Hope Isn’t a Very Good Strategy
Posted: August 7th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 89 Comments »That title is a quote that comes from Jim Schwartz’s morning press conference. I knew he would be a good coach, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy listening to him talk to the media.
Schwartz was asked about physical practices. He praised Doug Pederson, an offensive coach, for letting the team have practices with hitting and tackling. Schwartz was pointing out that you can’t expect to have a tough, physical team if you don’t hit in practice. At that point you’re hoping your players become tough and physical. Hope isn’t a very good strategy. The way to make sure you have a physical team is by having them practice physical football.
Someone tried to ask Schwartz about his expectations for this week’s preseason game. Schwartz would have none of that. He’s focused on this afternoon’s walk-through practice. Schwartz wants his players to stay on task. Deal with right now. Forget about next week. If players focus on the little things, it will show up in a big way. Have a good practice. Do a good job in your classroom meeting. Do a good job with weightlifting. And on and on and on. You don’t want players picking and choosing when to pay attention or when to really give good effort.
Schwartz has talked a lot this summer about the need for consistency. This ties right in to staying focused and dealing with the here and now. Do a good job of whatever it is you’re in the middle of. Success becomes a habit. Things may seem unimportant to a player, but the coaches have a reason for everything the players do. Little things can make a big difference. The best players embrace the details and strive for consistency.
The media asked Schwartz about Stephen Tulloch. Schwartz said it is up to Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas and their guys to constantly be looking for help for the team. He wouldn’t say he wanted Tulloch or got involved in that situation at all. Schwartz, having been a head coach, knows the roster is a very fluid thing in the summer, especially for a team that is in the midst of changes. He talked about the personnel guys looking at free agents, possible roster cuts and also potential cap casualties. Schwartz went to far as to say if the team can find a better defensive coordinator, let’s hire him. His goal is to build the best defense possible. He’s got good talent to work with, but help is always welcome.
Schwartz did offer praise to backup LBs Najee Goode and Joe Walker. He called Goode a young veteran and seems confident in him as the top backup LB. Schwartz said Walker is doing a good job of running the defense (getting players lined up and making calls). Just the other day Schwartz would not praise Jordan Hicks for that same thing, but he explained that Walker is a rookie so that makes things different.
DBs Jalen Mills, Eric Rowe and Blake Countess all were discussed. Schwartz loves Mills confidence and the fact he plays with the right attitude. CBs have to be cocky (borderline delusional) and they have to want the challenge of playing on an island. Mills does that. Schwartz likes Rowe’s size and physicality. It is critical for CBs in this scheme to come up and hit/tackle. Rowe will do that. Schwartz praised Countess for being a tough, physical player.
Someone asked about Steven Means. Schwartz praised his effort and attitude. He also talked about Means having good length and athleticism. He told the media to go talk to the TEs about Means since he has given them fits in some blocking battles.
Schwartz wants to praise his guys, but at the same time doesn’t want them to hear that and start patting themselves on the back. He wants to keep them hungry so they’ll have a chip on their shoulder. The best defenses play with emotion and attitude. Some of that comes naturally, but some of it is created and fueled by the coaching staff. Schwartz is going to push his guys relentlessly. He has an idea of how good they can be, but he can also look at recent history and know how bad they were. He’s not interested in making friends or keeping his players happy. Schwartz wants them to play with an edge and he’s going to do everything he can to make that happen.
He mentioned that the defense had a good morning practice, but then seemed to realized he just praised his guys and quickly followed that by saying that it is their job to play well so let’s not make a big deal of it. I love that. Keep pushing them. Keep needling them. Push the defense to be the kind of unit they can be if they’ll start to play consistently well.
Don’t hope this group becomes a good defense. Do everything you can to make them a good defense.
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[…] Tommy Lawlor That title is a quote that comes from Jim Schwartz’s morning press conference. I knew he […]
[Jim Schwartz on a date]
JIM: that’s a beautiful dress…
*catches himself giving a compliment*
JIM: …um, but it’s your job to dress nice, maybe try better shoes next time
I can only imagine what he would circle with the laser pointer.
