the fellowship is complete

Killer of mlive.com has the info on the Lions' complete coaching staff.

I think Steve Mariucci mentioned that between head coaches, coordinators, and assistants, the Lions hired and fired nearly eighty coaches from the time Millen took over until now.  I haven't done the research to be absolutely sure this is true, but I believe that every player that's been here more than two years since Millen took over has had to deal with a different position coach, coordinator, head coach, or all three.  That's really depressing--and it's no wonder that players like Roy, Kevin Jones, and Shaun Rogers learned to tune out the coaches!  The players with big salaries figured out that they'll be there a lot longer than anyone telling them what to do . . . so why do it?

As Schwartz made each of his coordinator hires, I said to myself (and to you all): this guy might not be the 'hot' hire, but he's had plenty of success as a coordinator, he's been a head coach, he believes in Schwartz and Schwartz's vision, and he's more than qualified to be a coordinator again.  It made me expect to see that level of expertise, that extensive resume, that level of "This is a wise and rock-solid hire" reaction to each position coach.  Like the QB, RB, WR, TE, and OL coaches all should each have had been an NFL coordinator, or college HC.  Well, with this crew, it ain't the case.

Looking over the offensive staff, it has Linehan's Pac-10/WAC/Mountain West fingerprints all over it.  The QB coach will be Jeff Horton, who was a 'special assistant' to Linehan in St. Louis, and the head coach at Nevada and UNLV before that.  The OL coach--a position we were all looking at hard for some improvement--will be George Yarno.  He's coached offensive lines in college for 17 years, including stints at Arizona State, LSU, and Washington State (all hotbeds of Gillman/Martz/Erickson coaching tree talent).  His one year of NFL experience?  Last year, as an assistant OL coach in . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

Tampa Bay.  Not exactly the bulletproof, unassailable, gosh-this-guy-will-spin-this-straw-into-gold hire we were hoping for there.

However, it's worth noting that not every position coach isn't meant to be a coordinator, just like every coordinator is not cut out to be a head coach.  The position coach is actually the main interface between the player and the coaching staff--that's the guy with the player in the classroom, in film sessions, in position drills.  On a day-to-day basis, the position coach is doing the teaching and coaching and guiding and player development, while the coordinators are working on the scheming, gameplanning, and execution.  As the Grandmaster himself said, as a head coach, you aren't coaching the players--you're coaching the coaches.  Therefore, for a position coach, having encyclopedic X-and-Os knowledge is nice, but not a requirement--and as we saw with Martz and Stanton, having a guy who thinks he's a bigger deal than he is might not be in the best interests of the player.  What's most important in a position coach is his ability to work with players, and his ability to work with the coordinator and head coach.

I look to this line from Jim Colletto's farewell interview:

"I had a talk with Jim and he said he wanted someone who was going to be here (for more than one year)," Colletto said today. Colletto, who has one year left on his deal, planned to retire following the 2009 season.

This speaks volumes about the staff the Grandmaster is trying to put together.  He himself hired a strong right hand in Guntherball, and a strong left hand in Linehan.  Then, he allowed them to pick position coaches and assistants that would make THEM comfortable and let THEM perform at their best, rather than a bunch of recently-fired coordinators who will want to help stir the soup.  You know what they say about too many chefs in the kitchen . . .

But above all, it looks like Schwartz wants to build a staff that will stay together.  Linehan said it in his introductory presser: he's sick of moving.  He wants to settle down.  He turned down offers from franchises in better on-field positions, to work with a man whose vision he believed in and who he could be happy working for.  Gunther is at a point in his career where he'd like to cement his legacy as a DC under a man who he deeply respects.  None of these position coaches are "hot names" who are going to be moving on as quickly as they arrived, changing nothing while they're here (Scott Loeffler, I'm looking at you).  It's hard to get excited about most of these hires--but with luck, they'll prove to be a group that can provide the professionalism and continuity this franchise has desperately lacked for so long.

Read more...

