FFL: Coaching changes

Updated: August 23, 2005, 12:19 PM ET
By Jason Langendorf | Scouts Inc.
You've no doubt heard from one of the umpteen TV windbags that college football is a player's game and the NFL is a coach's league. As is the case roughly half the time, the windbags essentially got it right. But exactly how much difference can a head coach or coordinator or position assistant make on a single player's fantasy value?

Depends. Take Indianapolis offensive coordinator Tom Moore. Strong game planner. Innovative. Flexible. But he didn't exactly invent the wheel so much as he lucked into QB Peyton Manning. Credit Moore for putting Manning and his mates in position to make plays, but No. 18 probably would have found a way to become a great player if his career had begun with the Rhein Fire.

Players like San Diego QB Drew Brees, who suddenly find themselves after languishing in the same system for years, make it even more difficult to gauge the effects of coaching and schemes on individual players. Have QBs Kyle Boller and Joey Harrington been held back by poor instruction and the decisions made by their bosses, or are they just crummy NFL starters?


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Jason Langendorf | email

ESPN Boxing
Jason Langendorf is the boxing editor for ESPN.com.

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