This is the time of year when lost and wandering NFL teams begin to covet a piece of what they are not: innovative, stable and with a forward direction. When it comes to hiring a coach or a general manager, this normally materializes in the direct pilfering of organizations that exude these qualities, instead of the search for those who are capable of doing it outside the confines of places such as San Francisco, Philadelphia or Baltimore, for example.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad on the surface about hiring 49ers or Eagles or Ravens, but if I were bringing in a cook to start my restaurant, I wouldn’t just nab the sous-chef from Eleven Madison Park. I would want to see what that person could do with a bag of expiring groceries from Aldi in an abandoned food truck kitchen first.
Everyone is going to look a little better in Philadelphia, for example, where a savvy and experienced general manager and invested owner lord over a veteran roster full of players who can buffer any personnel risks, such as Jalen Carter (not to mention an offensive line full of players who don’t seem to miss many games). The same goes for Baltimore, a place so analytically ahead of the curve that the Ravens’ mid-round picks over the past five years could, themselves, form a competitive NFL franchise.