Bitter Swill: Lions Hire Scott Linehan

you've . . . you've got to be kidding me.

I'm sitting here looking at the sad remains of a pint of Guinness, what's left of the once-proud head lamely pooling at the bottom of my glass.  The nitrogen-fueled fury of the pour and surge is gone, memorialized by the dried lacing clinging to the inside of my pint glass.  I want more beer, but . . . is it worth it?  The last foamy mouthful?  The hollow, bitter swallow that covers my tongue but evaporates before it makes it to my gullet?

This is the worst possible hire.  I'm absolutely speechless right now.  Every move up until now, including the Bob Slowik hire that apparently wasn't a real hire, I've either loved or warmed up to.   But Scott Linehan?

For those not in the know, Linehan started his football career as the quarterback of the illustrious Idaho Vandals, playing for head coach Dennis Erickson (some of you might remember Idaho's defensive coordinator at the time, one John Lewellyn Smith).  He had a cup of coffee in the NFL, then quickly moved to coaching.  First, John L. hired him at Idaho to be the wide recievers coach, then he scored the OC gig at UNLV.  Linehan then returned to Idaho as the OC, then went on to the University of Washington as the WR coach and was quickly promoted to OC.  From there, John L. hired him away to coach Louisville's offense.  In his second year, Linehan's offense led the Cardinals to an 11-2 season, and he accepted a position as the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.

Ugh, excuse me for a minute . . .

Okay, I feel a little better now, but my toilet might never forgive me.

In his three years as offensive coordinator of the Vikings, Linehan drew up the schemes that allowed Duante (*urp*) Culpepper (*gag, choke*) to throw for 12,049 yards and 82 TDs . . . don't get too excited, the Vikes went 23-25 in that stretch.  On the strength of this, Nick Saban hired Linehan to run his offense in Miami.  After a stunning 2005 season where the Fins won their last six games to finish 9-7, the St. Louis Rams tabbed Linehan to be their new head coach. Late Rams owner Georgia Frontiere said of him at the time:

“It’s like picking a star for a movie, you want the right person. My first impression was that he was youthful and upbeat and had great energy. Just a down to earth person. Very genuine. He told me of his plans for the Rams, and it made me want to get the season started right away.”

He got started right away, lifting the team to a .500 season.  However, the 2007 Rams squad was absolutely decimated by injury, as badly as I've ever seen.  The best the Rams could muster was a 3-13 finish.  Hopes were high coming into the 2008 season, but the Linehan-led Rams were hopelessly overmatched, and dropped their first four games, getting outscored 147-43 in that stretch. Linehan controversially benched veteran starting QB Marc Bulger in the fourth game, looking for any kind of spark.  Like the Lions, the Rams had a week 4 bye.  Unlike the Lions, the Rams had seen enough.  Linehan was summarily fired.

So, what on earth does Jim Schwartz see in this guy?  Linehan had been on the sidelines for some really explosive passing games, but never for more than a few years, and in most cases the offense was successful either before he arrived or after he left.  It was never clear that it was his gameplanning or scheme or playcalling that made the difference.  When he finally got to call the shots on his own, he was an unqualified disaster.  Well, Schwartz gave us a clue during the search:

"The philosophy's gonna be ours.  We're not going to count on that guy to bring the philosophy. I think personality is going to be important, experience is going to be important -- those kind of things.  What I'm saying is, we're not looking to hire a guy to bring a scheme to us. We have a good vision of what we want the team to be, and what we're looking for is somebody to be able to execute that vision."

Well, wasn't the philosophy going to be "run and stop the run"?  What on earth is reuniting Scott Linehan with Duante (*hork*) Culpepper going to do for a running game?  We saw how pathetic Culpepper is; he was noticably worse than both Kitna and Orlovsky, and the numbers bear that out.  Sure, we have Megatron, and sure, we can play jumpball with him, but a consistent offense that does not make.  You can't run the ball and control the clock when you're constantly trying for the moonshot TD.  I mean, just look at the numbers:

* In 2002, Linehan's first year as coordinator, Michael Bennett, Duante Culpepper, and Moe Williams combined for 2,507 yards and 26 TDs, with a 5.3 ypc average--leading the NFL in all three categories.

