What Does a Head Coach Do?

So I promise. As we are teasing head coaches and saying they won't really do anything, I'm going to say it would a smile on people can hear the smile through the sound waves through the airways. Man. But I'm doing great. It's another football week. Can't wait to talk some Yes. Well, part of that conversation, and I'm touching on it a little bit, is the fact of we watch all these games. We see these head coaches on the sidelines, and I know what you're thinking, like, what

are these dudes actually do? Right? Like it's game day. They got coordinators, they got you know, different dudes run around the position coaches. The whole thing. We've all seen hard knocks. We've seen how big the coaches rooms actually are. It feels like they're just dudes. Like CEO is almost just saying, hey, point one direction, get this done for me. It's getting a little bit more CEO ish as we you know, evolved. But I'm glad I get to talk about it today. I can finally say what I want

to say about head coaches. But get fined, you know what I mean. You know, when you're a player, you can find you say some negative things about the head coach. Ye do we do? We beg you're going And I've heard from you. You've actually gotten phone calls after some of the things that you've said about head coaches in commercial breaks. But I'm not even getting paid by him anymore. I'm in the media and I still get the call. And you and you told that coach you can't find

me this time, not gonna happen. Look, and there's some coaches that are out there. You've got the old heads, the O g so to speak to belichicks of the world that certainly come to mind. You got the mcveighs. On the other side, it feels like it runs gamut in terms of personality style. The whole thing. Is there really a need though, I think that almost might because we always hear this phrase like, oh, they're professionals out there,

do you actually, like really need a head coach? I know that sounds sort of ridiculous because of what we're used to, but like to not really know some of the intricacies, I think someone might ask that question. I'll start by saying this, I believe, Mike, that every human being walking the planet needs a coach. So I'll start by saying that because some days we wake up some days we are motivated, some days we you know, we're wake up on the bad hone, the wrong side of

the pillow. Sometimes sometimes you just need somebody to help, uh kindle that fire that's already inside of you said, you need to try to help bring it out, and a head coaching football is no different, right. It helps provide direction. And again, I only play for a few head coaches in the National Football League, so my experience is a little limited. But I'll talk about Pete Carroll because I know a lot of our listeners know exactly

who Pete Carroll is. He provided direction for us, and I know that's very simple and you know whatever, But it's a lot of different layers to it. He had

different messaging. So I was with the Seattle Seas from my last season was season four seasons and the messaging, especially early in the season in when I first got there, was totally different than the messaging he was saying in the season when we had the quarterback, we knew our defense worked, we had the running back, and Beast was a generational like we had of all the pieces in. He was more talking like, hey, guys, we're gonna be a thorn in some people's behinds. Man the like, we're

not gonna be a hard out. I know I just got here. And I'm talking to Pete Carroll. He's like, I know, I just got here. I know where we broke all they broke. We broke a record for like transactions like two or some transactions during like I don't know, training camp or something like that. It was a lot, right, we were getting guys in and out of the locker room. We should actually play a game in the locker room, like all right, we're gonna guess who's going to walk

through here today. It was that many guys going in and out of the line. We would we would try to guess it, but that was the messaging in better by the way coming in and going out. Absolutely yeah um. And we went to the playoffs with the seven and nine record eleven. It changed a little bit because our team was a little bit better. We still didn't quite find the quarterback. We found our quarterback. We knew that the league was on notice, we knew that we were

one of the best teams in the league. We knew that this was kind of our time, and Pete provided that direction. He told us where we needed to go, and obviously we responded to it. How often did you see coaches being willing to evolve? Because I I'm looking at you and you're telling me about some of your

experiences in the NFL. I'm thinking back to one of our previous episodes when we talk about evolutions of offenses and quarterbacks, and you know the story in your recruiting process at Penn State dual threat or you were a real dual threat quarterback, and that wasn't something that Joe Paterno, for example, it was used to seeing. I think about him as old school as it really gets, and yet he was willing to make those changes. The adaptability factor

are the more experienced guys less willing to make those changes. Yeah, because doing what they've done in the past got them to where they are. So they're like, well, why would I change when that version of myself has elevated me to get in the job of my dreams being a head coach on whatever level that that that may be. But I will say this, deadlines force change. Deadlines force change.

