Graph of the Day: Quarterbacks v. Coaches, Draft Edition

[Note: With the recent amazing addition to my office, I’ve considered just turning this site into a full-on baby photo-blog (much like my Twitter feed).  While that would probably mean a more steady stream of content, it would also probably require a new name, a re-design, and massive structural changes.  Which, in turn, would raise a whole bevy of ontological issues that I’m too tired to deal with at the moment. So I guess back to sports analysis!]

In “A History of Hall of Fame QB-Coach Entanglement,” I talked a bit about the difficulty of “detangling” QB and coach accomplishments.  For a slightly more amusing historical take, here’s a graph illustrating how first round draft picks have gotten a much better return on investment (a full order of magnitude better vs. non-#1 overalls) when traded for head coaches than when used to draft quarterbacks:

Note: Since 1950. List of #1 Overall QB’s is here.  Other 1st Round QB’s here.  Other drafted QB’s here.  Super Bowl starters here.  QB’s that were immediately traded count for the team that got them.

Note*: . . that I know of. I googled around looking for coaches that cost their teams at least one first round draft pick to acquire, and I could only find 3: Bill Parcells (Patriots -> Jets), Bill Belichick (Jets -> Patriots), and Jon Gruden (Raiders -> Bucs).  If I’m missing anyone, please let me know.

Sample, schmample.

But seriously, the other 3 bars are interesting too.