Um.  What?

* in 2003, Minnesota's three-ring running back circus of Moe Williams, Onterrio "Whizzinator" Smith, and Michael Bennett spearheaded a rushing attack that compiled up a 4th-ranked 2,343 yards on 493 carries (4.8 ypc) and 15 TDs.

Holy wow.

* In 2004, the Vikings rushed much less often as Culpepper was going crazy through the air--they had the 4th fewest attempts of any team--but they maintained a 4.7 yard-per-carry average, 2nd best in the NFL, to rack up 1,823 yards.  This despite the fact that Onterrio Smith led all Vikings rushers with just 544 yards, and Culpepper was the next-highest rusher.

Criminy!

* In 2005, rookie Ronnie Brown and Ricky "Sticky Icky" Williams combined for 1898 yards on 444 attempts, good for an 8th-ranked 4.3 ypc average.

Remember, this was when Ronnie Brown was a bust.

* In 2006, Linehan's first year with a stud running back in the stable, Steven Jackson carried the ball 348 times for 1,528 yards (4.4 ypc) and 15 TD . . . not to mention 90 receptions for 806 yards.

As a friend of mine once said, "That's totin' it".

Color me stunned.  I thought Schwartz had foolishly decided that reuniting Culpepper with Linehan would recapture some sort of magic, and the Lions could play pitch-and-catch with Megatron in lieu of rebuilding the O-line or establishing the run.  Actually, Schwartz has already come out and said that the Minnesota reunion has nothing to do with it, and Linehan's hire will not affect whether Culpepper stays or goes. It turns out that Linehan actually has a bulletproof resume as a run-first coordinator, using a bruising rhythm many-carries-per-game run scheme to draw in the defense, then bomb it over their heads.  With Linehan in the fold, Schwartz has now hired two men who've both been coordinators and head coaches before to sit at his right and left hands.  He's unafraid to hire strong coordinators because he values their strength and experience--and confident in his own ability to lead.

I'm staring at that last bit of bitter, empty foam in the glass.  I suppose I'll have to swallow it--and my pride--on this one.  And with that, I propose a toast to the Grandmaster.  Salud.

Read more...

Lions Hire Gunther Cunningham. Guten Tag, Guntherball

So Jim Schwartz has inked his top lieutenant: longtime KC defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham. Cunningham is the Lions' new defensive coordinator and assistant head coach.  Often the "assistant head coach" tag is applied to position coaches--either up-and-comers who are destined for coordinating gigs (a la Todd Bowles), or senior assistants who have the trust and ear of the coach (a la Rod Marinelli in Tampa and Chicago).  To be both the defensive coordinator AND the assistant head coach implies that Gunther will be Schwartz's right-hand man, having a very strong hand in gameplanning, calling the plays, and leading the defensive position coaches.  Cunningham and Schwartz coached together in Tennessee in 2001, where Cunningham had landed after a long tenure as the Chiefs' DC and then a short tenure as the Chiefs's head coach.  He was the linebackers coach and assistant head coach (ah ha!) while Schwartz served as defensive coordinator.  Cunningham left after three years to reclaim his headset as the defensive coordinator in KC--but now, with the uncertainty surrounding Chiefs head coach Herman Edwards, Gunther has taken on the task of rebuilding one of the absolute worst defenses in the history of the NFL.

