Cowboys hire OL Coach Paul Alexander

[Reality]

To be fair - it has to work both ways. "Successful" coaches actually have to WANT to come here. Consensus (at least here) seems to be that this is Garrett's make or break year. Would you want to leave a stable job to come work for a regime that may not be in place after 2018?

I was really talking about coaches whose contracts are up. No one is leaving a successful team willingly unless they are getting a promotion, being let go or retiring.

 

[doomgazer]

I was really talking about coaches whose contracts are up. No one is leaving a successful team willingly unless they are getting a promotion, being let go or retiring.

So then look at it like this: if I have the opportunity to join the Raiders staff who just hired a new HC on a 10 year contract, why come to a team where I may be looking for employment in a year?

 

[CWR]

Awesome!

 

[Ranching]

He has great tools to work with it. He'll do a good job, we just need an effective play caller.

 

[Keithfansince5]

Well then you shouldn't have missed what you said and you'd be wrong every time you said it. In 2016 a league rookie won the rushing title while sitting the last game and a half of the season. They kept a rookie QB clean the entire season. They were dominant. They were the best in the entire league.

There is just zero truth to the notion that the OL had been in a state of decline since the overrated Bill Callahan left.

Hmm, OK. They were so good that they fired Frank Pollack and hired his replacement from Cinncy. Now, if he left on his own and was hired away like Callahan was, OK. But no, that was not the case. Maybe the line needs some tweaking as they are not as good as perhaps you thought them to be?

2014 Dallas sacked 30 times ranking them 10th best
2015 Dallas sacked 33 times ranking them 13th best
2016 Dallas sacked 28 times ranking them 9th best
2017 Dallas sacked 32 times ranking them 10th best.

So it seems Dallas has been a consistent top 10 OL never achieving higher than 9th since 2014. Maybe our OL is a little over rated? It is hard not to imagine our line being the best when it is what we hear all the time from the media. They are good but just not as dominant as the perception is. So maybe Callahan had nothing to do with it and perhaps Pollack didn't either? Maybe talent is the key and the coach isn't that important? Or it is a combo of both?

 

[bayeslife]

I'm not saying this is a bad hire, but I'm tired of raiding teams that have no winning histories (at lease not recently) for players and staff members. Browns, Lions, Bengals .. there are a lot of other teams out there with coaches and players that have some post-season success that we should at least consider hiring. If nothing else, go get some college coaches from highly successful college football programs.

I'm sorry but this is just an unfortunate way to think about personnel hires. It's not just you obviously, this whole thread is littered with people who have the "google top 5 O-line and pick from there" mentality.

This guy is well respected and proven in the NFL. The Bengals offensive line was very good when they had players like Andrews, Whitworth, Zeitler. He coached them up and for one reason or another the Bengals could not retain their talent. I for one am interested to see what he can do with the continued development of La'el Colllins and seeing if he can salvage the Chaz Greens of this roster.

Clearly this line has been declining since Callahan left and it will be nice to have someone like Alexander come in. We are trying to get back to the level of Saints, Eagles, Vikings, Steelers O-line groups and grabbing someone from college or some unproven guy from a "winning franchise" is horrendously short sighted and is a very risky gambit to take at this point.

 

[Reality]

So then look at it like this: if I have the opportunity to join the Raiders staff who just hired a new HC on a 10 year contract, why come to a team where I may be looking for employment in a year?

I understand what you are saying, but you are speaking as an upset fan. I'm not a Garrett fan by any means and have said so several times. That said, coaches from other teams don't look at the Cowboys and see some horrible team or a horrible staff. Coaches look at the Cowboys staff and see a lot of coaches who have had success, even with the Cowboys. They see a team front office that has put together competitive teams for years (not to our fan standards of course) and that do not fire coaches after 1-2 years like a lot of teams.

In other words, the Cowboys are a solid destination spot for coaches. Now, would a coach choose the Cowboys over the Patriots or other post-season successful team? Of course not. However, in the coaching world, the Cowboys are still one of the better organizations to work for and there are many coaches out there that will think they're a key piece to getting the Cowboys over the hump.

Saying no one wants to come here is just like the people saying, "Cowboys need to get rid of all of the coaches" and then when they let several go those same fans claim, "No one wants to stay here!" That's just not how it works with NFL coaches. Every NFL coaching position is a stepping stone. If you're an assistant quarterback coach for one team and another offers you the head quarterback coach position, you would be an idiot not to accept because that's a notch-level-up toward becoming an offensive coordinator and head coach one day.

 

[BAT]

This is pretty much exactly the sort of hire people wanted a week ago when they decided we were idiots for elevating Marc Colombo. Tons of experience. Some very OLs under his belt. ZBS guy. Why do we hate him again? Because the Bengals weren’t a good team last season, is that it?

Because the Bengals wanted our guy more. You remember Frank Pollack right?

 

[CyberB0b]

This is pretty much exactly the sort of hire people wanted a week ago when they decided we were idiots for elevating Marc Colombo. Tons of experience. Some very OLs under his belt. ZBS guy. Why do we hate him again? Because the Bengals weren’t a good team last season, is that it?

