Hall of Fame GM Explains A Key NFL Draft Lesson

Jan 31, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Green Bay Packers former general manager Ron Wolf speaks during a press conference to introduce the 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees at Symphony Hall. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Ron Wolf had a hand in the formation of three Super Bowl winning teams over the course of his long career as a GM and personnel executive.  It’s why he’s headed for the Hall of Fame and also why he might know a thing or two about the potential pitfalls of the NFL draft.

He alluded to it in a recent interview with the Canton Repository when he tried to explain why his former colleague and friend Mike Holmgren, whom he won a championship with in Green Bay, failed to succeed with the Cleveland Browns when he became CEO for the team.  Holmgren by that point had a list of credentials a mile long and seemed just the guy to turn the struggling franchise around.

It didn’t take Wolf long to foster a theory on why it didn’t pan out.

"“They tried to bring a quarterback in.  They brought [Colt] McCoy in, and it didn’t work. They brought [Brandon] Weeden in, and it didn’t work.I was shocked when they brought Weeden in only because, from being around Mike, his first thing about a quarterback was feet.  It was the first thing Mike talked about . . . feet. That guy had no feet. . . .To me, the No. 1 tenet in the game is, you’ve got to have a quarterback. If you don’t have a quarterback, then you can’t play. They didn’t get that guy.”"

It’s not a big surprise.  The tenures of several great GMs and personnel men ended because they couldn’t get the quarterback position solved.  However, looking a little deeper into Wolf’s comment, there is a very important factor to note.  The idea that Brandon Weeden had bad footwork, something Holmgren reportedly was a stickler for.

Keep in mind he coached the likes of Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck.  All of them, in their primes had superb footwork.  So it is curious why Weeden, who had never worked a pro-style offense before, would be considered.

That leads to two possibilities.  Either Holmgren was overridden by ownership on the pick or he took bad advice instead of leaning on his own experience.  If it was the latter, then it was a lesson several executives have learned the hard way.  One thing about the NFL draft that many greats have warned about is don’t make picks for somebody else.  Make the ones you believe in.

As Bill Parcells once told former player turned team president Matt Millen, “Make your own mistakes.”

It’s something not every general manager understands, which is why teams like Cleveland often have so much indecision and dysfunction at the top.