They Can Coach Talent, Not Evaluate It

Dan Reeves and Bill Parcells are two of the most successful coaches of the last 15 years. Don Shula is the winningest coach of all time.

All three are discovering (or have discovered) that there’s a difference between coaching and acquiring personnel. All of them could ask George Young, a man with whom all have worked and with whom Parcells and Reeves have sometimes been at odds.

Parcells is coach, general manager, personnel guru and whatever else he wants to be for the Patriots. New England is 1-5 after entering the season with great expectations.

Parcells is befuddled, but he shouldn’t be.

He hasn’t lost it as a coach, but he’s never had it as personnel man, particularly in an era where the salary cap makes every signing a gamble. While with the Giants, he wanted to draft Darion Conner ahead of Rodney Hampton (Young overruled him) and was reluctant to take Dave Meggett, even in the fifth round, of the 1989 draft.

But when Meggett turned out to be a great situation player, Parcells signed him for the Patriots, and overpaid him - he’s not a full-timer. That left him short at wide receiver, without a heavy-duty running back and light on the offensive and defensive lines because there was no money left to sign or re-sign players.

The result is added pressure on a still-young Drew Bledsoe.

Reeves is coach of the team Parcells led to two Super Bowl victories, the Giants. Young, the general manager, has allowed him to make some personnel decisions (like bringing in Tommy Maddox to replace Kent Graham as backup quarterback). The Giants are 2-5.

Shula has run the Dolphins for the last 25 years, but his personnel problems intensified after Bobby Beathard left in 1978 and Young the year after.

Beathard was responsible for building three Super Bowl winners in Washington and last year’s AFC championship team in San Diego. Young was in charge of the two Giants title teams.

Yet Shula bridles at the suggestion that losing Beathard and Young hurt his operation.