Remember head coach John Mackovic or Frank Gansz? Don’t worry… me either. No much any way. How about Marty Schottenheimer? Sure, if you are older than 20, you probably know first hand who he is. How about Gunther Cunningham? Then there’s Dick Vermeil and of course everyone’s favorite mensch, Herman Edwards. Don’t forget Todd Haley and Romeo Crennel.
Now, looking back over those 8 head coaches prior to Andy Reid… which ones would you say had the best relationship with their general manager? The GMs in question would be, Jack Steadman, Carl Peterson and Scott Pioli. Now, we know that neither Peterson nor Pioli were the kind of guys you would want to invite to your cousin’s wedding. No, they both came across as… politicians or covert operatives… making it hard for their head coaches to have an open and equitable relationship, functionally.
All of those failed combo’s are likely a very good reason that Clark Hunt decided to restructure the organization. Clark hired head coach Andy Reid… and he’s responsible directly to Hunt. Clark hired general manager John Dorsey… and he’s responsible directly to Hunt as well.
So, let’s look at this current general manager-head coach pairing: we’ll call them JARD, John Andy Reid Dorsey… because, in my estimation, they seem to work so well together… and because Clark Hunt has set up the organization to facilitate that process.
How often do you see General Manager John Dorsey out on the practice field? Seems like you see him there plenty. That’s usually a positive sign for the relationship between the general manager and the head coach… and that it’s solid.
Well, proximity breeds familiarity, so Andy Reid and John Dorsey have what is often referred to as, “no wasted movement” or “no wasted time.” And why is that important? Well, when you’re running a multi-multi-million dollar sports franchise and it’s whole success is dependent upon the efficacy of the relationship between these two individuals… so it means a lot.
Carl Peterson had plenty of success as the Chiefs GM from 1989-2008. Ex-beat writer for the Kansas City Star, Jason Whitlock, used to call Peterson, “King Carl” and that’s revelatory about the aristocratic style with which Peterson used to run the organization.
Carl Peterson grew up in sunny southern California, ten years before my time there. He received his doctorate degree in education and in the NFL he’s served as coach, executive and consultant. Comparatively, John Dorsey played football in high school and went on to play linebacker for Connecticut. In fact, he was a defensive “Player of the Year” in his conference and made the I-AA All American squad. That may be one of the reasons Dorsey looks so comfortable on the football field. He’s a football native.
Many know that John Dorsey was weaned on the finer details of how to run a football organization while he was with the Green Bay Packers from 1991 to 1998, then left for Seattle for two years, and returned from 2000 to 2012. However, it’s the cross-section of years… when Andy Reid was in Green Bay, from 1992 to 1998… that those two became friends. And really… more than friends, you could call them, cooperative cohorts.
Does that really matter? Most certainly it matters. How many of you have ever worked with someone who you didn’t like, or perhaps did not like you? It can make all the difference in the world if you “like” who you work with.
What’s also great about the setup now is that Andy Reid has already done the gm/coach boogie and knows full well from experience that it’s a two-man allemande-left square dance. So, he knows it takes a number of people to have a prize hoedown. Who doesn’t recall the so-called Dream Team fiasco? Not only that, but if we were allowed to dig deeper into Reid’s psyche… we might just find that he somehow blames himself for not being more present and available for his son Garrett, who died of a heroin overdose, just two months before the end of his stay in Philly in 2012.
In any event, Andy Reid appears to be as happy as a clam now (I never really understood why clams would be typified as happy). And John Dorsey is as busy as a bee (now that, I get).
And isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? [And don’t you wish some people would stop starting sentences with “And?”]
Here’s how John Dorsey and Andy Reid stack up against the other GM-Head Coach combinations since the beginning of time… no just since 1978 when the NFL season went to a 16 game season. Or there abouts.
I think it would be safe to say that the John Dorsey and Andy Reid combination has been the best at producing victories (in the first three years) in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs organization. Prior to 1978, Lamar Hunt served as owner/general manager and not every team had a general manger for that matter, back in the day.
Hank Stram produced 25 victories in the first three years of the organization’s existence and that record probably rivals Andy Reid’s record of 31 victories with the Chiefs. However, Stram led the team to an AFL World Championship following his third season so our hats-off-nod goes to Hank.
When it comes to combinations of GMs and Head coaches though, it’s John Dorsey and Andy Reid who come in first place.
Over at Warpaint Illustrated, Nick Athan wrote a piece back in April after the first night of the draft that asked the question, “Are Andy Reid and John Dorsey on the same page?” If you recall, at the end of the first round, Paxton Lynch was falling and it appeared for awhile like the Chiefs may draft him, but up jumps John Elway to snatch Lynch from Andy’s greedy hands. Wait a second… that would make Elway the greedy one. Anyway, some people, like Athan, interpreted some of Dorsey and Reid’s actions on that day as, them having a rift.
Wouldn’t you be upset if the guy you thought you might get was stolen out from under you by a rival? I don’t see that as any reason for Reid to sour towards Dorsey. Not unless he thought Dorsey should have known that Elway was planning an ambush… or that Dorsey should have been willing to jump up a few spots earlier and nab Lynch when they could have.
In any event, I think Andy is a big boy. That was not his first rodeo and he knows it takes a lot of patience to corral the horses you want most in your barn. Leading up to the 2016 draft I had said several times that the Chiefs would be best served by trading back and there’s no doubt that Andy and John had those scenario conversations including the possibility of moving backwards. By the end of the draft, it looks like it worked out great and both Reid and Dorsey came out shining like baby diamonds.
That’s what we would want if we were Clark Hunt, right? He understands that there will be times when his two parallel employees don’t agree. However, since Hunt’s set up a system which is built on a level playing field… neither one can grade, censure, blame or domineer. And why would they want to? They’re very good friends.
Just yesterday, when John Dorsey was attempting to re-sign Eric Berry to a long term deal, it was finally revealed, after no contract was signed, that Berry and Dorsey had not agreed on a any of the starting points to begin making a contract happen. Regardless of what the Kansas City Chiefs official statement sounded like, there had to be disappointment involved. Now, would you want the same person in the board room trying to sign your disappointed star player… who was then going to turn around and try to coach him two weeks later? With Dorsey and Reid having a healthy separation of church and state… players can go out on the field without projecting resentment onto their head coach… because that’s all he is… the head coach.
That speaks volumes about the effective way Clark Hunt has set up his GM=HC system… and the way Andy Reid and John Dorsey work in harmonious tandem.
This bodes well for the future of the Kansas City Chiefs organization. I’ve bootstrapped and built two organizations from the ground up over the course of my life. The years that it took to accomplish success with those two businesses made it clear to me about what it takes to be successful. Surrounding yourself with people you love and trust means everything to the future of your business. Andy Reid and John Dorsey appear to have that. It gives John-Andy-Reid-Dorsey at least the appearance of… working as one.
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On a cap note: when the Chiefs could not get Eric Berry re-signed by the deadline on Friday, they published an official statement saying in part,
“We look forward to resuming our discussions on a long-term agreement when the negotiating window reopens after the season.”
However, won’t the Chiefs have more players to re-sign once the season ends, and less cap space to do that with?