All That Matters

Hire a GM, Mike.
Let go of the fear that your power will somehow be lessened. Give up the notion you know how to run a winning football operation. Stop holding the incredibly loyal fans hostage to your fears and ego. Join the 21st century. Hire a GM.

Bresnahan and Hunley were fired. It won't matter much. Players win games. You don't have enough good ones, especially on defense. M. Lewis was great in Baltimore because he had half the Pro Bowl on his side. Bresnahan coached a defense in Oakland that was good enough to make the Super Bowl. Did he get dumb all the sudden?

Hire a GM, Mike. Spend some money on the personnel dept. Stop trotting out the same old line about having as much information as everyone else. Don't ask your head coach to double as a pro personnel guy. Don't expect your assistant coaches to run themselves ragged looking at college players. M. Lewis said he wants to change completely the way things are done. That would involve lots of face time with his assistants. Time he won't get if they're all over the country working players out.

There isnt enough space here to document the mediocre drafts and the unfortunate, half-assed forays into the free-agent market. Everyone has seen Sam Adams and Ed Hartwell and Keiwan Ratliff and on and on. Wouldnt several more sets of bright eyes be a remedy? Could we at least consider the possibility?

In places like New England and Baltimore, they hire young 20-somethings, for next to nothing but an opportunity to learn the game. They start them out breaking down film. They train them
in the team's Way. If they're smart and tireless, they become scouts. They know what works for their club and what doesn't, and can be called upon on a moment's notice to provide an informed opinion on a player. Belichick started that way. So did Scott Pioli, Belichick's right hand. It seems to be working fairly well for them.

The Steelers dont have the biggest personnel dept in the NFL. But they have smart people trained in the Way. And they have an owner who lets them work, who knows what he doesnt know. Why is this so hard to grasp here?

It's so tiring, week after month after year after decade, making the same request. It's so obvious what needs to be done. How-To manuals are so readily available. Pick up your copy in Foxboro or Indy or Pittsburgh.

Hire a GM, Mike. One reason you hired M. Lewis and made him the organizational face was, you had wearied of the daily pounding you were taking. Doesnt it make sense to hire a GM, if only for that same reason?

You might know football. You don't know winning. I could sit in the operating room every day for 40 years, watching surgery. That doesnt make me a surgeon.

We're approaching that time w/M. Lewis we've reached with all your coaches, starting with when Sam was fired/quit. The good ones get frustrated with their lack of control. Happened with Sam and Coslet and now, Marvin. Hire a GM and see what Marvin can do with him.

The rest is smoke and mirrors, deck chairs, Groundhog Decades. No one wants to be having this discussion 10 years from now. We've had it already for going on 20. Changes are needed, obviously. Only one matters.