The hiring of Casserly and Wolf to pick our GM is yet another example of Woody Johnson's incompetence. First of all a search firm really does is schedule interviews and organize resumes. All Woody Johnson really has to do is reach out to Roger Goodell to get a list of qualified candidates. Hiring a search firm MAKES SENSE! The General Manager reports to Woody and Woody should hire him or her. The GM should have the autonomy to hire the coach. Why does this make sense? BECAUSE THE GM SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS COACH! At the end of the day the GM's head will be on the chopping block if the coach fails-not Casserly or Wolf. What incentive does Casserly have to bring the right coach in here? Think about it! All he is going to do is try to hire a couple of buddies, get paid, and call it a day. Why can't we have an owner like Pat Bowlen? Here are the keys John Elway lets go! This reminds me when Parcells hired a couple of his buddies.... Sparano and Ireland.... How did that work out>?
If Woody Johnson went to the bathroom he'd be criticized for his choice of toilet paper. Why not wait for some results before deciding how incompetent he is in regards to this case?
Couldn't agree more about the incentives. This whole Casserly and Wolf situation is ripe with pitfalls. The incentives are really misaligned here. However, that doesn't mean nothing positive could come of this. Casserly and Wolf bring a certain bit of clout to the search process that we ALL know Woody could never bring on his own, search firm or not. C&W are playing recruiters for the top candidates out there and whispering into Woody's ear. To be honest, given how clueless Woody is, I don't think its such a bad thing.
I don't know what search firm was used last time or precisely what services they offered and I'm not going to research it right now but I would be extremely surprised to find all they did was stack up resumes. This is not a sales manager position for a widget maker in Des Moines, this is a very specialized position in a very specialized niche business. It is my belief that the firm identified potential candidates, especially those flying under the radar, screened them and provided a short list to Johnson, eventually resulting in a contract for Idzik. We'll never know how effective they were and we'll never know what other factors came into play that were helpful or a detriment to Idzik doing his job; we know he's gone. Today's situation, as it relates to the GM position, is similar but combines decades of NFL experience between Wolf and Casserly as members of an intimate fraternity of NFL insiders. They can also act as a system of checks and balances with each other. They can also provide information about coaching positions valuable to the new GM or management if the situation dictates an earlier head coach hiring. That's why it makes sense. The incentive for Casserly and Wolf is that they are professionals with pride in what they do. That's all they need. If you seriously consider "try to hire a couple of buddies, get paid, and call it a day" as a way true professionals do business it probably doesn't make sense to continue the discussion any further.
Boy are you stupid! Search firms don't know football or football talent, Wolf and Casserly are 2 of the best in both areas. The last search firm found Idzik, a finance guy, who doesn't a know a hair's width about football talent.
Be honest. You are the type of guy that expects us to go to playoffs next year. Even though none of us have a clue who our next GM or HC is about to be.
Oh, boy where do I start. The only thing I agree with is that search firms go through resumes / candidates and schedule interviews. What they have in common with Woody Johnson is that they do not know a damn thing about football. We brought in a search firm two years ago to find us a GM and they selected John Idzick. Ron Wolf on the other hand is the man that traded for Brett Favre and signed Reggie White as a free agent while GM of the Packers. Brett Favre + Reggie White = Superbowl >>>>> John Idzick = 12-24 record To sum up, bringing in a couple of savy, experienced football experts makes a lot more sense than putting a glorified staffing firm in charge of building the foundation of your professional football team.
I don't disagree with you about a search firm but to be fair it not pm like Idzik was the first choice of that firm.
To be fair it's not like Idzik passed on Brett Favre in favor of Geno Smith. And Richardson might be just as good as Reggie White some day. I don't judge a GM by how well he does when there's lots of low hanging talent to chose from. I judge by how well he does when there's little or no easy talent to grab and he's forced into plan B or even plan C.
It's getting a little ridiculous. Fans bitch if they hire a firm, if they don't hire a firm, if they fire a guy, if they don't fire a guy. Let them go to fuckin work and see what happens. Obviously Woody is in over his head, I have no problem with him hiring experienced football people for this search.
I like Richardson alot, even better than Wilkerson but let's not kid ourselves. Reggie White was in a whole different class.