The Peter Principle. In management, people will keep rising until they reach a level of incompetence. He has the skills and experience to be a very good defensive coordinator, but he does not have the competencies to be a good head coach. I know people’s egos don’t like to accept this, but it’s as simple as that. Not everyone can be a great head coach.

How often does a coaching job open up, and the situation is favorable? New coaches are usually coming into a disaster, and if the GM isn’t getting the talent fixed ASAP, the new coach isn’t going to have much success.

You can scheme to hide some holes in your line up, but if most of the starting lineup is a hole…

There is a long history of coaches who ere terrible head coaches but awesome coordinators.

The defensive version of Norv Turner

Nobody ever learns.

Some guys are not destined to be the top dog. They can be great at handling one side of the ball and play design, but give then a full team and it’s a crapshoot.

Sure, sometimes you get Kyle Shannahan or Robert Saleh.

A lot of times (I would say mainly) you get Todd Bowles (fantastic during the Bucs Super Bowl run, his Jets and Bucs head coaching is legitimately awful), Dennis Allen (crested some great defenses during the late Payton Saints years, one of the worst head coaches in the league), Dan Quinn (his story is currently still being edited, but trust me that this defensive genius is going to choke away key moments just like in Atlanta), even one of the all time great defensive coordinators Dick Lebeau was abysmal as the Bengals head coach (12-33 in 3 seasons that led to Marvin Lewis being seen as awake and innovative).

Some guys are generals some guys are soldiers.

Some guys are good lieutenants but bad generals.

They’re different skill sets. This is true in the corporate world as well. People who are great Directors or VPs get promoted to the C-Suite and fail or go from a CXO to CEO and fail. It’s a common executive leadership concept known as “what got you here won’t get you there.” It means that as you move up in levels of leadership, the skills needed for success change and you have to adapt, you can’t just do what you have always done.

he kept referring to his testicles as Spag Balls

Because being a great coordinator & being a great head coach are two different skill sets

It’s the same as great salespeople not making great managers

Spags unfortunately had the distinction of drafting #1 in the last draft before the rookie pay scale was implemented. Sam Bradford got a 6 year $78m contract being drafted #1. The next year Cam Newton got a 4 year $22m contract as the #1 pick. Had Bradford been good, it would have been ok. But the fact that he wasnt good and that contract made it difficult to build a team around him.

There are other factors as to why Spags wasnt successful, but that contract didn’t help.

Awful, awful coach. His only “success” was Bradfords rookie year where Pat Shurmur was calling the offense. His defense was trash but, he did draft Robert Quinn and Rodger Saffold who were apart of our core when we made started making playoff runs with McVay.

Great coordinators don’t often make for good/ great HCs.

I know someone who was a reporter for the Rams during his time in St. Louis. Said spags was an asshole and hated him, and this guy I know is pretty nice and unconfrontational ha.

Also I remember spags had all the Rams superbowl stuff taken down in the facility, that rubbed people the wrong way too.

I think of being a head coach like being a teacher. You might be good at teaching the things you know, but if your presence and authority doesn’t fill the entire locker room (or classroom) then you won’t be effective.