So why do teams keep doing this? Why are owners desperate to make these ass-backwards hires when every shred of logic says they’re doing the wrong thing? Why are teams emulating failing franchises and repeating their mistakes, rather than forge the path of success?
It all comes down to ego.
NFL owners are billionaires. By nature they’re used to everyone telling them how wonderful they are. Entire corporate structures are built to make them feel invincible and worship the ground billionaires walk on. However, when you own a team there’s always one great equalizer: The fans. Sure, the bill or sale might have one name on it, Wikipedia might reflect a single owner — but an NFL team belongs to a city, a state, and beyond. Fans will not suffer bad ownership, and billionaires hate being mocked, so it breeds impatience. A desire to make people happy, and the fastest way to do that is by making a splashy head coaching hire — even if it’s the wrong move.
Coaches are always sexier hires than GMs. It dominates the news cycle. Nobody really cares about a general manager outside of the most die-hard football fans, even if the job ends up being equally, or even more important than the dude making the call on the sidelines. Also, owners know that hiring a winning coach makes them seem like heroes, and are desirous of having more people appreciate them.
So we’re at this point. Owners rolling the dice to try and win big, despite everything telling us it’s the wrong move. Teams are pushing ahead to interview and hire head coaches, then back-fill the GM job and hope it all works together. This is not how the process should work, it’s not how the process does work, and any examples of coaches succeeding without a GM in place first are the exception, not the rule.
The lesson to fans and teams trying this is to step back, wait, and let the process unfold properly. Unless you want to be the next Jaguars or Panthers. If that’s your goal, then go right ahead and plunge into failure.
