here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe right hire = skills + cultural fit<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to preface this entire thing right out of the gate that in no way am I insinuating that cultural fit was the only, or even primary consideration for naming Joe Brady the new head coach. Technical skills matter. Knowledge matters. In a job like this, even reaction time and cognitive processing speed matter (ex: juggling information to know whether or not to challenge while the other team races to get the next play off).<\/p>\n
With that said, at this level of competition you will find candidates who check off the technical aspects of the job and if there\u2019s more than one person who has the right tools for the position, you go with the better cultural fit.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go back in time a bit to when fans of the Bills were focused on which quarterback the team would be selecting in the 2018 NFL Draft. Most of the NFL world debated skill set and capability, but when asked my opinion on which quarterback I wanted the Bills to draft, I always took it in another direction.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not because I was completely unaware of talent. I did film reviews of all the major draft prospects. My conclusion? While there were variations in skill sets to be sure, I felt most of the major prospects had enough talent to be \u201cthe one.\u201d We all know Josh Allen sure the heck does. Sam Darnold will be playing in a Super Bowl, so clearly he\u2019s not some limiting factor preventing the Seattle Seahawks from having success. Baker Mayfield has had a resurgence. Lamar Jackson is a two-time MVP. I still maintain Josh Rosen flaming out wasn\u2019t because of his capability, but rather motivation.<\/p>\n
Which direction then, did I steer my answer? Whenever asked which quarterback I wanted most, I would answer \u201cwhichever one the front office fell in love with.\u201d The front office will certainly have a big early push for whoever they pick, but if they don\u2019t love their selection, that motivation will flame out quickly. Josh Rosen is the prime example of that. Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield both saw their team fall out of love with them. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have had sustained love from their team.<\/p>\n
That culture fit for Allen and Jackson led to both players being allowed to grow through mistakes and see coaches attempt to change the team in ways to shape more toward their star players. For the other guys, a lot of moves seemed to be in spite of them.<\/p>\n
Rosen as we know never caught on anywhere, famously being cast off the year after the Arizona Cardinals traded three picks to move up five spots in the first round to get him. Mayfield and Darnold\u2019s success have both come with chatter sounding an awful lot like finding a team where they felt they fit in and were wanted. These players didn\u2019t suddenly take a giant talent leap forward, they just found the right cultural fit.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of words about quarterbacks, but it will all apply to head coaches too. Cultural fit sounds like a buzzword, but it matters. A lot. It isn\u2019t about having friends at the water cooler. It\u2019s about efficiency and decision making.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all had a coworker who doesn\u2019t fit in. I\u2019m not talking about a bad employee, more like someone who just doesn\u2019t seem to match the vibe of the team. Try to think of that person in your life. Now think of a scenario where you have to work together on a major project. Even if the worst is just awkwardness, that lack of vibe can cost you time. It will create a lack of comfort when throwing out new ideas. Most importantly, this is a coworker for whom you\u2019ll be less inclined to move mountains.<\/p>\n
General manager Brandon Beane was part of the hiring group that landed on Brady. If a team\u2019s general manager isn\u2019t moving mountains for his head coach, they\u2019re dead in the water. Terry Pegula was part of the hiring group. If the owner feels awkward being around the head coach, they\u2019re dead in the water. Josh Allen was part of the hiring group. If the face of the franchise doesn\u2019t like being around the head coach, they\u2019re losing the locker room and they\u2019re worse than dead in the water.<\/p>\n
So yes, don\u2019t hire a person without talent. But do find a person with talent and someone who fits in with the key stakeholders already on the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of my football analysis is based on body mechanics and science. My schedule doesn\u2019t allow me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,98775,1622,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-714119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalo-bills-coaching-staff","12":"tag-buffalo-bills-opinion","13":"tag-buffalobills","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115978811873491960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}