We know that in business. We know that anytime there's a you know, the trade deadline, you hear nothing about a damn trade and then all of a sudden, twenty four hours before the trade deadline comes all of these speculation things, you know, stuff starts to happen. And even with Joe Paternal, I think the change happened because, first of all, college football changed, and then I think it was pressure from the board of trust and he's the

fire I think there was pressure. There's pressure from front offices and owners on head coaches, whether you're young or the year old, but especially because we talk about some of the older ones, you better change or you lose your job. You see what I'm saying that that that that that deadline is the losing your job part. And

when you get nine and will say threatened. But when you get presented with that type of the situation, head coaches are in one of those situations, whether they're like I either gotta get with the program or die sticking with my program, which most of them evolved. Well, m Rob, you know the younger guys, Pete Carroll as you made reference, who is not necessarily a young guy anymore but has sort of that that young way about him and obviously came from USC, Joe pa Turner, sort of the old

school mentality. I want to take you through some new head coaches. Thirty two head coaches in the NFL. Ten of the thirty two are in the first year with their teams. Mike McDaniel, Brian Dayball, not I Reflus, Nathaniel Hackett, Kevin O'Connell, Todd Bowles, Doug Peterson, Dennis Allen, Lovey Smith, and Josh McDaniels, just to name those guys that are out there. Okay, so there's a physical goal appearance for some of the coaches in the league. They just look young,

and guess what, because they are young. As of this season, the average age of an NFL coaches forty nine point two years old. There are nineteen coaches over forty and thirteen under that age. Yeah, let's start with the offseason where the NFL coaches have a little bit of a letter schedule, though, because I think it's important for us to kind of dive into what a lot of these guys are doing on a regular basis offseason. You're like, oh, yeah,

it's light. No, it's still kind of busy here. You've got staffing issues that you need to address, coaches that are leaving, moving on, guys that you need to replace them with. You're sitting down with your general manager talking about free agents, draft strategy. My lord, I know the conversations that happened in this building around the draft, and it's pretty epic. There's only one head coach who has the role of GM that title and coach. That's Bill Belichick. Yeah,

you've done that before. We heard that some of the most successful early head coaches that were also GMS early Curly Lambeau, Paul Brown. I know you like that one. George Hallis, Vince Lombardi shout out for Ham University. Bill Parcels, by the way, notoriously said about being a coach GM cool. They want you to cook the dinner. They can at least let you buy the groceries. Perfect. Yeah, I'm also the dude that doesn't want to buy the groceries but

definitely wants to eat and doesn't want to cook. That's my role. I do go to the grocery shopping at my household. There seems to be a little bit of a weird disconnect when there comes to the general manager that makes personnel decisions and a coach that just has to deal with it and make the best of it. Pete Carroll and you brought him up earlier in this podcast, he's not GM slash coach. He's the executive vice president

of football Operations. Basically, what that means he actually has a huge say in personnel as the guy that's on the sidelines m rob that also has a saying who's on his team. Is there a benefit to what they're

doing up there. It is a small benefit, just being that you do want your head coach who represents the coaching staff, and that you want those guys involved in the scenael decisions because those are the guys who have to deal with the personnel on a day to day basis and make the schemes come off the paper into reality, and that involves, you know, dealing with the players during with personnel. So I do think that's a good set up.

I look at it as like this. I know you just explained all that business stuff, you know, and I get it. You know, we live in the Western world, and you know we gotta have it as capitalism, and you've got titles and all that type of stuff. From a player's standpoint, this would it looks like to me, It looks like a good cop bad cops. This looks like an opportunity during negotiations, during whatever the case may be. And I'm just gonna use Pete and John because those

my guys, those guys I know. But I'm talking about all gms and head coaches and which head coaches who have a little bit of a business role as well. Hey man, who gonna play bad cop? Today? Who gonna play a good cop? You know, where's the price point? Okay, this is where we want to sign them from. Okay, I'm gonna tell him how much we love him in this that in the third you're gonna hit him with the business side, and when he gets upset, I'm I'm

