Bottom of the Bird Cage 4/7

Day No. 97 of the year and we salute those who have worn 97 over the years, including Scott Radecic, Keyaron Fox and Dan Saleaumua.

On this day in 1862, the Union army won the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee under the direction of General U.S. Grant. The great singer Billie Holliday was born on April 7, 1915 in New York. In 1933 prohibition was repealed on beer.

And on this day in 1859 Walter Camp was born in Connecticut. Camp became the man known as the “Father of American Football” thanks his work as dominant voice in the college rules committee in the late 1800s. It was Camp that invented the system of downs and the points system in the early days of the transition from rugby. He created the safety and the offensive alignment of seven men on the line and four in the backfield

All of this came together well over 100 years ago and remains the foundations of the game. Evidence that Camp got it right the first time.

From NFL.com columnist Vic Carucci:
Getting the choice right means the player performs spectacularly for many years to come, while the team makes steady improvement. Think Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Getting it wrong means the franchise can be stuck in a quagmire for multiple seasons. Think Tim Couch, followed 12 months later by Courtney Brown, of the Cleveland Browns … or David Carr of the Houston Texans … or … you get the point.

Thanks to a decade of virtual non-stop escalation of the guaranteed dollars the top overall pick receives, every NFL team views the notion of executing the choice with an overwhelming sense of dread. It’s a case of too much risk and not enough reward.

That is why, for the most part, the team that owns it ends up keeping it … or, shall we say, being stuck with it.

“You can call around and try to trade it,” Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland said. “But at the end of the day you usually don’t get a phone call back.”

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An in-depth look at the No. 1 position in the draft and why it’s such a negative, rather than a positive.

From the New York Daily News: The now-ex-Giant receiver lost his job on Friday, but beat his old team in their arbitration fight Monday when a Special Master ruled that the Giants must pay Burress the final $1 million payment of his $4.5 million signing bonus from the contract he signed in September.

There will not be an appeal by the Giants or the NFL. The Giants withheld the payment when it was due Dec. 10, weeks after he ripped a bullet through his thigh in a nightclub accident.

“We are very disappointed with the decision of the Special Master,” Giants co-owner John Mara said in a statement. “This ruling represents yet another example of why we need a new and improved CBA. To think that a player could carry a loaded gun into a nightclub, shoot himself and miss the rest of the season but get to keep his entire signing bonus illustrates one of the serious flaws in the current system. We will have an opportunity in the upcoming negotiations to prevent such illogical results in the future.”

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John Mara’s comments are right on the money: a player can shoot himself and miss the rest of the season, but keep all his money. The owners allowed a lot of things to slip between the cracks during the last negotiations on a new agreement with the players. Then Commissioner Paul Tagliabue wanted the thing done, and pushed the deal through. Two owners stood up and called out Tagliabue and the deal: Mike Brown of Cincinnati and Ralph Wilson of Buffalo. They were mocked by some in the media and the league. Turns out they had the best vision of the future.

It sets up a very troubling future with negotiations and the possibility of disturbing the 2011 season. Once the players have been given something, it’s nearly impossible to get it back. The owners are going to have to be steadfast and that’s hard to do when guys like Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones have big payments to make on their debt.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The 49ers’ approach in building the roster is far different than it used to be. No longer does the team adhere to the demands necessitated by the west coast offense and they are no longer run by the coaching staff. The team was once a coach-dominated organization, ultimately answering to the head coach and the man who invented their player acquisition system, Bill Walsh.

The late Bobb McKittrick, Walsh’s long-time offensive line coach said the scouts did the ground work and brought all the information to the coaches. Then, they decided who to draft or sign in free agency. McKittrick also said that Walsh provided his coaches with broad leeway on whom they went after, because, ultimately, Walsh knew, for example, that McKittrick knew more about the offensive line than he did.

Now, with a former scout in charge of the draft and free agency, the scouting department basically decides the roster and if the report from Sports Illustrated is to be believed, they don’t necessarily tell the position coaches. S.I.’s Jim Trotter wrote that position coaches weren’t consulted about the team’s free-agent signings this year, specifically wide receiver Brandon Jones.

The coach dominated system keeps the staff more engaged, because if they’re picking their own players, they are completely invested in seeing those players succeed and they feel more integral to the team’s success. Scouts, however, can provide a more subjective analysis of players

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There’s a saying in football that “coaches should coach and scouts should scout.” Most often, it’s said by scouts who are trying to keep the coaches from taking over the personnel process.

Ultimately, there is not “right” way to run the evaluation process because teams that have relied on scouts have been successful, and failed. Teams that have relied on assistant coaches have been successful, and failed. There has to be a middle ground.

People sometimes forget that the personnel process is two-pronged: there’s the identification of talent and potential, and then the development of that talent and potential. One requires scouts, the other requires coaches. They have to work hand in hand. That’s something common with any successful team.