Jags win and Al Davis loses

I touched on this last week but as if to further confirm that the Raiders are an organization that does it the "wrong way". This story came out after the game. A quick summary, when Kyle Boller came into the game Sunday, the Raiders threw a couple of times. Obvious questions arose about why they did that cause, well, Darren McFadden was having his way with the Jaguars (more specifically Sean Considine) and a run seemed like the more prudent thing to do (cause it's, you know, Kyle Boller). Like all play calling, it's great if it works, it was wrong if it doesn't, hindsight bias, etc. When Tom Cable, Raiders head coach, was asked about it, he said “I don’t know. That is not for me to decide right now.” Hue Jackson, meet bus. While that's bad, its not exactly the problem.

Jack Del Rio has probably at some point thrown his offensive or, less likely his defensive coordinator to the dogs (less likely cause Del Rio's domain is defense and he can't ever really skirt the blame for their failure). He, though has control over who his guys are, and while Del Rio has his own coach issues, most notably the revolving door that are his assistants. He's in charge and is ultimately accountable and responsible for Dirk Koetter's performance. For the Raiders, they have a particularly odd management strategy, one that. as far as I know is unique in the NFL to them. The owner highers the head coach, offensive and defensive coordinator. The coordinators have control over their particular units while the head coach is a kind of figure head. Now Cable and Jackson claim to have laughed about this particular incident and who knows maybe they did, but this type of conflict is inevitable when you have one guy who keeps his job based on one metric (wins) and another guy who has a significant amount of control over those outcomes. If they disagree,which they will, things get nasty. This is all speculation although if Jackson leaves after the season, especially if he leaves for a lower profile job, we'll have a clue.

Ultimately, owners have enough trouble bringing in one right person, the head coach. The process of hiring three people while also juggling how personally compatible they are as well as their football philosophies, is an order of magnitude more complicated. The Cowboys did a similar thing a few years ago, hiring Jason Garrett to be offensive coordinator, before they hired Wade Phillips. That combo won zero playoff games.

While I don't think it's true in all aspects of business or life, in football, I think its especially important to have singular points of authority. For players, quarterbacks tend to assume this role. It is part of the reason why teams are so much more adamant in declaring who their starting QB is. They want to make him into a credible leader. For teams generally, a head coach's authority has to be absolute. It is his vision, philosophy and ability to convince others to follow and execute his strategy that is ultimately being evaluated. By taking away his authority to hire his top assistants, the owner undermines the coach. Al Davis and Jerry Jones effectively have neutered coaches. Wayne Weaver, conversely, has clearly delegated responsibility. Presumably, this is why Gene Smith has the "conn" (am I doing that right?) and Del Rio's role is so well defined. He is responsible for getting the most out of the 53 that Gene Smith gives him.

Final thought, it's worth pondering why do Jerry Jones and Al Davis do this? The most likely answer is essentially ego. Think about how much more strongly Jones and Davis are associated on a national level with the Cowboys and Raiders than Weaver is with the Jaguars. Think about who the faces of each of these franchises are. For the 'Boys and Raiders, it's their owners. For the Jags, it's probably MJD (God bless him). If any of these teams won the Super Bowl, the credit would largely go to the person most highly associated with those teams. While Robert Kraft is well respected, the credit for the Patriot's success this decade largely falls to Belichick and Brady. Outside of Daniel Snyder, I doubt anyone dabbles in football decisions as much as Jones and Davis. I also don't think it's a coincidence that they're the two owners who've had the most football success on the field. Paradoxically, this means that as a fan, you are better off having someone like Weaver or Kraft, who essentially are nothing more than fans with lots of money, than a guy who has had moderate on-field success. Go figure.

-Q