get him over here with me. Tell them how much I love him and you, and they just go and they do the dance. And I think it's it's good to be able to have somebody who exclusively looks at personnel, being that general manager role. And it also, again from a coaching standpoint, who has to deal with the player every day, gives somebody to blame stuff on. Hey man, it's just john Man, it's Johnson. He wanted to let you go. That won't me. Man, I love you, you

know what I'm saying. That's a good card backup dynamic. It does make some sense, but it also strikes me as really difficult to balance both of those roles because that's a lot of responsibility. You gotta delegate, man, but then you're not your fingertips aren't on everything then, And it's only twenty four hours in a day, but you gotta sleep for eight hours. That gives you sixty. I mean,

you got family, it's only it's only limited. So you have to be able to do the research on your coaching staff to know that the guys you have around you are going to do the work. That's why you see so many guys take their homies and friends that get into the level job. They just got rocket up the organizations because it's all about trust against human relationships. Welcome back to the NFL Explained podcast. Okay, so, as far as the responsibilities are concerned, I mentioned the staffing

issues that are there. You got league meetings, you got offseason programs, strength and conditioning workouts in April early May, you got the Rookie Football Development Program, rookie Minicamp in mid May. You got voluntary O t A s in May and June, you got mandatory minicamp in June. How important is the head coach when it comes to those

activities like infseason. Yeah? Oh man, Like they're not you know, taking you through those workouts the coaches they put I mean, you know, you see Pete Carrot throwing the football around, but they're not really doing nothing for real. They just you know, they're just having a good time and whatever. But I will say this, just like I started off

the podcast and saying, they still provide direction. So yeah, we may not meet every day with the head coach in the off season, but we do meet every week, and that one meeting that when big team meeting will have a week. Yeah, the coach will talk about the goals. They'll talk about, Hey, man, we got some fat guys I'm looking at I'm looking at the weights coming in. Man, you need to stop your extracrict activity or we got the draft coming up. You know what I'm saying. These

are the holes in our roster. You know what I'm saying, these are the needs. We just again putting everybody on point, making sure everybody's focusing on the right thing. And then schedule, that's so important. Like football players just need to know the schedule. The schedule is probably the most posted thing on any NFL locker room, is on every TV, It's on everything. When do I gotta go in for workouts? When do I gotta talk to my coach? When do

I got treatment? And when can I get the hell out of this building so I go see my family? I mean in the coach is vitolin setting those landmarks and setting the schedule very important. Rex Ryan obviously was a former head coach. He actually said his biggest regret in coaching was missing the birth of one of his children. He said, quote, I missed that one not recommended. That's my biggest regret in coaching. That's you know, like this is a labor, love, and a lot of I won't

miss my sons. Yeah, we got to a certain point. We were playing Tennessee hous with four to nine. As we're playing Tennessee that Sunday and the doctor, we talked, if we get to Tuesday that week and he ain't here, we didn't do it. Tuesday came, We walked in, We was partying, we had the music on. We induced he came when we had him come, ye part Now I don't have children. I can't imagine how many people who are listening to this post. You had music going going.

I got a whole video I edited and everything that does sound like a type of move here. Let's talk a little bit about your typical Monday through Saturday for an NFL coach. He got a ton of meetings various people. You got full team meetings almost on a daily basis. They're sitting in on offensive defenses and special team meetings, position group meeting. Most have regular conversations with their team owners along with front office executives. Most meet regularly with

player leadership committees. Uh and Rob, you know about that because I know you were that dude. Various meetings with others. He got training staff, strength and conditioning coaches, you got quarterback gurus that it might be helping out. You've got obligations to the media that you have to go and do. Can't you just get one zoom going and just be like, yeah, it's a rap no, because that you know that that

leadership committee. Uh yeah, I've been on a lot of them, and you'd be surprised some of the things that have been You haven't seen that show first forty eight when he put the spotlight on the criminal and then they start asking them questions and then you stop seeing them shaking and start folding a way. Man, it'd be a bunch of telling on people in the meeting. Sometimes I'll be like, may shut up, Mike. I have taken more fines in those meetings because I will not tell on

