Packers' Dietrich-Smith has life in order

Source: JSOnline.com

Must be good to be the starter

Good for EDS and good for the Packers.

This is a good example to use to make a point we have debated in other threads. EDS’ story is an example of a person taking personal responsibility for his life. From the story:

Among other things, this is an example of the limitation of coaches, from the HC to coordinators to the position coaches. In particular, in addition to their inherent talent, position coaches can’t control the maturity or dedication to their profession of the players made available to them.

An outsider who has no idea the level of commitment of certain players like Lang and EDS could attribute both their poor performance early in their careers and their later much better performance to Campen and/or other coaches. A coach, a boss, or a parent can cajole, threaten, berate, harangue etc. and ultimately it’s up to the object of that attention to get themselves together.

Of course this is not to say coaching isn’t very important; it is. But IMO this is an example of how fans just don’t have all the information they need to draw definitive opinions on how good a job (or not) an assistant coach is doing. In addition to not knowing the level of commitment of players, we don’t know how players receive the coaching of certain coaches (are they tuning him out?) or the “real” talent level coaches have to work with relative to their peers. It’s great EDS got serious about his life. My guess is EDS would be doing well even if he’d have made his flight to New York and signed with the Jets. IMO the Jets OL coach could have helped or hurt him a little but the big change in his life had nothing to do with coaching.

IMO you have it backwards, LTF. Every player on the roster not rehabbing an injury can watch every play of every scrimmage and walk through. Every player sits in on position meetings with the coaches, I’ll bet every player can get time with his position coach if he has questions about the nuances of the playbook. Any team would be foolish to allow players at the end of their rosters to “just be there”. Particularly a team like the Packers that values UDFAs as they do. Look at all the players who have worked their way up the roster from the practice squad.

I disagree: EDS turned his life around when he was out of the NFL. He became driven to do well in the absence of any NFL coach.