Why Byron Leftwich should be the next Bears Head Coach

Why these are the qualities the Chicago Bears much look to in a head coach

As mentioned, the great leaders in sports and even beyond all have these 3 qualities, strong leadership skills, intelligence and real courage. However, being a charismatic leader is one thing, being really smart is another. Having the guts to make complicated decisions be the best decisions under great pressure is a key element that will separate the best from everyone else.

This capacity in a head coach is part of what gets a team through hard times. When things are going bad if players believe their head coach has guts it helps them weather the bad moments of a game and the tough times during a season. In the rough and tumble world of the NFL, courage in head coaches goes a long way to the head coach inspiring the best out of his players.

Intelligence is, clearly, an essential component to a great head coach. Another separator of the good from the great head coaches is their capacity to do the big picture analysis and do it well. Bill Walsh, the inventor of the WCO, was very good at this. Walsh rightfully earned the label of genius. Unlike most WCO practitioners, Walsh had the courage to have Montana do his reads from the top to the bottom of his pass targets as opposed to focusing first on the pass target closest to the line of scrimmage.

Then there is Bill Belichick. I hesitate to call Belichick a genius because he had to cheat to win his first Super Bowl. He also possibly cheated to win some of his other Super Bowl victories. So my theory on Belichick is that he is not so much a genius but he commits to his big picture strategy far more than any other head coach in this era. This has given him a big edge over his competitors.

Belichick is a very good if not brilliant strategist and is totally committed to using strategy to win a game. Other teams are typically content to go head to head with strength versus strength to win a game. Belichick on the other hand will attack a team’s weakness regardless of whether this approach plays into his team’s strengths or not.

An example of this is when he will consistently double-team a top pass target. The strategy he often uses for this is to have his second-best cornerback and a safety double team the opposing team’s best pass target. That leaves his best cornerback on an opposing team’s second-best receiver. Very few teams are willing to commit to this for the majority of a game. If the Chiefs had done this to Gronkowski, there is a good chance they would have beaten the Bucs in the last Super Bowl.