my teammates. I have personally taken the fine because I will not tell on my teammates' golden take. Did I said that out loud? He was it out? He was actually up here. Yeah, he did a show. He held me ten thousand dollars and I and I ain't gonna say what it was for on this podcast, but maybe snitching man, because you know the coach be like, hey, what's going on? Man? You know what's going on with the team. Do we need to go? Do we need

to take the pads off? You know me, I'm full back away say yeah, may take the pass off and take paths on my defensive lineman. They hurt my officsive linement. They heard the quarterback got touched last week. Take the paths, you know what's stuff like that. But man, guys be snitching. I'm not gonna talk about and again you are listening. Can you give me an example. You're not gonna call anyone out our listeners can guess. I've only played for

two teams, Mike, Okay, it's not very hard. I only played for the Services before the nine US and the Seattle Seahawks. Man, I've been a part of a meeting man with this dude, and in that meeting and coach saying, hey, man, so what's going on? And he just started spitting all the types of stuff to the point where guys are like, dude, shut up. Yep, I'm not gonna say who the guy was. I played with a lot of different guys than that. To the football league, Mike. I'm just saying sometimes that

turns into a big title tell fest. But head coaches in season, let's see whyhould transition back. We steer this thing back. Head coaches in season. Look, man, you think they're meeting with they they have staff meetings early every day, right because think about it. I talked about the head coach. I'm a professional talker. This is what I do. Okay, coaches have to set the direction and so every part of that football building has to be on the same page.

And we want our super Bowl in Seattle. Every I'm talking about the janitor, which was ended up being beast most uncle. The janitor knew what we were trying to do. We wanted to dynastay. Everybody was on the same page. You have staff meetings with everybody in the organization. You got the medical staff, everybody, nutritions, everybody talking everything. Then you have a straight coaches meeting. You gotta talk about the coaches, how the issues from medical staff, How does

that going on with the game plan this week? That's gonna affect the personnel changes that could possibly happen. I'm talking about this happening on Monday, when Tuesdays when you bring in players in to work them out, to see if they could be on your roster for that week. So again, and that's before the team and we talked about the team meeting where the coach actually has to you know, talk to the team and the players and

things like that. So it's a lot that goes on and Mike, usually team meetings, which is the last of the meetings I'm talking about teamings, usually happen eight o'clock in the all. So what I'm saying is there's a lot that goes on before that meeting that the head coach has to go through. One thing you haven't mentioned is film study. And that's all I ever hear about from a player's perspective or the players that don't do it, which we don't need to get into. That was chronicles

before the season started. But also the coaches take me through that. So a head coach looks at film. A lot of times, a head coach is looking at those looking at tape and stuff when players have to be in other areas. Players may be going through their position meetings, players may be going through workouts, whatever the case may be, with the head coach and have to be there. That's when he's going through his tape that's when he's set

in a direction. That's when he's saying, Okay, yeah, you know we're playing a high flying offense, we might have to run the ball a little bit more. Again, I'm not saying called the play. I'm saying, set the philosophical direction for that week. That's what the head coach is doing when he's watching tape and things like that. So, yeah,

tape was all over the place. Position coaches and coordinators probably watch a little bit more tape, you know what I'm saying, because again, they're the ones dealing directly with the player. Given the player the tools and his tool belt so that the guy can go out there and do his job. And then there's practice. Oh yeah, there's practice. We just got the practice. Yeah. I feel like I've been talking forever and we just got the practice. We

did practice. Generally, we're talking about Wednesday through Saturday. If it's a road week, a little different because of travel on either Friday or Saturday. There's a full practice on Wednesday, and then the practices actually get shorter as the week progress is there and then you got essentially no pads on Saturday. Why even bother all I hear about from well, the full pad deal, like, why are we in pads

this much? And I know it's been cut down, but all I keep hearing about is dudes struggling to get out of bed. The pain that's They're like, why even bother going is there? Really is okay? When I decided to play for a long time ago, when I got a scholarship to go to Penn State, when I got drafted and decided to sign that signing bonus and cash that check, I signed up for eggs and pains and getting out the bed slow and all that. I know exactly what I signed up for. I'll make an example

