I think the surest, safest way to both develop a young quarterback and get buy-in from the entire team is to look for a leader first, above all else. Think Vrabel or Dan Campbell or Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh. Even more important than Xs and Os is knowing how to motivate a group of grown men, all with mortgages and families and grown-up problems outside of work.
Outscheming the opponent is great, but guess what? Great leaders hire great people. Josh McDaniels has helped Drake Maye elevate his game. Campbell’s former coordinators, Johnson and Aaron Glenn, are now head coaches in Chicago and New York. Tomlin had Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau as his defensive coordinator for the first eight years of his tenure in Pittsburgh, and that group went to two Super Bowls, winning one. And Harbaugh employed Rex Ryan, Chuck Pagano, Jim Caldwell, Gary Kubiak, Mike Pettine, and Mike Macdonald, all of whom became NFL head coaches.