Did that shock you ? He was O and sixteen
I think he was shocked at your apparent expectation that you’d have another complete coaching staff in place within a week. It’s a wholly unrealistic expectation for a professional team, let alone the Lions.
Of course not… but you were complaining that there’s no coaching staff in place. Did you expect them to fire Marinelli and then have him help the new guy move in the next day?
They should have had plans in place for an immediate change. They should not be sitting by while other teams replace much more successful programs.
Well, frankly, I’d have thought you’d be happy to get some guy that won five games this season.
I mean, five wins; it’s progress, right?
Funny, the Browns have managed it. :dubious:
The Bengals hired a stellar GM today, his name is Mike Brown. We keep wishing it was Paul.
So you want a college coach?
The Browns have a new head coach and reported (although not announced) coordinators. They still don’t have a GM, though, and having a coach in place is going to make hiring one more difficult for them. That’s a far cry from a full front office staff ready for the draft.
Add to that the fact that Cleveland’s not nearly the mess that Detroit is. Detroit and Oakland are (IMO) the least desirable positions available; I’d expect them to be the last ones filled (unless they go with a relative newcomer who wouldn’t even be in the running for other organizations).
It’s official, Marinelli is the new D-Line Coach for the Bears.
It’s interesting that he chose to be a Position Coach instead of taking up any offers to be a Defensive Coordinator. Not sure if that bodes well or not. In one sense, I feel like it says that he’s going to his roots, being humble and self-aware. On the other hand, it makes me thing that he’s quitting and that he was somehow even further out of his element in Detroit than previously thought.
For the Bears sake, I hope this leads to a resurgence from a well paid, deep defensive front. There’s a bunch of guys down there that had Pro Bowl ability and perhaps he can get that type of performance out of them. On the flipside, I wonder if it’ll matter if Babich continues his ineptitude as DC and if the players have any respect for anyone on this coaching staff. Marinelli might be walking into a hopeless situation.
Needless to say, I’ll be paying close attention when mini-camps open.
He’d never been a coordinator before; he was a position coach for the Bucs.
Yeah, I’m not sure what your point is. He was offered DC jobs according to the ESPN article. It’s not often people voluntarily take what amounts to a demotion when the job with greater responsibility and pay is on the table.
I was referring to your thought that maybe he was more out of his depth in Detroit than anyone thought - he was 0-16. I don’t think you could have conceived a scenario where he was shown to be more out of his depth…
Anyway, my point was that he went straight from being a position coach to a head coach; can’t think of any other coaches who did that, other than Jim Zorn. Plus, nobody else ever came calling for Marinelli when he was in Tampa; our linebacker coaches and secondary coaches were getting poached almost every year, but not Rod.
Actually, I think it’s pretty common. John Harbaugh was a DB coach. Jim Zorn as you mention was a QB coach. Herm Edwards was a DB coach. John Madden was a LB coach. Art Shell was a OL Coach. Mike Ditka was a TE coach. Tom Flores was a QB coach. Andy Reid was a QB coach. Sean Payton was a QB coach. I’m sure I’m missing a few, QB coaches have made the jump quite a few times.
Tom Cable in Oakland was a O-Line coach. Mike Tice was a O-Line coach, though since both were interims it might be a exception.
Many people have defended Marinelli and tried to pin the blame on Millen entirely, claiming Rod could have succeeded with a better GM and talent. Him wanting to back out of as much responsibility as possible seems to make that appear less likely.
Harbaugh was Philly’s special teams coach. Ditka was Dallas’ special teams coach in addition to coaching the tight ends. I consider those to be “coordinator” spots, but I guess that’s a matter of opinion.
I guess you can count Tice, since he got to keep the job. Maybe Cable, if he gets to keep his.
At first, I thought Marinelli got the short end of the stick- but in looking at Detroit’s defensive additions during his tenure, I realized that they were nearly all Bucs retreads. Millen wasn’t particularly big on hiring ex-Bucs before Marinelli- he seems to have had a thing for former Rams, instead- so I get the impression Marinelli got an awful lot of say in personnel decisions.
McDaniels is the new Broncos coach. I feel cautiously optimistic.
It’ll be interesting to see, but I’m just a little underwhelmed by the former Pats assistants. Crennel and Weis both appear to have absorbed nothing from Belichick and they were under him longer than anyone. Mangini seems to have mostly learned about being a grumpy asshole to the media and paranoid schizophrenic about information security. I’m not sure what McDaniels is supposed to be bringing to the table except for the stink of the Pats. Will his players respect him? Will he be able to delegate enough responsibility?
I have a pet theory that Belichick is not just a superior talent evaluator, but that he knows precisely what roles people belong in. They guys he hires on and off the field aren’t necessarily great, they are just great at the very specific task he asks them to do. There’s no implication that they can be more than that. With the aforementioned former coordinators, Belichick understood that they would be very good coordinators, that they could lock themselves in a film room and design a gameplan and call timely plays. He also understood that those tasks very likely wouldn’t translate to being a Head Coach who must delegate and essentially be an administrator and a motivator, not a X’s and O’s guy. Perhaps McDaniels is that guy all over again, excellent in the film room, terrible in the locker room and coaches lounge. It’ll be worth seeing who he hires.
I like the reported move of adding Mike Nolan as DC. He’s done that job for a long time and has a lot of success at it. Assuming they have a GM who does a more equitable job of balancing resources, they might get a lot better in a hurry. They certainly have talent on offense for McDaniels to use and Nolan’s experience could equal a quick improvement on defense.
I think what Pioli brings to the table is having been coordinator of the highest-scoring offense in NFL history. That said, I do agree that former Pats staff don’t seem to do very well once they’re out from under Belichick’s wing. Might be a bit early to pass judgment on Mangini; he did have two winning seasons (out of three), but still.
On the other hand, I don’t understand the move from an adressing-weakness standpoint- the Broncos’ offense is fine. The Broncos’ defense sucks ass. I would have brought in a defensive guy, a la the Colts with Dungy, and left the offense to its own devices.
I do think its wise to be cautious towards Belichick’s assistants, but it doesn’t necesarily mean none of them have HC potential. I may be wrong, but wasn’t McDaniels the QB coach in NE for most of Tom Brady’s development?
Maybe Shanahan was crucial to the offensive success of that team. In Indy, Tom Moore (I think?) might be able to run the offense completely on his own - especially since Manning does a good job of calling plays - whereas in Denver, they don’t have any OC that’s capable of similar delegation. They may need an offensive HC for that offense to function well.
He was a defensive quality assistant until 2004, when he became QB coach. Brady had been the starter for three years at that point, so I’m not sure he gets credit for Brady’s development, per se. Still, he certainly doesn’t seem to have hurt Brady, and obviously he did a helluva job with Cassell.
I’ve never thought much of Shanahan. He bought into his own press way too much, thinking he really could stick any old stiff at tailback and lead the league in rushing- fine when that stiff is Clinton Portis, not so much when he turns out to be Tatum Bell.