like this. So, Mike, you're a great host, bro. Amazing, like the way you are able to handle ideas. Sometimes I see the teleprompt to be breaking on t A and you still be handled it doing all your things. It's amazing, all seriously, but you're able to do that right because you had reps. You had the reps of messing up a few times. Not doing it is perfectly I wanted to do. And so now you've gotten to

a point where you know, I do my thing. Even if I do mess up, I ain't really mess up because you know what I'm saying that's that's what I do. Same thing with football players. They need the work with full pads on because that's what the game is played in full pads. You know what I'm saying, Um, I get taken care of the player. I get that the rules have kind of parred down a little bit where you're not in pads every week, or you don't have

to be in pads every week. And yes, you do have to take some of the hits off the guys. But look, I played fullback and we had a podcast before I said, I used to tell some of the scout guys, hey, look bro, I know we don't have passed today, but I need you to go put on your path because I need that work at the end of practice. You gotta get laded up. Football is a physical sport. You cannot play the game of football without doing physical activities, and that's practicing with your pads on.

It's also interesting too, because I've heard this over the years, and not to make this a college thing, because I know it does happen occasionally in the pros, but I'll reference it because I know first half when USC and Willie would be made. First off, I'm bringing this up. But when US was dealing with a lot of sanctions, they were low on numbers and to combatant, they weren't

tackling in practice. And then all of a sudden you saw tackling become an issue in some of their games because just dudes weren't doing that during the course of the week. So I think what you're speaking to in terms of reps is a real thing. Early on in football seasons, we mike you hear man, We see Twitter, we see social media. We got to deal with it on some of the shows here at NFL Network had of fans are like, oh man, it's going on. My guys are missing. We see it every week. The first

six weeks of the season are essentially preseason. It's essentially guys getting enough game reps to master the craft. Yeah, no, I'm with you there. One other note, by the way, on coaches and their schedules, because I think a lot of people watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon. What's fascinating to me is the amount of times that you hear Al Michael's and Herb Street talk about the meetings that

they're having with players and coaches. That is a huge part of the broadcast and part of their responsibility ahead of the game to give you some intel, talk to you about some things off the records and things really some things on the record, to get a sense of what's about to happen during the course of the week. The point is, coach is pretty damn busy coming up next here. I don't know what you're thinking. They're getting paid, right, it's all about the Benjamin's find out about those page

checks a little bit more. Will we come back here on the NFL Explained podcast Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcasts. I made reference to it in our last episodes. Nothing wrong with sliding into the d m s. You know what I'm saying. At Real Mike rob at Mike Underscore. Yeam, we've been getting questions from you. I'm legit excited. We've gotten some good ones so far. If there's a topic or a question you want answered, I promise we will work it into our mail bag episodes. So keep some

of those comments and those questions coming our way. But I had made reference to some of the cash and the checks, Like at the end of the day, everyone knows a lot of these players are making serious money. I mean We're always referring to a lot of those contracts, but NFL coaching allies not always released to the public. So we put together, we got a little bit of data,

we know some people who know some people. UH put together in NFL head coaching salary, sort of list a couple of notable contracts and just sort of some sources that we really trust. The average coach three to four million per year on the low end and over ten

million a year on the high end. Pete Carroll not that we need to be blowing up anyone's salaries, and we're gonna do it anyway, signed an extension eleven plus mill in December of our guy Ian Rappaport, he said he signed another five year extension to make him one of the most highly compensated, if not the highest paid coach in the NFL. That five year extension that was reported by Adam Schefter in eighteen. Rappaport had those original numbers.

Cincinnati Zach Taylor he signed an undisclosed extension this offseason after being one of the lowest paid NFL coaches at three point seven five million dollars per year. That's according to Schefiters. Yeah, it's nice toning that and look, I know people are like, Mike, did you just say three

point seven five? That's all. If the most important position is the quarterback position, and that guy's salary is ballooning around forty million per and you're supposed to be one of those guys that can make those guys one of the best in the league, I think you should make more than three and a half million. Get to a super Bowl that help get you that raise. David Culley at Houston signy fully guaranteed four year, twenty two million dollar contract, fired after one season, bring me the cash,

ship me my bread and didn't fire me. You were here from me for the next three years. Money well spent, I would say yes, especially the ones that have a proven track record, like the ones you know obviously, the Belichecks, the Pete Carroll's, the guys that have been proven to go places and when I think they should, especially when you look at the TV money, the ballooning salaries of players. I mean, if everybody, if all ships arise and truly let all ship, I think head coaches should make more.