This hire tells me quite a bit about Schwartz.  First, he understands the size of the task ahead of him.  Leading a group of talented veterans who know what to do and how to do it is one thing--he saw how that was done in Cleveland/Baltimore, and he did it in Tennesee.  However, rebuilding this defense from the ground up is not something that a first-time head coach can do and do well.  He sees that he needs a strong, experienced defensive coordinator who can handle a lot of the administrative tasks and grunt work of running the defense while he gets oriented in his new role as head coach.  Check out this excellent piece by Nick Cotsonika of the Free Press; it goes in-depth on how Schwartz is really starting to feel the magnitude of time and effort he's going to have to put in to do the head coach stuff the way he wants to; he knows he won't have time to carry the load doing the DC's job as well. Further, Gunther went from being a defensive coordinator with an impeccable resume to being a head coach, and was fired after only two years.  Having that 'what not to do' experience at your right hand--and in your ear--I would think would be an invaluable resource for a first-time head coach.  Finally, Gunther doesn't take lip, he gives lip (thanks John Madden!):

He's exactly the sort of guy I said I'd like to see as DC if Schwartz were hired; a guy with a lot of fire.  I don't know if Schwartz sees himself as a subpar motivator, as a Good Cop who needs a Bad Cop, or if Gunther's coaching style didn't enter into his decision at all.  Still, I think it's a good dynamic.  Finally, Schwartz has hired a guy who fits with his defensive philosophy.  What is that philosophy?  That's a very good question . . .

Remember this man?  If you don't, click the picture.  He's former (and, tragically, late) Chiefs badass Derrick Thomas.  In his nine-year career, he made the Pro Bowl nine times.  He sacked the quarterback 126.5 times, including seven in one game (still an NFL record).  Drafted as a pass-rushing linebacker, as he got into the prime of his career he started flexing between OLB and DE, being used situationally to wreak maximum havoc.  Gunther Cunningham was the man behind Thomas and that brutal Chiefs defense.  In my mind, the 90's Chiefs were the Ravens of their day: blitzing to sack the quarterback, blitzing to stop the run, attacking from snap to whistle, attacking from coin flip to final gun, creating turnovers, and just generally vicious.  Like the Ravens, they didn't feature much of an offense, yet were consistently contending for the AFC crown.  From Wikipedia:

"During his original tenure as defensive coordinator, Cunningham's defenses allowed an average of only 16.4 points per game, the best mark in the NFL and had a turnover margin of +30, tops in the AFC. Under his lead, a number of players excelled, including stars such as Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith, James Hasty, and Dale Carter. Cunningham's defenses led Kansas City to an overall record of 42-22."

Note the stats they used there: scoring defense, turnover margin, wins.  Not 'yards allowed', the official yardstick of NFL defenses.  Cunningham gears his defenses to excel in the exact same dimensions that Jim Schwartz believes are the real hallmarks of successful defense: allow few points, stop the run, get lots of quarterback pressure, generate turnovers, and stop drives.  Well, what's the problem then?  Why isn't this a slam dunk hire?

Because in 2008, the Chiefs didn't do any of those things.

* They allowed 27.5 points per game, ranking 29th in the NFL.

* They allowed 2,543 yards rushing (5.0 per carry); only the Raiders and Lions were worse.

* They sacked the quarterback only 10 times, the lowest total in NFL16-game-season history.

* They generated 24 turnovers, 19th best in the NFL.

So what's going on here?  How did Gunther Cunningham, well known as one of the most intense, demanding, aggressive, and successful defensive coaches in the modern era, build such a limp-wristed, feather-loafered defense?

The answer seems to lie in two maladies that have plagued the Millen-era Lions: coaches and staff leading the troops in different directions, and total lack of firepower on the field.  Cunningham was defensive coordinator under Herm Edwards--another Tampa 2 disciple.  As we know all too well, the Tampa 2 relies on the front four generating pressure with nearly no blitzing.  The Tampa 2 emphasizes stifling the opponents's passing game with quick pressure and a suffocating tight zone scheme.  The Chiefs were clearly playing Edwards's brand of defense over the past two years; never blitzing and always in soft zones.  Moreover, the Chiefs were essentially talentless on defense before Gunther took over; recently resigned GM Carl Peterson made few moves to address this, and even those were spectacularly ineffective (see Mitchell, Kawika).

So, Gunther had no talent to work with, and was running another coach's scheme that ran counter to everything he's traditionally believed in.  Is it any wonder that this failed?

