The Depth Chart: Greatest football minds
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By Andrea Kremer
Special to ESPN.com
When analyzing the qualities that bind the NFL's greatest minds, one word comes up: intuition. Instead of falling in love with a player's arm, his time in the 40 or his bench-press strength, a great evaluator of personnel has a feeling about a player's ability to improve, lead and win.
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Just-retired Packers general manager Ron Wolf has told me a number of times he gets a "feeling" about players based on his experience. When asked what he learned from Wolf, Green Bay's new GM, coach Mike Sherman, said he just observed. The NFL offers no how-to guide on judging personnel. The great personnel minds have an idea that certain players will be great, even when other teams have overlooked or bypassed them.
Following are the people I believe have been the NFL's greatest evaluators of talent over the last 20 years, listed in alphabetical order:
Ron Wolf
Wolf
When Wolf was with the Jets, he saw Brett Favre. The Falcons drafted Favre, but Wolf kept his eye on him. There was something he knew about Favre. He made arguably one of the best pickups ever, getting Favre from Atlanta. Wolf also pulled off one of the key free-agent moves of the era, luring Reggie White to Green Bay. Before getting to Green Bay, he was a behind-the-scenes personnel man with the Raiders for 10 years, and then was the architect of the Tampa Bay expansion team that ended up going to the NFC championship game in 1979. His glory came with two Super Bowl appearances in Green Bay. Nearly every year, he added a quarterback, whether he needed one or not. And look who the Packers turned out: Favre, Mark Brunell, Ty Detmer, Aaron Brooks and Matt Hasselbeck. Even Kurt Warner was brought to camp and cut in 1994. Wolf said his philosophy was to always grab and develop |
