The NFL Draft gets higher television ratings than the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, NBA playoffs, and MLB playoffs. You can make an argument it is the second biggest sporting event of the year in America. And you can bet I will be glued to my set this Thursday and Friday for the first three rounds of this year’s event. Look for my live blog during Round 1.
One of my favorite go-to resources for the most effective way to build a championship team is Hall of Fame former executive Bill Polian. Polian is a six-time NFL Executive of the Year whose teams appeared in six Super Bowls, winning one.
Polian is also the host of the Inside Football Podcast with Bill Polian. If you like long-form interviews and detailed analysis of pro football, this podcast is for you. I also can’t recommend his book The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team enough. If you do not have a copy, you can order the book by clicking HERE or on the image provided. I enjoyed it so much I am pre-ordering his next book, Super Bowl Blueprints: Hall of Famers Reveal the Keys to Football’s Greatest Dynasties, coming out later this year.
Last year, Polian appeared on the Move The Sticks Podcast and broke down in great detail how he approached building a championship team. The following are Bill’s comments from that appearance. Every football coach and executive needs to bookmark this post and revisit it often.
General Comments
- “Baseball calls it ‘high leverage’… That six weeks leading up to it is such a grind. It’s hard to come back from that.” – Super Bowl hangovers where you win or lose
- “We want the bar very high and very sure. You want to be wrong for the right reasons.” – His teams’ draft boards and having fewer than 100 prospects on their board.
- “The more information we had, the smaller the board.”
Teambuilding Marquee Positions
- “It starts with quarterback. Unless you have a quarterback who can win, not just who can manage the game, one who can win in December and January, you’re not going to go where you want to go. It’s that simple.”
- “You have to have a wide receiver who can win against everybody. He’s got to be good enough Bill Belichick can’t take him away in a championship game.”
- “You have to have a left tackle who can handle all the pressure that you’re going to get.”
- “You have to have a center who controls the offensive line and who can make all the calls.”
- “You need a running back who can carry the load down the stretch and through the play-offs. Most running backs now can’t go 16.”
- “The offensive line coach… you have to have a coach who can manage his position totally on his own and get the most out of the guys he has and create a run-game where his guys can shine. When you hire a staff, the offensive line coach is the most important guy in the whole operation as assistant coaches are concerned.”
- “You have to a kicker who can win in the clutch in every single situation… Kickers win championships.”
- “You have to able to rush the passer… You have to be able to rush from the inside… No quarterback likes pressure under his feet.”
- “Blue being the best players… You have to have at least 12 blues on your team to win a championship.”
Quarterback – “Playing quarterback boils down to some very simple core things”
- “Accuracy. You have to be accurate.”
- “You have to be able to get it out quickly… not a lot of wasted motion. He has to have a cannon for an arm if his release isn’t quick.”
- “He has to process quickly… If he can do those three things, arm strength is not an issue.”
- “What sets Mahomes apart is he can throw accurately from so many different platforms.”
- “The ability to make the play in the clutch, that’s what winners do.”
- “Winners find a way to win.” – Marv Levy
- “No one in the history of football is as good as Tom Brady when you give him a break, you make a mistake, he cashes in at Neiman Marcus… No one has the killer instinct of Tom Brady that I’ve ever seen.”
- “They (Brady and Peyton Manning) were such great workers and their preparation was exquisite… They have an innate capacity to see the game different than most of us do.”
- “The most important thing in terms of leadership is work ethic. Is he going to be the first one in and the last one out literally and working seven days a week literally. If he doesn’t, no one else is going to.”
Young Quarterbacks On Rookie Deals and Building A Championship Team
- “The life of a championship team is about six years before you have to turn a lot of people over.”
- “The offensive coordinator and quarterback coach have to be two crutches for the rookie quarterback. He has to be able to lean on them in practice, in preparation, especially in the game.”
- “The best ones do this – they don’t make the same mistake twice.”
- “One metric you learn is retention. Do they retain what they see?”
- “I’m risk averse. I’m not going to let the guy who’s functional go until I have somebody that I know is better to replace him. But if I know he is only functional and convinced after three years he’s not going to take me to the Promised Land, it’s hard to make that judgment. But if you’re convinced, you better go looking for the ultimate answer. I wouldn’t let him go until I knew the replacement was on board.”
- “If quarterback is only average and everyone in the locker room knows he gets $30 million… that’s financial chemistry.”
- “The beauty of the (salary) cap is it doesn’t forgive and it doesn’t forget. You’re going to pay for your mistakes.”
- “We’re looking for everything every year. We’re looking for as many good players as we can get. We’re looking for as many draft choices as we can get. And if it’s a quarterback, so be it.”
- “Draft a quarterback every second year or so, no more than three years apart.”
Running Backs
- “If he’s a game changer, by all means take him (in the first round).”
- “The average career length in the NFL is six years. If you draft a running in the first round, you have him under contract for six years and that’s about the length of his career.”
- “I wouldn’t pass a game changer under any circumstance. But would I pay him after six years is another question.”
Wide Receivers
- “The quarterback has to trust the wide receiver. That’s a chemistry position.”
- “Most importantly, he’s got to be able to separate from man-to-man coverage.”
- “His hands have to be totally completely reliable.”
- “We have the the most accurate quarterback in football. Why would we want to give him somebody who can’t catch?” – former Baltimore offensive coordinator Tom Moore. The team only drafted wide receivers with a 90% catch ratio (caught 90% of the passes thrown to them)
Pass Rushers
- “First step quickness. Can you beat an offensive tackle off the ball?”
- “Can you translate speed into power?”
- “The ability to change direction… If you can change direction, you have a repertoire.”
Offensive Tackles
- “60% of the time you’re performing one skill. So you better be able to pass block… Pass blocking is the #1 criteria for an offensive tackle.”
Safety
- “The strong safety position is becoming more and more important in this game. The more we are seeing the athletic quarterback and the more we see the option come into the game, we now have to have a player in the secondary who can either run the alley who can (also) cover in zone and cover the slot in man… and be able to tackle Lamar Jackson or Cam Newton in space to play solid defense.”
Inside Football Podcast with Bill Polian April 28, 2020
What Traits Do You Look For Psychologically From A Player:
- “The ability to process under pressure. – Football is a combination of two things. Physical hand-to-hand combat with the ability to diagnose what’s going on and react to it tactically in front of you… Having the ability to learn and retain… Processing – Taking that retention and processing it quickly in the hand-to-hand combat.”
- “Drive – The player has an incredible desire to move forward, to succeed… The greatest players have the greatest drive. This will correlate exactly.”
- “Self-Discipline – You have to be able to live your life in a way, that while not monastic, is very different than virtually any other profession. During the season, you have to live football 24 hours a day at least six days a week, sometimes seven.”
- “Work Ethic – If you have the drive and have the self-discipline you will develop the work ethic…”
“You can’t succeed without these four things.”
“In any given first round, you don’t have 32 first round grades. God didn’t make that many. The average is 18. Now, 32 teams with 18 first round grades will be different players.”
What is one thing you learned from Bill on building a championship team?
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