You better step it up next date or you might move down the depth chart. There’s always a young one looking to take your job.
I think this JS we’re inventing is the biggest perv in history.
LMAO, LMAO
I have heard before pervs really pay attention to detail and make for good Defensive coaches.
This thing we created sounds more like an OFFENSIVE coach.
Good post Tommy. I’m not quite as enamored with Schwartz and his style (swearing regularly, playing the ’emotional card’ often and too regularly) but you provided some nuance to the discussion.
I don’t buy that Schwartz has had no role in pushing for Tulloch though. He might not be actively pushing it with Roseman but I do bet he has said he wouldn’t mind (wink, wink) if Roseman signed him either.
Against signing such a limited player though at this point especially if he would possibly start at MLB on 1st and 2nd down.
Tulloch wouldn’t play on any downs. He would be a last resort type guy on this team but you know what? He has a bigger name than our backups so we have to get him regardless if he sucks now.
cafone brought up a valid point about Bradham’s possible suspension and that being part of the rationale for signing Tulloch.
Any word/update when his suspension might come down? cafone mentioned 4 games although that seems like an awful lot. I could see it being 2 games though.
You put Barwin back in as SAM until Bradham gets back. It’s really not that complicated.
Well if Barwin is going to be paying SAM, I guess we need to keep Marcus Smith to play end.
Marcus Smith will not see the field this year for the Eagles.Ok, very little.
I can’t vibe on Barwin at 4-3 SAM full time. Doesn’t seem to fit his skill set.
So you would rather put in a slow thumper that can’t cover at SAM over making Barwin a 3 down player instead of a rotational DE?
That’s a false choice. You have no idea who they are going to use at SAM ultimately and Barwin has never played SAM in the NFL in a 4-3. The position is totally different than LOLB that he’s played in a 3-4.
No? The jack and sam LBs have almost identical responsibilities in their respective schemes. Barwin played a year at DE compared to 3+ years of OLB. If you want to keep one of your most versatile players as a rotational DE for 16 games then ok.
Playing that position as JACK would have been in a 4-3; which Davis didn’t do. I just don’t like Barwin out there in space full time because it is just too different from what he was doing here.
??????????
Bradham has done nothing other than be accused of punching some guy… by said guy. How about we permanently suspend Goodell for doling out punishments to people who haven’t been convicted of anything?
I would love to have Tulloch on the team. A proven vet that adds more talent than subtracts. Even if he doesn’t play this year if we sign him, at least we know we have someone who can step in and be trusted not to be worse than the lb’s last year.
I think it’s smart for him to keep quiet on pushing for Tulloch in regards to negotiations but it’s no secret he’s behind it.
Everytime Jim speaks I get more excited for the season.
“Coach, are you pleased your defense hasn’t allowed a point in the month of December?”
“Well, their job is to prevent points, so it’s really no big deal…”
Marcus Smith is gonna be cut and a lot of people on this board were wrong about him, myself included.
Loved that talent; hated that reach. I was hopeful he’d come around in his 2nd year (as an end of the 2nd round / beginning of the 3rd round guy would), be he still appears to be behind the 8 ball. Such a shame.
Dallas will pick him up and he’ll turn into Demarcus Ware.
I agree, he should be cut and hopefully he will be. He lacks the drive that great footballs have. No doubt he has the talent and potential. We all know you build a losing team based on potential.
You loved Billy Davis pressers too.
Tommy is a realistic optimist. He always sees the best in situations unless he can’t. The good part is if you’ve lost Tommy, you’ve really lost any hope. He’s sort of the opposite of the canary in the coal mine.
Sounds like a barroom joke: “What’s the opposite of a canary in a coal mine?”
A coal mine in a canary of course!!
Of course!
A raptor high in the sky?
That’s perfect logic, right there!
The ARISTOCRATS!
Right!
Tommy is a borderline, delusional, Eagles fan. Great insights if you want fun, well written, and positive notes on the state of the Eagles.
