First of all, he's got a great haircut. You may not think that's important, but I do. The man clearly has taste.
Second, he speaks in complete sentences. Again, this might not matter to you, but as someone who tries to understand and convey what football coaches think, I can tell you it's extremely unusual. I've come to believe there's a correlation between coherence of thought and coherence of speech.
"I like to believe I'm a teacher," Josh McDaniels said Monday during his introduction as the 12th Denver Broncos head coach. "I like to believe I can communicate. That's a very important word for me. I think that goes from the top down."
This is more important than it might sound. If Mike Shanahan had one primary deficiency as the poobah of all he surveyed at Dove Valley, it was communication. Communication up to owner Pat Bowlen and communication down to subordinates and players.
Omnipotence can have that effect.
Coming from an organization run by Bill Belichick, who makes Shanahan look like Chatty Cathy, this is not something I expected from McDaniels. In fact, given that his main coaching influences are Belichick, Charlie Weis and Nick Saban, I figured he'd refuse to answer at least half the questions.
As it turns out, McDaniels' ability to communicate sealed the deal for Bowlen. Asked what impressed him most, Bowlen, who doesn't communicate nearly as well as his new coach, struggled to find the right word.
"A lot," he said. "There's a lot of things he said that I didn't expect him to be quite that . . . uh . . . as they say in Hawaiian, akamai, which means 'wise.' "
Clever, smart and intelligent are other translations, but wise is an interesting one for a 32-year-old. To put it simply, McDaniels bowled Bowlen over with his brain and his ability to communicate what it is thinking.
No matter how good a coach or communicator McDaniels turns out to be, the Broncos' recent troubles have had at least as much to do with talent, particularly defensive talent, as coaching. So let's get down to cases.
I asked McDaniels if he had discussed with Bowlen how much influence he will have in personnel decisions.
"I've met Jim Goodman and his staff in the personnel department," he said. "I think it's going to be a situation where we're going to collaborate ..."
And in cases where they differ?
"Hopefully, there's not many of those, but Jim would make the call if there's an issue in terms of personnel," McDaniels said.
I asked Bowlen if he intends to hire a general manager (Goodman's unwieldy title, which he held under Shanahan, is vice president of football operations/player personnel).
"I have no plans to hire anybody else," Bowlen said. "That's not to say I won't hire some other people on the football side of the organization. I don't have any plans to hire what you would call a general manager."
So your intention is that Jim Goodman will run your personnel department?
"That's correct."
So I asked Goodman how the personnel selection process will work now that Shanahan, who had the final say, is no longer around.
"I've sat by Mike Shanahan for years and aided him," he said. "It's like Josh said. Our decision making will be after much discussion with Josh, our personnel people, our scouts, his coaches, his coordinators. So it won't be just me saying, 'We're going to take that one. I like the way he looks.' It doesn't work like that. It goes through a process and it's real easy when you go through that process and you arrive at the player."
OK, fine, but how will things change to avoid what look like wasted premium draft picks in 2007 devoted to defensive linemen Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder?
"They're young players and they've been hurt on and off, so I'm not ready to give up on those guys yet," Goodman said.
OK, how about avoiding mistakes in free agency like Niko Koutouvides?
"I'd rather not go there," Goodman said. "I'd rather say I'm excited about working with Josh and implementing our system with what he's done in the past and looking forward to going forward."
No matter how good Mike Nolan might be as a defensive coordinator, he's not going to make the 29th-ranked defense elite by changing the scheme. Shanahan went through five coordinators and at least that many schemes. This is about talent.
Even if McDaniels doesn't have final say, Bowlen is clearly counting on his input, and Goodman's, and the absence of Shanahan's, to improve the selection process.
So we'll see if it does.
Did the Broncos owner get the "10" he was looking for in a head coach?
"Ask me in a year or so," he said.
That's all he's giving him?
"We'll know," Bowlen said.
If he has the akamai Bowlen says he has, we will, too.
(Contact Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News at kriegerd(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)
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