You are undervaluing head coaches a great deal. They make tons of important decisions throughout the course of a game. And this question doesn't just pertain to game day coaching, head football coaches have a huge impact on the weekly preparation and the overall direction of the team.

Plus the coord's are an extension of the head coach, usually chosen by the head coach and implementing a system the head coach prefers.

I personally think this thread is incredibly vague.


Are we suppose to answer based on which coach has the most effect on a game? Or which coach has the most impact on a team?


I think in game it has to be football. There is too many subsitutions being made, and too many different plays being called. There is constant adjustments being made. But, I think a NFL head coach doesn't have a ton of impact on individual players. At least not as much as a NBA coach.


I don't know enough about hockey so I can't comment on that.


I'd like to include soccer in here as well. I think soccer coaches and baseball coaches have similar impacts. They are all about working with players, and getting the team ready for games, but their impact on the individual game is less than a NFL or NBA coach. Baseball and soccer coaches just need to make adjustments. I don't really buy into the whole chessmatch aspect. You don't control what a player does.



So if we talk in game impact, I think it is:
NFL
NBA
MLB
Soccer
(I don't know where to put hockey)

If its team impact, IMO:
NBA

MLB, Soccer

NFL
I say this because to me football is too much like running a big company, with one or more guys making big decisions on game day.


I did vote the NFL, but the more I think about it I think a NBA coach has the most impact overall on his team. They do a lot of individual coaching, they makes tons of in game decisions, and they have small coaching staffs in comparison to other sports. I think usually NBA teams have 4, maybe 5 coaches. Toss in one more consultant.

Hmm, I suppose you're right. The way I was figuring was more 'in game', since the more impact the coach has in game, the more wins they'll get, and thus they'll have a bigger impact over the course of the season.

I guess the bottom line is I was focusing on results, which includes in-game stuff, managing egos, connecting with players, etc.

1. NFL by far



2. MLB very impotant

3. NHL can make a difference






4. NBA Anyone posting on this board could look brilliant with the right players.

If you read Moneyball and believe in the value of Sabermetrics, then the impact of a MLB manager is almost zero and the the impact of the general manager is virtually absolute.

If you read The Blind Side, then you might believe, as I do, that Bill Walsh revolutionized the NFL to an extent that, perhaps, no other single person has ever done in any professional team sport.

Prior to Walsh's West Coast Offense (WCO - Walsh didn't particularly like that name), passing was viewed as a high-risk/high-reward activity. Receivers would run around and try to get open. The quarterback would look for an open receiver, then gun the ball to him. Quarterbacks with good arm strength were viewed as the most valuable because the receiver might only be open for a second or two.

Walsh, started crafting his WCO in Cincinnati with Ken Anderson. In San Diego, his offensive system transformed Dan Fouts from a guy on his way out of the NFL into an All-Pro quarterback. And, in San Francisco, he perfected it with Joe Montana.

Walsh was never blessed with quarterbacks who had outstanding arm strength. However, they were very accurate with very precise timing, so he developed an offense that simultaneously took advantage of that accuracy and precision while at the same time, neutralizing the lack of arm strength.

Walsh changed the passing game from being high-risk/high-reward to a very reliable, low-risk means of advancing the ball. Instead of throwing to an open receiver 15-20 yards down field, he had his quarterbacks throw shorter passes to pre-determined locations on the field and relied on his receivers to run precision patterns so that they would be there when the ball arrived.

In doing so, he altered the balance of power. No longer was the running back the most important player on the field. It was the quarterback and receivers. This upped the value of defensive backs and pass rushers, which in turn elevated the value of the left offensive tackle.

Most NFL quarterbacks are right-handed, so it is the left offensive tackle's responsibility to protect the quarterback's blind side. Orlando Pace and Jonathan Ogden, in their respective primes, became the most dominant players of their time.

Walsh wasn't known as "The Genius" for nothing. And he began his dynasty with what started out to be one of the lowest payrolls in the NFL, although it didn't stay that way for long.

I'm no sports junkie, but I can think of only one other coach who has had as profound an impact on his sport as has Walsh - John Wooden.

There have been individual innovations in other sports such as the Fosbury Flop in high-jumping and the switch from a shuffling motion, which had been used for a hundred years in Nordic skiing, to a skating motion which everyone uses today.

But, as far as a head coach or manager in a professional team sport, no one comes close to Walsh. Therefore, by association, the NFL head coach has the most impact on the success or failure of his team.

um lovie smith is a defensive genius and their dc is pretty much an unkown. their oc is nothing special either.
this one you may be right on because their head coach is a complete unkown and their oc and dc are very good (especially ryan).
i don't know anything about either their oc or dc so i'm going to have to go with no on this one too.
whisenhunt is the best thing about that coaching staff although i think pendergast is very good.
i'll give you this one. they might actually be better off without nolan

so there's two teams, maybe, and one has a head coach that is likely to get fired at the end of this season and the other has a former special teams coach with no coordinator experience as the head coach.

#1 I don't think this is true.
#2 If there is any truth to it it it is because of weeks/months of preparation before the game.

I honestly think multiple tiers of NFL coaches work longer hours than say, NHL of NBA head coaches. Like, not even just HCs, but OC/DCs and maybe even guys like offensive line coaches... Not that that proves anything, but I think it might be another measure of the importance of coaching in football.

Anyway, I think its the same as everyone else except that I'm not convinced coaching is more important in basketball than hockey. I'd love to see a discussion on basketball vs. hockey vs. soccer...

lol @ groupthink

I think this is right. NFL Coaches have a ton of marginal decisions to make that can have a huge impact on games like whether to go for it or punt, not to mention if they take on play calling duties.

DKSr hit it on the head with the difference between the NHL and NBA. I feel like NHL coaches need to figure out matchups and line-changes much quicker than NBA coaches do.

I don't get what the hell baseball managers do. It's usually painfully obvious when to pull a pitcher, who to hit against lefties and righties, etc... NL managers have a bit more thinking to do with regards to pinch-hitting for a pitcher. Being an AL manager has to be one of the easiest jobs ever.

I voted NFL HC, but it kinda depends if the HC calls plays, how much they are involved, or how much much the coordinators are in charge of, etc.

One thing about the NFL is that they only play once a week. So every ounce of effort goes into each minute of each day into that game. While with other sports there are multiple games in a week. Because of this they can't put in the hours that an NFL coach is putting in. Some Coaches(head and assistant) put in 90+ hours a week, and lets be honest that isn't all that rare. It's almost necessary as well, look at the Redskins with Spurrier who did not put in those hours and his team was not as prepared as his opponents.

Most HC's have schemes and defensive ideals as well as offensive sets and plays that are theirs and theirs alone. This is probably comparable to the NBA and NHL I assume.

Also NFL coaches have to be very good judges of talent as well. I know scouts and such deal with looking at the players but when it comes down to it, most NFL coaches make the decision on draft day of who to pick. There are some organizations whose GM's are on the forefront but I think for at least half the league the HC is making the final decision.

Either way...I think the NCAAF coach(not necessarily head) might have the biggest impact. He is taking on 18 year old kids who for the vast majority of their football lives have survived off of nothing outside of pure talent and being bigger and stronger than their competition. They have to mold these players into legit players. Now W-L's come a lot easier in college than NFL for the big programs, so I guess that has to be taken into consideration.

Actually, this is probably true to a degree. I was in fact mainly focusing too much on game day, and definitely not enough on the weekly preparation.