The answer to the question of whether football coaches can be better at evaluating players should be a strong, positive yes. However, practice indicates that the trend seems to be going in the opposite direction; coaches are doing worse at evaluating players especially future players.
Coaches deal with the players on a regular basis and should know them better than anyone else. They should know all their strong and weak points and as a result, should be able to determine their success or failure on the field. The problem is in determining strong and weak points.
The definition of strong and weak points is critical here. For example, coaches usually define strong and weak points in regard to skill execution, i.e., how well they can execute the skills during game play. After all it is the execution of the skills that determines how effective is the player performance.
But what is meant by skill execution? For example, most coaches define skill as the ability to carry out an assignment, as for example, run a particular pass pattern. They do not look at how well the athlete runs or cuts in execution of his running pattern.
But it is necessary to look at how well they run and cut in order to execute the particular pattern. This is really the basic skill. Without this ability to run and cut well players will never be able to run the most effective pattern. When the player is able to run well he will be able to more easily and quickly learn any pattern of running that is needed. But if his running and cutting mechanics or technique is poor, he will always have difficulty in executing a particular pattern or pass strategy.
When we do not see positive results after the players are selected and trained, that is, the players become more effective every year, one must question how effective the team is in selecting – and training – players. For example, many football teams during the season and in the playoffs, usually have a great number of substitutes playing for those who are out because of injuries.
The great number of injuries indicates that something is lacking in the coaching and/or training. Suffice it to say that coaches are not looking at the real reasons for most injuries. This includes improper technique and poor specific physical conditioning — conditioning is not specific to the position played nor to each individual player as it relates to their technique of execution of the game skills. This once again goes back to the basic skills.
Coaches look to the combine for selection of players in the draft but, the draft is merely a crapshoot in which coaches hope that their selections will prove to be successful. The combine results do not predict how well the player will perform in a game situation. The combine only measures how well the athlete does in a test, not how well he performs in exact game-type situations.
The bottom line is that most coaches are not truly qualified to evaluate basic player skills. This is understandable since they have never been trained or educated in this area. Most coaches are former players who bring with them their experiences during their playing years. They do not have experiences outside of this area that better qualifies them in the evaluation and specialized training of players.
This includes education in the sports sciences. Understand that universities do not keep abreast of the latest in sports training nor do they teach the biomechanics of sports skills and how players should be trained. Most coaches understand the fundamentals of conditioning but this is only the base for specialized training based on game situations and gameplay.
The inadequacy of player evaluation and training to improve performance is seen quite often when a substitute player comes into play and outperforms the starter. This is what we see to a great extent in the playoff games and in the Super Bowl. These are substitutes who would never play if the starter was not injured, but in reality, are equal to or superior to the injured player. If coaches were better at evaluating and knowing the abilities of their players, we would probably see more substitutions during a game since the players sitting the bench would be closer in abilities to those on the field.
When football teams, especially on the professional level, recognize the need for specialists who understand technique analysis and know how to fine-tune or correct technique and enhance it with specialized exercises that duplicate what occurs in skill execution, we will begin to see better all-round performances. At this time there will be no excuses for why a team did not do well.
For more information on this topic see Build a Better Athlete