And I do think the ones that can go into any football situation and help their team, I mean by this. You got your Sean mcveigh's, your offensive gurules, you got your ta bows, your defensive gurus and play callers. Those guys, Okay, to Bowl sees the game, certain leins, Okay, he sees the game happening. He's gonna always look at well, how can we stop them from doing the positive? You see what I'm saying, Because that's a that's a defensive concept,

that's a defensive way of thinking. Sean McVeigh is gonna always be an attack mode. He's always gonna say, oh, they're scoring, Okay, how can we score more? You see what I'm saying. It's a different way of looking at it. But when you got that coach and again I had your paternal in college, but there's coaches out there in the national football they get e Bill Belichick whatever who And I know Bill Belichick has a defensive specialty to it,

but can walk into any situation at halftime. Remember being down by two touchdowns. I think it was the Green Bay may have been to somebody else with the Seattle Seahawks, and Pete Carroll walked into the offensive side and say, hey, I know we're down by fourteen points, but we're gonna go twenty two personnel with just two tight ends and two running backs and one while receiving we're gonna go twenty two and twenty one personnel, arrested the game and

we're gonna win. And we looked like but that goes against conventional wisdom. He saw something, he saw that he couldn't handle, beast mode. He saw the weak side run game out of two tight ends they couldn't handle. Again, a coach walking into a football situation and lending his expertise, and at the end of the day, if we want to lose, it falls on him. That's his job. That's

you see what I'm saying. So it's always nice from a players standpoint to look at a guy and know that you have a guy that can walk in any situation to help you. If you're listening to this podcast, well clearly you're listening to this podcast. But if you just heard m Rob, well you did hear m Rob. M Rob just said twenty two personnel. If that's confusing to you, I do encourage people to go back to one of our previous episodes where we talked about offensive

play calling and what that actually entails. It is a great recap for anyone here that has been checking out the NFL Explained podcast. Game Day sort of an interesting scenario he got the morning of your your of course, if you're a coach, you're looking at some of the game film, that one last look at it. You're probably with your family, maybe that pregame meal, going over some last minute stuff. Late morning, you go from hotel to the stadium, even if you're the home team, because the

home team also stays at a hotel. Once you get there, you're making some determinations on actives and inactives. You're meeting with your coaches, players, game officials, announcers as well. From an inactive active selection. What goes into that if you're a head coach, man first and foremost as injuries, Like most guys are active or inactive based off of health. Can they you know, can they physically go out there and help the team and do their job and be

the best version of themselves. Yeah, you have guys that are part of the fifty three man roster that you already know, Okay, this guy probably will be inactive. Will have them just in case somebody in this position group goes down. But injuries determine a lot of those inactives. Game plan like, okay, we want to run the football. Going back to that example that I said a little bit earlier, we're dealing with a high power team offensively, we want to run the football because defensively we may

have some issues stopping the other team. So maybe we bring up a running back this week, maybe we put down a linebacker this week, and you kind of play that chess game. And then last but not least, business man. I mean, I don't know if I should be saying it on the NFL podcast, but just me and you, ain't just me and you, Okay, nobody else here, Okay, cool? Well, you know, sometimes God may need some catches for a certain incenter. Happened and they're like, well, you said what

about me? You said this about me. We're already losing. Um, you're gonna be inactive today. We're not gonna You're not gonna be able to get that bonus. Or Jimmy Garoppolo, I mean, what if he was still what if Tree Lance was still healthy or whatever, and Jimmy Garoppolo was on the team, they probably make him inactive every week. You know what I'm saying? So business does play a

role in its Super Bowl year for the Bucks. A couple of years ago, Tom Brady was aware even Bruce Arians had made reference to some guys being close to bonuses. They made a concerted effort late in that season get those dudes to ras. Sean m does the same thing. Man who need a bonus? Give him a catch? Yeah, get your dudes paid. You mentioned some of the in game adjustments that come at halftime. You give us an example before those big time speeches that we see in

