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When it comes to making player personnel decisions, you need to check your emotions at the door. Some people can do that, others struggle with it.
Bill Belichick is one of the best at not letting emotions impact personnel decisions. If he feels you can’t do it anymore, or you are on the decline, and your play isn’t commensurate with your salary, he will move on.
Like when he moved on from high-priced, aging guard Logan Mankins last year. This caused a stir at the time (not that he cares), but look how it worked out in the long run. They were fine at guard with young, cheap talent, and they won the Super Bowl.
We could give you a myriad of examples of Belichick eschewing emotion when making personnel decisions.
The San Diego Chargers love safety Eric Weddle. He’s a terrific player. He’s ticked at management for not giving him an extension. They are going to let him play on the last year of his contract. He will be 31 next season. Is it smart to give safeties on the wrong side of 30 big bucks? Not really. It’s such a collision position, so physically-taxing, in general, it’s not a great idea to give older safeties big money.
Now Weddle has his feelings hurt. But this isn’t about feelings. The GM and coach need to do what is best for the team heading into the future. Emotions can’t come into play, especially in a cap sport.
Somebody who lets his emotions get too involved in personnel decisions is Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan.
Did you see who he signed today? He added two players from his Jets days whose inconsistent play led both to be released – tight end Matthew Mulligan and offensive tackle Wayne Hunter. Actually, Mulligan is official, and Hunter hasn’t signed any paperwork yet, but it sounds like it’s going to happen.
If I ever said to any of you, “I think Rex will sign Mulligan and Hunter in Buffalo,” you probably would have called me, “crazy.”
But Rex is so driven by loyalty, he often has a blind-spot. As Jets beat writer J.P. Pelzman calls it, “Rex-Ray Vision.”
He also signed John Connor, a very stiff fullback, and Percy Harvin, an injury-prone wide receiver with anger management issues, who punched two teammates in Seattle, and threatened to punch Brad Childress in Minnesota.
I think Buffalo is going to have some issues on the personnel front. Rex seems to have heavy influence, and honestly, I don’t think he’s a very good personnel guy – too emotional.
I don’t think he thinks things through enough – he’s very knee-jerk.
And in Buffalo, he has a GM who seems to be kowtowing to his rock star new coach, and an owner, Terry Pegula, who is a brilliant business man, but a football novice. So they are both a deferring to Rex on personnel decisions. Big mistake.
Rex also has another negative personality trait when it comes to personnel decisions – he’s too loyal. “Loyal to the point of defiance,” as Trevor Pryce put it.
You can see Rex’s defiant loyalty manifest itself on his coaching staff. There were assistants he brought with him to Buffalo he should have moved on from. But he couldn’t do it. Too loyal.
Too loyal when it comes to assistants, and too loyal to players who used to play for him.
And emotion and loyalty are two very bad characteristics in the world of player personnel.
June 18, 2015
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