Tommy is Cronkite
Billy’s PCs were legitimately good though
Billy Davis’s pressers were actually good football talk; Billy Davis’s coaching on the other hand……………
I’m always surprised there are so many people that post here who do not work in NFL front offices, considering how they seem to know more than the people who actually do it for a living.
Exactly. Name ONE TIME an NFL front office ever made a mistake.
Only sheep need apply.
Who ever made that assertion though? It is just people voicing their opinion which if you object to in some ways largely negates the purpose of this blog in the first place.
You do bring an interesting larger point about layperson people and evaluating their opinions on a particular topic where they have some knowledge & experience vs expert opinion on a topic.
Many voice their opinion in a tone as if they are more knowledgeable than the people who actually make the decisions. No different than how many employees think they can run the company better than their CEO.
In a lot of areas especially in regards to their daily tasks and ways to improve them, they probably can. Org theory and business school literature is actually pretty depressing on what CEOs do/don’t do well and their companies abilities to outperform their peers.
As someone who worked in senior strategy roles in publicly-traded and private companies, I’ve grown a bit jaded. I have really good internal and external analysis generated only to see CEOs completely disregard it with their decisions made well in advance on important decisions. They just need to go through the motions to ensure that there was a rigorous process and well-justified rationale behind the CEO’s decision.
It is has long been recognized too that singular expert opinion is high flawed and generally produces pretty shitty analysis, recommendations, and predictions. The key is trying to find the right technique(s) with the right group of people that generally turn out sound analysis and recommendations. Also interesting to see how fast machine learning is going to turn this on its head a bit too.
Poor word choice by me. Scratch CEO and replace that with manager, owner, boss, superior, etc. My point was that many people in positions of lower authority tend to think their superiors do not know what they are doing. If/when they move up the ladder, they then realize decisions are not made in a vacuum.
I did actually read about the recent study on CEO salaries and performance. It seems becoming a CEO at an outside firm is more about office politics than simply hiring the best person for the job.
Great post. Thanks.
Without turning this into a political debate, I’d like to note that the masses don’t make great decisions as well, particularly in this election cycle. When choosing between experts, fans, or whatever, we have a host of imperfect alternatives.
I’ll go for the decision-maker that looks best positioned to make particular types of decisions. Like the matchup in football–put the shifty running back out in space not simply to succeed, but to give you the best chance of success. Because sometimes said running back will be tackled behind the line of scrimmage and you need to live with that.
In football, coaches obviously have more info than we do. But they can be biased from being too close and are subject to all sorts of pressures and procedures were not.
So do I trust the average fan? Of course not, that’s crazy. Do I trust a coach or gm? Only with a good track record. Do I trust the fans on this board? Some of the a whole lot, but not too many. It’s pretty clear to longtime readers like me who has the expertise and time. They won’t always be right. But they’ll often have good points that are worth factoring into any decisionmaking process about football.
Getting paid to do something doesn’t necessarily certify competence. And especially in sports, where luck and context has a lot to do with success in picking/signing players, wins, and losses. This is why I don’t bash Roseman – he gets a lot right, and he makes mistakes. They all do. I used to have the same attitude as you – always discounted the “non-professionals'” opinions on various topics, from politics to sports. I’m at an age now where I look back and realize that the astute fan has every right to an opinion and often they are correct. History has shown that to be true. Just ask Rich Kotite. Or Chip Kelly. Last year at this time I was so enamored with him that, even after almost vomiting when hearing the Eagles signed DeMarco Murray, I talked myself into believing he could be competent for us, because heck, “Chip’s a genius!” lol
Or that one time when the team took that bum McNabb and passed over Ricky “The Savior” Williams.
Or that one time when the fans wanted Sapp but the professionals chose Mamula…we could go on and on with these examples, on both sides. Hence the “luck” I mentioned. (FWIW – I was a McNabb guy!)
So then you advocate having Lurie poll the fans on personnel decisions? I guess he could save millions of dollars in salaries.
No. I specifically included the word “astute” to discount the buffoons, which is the vast majority of Eagles fans.