the movies. Is that a thing? Uh no, not not really is you? The speeches, the real good speeches to me come from the players or the position coaches, because that many and the fire man, I mean, they are the ones that are literally going back and forth with the opponent. You know what I'm saying. But one thing a head coach can do. A head coach can alleviate

doubt at halftime. If you're doubting your team, if you're doubting your opportunity to come back in a game, if you're doubting your ability to finish, the head coach makes you go. All that know the thirty three rule, Right percent of people gonna be leaders three percent of people are gonna be able to go either way in thirty three. Look, man, I ain't doing it. The head coaches put that bottom thirty three, the head coach goes after them, then the

upper thirty three. During that halftime speech raises all ships coin flip. Who's making the call? Usually the head coach come yeah. Usually the head coach will come over. I know when I was always calling the coin flip, it would always be so funny. It would always be the head coach find me because out for whatever reason they

wanted me to talk. Head coach will find me. But he would always have the field goal kicker right next to him, and the field goals kicker basically look at his thumb saying with direction, winds going throwing up grass, acting like he's a mediologist. He's talking about whether and the angles and degrees and in halftime, in the sunsets and instead and uh yeah, but the final one comes down to the head coach. Okay, I made reference to

coaches in their ages. A little bit earlier. We've taken people through, generally speaking, what the coaches are doing during the week, responsibilities calling plays. You're thinking to yourself, well, you've got some coaches who already have coordinators. So who's doing what. Here's how I'm gonna break it down for you. Thirty two head coaches, eighteen of them call the plays on defense or offense. As you could imagine, fourteen of

those coaches are calling offense, only four calling defense. And just so that you have some sort of semblance of whose specialty is what, I'll take you through it. Cliff Kingsbury, Arthur Smith, Zach Taylor, Kevin Stefanski, Nathaniel Hackett, Moult Floor, Frank Reich, Doug Peterson, Andy Reid, Josh McDaniels, Sean McVeigh, Mike McDaniel, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shinahan. All on the offensive side defensively, Love Smith, Brandon Staley, Dennis Allen, Todd Bowles.

Obvious question put Bill Belichick in that AMPK. They're both defensive more sliding to that side. Well, we'll lean that way. I think the obvious question here is have the eight calling plays? What are you doing? Alright? Mike? You know I meditate right then I'll tell you that you actually didn't tell me. I feel like I would have. I'm really deep when it comes to that and meditation really is the ability to stay focused on one thing without

allowing other stuff in. And your reality comes with what you focus on the most stuff. You see what I'm saying. The head coach's job is to keep a pulse on the team and to remind everyone with the direction and the purpose always is he keeps the team focused so that the reality that the entire team wants can come to fruition. Now, things happen. We're all human, and that

conscious focus on that goal sometimes gets skewed. You know, somebody, you know the media starts talking about their head coaches job being up, you know, up for grabs or whatever. That can skew his focus and things like that. But the good ones stay focused. I love Bill Belichick. Man, you hear them here at the press conference. He's the same old dude. He may gave you a little half smile, but he's the same old dude over and over and over.

And another thing the head coach does, because it's in humans nature, it's the blame it on somebody, right, we lose put the finger point the finger, and that's good mental health for the players, right, because you don't want them to be down on themselves. And that's why you always see the good coaches, I e. Sean McVeigh, I either Pete Carroll's the Bill Beck that was on me. I did that. That was on me. Any decisions that they're making that I'm not thinking of during the game.

And to me, like Brandon Stalley, I just brought his damn like he's gotten a lot of heat for like those fourth down, fourth down penalty outcomes, whether to go for it or not on fourth down. I think you would just going there with Brandon Staley whether to kick a field goal punt or not. Talk to the Whitehattan officials and to make them to wear of their jobs.

