6
silkyice, bigshel, and 8 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2018 11:47:33 GMT -6
www.yahoo.com/sports/one-number-proves-bill-belichick-smarter-everyone-else-062655367.html
Short version: 1/3 of the Patriots' Super Bowl roster came into the league as undrafted free agents, the highest number in the league, and Bellichick has total control. Because the Patriots give Belichick control over personnel, and because he's willing to admit that a player they've thrown a lot of money at or drafted high is a mistake and move on, they are left with the roster of the best and most productive players even if those guys don't fit league prototypes for their position or have already been cut by other teams multiple times. Belichick does much of the research on these undrafted free agents himself, calling up their college coaches to ask for honest opinions like a college recruiter.
For the HS coach, I think the obvious takeaways are:
1.) Look at how the player produces and plays, not just how he looks, how fast he runs in drills, what his grades are, or what he did in middle school. You are a football team, not a 40 yard dash team, a weightlifting team, an academic team, or a male modeling team.
2.) Don't keep sinking efforts into players who cause problems or who you had to work to get or keep on the team. Don't just start an athletic basketball player at WR because you had to work so hard to convince basketball players to come out. Don't play a kid because you think his mom's hot and she's strutting around practice in short shorts flirting with you. Don't play the principal's kid because you fear for your job.
3.) Meddling from outside sources regarding playing time, starting positions, or who is on the team should always be unacceptable. If others take that control away from you, you have less control than your competition and will be in a tougher position. Either put an end to it, tolerate it, or polish up the resume.
4.) Look for what a player can do well, rather than what he can't. Put them in roles that play to their strengths, rather than expose their weaknesses. He's too small to block and too slow to run deep routes. Can he catch, throw, punt, kick, or long snap? He's tough and agile, but he can't catch a cold and only runs 5.0? Try him in different positions at the first team until you find one that clicks. He's 150lbs and always bites on play action, but he's fearless and hits like a ton of bricks? Play him on special teams and look at him as a LB or DE. Find roles they can contribute in, then put them there.
5.) Try to spend as little time as possible coaching up players' weaknesses, opting instead to focus on their strengths. This dovetails with #4. We all have to work with our players on stuff to make them better and more well-rounded or we won't have a team, but when a player is really bad at something and stays really bad at it after you've coached him for weeks, don't keep sinking time into that one player (or maybe that one play or skill). Find ways to work around it and minimize the weakness. If your best OT can't reach a DE but benching him or moving him is not an option due to what else you've got, stop asking him to reach a DE and find another way to get the ball outside or make it so that he's not the guy having to make that block.
6.) Define what your real goal is as a coach and focus your player evaluation and policies around that. Do you care more about winning games or about helping troubled boys become men? Do you care more about grades or athletic performance--be honest. Don't mix and match or think "well, it all depends how I feel about that particular kid"--focus and sharpen Occam's Razor. This doesn't mean grades suddenly don't matter, or that helping kids and being a stand-in father doesn't matter. It's just that playing time is earned for giving you what you need most from them.
Short version: 1/3 of the Patriots' Super Bowl roster came into the league as undrafted free agents, the highest number in the league, and Bellichick has total control. Because the Patriots give Belichick control over personnel, and because he's willing to admit that a player they've thrown a lot of money at or drafted high is a mistake and move on, they are left with the roster of the best and most productive players even if those guys don't fit league prototypes for their position or have already been cut by other teams multiple times. Belichick does much of the research on these undrafted free agents himself, calling up their college coaches to ask for honest opinions like a college recruiter.
For the HS coach, I think the obvious takeaways are:
1.) Look at how the player produces and plays, not just how he looks, how fast he runs in drills, what his grades are, or what he did in middle school. You are a football team, not a 40 yard dash team, a weightlifting team, an academic team, or a male modeling team.
2.) Don't keep sinking efforts into players who cause problems or who you had to work to get or keep on the team. Don't just start an athletic basketball player at WR because you had to work so hard to convince basketball players to come out. Don't play a kid because you think his mom's hot and she's strutting around practice in short shorts flirting with you. Don't play the principal's kid because you fear for your job.
3.) Meddling from outside sources regarding playing time, starting positions, or who is on the team should always be unacceptable. If others take that control away from you, you have less control than your competition and will be in a tougher position. Either put an end to it, tolerate it, or polish up the resume.
4.) Look for what a player can do well, rather than what he can't. Put them in roles that play to their strengths, rather than expose their weaknesses. He's too small to block and too slow to run deep routes. Can he catch, throw, punt, kick, or long snap? He's tough and agile, but he can't catch a cold and only runs 5.0? Try him in different positions at the first team until you find one that clicks. He's 150lbs and always bites on play action, but he's fearless and hits like a ton of bricks? Play him on special teams and look at him as a LB or DE. Find roles they can contribute in, then put them there.
5.) Try to spend as little time as possible coaching up players' weaknesses, opting instead to focus on their strengths. This dovetails with #4. We all have to work with our players on stuff to make them better and more well-rounded or we won't have a team, but when a player is really bad at something and stays really bad at it after you've coached him for weeks, don't keep sinking time into that one player (or maybe that one play or skill). Find ways to work around it and minimize the weakness. If your best OT can't reach a DE but benching him or moving him is not an option due to what else you've got, stop asking him to reach a DE and find another way to get the ball outside or make it so that he's not the guy having to make that block.
6.) Define what your real goal is as a coach and focus your player evaluation and policies around that. Do you care more about winning games or about helping troubled boys become men? Do you care more about grades or athletic performance--be honest. Don't mix and match or think "well, it all depends how I feel about that particular kid"--focus and sharpen Occam's Razor. This doesn't mean grades suddenly don't matter, or that helping kids and being a stand-in father doesn't matter. It's just that playing time is earned for giving you what you need most from them.
