Here’s an interesting question for Chicago Bears fans. Does anybody remember the name Bill Tobin? If not, here’s a refresher. He was a scout and eventual personnel director for the franchise from the 1970s through to the early 1990s. He was essentially the right-hand man of late GM Jim Finks and had a major influence in building the great Bears team that won the Super Bowl in 1985. Eventually, he took over GM duties in 1987 and helped to keep the team competitive through 1991 before finally departing in 1993.
One thing about Tobin that is so often forgotten is he might’ve been one of the best talent evaluators the Bears ever had when it came to the quarterback position. He helped them draft Jim McMahon in 1982 and Jim Harbaugh in 1987. He also is noted for having pushed hard for the Bears to grab Joe Montana in 1979 before getting overruled by Finks. The guy knew what quarterbacks were supposed to look like.
Why bring this up now? Mainly because those lessons he learned have continued to work well to this day through his son Duke Tobin. The man who has run the personnel department for the Cincinnati Bengals for the past several years. Like his father, he’s enjoyed his fair share of success at drafting quarterbacks. It turns out his methods are pretty unique and quite brilliant.
Chicago Bears can learn a lot from Tobin’s methods
Tobin was a big part of the Bengals getting Carson Palmer in 2003, but his biggest success story has to be the selection of Andy Dalton in 2011. Cincinnati picked the TCU product in the 2nd round and had the conviction that he would be their starter immediately. Why? It turns out according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated that they were blown away by a test he’d passed from them.
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Cincinnati had arranged for on-campus workouts with all the top quarterback prospects and asked that the prospects take care of the logistics—everything from finding receivers eligible to run routes, booking time at a suitable facility and making sure everything could go off without a hitch. Really, the players had to do everything but bring the balls to the field—the Bengals would bring their own—which created an interesting test for each of them.
“We show up to TCU and, honest to God, everybody from the entire organization at TCU is there, the place is packed,” Tobin said. “That’s how much [Dalton] meant to them. It was an amazing feeling—like holy cow. And he was in charge of everything.”
Such a fascinating approach that makes plenty of sense. It tests not only the quarterback’s ability to mentally prepare for something but also how strong a connection he can build with teammates. Dalton proved despite his physical limitations he had the brainpower and competitive fire to succeed in the NFL, which he has.
Perhaps GM Ryan Pace should employ similar such tactics in the future rather than just arranging dinner reservations.