Frankly, I'd be lying if I said this hire didn't give me pause.  Gunther's nearly a decade removed from being the mastermind of the most feared defense in football, and he's done very little in the interim to show he still has it in him.  Many Chiefs fans believe than in his 40th year in football, the game has passed him by.  At this point, only time will tell.   Either the Lions could build an aggressive, blizting, turnover-generating, 3-4/4-3 flex, flying from everywhere, smack-you-in-the-mouth defense, or they could be almost exactly the same unit they were in 2008: a soft zone defense that's both conservative AND ineffective.  Or, they could be somewhere in between--at this point, nobodycan possibly know.

This was probably Schwartz's most critical hire, and he erred on the side of experience, trust, and consistency of philosophy over 'hotness' or 'name value'--which is a choice I have to respect and agree with.  So say "Ja" to Guntherball--but pray the new Lions look like the old Chiefs, and not the current ones.

Read more...

Detroit Lions Asylum, est. 1929. The Inmates, proprietors

While trolling for information after the hire, I stumbled upon the Free Press article full of 'player reaction' quotes.  For a guy who most fans wouldn't mind seeing leave, they had a lot of quotes from Travis Fisher in there.  Overall, the impression I got was that these players have barely heard of Schwartz, but like the brand of football the Titans play.  The last quote in the article really caught my eye, though:

"I think having a guy in there is great," center Dominic Raiola said. "I think you needed to put a guy in there sooner than later. A lot of this stuff is starting to pick up, especially going down to the Senior Bowl, because that's the main thing. We obviously need people to help us. Hopefully he'll do a good job doing that."

At first, it didn't quite strike me--I mean, there's nothing about that quote that's false.  But it echoed around my head for a second, and a thought started brewing . . . Raiola was happy not that Schwartz was hired, but that somebody was hired.  In his mind, it was most important to have a coach in place before the Senior Bowl in order to hire a staff and evaluate talent, not to hire the "right guy".  To me, this seems backwards--obviously it's better to have a staff in place in time the Senior Bowl than not in time, but I would think it's paramount that they hire the right coach and staff.

But think about this from Raiola's perspective.  He was drafted in 2001, with Millen's first draft class.  I remember him in training camp that year, trying to fight off Dan Wilkinson while Millen played middle linebacker in dress clothes.  He's been through Mornhinweg and 'take the wind'.  He's been through the pomp and circumstance of Mooch's installation, and the well-coiffed mediocrity that came after it.  He's been through several bitter Thanksgiving failures, and firings thereafter.  He's been through "Millen's first post-Ford-meddling" hire, and he's been through 0-16.  He's been through the West Coast Offense, the New West Coast Offense, the Martz Offense, and the Power Run With Martz Routes I Don't Know What You Call That But It Sure As Hell Is Not Offense.  All the while, he's been booed at and hissed at, chanted and ranted and raved against, and derided as the source of all the Lions' numerous woes.  All he's done is given it everything he's got, week in, week out, for eight straight terrible seasons.  This season it got so unbearable, he spun around on a heckler and gave him the bird.  I'm not about to defend that, but it shows how the eight years of terrible football and a vicious crowd have ground down his spirit.

At this point, it must feel absolutely futile, bordering on irrelevant.  This will be his fifth head coach, and God knows-how-manyth offensive coordinator.  All he does--and all he'll do--is work his tail off, punch the clock, cash his paycheck, and get ridiculed for it.  At this point, how can he feel like anything about this hire will be anything different?  It's just a new name on the masthead.  Heck, he must be at least half as frustrated as some of the fans (sarcasm)!  Reading between the lines of his quote, it looks like he sees what Marinelli has hinted at and what Schwartz has outright said several times: nothing is going to change until the roster is rebuilt.  