I agree that all fans, not just astute fans, have a right to an opinion. We’ll have to agree to disagree that astute fans are often correct. That’s the same logic people use when they think they can forecast the weather better than a meteorologist with a PhD using 20 advanced computer models and data from around the world.
No, not the same logic, unless you are comparing a weather buff who has self-studied meteorology and has access to the same tools. A more realistic example of this is computer programming. Nowadays, the majority do not hold degrees in computer science. Companies have figured out that the self-taught ones are passionate and often better. Not always, but often enough.
A weather buff can have a scientific understanding of weather and computer models of wind direction, velocity, ocean currents, barometric pressures, etc., to make a educated scientific forecast. A computer programmer is akin to a woodworker with a basement woodshop compared to a professional craftsman. Woodworking projects completed by either may be indistinguishable in quality.
Based on your logic, you assume an astute fan has access to the same info the teams have when they make personnel decisions, this could not be more incorrect. Until astute fans have access to doctor reports, interviews with the player, former coaches, teammates, etc., fans are making a guess based on publicly available information. It would be equivalent to the weather buff making forecast predictions based on their knowledge of weather, but not having access to any data, other than current and past conditions in their immediate surroundings. A weather buff could not reliably predict an El Nino without the ocean temperatures off the coast of Chile, but yet you believe an astute fan has the same capabilities as a team’s front office.
Well then, I give up, you’re correct – it is utterly pointless to question the decisions of the professionals. Tommy – please cease and desist the operation of the comment threads, unless you hire a professional (a non-professional programmer would not be able to do it) to censor all comments so that only those in agreement with the Eagles FO can be shown. Anything else is pointless.
I never said fans cannot have an opinion, I merely posted (which was was obviously sarcasm) that know-it-alls (a.k.a. astute fans) think they are more competent than the front office. You took this personal and obviously feel strongly that astute fans may be just as knowledgeable as the front office.
As I stated earlier, we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Because I am guilty of wanting Williams over McNabb (though I didn’t boo Don), I’ll respond to your original post. Sure, there are loads of people, maybe especially Eagles fans, who think they are smarter than they are. However, there are probably equal numbers of fans, and I’d say a majority on this blog, who are fairly intelligent and informed, and whose opinions are expressed with good parts of knowledge and humor. Maybe it’s the nature of print, as it’s hard to wink between the lines, but sometimes playful bravado might seem like arrogant certainty. We want strong opinions, though, because they make for energetic discussion.
I’ll bet if you looked back over my posts of the last couple years, you could find evidence that I was a brilliant predictor of future success and/or failure, and other evidence that I’m an idiot and it’s a good thing no one in the Eagles organization ever listens to me. It ain’t that I know more than the pros, it’s just that I enjoy shooting the shit with the guys who hang out on Tommy’s blog. And, for what it’s worth, sometimes I do hit the bullseye when the pros miss (wanting Ricky over D-Mac was not one of those times).
Well said.
U have multiple kids drving around town in daddys range rovers wheeling guns and dealing heroin ?
I wanted Cade McNown
I still recall Jaworski and Didinger insisting McNown was the best of the bunch. lol. FWIW, Didinger is consistently wrong when it comes to “Can’t Miss!” picks. Most recent was Chance “Can’t Miss!” Warmack, who Didinger insisted the Eagles should use the 4th overall pick on (the Lane Johnson pick).
I just read your post, well said sir,.
I probably would have cut D-Jack for zero trade value, let Maclin get away, trade away Shady, then sign some bum ass Dallas rb that was run into the ground. Juan Castillo was once made our d-coordinator. Give me a shot!
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/149260586
POSITION SUMMARY
The Senior Analytics role is responsible for helping apply analytics to units across the football operation. A successful candidate will be equipped to work with football data to draw insights and improve decision-making. Candidates should have the quantitative skills to analyze complex problems and the technical ability to implement their ideas effectively. Candidates will be exposed to all parts of the modern NFL front office, including player evaluation, game preparation, resource allocation, sports science, and player development.
QUALIFICATIONS
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills.
• Foundational knowledge in statistics, econometrics, or machine learning. Advanced degree is a plus.
• Proficient with data management and analysis in statistical software (e.g. R, STATA).