You know what I'm um guarantee the players need are being met in armed to do their job effectively, basically meaning putting the pressure on the assistant coaches so that these guys are armed to do their job again keeping everybody focused on the goal at hand. Is there. Look, I just mentioned that the some of the coaches that we have in the NFL, there's some really high level

guys that have achieved so much in this league. When you reflect back to you that you're playing days or guys that you've been around, anyone that comes to mind, and you would say, hey, revolutionize the game. Revolutionized the game. Um, you hit me. You hear me talk a lot about Pete Carroll. I think his approach as far as being more of a player coach, always focusing on the positive, never really bringing up or highlighting the negativity, was revolutionary.

And I think his first stint as a head coach, the league wasn't ready for it. The second stint, the league was ready for the right young person started to come through. People may not know this, but Mike Marts the par exactly the greatest show on turf for the St.

Louis Rams. He was my offensive coordinator in San Francisco for a couple of years, and I think he revolutionized offense with timing and spacing and the quarterback being able to hit his last step, let the ball go to an area, to a space, and allowing the receiver to come into Things like that are now just part of everyday vernacular, part of everyday NFL concept. You know what's sort of interesting. I keep seeing Kyle Shanahan. I've been

up to the Bay Area numerous times. I know obviously I saw his dad, Mike, what he was able to do with the Broncos for a really long period of time and have success there. I'm always fascinated by like the father sons, like what those calls are on those off days, like if Dad's been watching something, It's almost like having an additional coat. Like now your staff, the Shannon has I'm actually glad you said that. Now they

have been revolutionary. I've never played with, but you know, obviously Bill Walsh, most of the West Coast concepts are now just regularly just part of everyday football. Mike Shanahan, shan and those guys, that's Shanahan style. That the way that you run the football, the way that you coach the offensive line, the way that you coach the running back to get to a spot and make a decision, and then it's easy playing it after that. I do

think that Shanahan system is revolution as the game. But then you have guys like Matt Lafleur who went his way with it. You got Sean McVeigh who out leverages defenses by motion shifts in the wide receiver diversity that he has. That's how he went his way with it. Kyle Shanahan and younger Shanahan the way he outleverages defenses by not only motions and shifts, but by the ball carrier who's carrying the football, and just in the run game. I just don't think that there's a better guy at

out leveraging a defense. So he took that Shanahan, his dad Shanahan offense to a whole another direction. I think the Shanahan system right now is probably the most revolutionary system in today's modern game. Yeah, it's kind of wild man like. And I wonder what those conversations are really

like between those two dudes when they're just talking ball. Like, if God's like, dude, I'm proud of you, like this is sure he is, But I guarantee you he's challenging them that, well, if a defense does this, you can't do this and coles hell dad. But if I do this in the backfield, my backfield action is this, his eyes are gonna go here. It's a big game with chess man. Yeah. I remember when I first got to ESPN, someone gave me a piece of advice. They said, look,

you're working with so many different anchors and hosts. Take and see what people are doing and use it yourself. But like, your own style is gonna morph out of that just naturally from just doing your thing. You can't

mimic and completely copy someone else. And I think the way you just described it with a lot of these coaches, it's the same thing, right, Like there's some core base concepts that are there, and then everyone just sort of puts their little pixie dust, their personal pixie dust on it, and it becomes their own. It becomes their own. And even when you look at if you really study Bill Walsh and his story, I mean he talks about it offers. I think we may have talked about it here. He

talked about developing this offense out of desperation. I mean, stuff was happening, Injuries was happening, and they had a certain quarterback at So that's how the West Coach short passing system came to voition Oftentimes as injuries oftentimes, it's things that are happening human human beings are very smart. Things are happening with their team, and you're just like, Okay, how can I figure this out. That's how the spread system went in. That's how read option happened, that's how

all pos happened. Oh my office line isn't that good? Well, everybody blocked down we'll just handle everybody with the ball. Handling ball travels faster thing than players, and that's how that came to us. I love it. Man, talk about this all day, No seriously, and look, we can and we will continue to have these types of conversations throughout the course of the season. We've been talking a little

bit about the duties of a head football coach. Hopefully you've enjoyed this episode and if you didn't, you just get into Mike robs d m at Real and my wife said, no at Real, Mic rob at Mike underscore. Yeah, NFL head coaches and what they do, explain, no,