Is doing two jobs the smart thing?

[LABillsFan]

Holmgin as a head coach seemed to work in Green Bay, but not as coach and GM in Seatle, Coughlin as coach and acting GM in Jacsonville worked for the first few years, Jerry Jones in Dallas has learned to relinquish some of his hands on approach, so I ask,

Is it smart to have TD as Pres. and GM?

He has Modrak being corted by other teams and not using him (or at least it appears so) to do the job he is well known for. TD got burned in Pittsburgh becasue of a power struggle, does he have so much power now that it may be difficult for a coach to work in that type of enviroment? If you were a Parcell, Mariucci, Holmgren, or other highly respected coach and needed a job, would you want to work with a very heavy handed GM?

I'm not saying that GW won't be here, but what if the Bills have a losing season next year, does GW get the blame or TD, for forcing asst. coaches on him that may not pan out anymore than GW's.

Will there be back stabbing to get the lesser experienced head coach out and if GW is forced out, will the new HC be forced to keep TD's hand picked asst.'s? Even if the new head coach was promoted from within, shouldn't he have a say on who his staff should be.

Obviously this is all what if's, I was just wondering with all the rumors swirling around if anyone else picked up on this.

[HenryRules]

I think that a team with a GM will seldom get a big-name coach. Once a coach has developed a reputation, they all seem to want to have control over all decisions. Unfortunately, it seems that most coaches, once given complete control, tend to prove they are better coaches than GMs (or perhaps that they can't handle both jobs at once, not sure which is the problem). As far as Modrak ... well, TD being president alone doesn't make much sense to me. IMO, TD is a better GM than Modrak which is why TD has the final say as GM ... that being said, Modrak is a great scout/talent evaluator and I think he's being used primarily in that role. While Modrak may not be using his full abilities, its still the situation that provides the most benefit for the Bills.
Personally, I think we have a really good situation brewing here in our front office/coaching. We have one of the best GMs in the league (TD), a solid motivator for a coach (Williams), a proven offensive co-ordinator (Gilbride), and an up-and-coming defensive co-ordinator (Gray). While not perfect or ideal, its definitely a good situation in my mind.

[WG]

Interesting thread. I'm not exactly sure what all the responsibilities are of the president, but it would seem to me that president and GM goe hand-in-hand better than GM/Coach do. Coach is a F/T job all by itself and then some. I don't know how anyone but the absolute sharpest of people in this biz do both GM and HC. I would also think that there could be some conflict of interests that may hinder team progress under circumstances where one man is both GM and HC.

Good thread start however...

[kgun12]

I might be wrong, but wasn't Ron Wolf GM in Green Bay when Holmgim was coach. If so he is proving in Seattle that it takes 2 people to do the GM and HC. How many times have we heard Butler or Donahoe say they were going on a scouting trip during the season, you can't do that if your HC.

[The_Philster]

A president also being the GM really isn't that big a difference except that Donahoe has a few more team responsibilities at league meetings and such than he would without the president's title. A coach playing GM is a bad idea since coaching is a full-time job as it is and a coach putting in the long hours required to do a good job simply isn't going to have the time to do a good job as a GM.

[clumping platelets]

No!! I've tried it and failed

[don137]

Good point kgun about the scouting. Coaches don't have time until after the season to evaluate prospects so I would think this puts them behind the 8-ball. I am sure the other teams that have the same person as GM/coaches have good scouting department but GM's are some of the best talent evaluators such as Donohoe, Ron Wolf, Butler etc. Has there ever been a team that won the super bowl with a person as both the GM and coach?

[Earthquake Enyart]

Wanny is coach and GM.

That's how he destroyed the Bears. The fins are next.

[JayWood]

Great point EE, yeh last time I checked the phins have done nothing under his control. Hahaha, its still great to think that they didnt make the playoffs, along with the patsies!!

[LABillsFan]

How did this thread get on the main page????

[TigerJ]

Not very many people can handle being head coach and general manager. I don't think that TD's situation is comparable at all. I see "President" in this case as more of a title. It implies he has more authority than his predecessor, John Butler. I think "Uncle Ralphie" wanted to stick it to Butler a bit as if to say "Tom Donahoe is better than you and so I can trust him with more authority," as much as he wanted to tell Donahoe that he was in charge. As The Philster said, he may have a few meetings to attend as a consequence of being pres, but I think that's about all there is to it. GM is his job.

[justasportsfan]

GM's do all the hard work. The Pres.' job is to hit on interns. TD should do fine.

[colin]

As Pres and GM, TD manages all business aspects of the Bills, including non football operations.

Being a GM and a coach is not great IMO, Shanahan is by far the most successful dualist, and while he won a bowl and did well for a bit before, he has blown some pretty big payrolls on some not so great teams.

[TigerJ]

I'm not sure "handles" is the right word, Colin. I'm sure he has authority in all those areas, but he's surely got underlings to do most of the grunt work.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by TigerJ
Not very many people can handle being head coach and general manager. I don't think that TD's situation is comparable at all. I see "President" in this case as more of a title. It implies he has more authority than his predecessor, John Butler. I think "Uncle Ralphie" wanted to stick it to Butler a bit as if to say "Tom Donahoe is better than you and so I can trust him with more authority," as much as he wanted to tell Donahoe that he was in charge. As The Philster said, he may have a few meetings to attend as a consequence of being pres, but I think that's about all there is to it. GM is his job.

Actually, Ralph wanted to give Butler that authority originally but Butler didn't want it.