makila wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:24 am
O’Connell quickly became the favorite of the search committee, which was looking to overhaul the working environment at team headquarters, prioritizing leadership, inclusivity and collaboration after the front office, coaching staff and roster fractured under the pressure on Spielman and Zimmer’s watch. O’Connell seemed to fit that style and mesh well with Adofo-Mensah’s measured approach. Leadership also believed O’Connell’s offensive background was more in line with where the game is going.
Great article. Thanks for posting that makila.
I believe the above ended up being the deal-breaker.
Jim Harbaugh has had a lot of success doing things his way. I suspect as he went through the interview process he began to understand that if he became the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings his ability to operate autonomously would be limited, and more than likely he saw echoes of his experience with the 49ers towards the end of his stint there as he interacted with the Wilfs in the interview. I think the last thing someone like Harbaugh would want or need would be another owner that actively interferes with what he wants to do. I think he was likely fine working with KAM, but I suspect he would not have liked working with the Wilfs if they wanted to be more than the guys writing the checks, which I think it remains apparent they intend to be.
KOC is far more likely to buy into that "collaborative" approach. Initially, at least. It sounds good on paper. Get everyone on the same page, make decisions together, work together, etc. Ideally, functional teams are collaborative to a large degree, at least in the sense that everyone gets on the same page and moves in the same direction.
But there are multiple ways to get everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction, and not all of them require kumbayah sessions between the ownership, GM and head coach. There is also a nuance between an authoritarian dictator approach like Zimmer had where it was his way or the highway and a strong leader with a strong vision who can get people on board and moving in the same direction by showing them the advantages of doing so rather than just telling them to do so. I think Jim Harbaugh is more the latter type of strong leader than the former. Of course, it's not always easy to differentiate the two, which is why Harbaugh's track record as a head coach is so important and should have factored heavily when evaluating him. Guys coming from the coordinator ranks on successful teams don't have those track records. Whether it was Brad Childress or Mike Zimmer, it's much harder to tell which type of strong, independent leader they are based on just an interview, no matter how extensive the interview is.
KOC struck the right tone after the Zimmer and Childress experiences I guess.
The problem with the collaborative approach comes when the decisions aren't easy and when the group can't agree. The decisions still have to be made, of course, and will be made in one way or another, but either someone has to eat a result and take some responsibility for something they didn't agree with (e.g. Zimmer with the Cousins signing), or quietly rebel and start doing things they think are important and necessary, even if those contradict the group's decision at some level.
I personally think the Wilfs learned nothing from their previous hiring experiences. They are overly involved, operating on highly idealistic principles that run into serious challenges in practice, and have merely swapped out two more seasoned people with experience for two far less seasoned rookies in those roles. They are more likely to get smiles and agreement as a result, even if the on-field results suffer. Spielman was around for what, 16 years in his GM role? Zimmer was around for 8 in his head coach role. I wonder how long it will be before the wheels start to fall off the new bus?
I hope I am wrong about all of this, but something tells me that as good as the Wilfs have been in terms of funding the team and improving it financially so that it can be competitive, they are woefully inadequate when it comes to the practical business of running the football operation. Collaborative can work, but more than likely it won't work when push comes to shove and the hard decisions have to be made. On the bright side, that will become even more painfully obvious and clear than it was under the Spielman-Zimmer era.
