Cross-sports general managers are not common but has happened. Example: Steve Patterson... NBA Rockets then NHL Coyotes. Both Luhnow and Morey have expressed interest in going into new fields... if you are Cal... assuming that photos that Easterby are destroyed, who should he hire?
I think morey would do better in the way that the nfl is set up. it's more similar to the nba than mlb. I think morey would also do good in MLB... maybe im just a morey fan.
Considering Morey made a name for himself through trades and Lunhow did through rebuilding with the Cards and Astros. You would have to look at the Texans situation. Morey got lucky. His drafting was actually sub par if you look back at it. He had three draft picks the year Kawhi Leonard was picked and chose Morris, Monti, and Royce. He also busted the Rockets title window over paying Ryan Anderson and never put real shooters on the court for the Rockets. The man was overrated. They need a roster rebuild. Lunhow.
Steve Patterson has been a walking disaster everywhere he has gone. And don't believe he was the GM of the Coyotes.
A lot of Morey's best moves for the Rockets were earlier in his tenure, when there was massive information asymmetry between him and other GMs - he was the smartest guy in that negotiation room. Baseball is already filled with front offices that embrace analytics - don't think that Morey has too much of a competitive edge here. Football is where he should go next - the decision-makers are lightyears behind those in basketball and baseball. They figured out that you can attach an asset to a bad contract to offload it early just three years ago! Plus, GMs in football don't have to do nearly as much courtship and cowtowing to star players. Each NFL roster is 52 players that shuffle in and out every year. The roster flexibility (large # of spots, non-guaranteed deals) gives you so many chances to find and hold onto diamonds in the rough. Lastly, he already has relevant experience!
I can't imagine being a shark and having to swim non stop to not drown. Seems exhausting. Weren't they all running backs too, Daryl's roster moves.
I don’t think the NFL is similar to the NBA at all.... still need to build a full team through depth and the draft. One player cant’ just come in and win despite less talent around them. I also think there’s a ton of underrated/undervalued metrics in the NFL that GM’s haven’t quite caught on to yet. It’s why every draft pick is potentially boom/bust. It’s why some teams year after year continue to find success in mid-late round picks, while some have high first rounders consistently and still can’t build a sustained winner. NFL GM’s haven’t’ gotten the publicity of other sports mainly because of how important head coaching is in football... but with the roster sizes, cap management, and roster turnover/injury risk... a team with an advanced/analytical/“smarter” GM may have a much bigger advantage over every other team vs. a comparable situation in other sports that have already fully adopted the movement.
I would take Moreys implementation of advanced analytics on the Texans over Luhnows roster building skills. I think pretty soon teams in the NFL will figure out how to use those stats to create an advantage with so many different options in game theory with football. You should never have an Obrien "we didnt have a play ready for that situation" moment - EVER. There should be a room full of guys crunching success rates vs different defensive packages on all 32 teams to find the right play for any alignment vs any down and distance.
Morey drafted the ray lewis of basketball and turned him into Artest. This defense could have used either of those guys.
The one thing the Patriots do better than ANY other team is finding gems. They get the most out of everyone that puts on their jersey. I think that's what an analytical approach to the NFL would look like. That 6th round pick might not be shut down elite corner... But he might do one thing REALLY REALLY well, like say cover speed WRs in the slot, and you draft him for that reason and if the coach is on the same level and sees the numbers that this guy covers slot WRs really well and puts that player in the position to succeed? That's what the pats do well, I don't think they use analytics, I think they just have smart football guys. I think Morey would succeed more in the NFL because as mentioned, it hasn't embraced analytics much at all. I think analytics in the NFL would at least tell the team that you don't HAVE to run the ball. We see this dumb **** every week where we try to force D.Johnson up the middle and we know it doesn't work. Morey would see this data right away, he'd see that passing it for 5 yards is better than running it for 1 yard just to 'establish' the run...we'd cut it out right away and I think if you let Watson pass it 80% of the time we'd play A LOT better. We might throw more INTs, that's true, but I think and bet the math would show it would be made up for in total offense resulting in more points and TDs. Should Morey have say in coaching and what plays to run? No, but, hire Morey and hire a coach open to it, that's all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_DePodesta DePodesta is chief strategy officer of the Browns after the Padres, Mets, and Dodgers.
Once again, not the GM. Think some executive positions are more interchangeable but as far as being the GM and in charge of player personnel, think that’s a completely different story.
I think either of them have the intelligence and shrewdness to be fantastic NFL GMs. ****ing brilliant if Cal went that route.