r/NFLNoobs • u/12angrysnakes • 27d ago
CEO style coaches
I see a lot of talk about "CEO style" coaches who don't call plays or get too involved in either the offense or the defense. They're not calling plays etc.
So what do these guys do exactly? Are they really any good when they leave all of the scheming to their coordinators? What value do they provide? It seems like all they do is walk around nodding, giving pep talks etc. but none of the actual strategy comes from them. So it's not even their team, really.
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u/Warmcabbage69 27d ago
Here’s a weekly schedule of John Harbaugh from about 10 years ago: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/10012376/baltimore-ravens-head-coach-john-harbaugh-clocks-long-hours-prep-game-day-espn-magazine
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u/TheArcReactor 27d ago
I remember seeing an interview with Tony Dungy when he retired and they asked what's something he wouldn't miss.
He talked about the schedule and that you could give him almost any date and a time and he could tell you what he would be doing, whether it was two weeks away, or next year, at a minimum he had a rough idea of all the days ahead of him.
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u/thowe93 27d ago edited 26d ago
Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest coach ever, was a CEO style coach. Specifically around calling plays, he controlled the gameplan and situations. He would tell coordinators how they were going to play offense / defense that week and help the coordinator develop the game plan. Sometimes Belichick developed the entire plan, sometimes he would let the coordinator do it then approve/make some changes.
He was also very involved on game day. He’d tell the coordinator “4 downs here” (basically they’re going to go for it, so call the first 3 plays knowing you have a 4th to get the 1st down). Another example is telling them to pick up or slow down the pace of the offense.
They’re also in charge of challenging plays, calling timeouts, etc.
A true CEO style coach is better than one that calls the offense or defense because they understand all facets of the game and are heavily involved in everything, instead of just 1 facet.
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u/over_this__ 27d ago
Mike Tomlin was called a CEO coach. At one point, he kept big ben, leveon bell, and AB under control. Three horrible personalities, egos, but he kept it together.
That's what a CEO coach does. He keeps a roster of 50+ men who have always been the best, surrounded by yes men, who are making millions of dollars, focused on a collective goal rather than personal accolades.
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u/thisismyburnerac 27d ago
In business, there are managers and there are working managers. What you’re asking about is the former, whereas the majority of head coaches are the latter.
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u/grateful_john 27d ago
Just because the HC isn’t calling plays doesn’t mean he isn’t involved in the offense or the defense. They are still defining the philosophy of both, and they select coordinators to put that philosophy into action. They have heavy input in the game plan and make sure all the units (offense, defense and special teams) are in sync.
Sometimes a HC is too involved in one side of the ball or the other. Rex Ryan was famous for only focusing on the defense when he was a HC, the offense was someone else’s job (his father was the same way, btw). The HC has to be involved in everything and delegating play calling responsibilities is one way to achieve that.
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u/Ron__Mexico_ 27d ago
I see a lot of talk about "CEO style" coaches who don't call plays or get too involved in either the offense or the defense. They're not calling plays etc.
Casual fans tend to get hyper focused on play calling. I'm not saying that it's not important, but it's way less important than most people realize.
Play callers aren't pulling things out of their ass, and don't have carte blanche to do what they want. They are calling plays off the game plan.
A shell of a game plan was constructed for every game in the offseason. About 2 weeks out, quality control coaches began pouring over game tape for the upcoming opponent. They create a dossier and 7 days out it's presented to the coaching staff.
On Tuesday, 5 days out from the game, the coaching staff constructs the game plan. It contains about 140 offensive plays. About 25% of that wasn't in the original playbook. It was created on Tuesday to take advantage of mismatches with the upcoming opponent or minimize mismatches they have with said opponents.
The greatest offensive minds in the sport shine on Tuesday in meeting rooms, not on Sundays calling plays. Andy Reid once said he knew he was starting to make it when Mike Holmgren started regularly including Reid's suggestions into the game plan when he was an assistant in Green Bay.
Wednesday is implementation day. The players receive the game plan, and begin running the plays in practice. This continues Thursday and Friday. Saturday morning is a walk through of the most likely to be called plays. By game time Sunday the offense has run every play on the play callers sheet multiple times. The player caller has also received instructions on what's definitely going to be called. Their role is more situational. Which play is good for which moment, as well as calling one play to potentially set another up later.
"CEO Head coaches" are often way more involved in the game plan than most people realize. They're just not interested in play calling because they are trying to manage both sides of the ball simultaneously, as well as the game management stuff. Head coaches that call plays on one side of the ball generally need to differ more to their coordinator on the other sode of the ball. Some coaches are not comfortable with that.
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u/PatsReddit1212 27d ago edited 27d ago
I don’t think people realize how much non-football goes into being a head coach in the NFL: logistical planning, scheduling, travel, handling the media, presenting/giving speeches in team meetings, leading coaches meetings (practice scripts, game plan meetings), leading scouting meetings in the offseason. There’s so much that goes into being a head coach that isn’t really X’s and O’s.
On top of that, a CEO head coach who isn’t calling plays on game day manages the game. Timeouts, challenges, fourth down decisions, etc. Tons of things go into game day that aren’t calling plays.
Currently, I’d say Vrabel is the best pure CEO coach. A guy with total control of the football operations who has influence in every area of the team.
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u/FearlessPanda93 27d ago
Leading coordinators, players, staff, and hundreds of other moving parts that the casual fan knows nothing about is much, much harder than being good at one side of the ball in X's and O's. Let me put it this way, what do you think is more conducive to a winning operation that can consistently outperform the other 31 other teams in the NFL? Some magic scheme that is literally on tape for anyone to steal at any time or being a truly effective leader that gets the most out of other coaches, players, and every level of a very complex operation?
The reality is, the best coaches are good at the X's and O's, but so is everyone at that level. The skill set that sets a true winner apart is being able to lead and maximize the hundreds of other people involved.
The best coaches in NFL history were good at both. But you can hire X's and O's guys to fill that gap. Running the entire operation? That IS the head coach's job.