A clash between a coach and a general manager can tear apart a franchise: It happened in San Diego with Marty Schottenheimer and A.J. Smith; in Dallas with Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones; and in St. Louis with Mike Martz and Rams executives.
Still, even when the marriage between coach and GM endures, tension tends to develop. Coaches work in the moment, while front offices make decisions with the future in mind. Disputes, naturally, ensue.
The differences in outlook between coaches and personnel evaluators being well-established, I was eager to see how the two groups split on the subject of signal-calling. For my QB tier rankings project, I asked 15 personnel people (eight general managers, two former GMs, four pro personnel evaluators and a top executive) and 11 coaches (seven coordinators, two head coaches and two position groups) to grade all 32 projected starting quarterbacks on a 1-5 scale.
As it turns out, opinions on each side of the divide were mostly similar. However, six big-name quarterbacks created a split in consensus.
The evaluations of Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Eli Manning, Colin Kaepernick, Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford shed light not only on the quarterbacks themselves, but also on those who graded them.
Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
Coaches and personnel people almost unanimously placed Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers in the top tier. A much higher percentage of personnel people, though, thought Luck also belonged in that exclusive club, albeit a few lengths behind those more established stars.
Ten of the 15 personnel people placed Luck in Tier 1, a designation that only four coaches agreed with. Still, all 11 coaches thought Luck would eventually be good enough for inclusion in the top group. They just didn't think he was there yet.
Coaches and personnel people did not exactly clash over Luck. Rather -– and not surprisingly -- the GM types seemed to have a greater appreciation for how weak Luck’s teammates have been and how much weight he has carried. Most couldn't resist placing him in the top tier, ahead of Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers, who led the second tier in voting.
"With so many of these quarterbacks, everything around them has to be right," one GM said. "You knew Luck was a slam dunk. There are very few of those. Even with a Drew Brees, had Miami not flunked him on a physical way back, he probably goes to the Dolphins with Nick [Saban] and they don't play the same way the Saints have played. It's not the same. Luck, he could go anywhere, no doubt. I think he is phenomenal."
Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
Eleven of 15 personnel evaluators placed Newton in Tier 2, while nine of the 11 coaches gave Newton a Tier 3 grade. A quarterbacks coach even placed him down in the Tier 4, noting that the Panthers have been relying on their ground game and defense to win games.
"He has all the tools and he is a big dude, too,” one defensive coordinator remarked. “Can you give him a 2½? I think if he has the same year he had last year, he elevates to a [Tier] 2. I give him a 3 right now."
Luck, like Newton, is an athletic marvel. Their rare physical attributes make them especially appealing to personnel types. Coaches appreciate those things as well, but are more likely to value a finished product. Luck accumulated a vast amount of experience in a pro-style offense at Stanford, while Newton was relatively raw coming out of Auburn.
Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
Ten out of 15 personnel people placed Kaepernick in the second tier, but only four of 11 coaches graded him that high. The coaches tended to see him as overly reliant on his legs, lacking in polish as a passer and benefiting from a run-oriented scheme that asks for little from its quarterback.
"I was thinking those exact same thoughts," a GM said. "But those legs are really good, and then he has a cannon for an arm, where if he makes one or two throws, that is all he needs to make."
Coaches, like some of the defensive backs I've consulted, seemed to care more about how a quarterback functioned, not just whether he had the physical gifts to take over games on occasion. Personnel people seemed a little more focused on potential.
"People could say Kaepernick is a [Tier] 3," another GM said. "But the reason I give him a 2 is because as long as he is a dual threat with his legs, you’ve got to defend him. You don't have to defend him in the same sense as Peyton, Brees or Rodgers, but he has won games."
Eli Manning, New York Giants
Ten of 11 coaches placed Eli Manning in the top two tiers, while only nine of the 15 personnel people had him rated that high. They seemed a little more troubled by Manning's recent wild swings in production.
"[Eli] is someone who is hard to grade," said an offensive coordinator who placed the younger Manning in the second tier.
One pro personnel evaluator placed Manning in the fourth tier, explaining that he weighted his ratings heavily toward 2013 production.
"If Eli doesn't have two championships, he is probably thought of in a different light -- on the downside of his career," a GM said. "But because he has that, people think he will bounce back."
Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears
All coaches and personnel people placed Cutler in Tier 2 or 3, but the GM types were higher on him, which makes sense. Cutler entered the NFL as a first-round pick with a strong arm, and so personnel people might be inclined to think a coaching staff should be able to succeed with the Vanderbilt product under center.
But when some coaches watch Cutler, they see a player with inconsistent mechanics.
One GM said there's no way a player with Cutler's physical ability should be considered for the third tier, particularly now that the Bears have surrounded him with upgraded talent, including on the line. But an offensive coordinator whose rankings most closely matched the consensus came at Cutler from a different angle.
"I even went back and looked at it, and then I measured the 3s and I was like, 'OK, [Joe] Flacco, Cutler, could you move them to a [Tier] 2?'" the coordinator said, noting that he did move Flacco into the second tier. "They are capable of playing like a [Tier] 1, but I just think overall, Cutler is kind of up and down, a turnover machine a little bit, and he obviously hasn’t won a ton in the playoffs, where Flacco has won a championship and played very well in the playoffs that year."
Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions
Coaches and personnel people ultimately evaluated Stafford similarly. Each of their grades averaged out to 2.4. Still, I couldn't resist passing along an anecdote that captured the gap between how coaches and personnel people sometimes view players.
One coach said he couldn't stand watching Stafford throw sidearm passes from multiple platforms when conventional mechanics would serve him better much of the time. This coach said there were times when watching Stafford made him want to slap the quarterback upside the head.
A GM howled when I shared that perspective. "Make the read easier!" he responded. "It works both ways."