“Put a franchise on Mars”: Chad Alexander’s three-step blueprint for building an NFL team from scratch

Asked to imagine building an NFL franchise from scratch, Chad Alexander did not start with quarterbacks, cap strategy or a location. He started with culture.

How to build a NFL franchise

On the NFL Daily Power Players podcast, the Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager was posed a hypothetical: place a franchise on Mars, climate-controlled and oxygenated, with no history attached. His answer revealed a precise order of operations, one that gets the ducks in a row long before the talent joins in.

Step one: ownership and non-negotiables

Alexander said the first decision is establishing clarity with ownership on how the organization wants to win. “Everybody wants to win,” he said. “But how do you want to win?”

That conversation defines the team’s “sacred yeses and nos,” the non-negotiables that guide every football decision and allow people to have what he called “uncomfortable conversations” across departments.

Step two: leadership built on authenticity

Only after that foundation does Alexander turn to leadership structure, starting with the head coach. Authenticity, in his view, is not branding or rhetoric. It is consistency. “All you have to do is watch one of his press conferences,” Alexander said of Jim Harbaugh. “That’s who he is.”

Players recognize authenticity quickly, he added, noting that the locker room is not only the most important room in the building, but “the smartest.”

Step three: a draft-centric roster with individual plans

The final pillar is roster construction, anchored by the draft. “The draft has to be the bloodline of your organization,” Alexander said. But selection is only the start. Every player must arrive with an individualized development plan, spanning coaching, analytics, strength and conditioning, and medical support.

Even on Mars, Alexander’s blueprint has its disciplined feet on the ground: align first, lead honestly, and develop relentlessly.

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