Coaches like the players who give them the best chances to win immediately and who make few mental errors.

The best players always play, eventually. Sometimes there may be a player on the sideline who is a better player at the moment than the player who is a starter and on the field. This can be the case for a number of reasons. The most common reason is that a team or organization signs a free agent for big money or drafts a player very high in the 1st round and has a large financial commitment. That organization, because of its financial commitment, is going to give the player every opportunity to earn that money invested in him, even if in the short term there may be a player watching from the sideline who would perform better.

When organizations do this, they are assuming the more talented player will catch up and easily surpass the player he is replacing. In most instances that is the case, but not always and that is why you hear the term “bust” being thrown around. When the financial commitment or draft status of a player doesn’t match his performance level is when you have a bust.

The GM or Head Coach is usually the person deciding how much time you give a player to prove himself before you move on and put the best player on the field. Depending on the organization’s chain of command, there can sometimes be a difference of opinion on who is the best player. When there is a GM in charge of personnel and the head coach in charge of football, there can be times they are not in complete agreement.  Evaluation is subjective. It is therefore natural there will be differences of opinion.

Much like the previous scenario, the real decision is how much patience do you have to wait for the player to produce? If there is internal friction within an organization it is mostly because there is a difference of opinion about a number of items. Individual talent and where to focus your resources in acquiring the talent to build the team are the biggest points of contention.

There have been occasions in my experience where anyone who was drafted from round 1-3 was automatically a starter and the 4th rounder you could count on as making the team.

Coaches like the players who give them the best chances to win immediately and who make few mental errors. At times the personnel department likes the new talent or the players who give the best chance to win in the future. There will always be some differences of opinion, but the people who can work through them with open and honest communication to get the best players on the field will find the most success.