The importance of this draft, with so many high picks and so many holes to be filled, cannot be overstated.  There's a desperate need for good evaluations, solid decisions, and--perhaps most importantly--a clear direction and consistent philosophy in this 2009 draft.  As the search continues for coordinators (Guntherball?  Really?), I am more concerned with getting a proven talent evaluator in house.  For what it's worth, my vote goes to former Broncos GM Ted Sundquist.  Fired after disagreeing too often with now-former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, he's done some really impressive work for PFT this season, scouting and breaking down games at a very high level of detail.  Since he's currently unemployed, the Lions could bring him in immediately to assist with this draft--and if he's not the right guy for the long term, fine, let him seek full control elsewhere.  But, for crying out loud, don't let any opportunity for more help slip by.

Read more...

Detroit Lions Hire Jim Schwartz: The Afterglow

It's bizarre; after all the ridiculousness of the Mayhew/Lewand introduction, the boo birds, the jeers, the wait-and-seers, the media silence, the furtive hunt for scraps of info . . . after all this, we wake up today with a new head coach.  His name is Jim Schwartz, I call him the Grandmaster, and he brings an extensive and nigh-on-bulletproof resume to the table.  He's worked for Bill Belicheck as a scout and film analyst, and he's worked for Jeff Fisher as his right-hand man.  In an industry full of, frankly, glorified gym teachers, Jim Schwartz is a man who could have been a professor, an economist, a politician, or an investor--but instead he followed his passion, and he's built and overseen one of the premier NFL defenses of the past decade.

Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand can be ridiculed for being part of the Millen fiasco.  They can be questioned for having little demonstrable experience.  But--without knowing what the future will hold--they can't be mocked for how they handled this hire.  As they said they would, they kept a tight lock on information--yet wordlessly presented each finalist to the media to see how they handled themselves.   They interviewed many possible candidates, yet never tipped their hand.  It became clear after a while that even tapped-in reporters like Adam Schefter were just guessing as to what their next move would be.  And when the iron was hot, they struck.

It's impossible to say right now how this hire will turn out.  There are many 'fans' who are saying "Great, the Lions hired somebody.  If he was willing to come here, he MUST suck!"  I saw the two-inch-letter headline on the Free Press today: "LIONS ROLL DICE WITH ANOTHER UNTESTED COACH".  But Schwartz is a legit candidate who's interviewed for several other jobs in the past couple of years.  Now if the hire had been Jerry Gray, or, to an extent, Todd Bowles, then we as fans would have a real beef.  I can tell you that if Mayhew had quickly hired a former teammate who'd never been a coordinator, or even given serious consideration as a head coach by any other team, I'd be fuming right now.  For another, if Mayhew had pulled the trigger on the Grandmaster the instant he interviewed, I'd be wondering if we really got the right guy.  The fact that they did a second interview with another candidate--and a first interview with another--after Schwartz's big day on Monday, tells me they didn't just settle for the first guy who didn't show up for the interview drunk or naked.

Now . . . the coordinator watch is on.  This will tell us a lot more about the eventual X-and-O philosophies the Lions will utilize in 2009 then looking at Schwartz's past and extrapolating forward.  PFT is reporting that Broncos QB coach Jeremy Bates (who called the plays for the Broncos last year) is one serious candidate for OC, and Jets OC Brian Schottenheimer is the other.  I know Schottenheimer is a very well-respected young coach; in fact he's a finalist to be hired as the new head coach in New York--but something tells me the Jets won't fire the Mangenius just to then hire his top lieutenant.  Either way, we see offenses that feature one-cut power run games mixed with agressive downfield passing--exactly the kind of combination that suits both our talent, and what we as fans of NFC North football want to see from our team.

There is no word yet on potential defensive coordinators; most of the bright lights of Schwartz's old staff are also candidates to replace him in Tennessee.  Keep an eye on Titans DB coach Chuck Cecil--yes, THAT Chuck Cecil.  He would bring the fire and emotion that I said I'd like to see at DC if Schwartz was hired.  If Schwartz is the mastermind and Cecil is the fiery leader, I think this unit will respond like crazy.

The wait for news is over.  Long live the wait . . .

Read more...