Seattle Getting In on the Ground Floor
by John Morgan on Jan 15, 2009 2:42 PM PST
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There's not a lick of winning on the resumes of Seattle's new hires. Knapp? Wasn't he stripped of play calling duties by the Raiders? And who's this Gus Bradley?
Every great coach was once inexperienced and unproven. Current defensive coordinator demigod, Steve Spagnuolo, started as Giants defensive coordinator in 2007. Before that, he worked under Jim Johnson for eight years. New York picked a fiery new comer and now retains the hottest head coaching candidate in the NFL. Newly hired head coach of the Broncos, Josh McDaniels, has three seasons of major coaching experience at any level.
Seattle's new staff may not excite, but give it a season. This time next season, Gus could be the new Spags.
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You really should try this whole "sleep" thing.
I hear it does wonders to help you get over a cold.
Your wrote this?
There’s not a lick of winning on the resumes of Seattle’s new hires. Knapp? Wasn’t he stripped of play calling duties by the Raiders? And who’s this Gus Bradley?
NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!
by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 15, 2009 3:16 PM PST up reply actions
If this is the case
I need more sleep
NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!
by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 15, 2009 3:57 PM PST up reply actions
Bill Bavasi wrote that
I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!! I DRINK IT UP!!
can't be any worse than where we were, at least defensively.
Marshall was driving me absolutely nuts.
I thought Bradley didn't like blitzing, arguably our LB's strength.
And he hails from Monte Kiffin’s Tampa 2, a scheme that doesn’t fit our personnel at all. The only reprieve for me is that Mora is calling defensive plays, and he’s been described as an aggressive playcaller.
He also described aggessive as not necessarily blitzing
and stressed rushing 4 and still getting to the quarterback.
This is something I've been wondering though
I’m not an expert on Mora or Donatell, so my understanding of this could be completely wrong.
Mora didn’t run a Tampa 2 in SF when he was d-coordinator. When he was in Atlanta they didn’t run a Tampa 2 and Ed Donatell, not a Tampa 2 tree guy, was his d-coordinator. Ruskell has known the direction he wanted to take team for a while and has drafted guys that don’t really seem to fit a Tampa 2. He picked LoJack in the first round last year with Mora on the staff and knowing he only had a year of Holmgren left.
There has to be something else going on that we’re not privy to. Whether you like or dislike the midget defense and the other moves Ruskell has made theres always been a method to what he does. I don’t doubt that there is going to be a definite Tampa 2 flavor to Seattles defense but it’s got to be some kind of a hybrid right? I’m really expecting to see something innovative with their defensive schemes.
I think you're absolutely correct.
Ruskell isn’t dumb. He didn’t draft L Jack and Jennings with the knowledge we’d be headed toward a vanilla Tampa 2.
So far all of the hires smell of good process to me
add in that they’re young and energetic and I’m very excited to see what this regime brings, even if there might be a reloading/rebuilding period.
I'm optimistic too.
Along with good process, it loos like we have a staff from a multitude of different backgrounds.
On offense, Knapp’s a WCO guy, but has taken it in a run-oriented direction. Solari worked extensively under both WCO & Saunders/Coryell-style O’s. Lazor is a mix of Saunders & WCO. Dunn & Prince have some WCO in the pros, but also a lot of spread and option from their college stints.
For Defense, Mora has a rep as not being married to a particular system. Bradley’s tampa-2, Quinn has time under Saban & Mangini and the 3-4/4-3 hybrids they would run.
Then in the press conferences, there’s been a lot of commitment to saying that the schemes will be designed around the players, not forcing into something that they don’t fit. And it certainly looks like they’re bringing in a broad spectrum of ideas to be able to pull it off
It’s a big break from the Holmgren era where almost the entire coaching staff came from a certain tree and had been doing the same things over and over for their entire careers, and the emphasis was on the scheme over the individual talents of the players.
Well this is ok
It’s a big break from the Holmgren era where almost the entire coaching staff came from a certain tree and had been doing the same things over and over for their entire careers, and the emphasis was on the scheme over the individual talents of the players.
If you chose players that fit your scheme
NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!
by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 15, 2009 4:39 PM PST up reply actions
Can't argue with that
But IMO, that’s been part of our recent struggles. I think there was a bit of a disconnect between Ruskell and the coaching staff (especially on D) when it came to bringing in new talent. And Ruskell generally strikes me as the type of guy who drafts who he feels are the best “football players” and then leaves it up to the coaches to find the best fit for them.
But what I’m really hopeful for is that instead of being just another team that copies an existing idea, Seattle becomes the team that invents the next trend. We’re the ones that come up with the next “wildcat” or whatever that other teams are trying to copy next offseason. With a collection of good coaching talent that’s commited to being creative and bringing ideas from different backgrounds .. that’s a good recipe to make that happen, IMO.
Of course, the cynic would say that it could just as easily lead to a mish-mash of confusion, half-ideas, and no one being on the same page …. but what the hell – it’s the offseason so I want to stay optimistic..
That's where my hope comes from as well.
The idea that we might be able to run anything, situationally, based on our talents, and based on the other team’s strengths and weaknesses, really appeals to me.
The Ravens have played around between the 4-3, 3-4, and even some 46 one year. Having the flexability and talent to do that would be awesome. And a lot of fun to watch.
The main problem
with an inexperienced coaching staff for this team is that when things go bad, if they do, and everyone looks around and sees that most of the players have more experience winning in the NFL than the coaches do, well, it could be a bad situation.
I don't share that concern
Young doesn’t necessarily = inexperienced. Mora & Knapp have been in the NFL a long time now and have playoff wins under their belt. Guys like Phair & Rollins have been here in Seattle during our prime run of success. Our more inexperienced hires are balanced out by old-timers such as Solari, DeBoard,and Marmie. It’s a good mix, IMO.
Anything has the potential to be a bad situation … heck, if it were a staff full of old-timers then the players could just as easily sour on them for being out of touch or stuck in the past. That’s happened plenty of times in the NFL, too.
It's not the amount of time
I’m concerned with, it’s the amount of winning.
Addressed above. Knapp's bad run recently is due to being a part of the Raiders.
Bear Bryant could not have done anything with that team.
I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!! I DRINK IT UP!!
San Fran, Atlanta for his first couple of seasons there.
He didn’t have a bad run at Oakland either. The 2006 (pre-Knapp) Raiders had one of the worst offenses of all time and while the 2007 offense wasn’t great, it was dramatically improved from the previous season.
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