• Experience working with databases.
• Good communication skills.
• Ability to work independently with a hands-on approach.
• Passion for football.
Eagles still have the Senior Analytics position open and have since earlier this summer. Gotten an insane amount of views (10,000+) and more than 500+ people who have applied.
I’d hire me.
I have everything but the degree.
Something in particular causing this statement?
Yeah, the last Tulloch thread.
Sounds like a I missed a good one.
History shows all humans make mistakes. Front office, fans, coaches, pervs, etc. This board is filled with die hard Egofans, I meant Eagles fans. They are only expressing their opinions and wants. Just enjoy, laugh at them, agree, disagree, but we all are on the same team.
Geoff Mosher brought up an interesting point today about how the Eagles this week (particularly this week on Thurs) made a point of handing off the ball to Huff on reverses/sweeps/etc.
With the continued almost daily drops that are being reported for Huff in camp so far, Mosher wondered if made sense to shift Huff back to RB given Mathews’ durability/health concerns and how little Barner/Smallwood have
shown so far in camp.
Seems to be an interesting move especially for one of the few guys on offense with game-breaking speed & the continued issues Huff has had as a WR since he was drafted.
For an offense that seems poised to be pretty pedestrian, I wouldn’t seeing this especially if Mathews goes down again in camp.
Great post… Why didn’t I think of moving Huff to RB?! 🙂 Seriously though, not only may it help at a potential position of need, it may be the only way he makes the team. Can he play special teams at all?
Very good point. Huff is a good player with the ball in his hands. He has the build to play RB. It would be a smart move for the Eagles, as it would maximize his running talent that does not consist of running routes and catching in traffic.
Great X and O idea, but watch put the first ball he’s handed onto the carpet after he hits it with his knee.
I’ll side with — there are reasons why he was turned into a wr….besides, who would run the wheel route?
Good perspective from Tommy… Agree with all of it (therefore it must be good 🙂 Best line: CB’s have to be “borderline delusional”
Jalen Mills the next Darrelle Revis is what I’m hearing.
I hope he pick 6s Eli and knocks out Beckham in the same game……….and does it again in the 2nd game.
It sounds like that is his floor.
There are many posts and notes on this Eagles training camp, but this piece Tommy posted resonated with me because he connects directly with Jim Schwartz’ mindset as a defensive coordinator… It’s clear that the strength of this Eagles team is their defense, but how good can they be?
Tommy hit on the point where he explained Schwartz’ pity for satisfaction and focuses on his determination to build his defense around attitude and drive. Those are big qualities you want from your DC. This team has lacked a DC with fierce grit and aggression that tends to maximize player performance, and I love that about Schwartz. He has a different coaching mindset that the likes of Billy Davis, Todd Bowles and Juan Castillo (who?) did not possess. In close-minded fashion, they relied on day-to-day progress of their defenses, while Schwartz demands progress after each and every practice rep.
If you’re Brandon Graham or Fletcher Cox or Vinny Curry or Mychal Kendricks or Malcolm Jenkins, you appreciate a coach like Schwartz because he will endlessly challenge you to play better rep after rep. The talent on this defense is there and I’m expecting a top 10 unit this year.
The lack of physical training camps during the previous regime affected the Eagles defense during the season. The Eagles were barely prepared for the physicality of opposing teams and in the end, it backfired. With less wear and tear from playing too many snaps, and hopefully more rest w/ the conservative offense, expect this defense to be much more physical and well prepared throughout the course of the season.
I’m excited to see an Eagles team where their defense is their ultimate strength. Defense does win championships, right?
Pros and cons on signing Tulloch? I want valid points for both sides.
I’ll start,
1.) Pro: Adding a vet that knows the JS system.
2.) Con: Paying money (that could otherwise rollover) for a player who is clearly not part of the future of the team in a year where we aren’t expected to be competitive anyway
Not sure anybody here can give “valid” points. We’re all fans, 1000 miles away from the situation….
P.S. , you can only take one side or the other. No purgatory fans.
Any updates on the “heavy negotiations”?