I think it has to do with the fact that he's been a part of a mediocre organization for 24 years. I wonder why he was let go after holding the same position for 23 years?

 

[Idgit]

Because the Bengals wanted our guy more. You remember Frank Pollack right?

What's that got to do with anything?

 

[Reality]

I'm sorry but this is just an unfortunate way to think about personnel hires. It's not just you obviously, this whole thread is littered with people who have the "google top 5 O-line and pick from there" mentality.

This guy is well respected and proven in the NFL. The Bengals offensive line was very good when they had players like Andrews, Whitworth, Zeitler. He coached them up and for one reason or another the Bengals could not retain their talent. I for one am interested to see what he can do with the continued development of La'el Colllins and seeing if he can salvage the Chaz Greens of this roster.

Clearly this line has been declining since Callahan left and it will be nice to have someone like Alexander come in. We are trying to get back to the level of Saints, Eagles, Vikings, Steelers O-line groups and grabbing someone from college or some unproven guy from a "winning franchise" is horrendously short sighted and is a very risky gambit to take at this point.

Did you not read the first part of my post? My post had nothing to do with who the coach is or how good/bad he is. He may be awesome and if so, that's great. My post was about how we keep hiring coaches from teams who don't have post-season success. It doesn't mean they are bad coaches, but we need some coaches (and players) on the team who know what it's like to play in the post season and win. It doesn't mean every coach and player has to fit that criteria, but we need to try to bring in as many of those as we can when positions open up to create a post-season expectation and success mindset among the coaches and players, because most of our coaches and players don't have that.

 

[cowboyec]

I think it has to do with the fact that he's been a part of a mediocre organization for 24 years. I wonder why he was let go after holding the same position for 23 years?

its the bengals....nuff said.

 

[LittleD]

So, okay everyone...Let's do some clapping cause Garrett has probably been clapping since the ink was wet on Alexander's contract.
Someone, anyone just came to coach the Cowboys. No one with any real coaching talent wants to work for Jerry and Garrett. I wonder why???

 

[Idgit]

I think it has to do with the fact that he's been a part of a mediocre organization for 24 years. I wonder why he was let go after holding the same position for 23 years?

That doesn't matter, though. Come on. Mediocre teams can have good position group coaches. It's not like a team like the Bengals has nothing going for it whatsoever just because they could never get over the hump. We had Bill Callahan coaching a couple of .500 OLs, right?

 

[gimmesix]

I’m not going to pretend to know if this guy is good or not.

He didn’t do a great job developing their draft picks though

That would be the primary concern. He's done well when Cincy clearly had some

And during that span, only 6 picks out of a possible 53 picks in rounds 1-3 have been spent on the o-line. Those picks were Eric Steinback (2003), Andre Whitworth (2006), Andre Smith (2009), Kevin Zeitler (2012), Cederic Ogbuehi (2015) and Jake Fisher (2015). The last two were disappointments, but the first four had very good careers.

And during that time, 5 picks out of the same 53 were spent on RBs. Chris Perry (2004) and Kenny Irons (2007) just weren't good players. Giovanni Bernard (2013) and Jeremy Hill (2014), had some success, which includes the #6 ranking you are alluding to and a few others that are in the top 15. So I would not just assume the struggles running the football are due to their o-line coach.

And fwiw, since 2009, because that's as far back as NFL.com goes, they have been in the top 10 in sacks allowed, 6 times. We have only cracked it, 4 times.

I think you always have to look at the quality of players a coach has to work with. I think Alexander is better than Pollack given the same pieces, but Pollack is probably getting knocked more than he should for the offensive line's play in a season where we started a player at right tackle who had previously only played on the left side of the line, rebooted a cast-off left guard and had to multiple games without our star left tackle (who also played in some games where he probably should have sat out).

Now, I don't think Frederick and Martin were as good in 2017 as they had been, but I don't know how much that had to do with the growing pains of the players around them. And I don't know how much of Green's regression should be blamed on Pollack.

 

[BAT]

What's that got to do with anything?

When the one of the only Franchises that has fewer playoff wins than the Cowboys do not want anything to do with him, that makes me question this hire.

Especially when that same franchise prefers your old employee instead. No bells at all for you? If not then continue to enjoy your uncomfortable bowel movements.

 

[doomgazer]

I understand what you are saying, but you are speaking as an upset fan. I'm not a Garrett fan by any means and have said so several times. That said, coaches from other teams don't look at the Cowboys and see some horrible team or a horrible staff. Coaches look at the Cowboys staff and see a lot of coaches who have had success, even with the Cowboys. They see a team front office that has put together competitive teams for years (not to our fan standards of course) and that do not fire coaches after 1-2 years like a lot of teams.

In other words, the Cowboys are a solid destination spot for coaches. Now, would a coach choose the Cowboys over the Patriots or other post-season successful team? Of course not. However, in the coaching world, the Cowboys are still one of the better organizations to work for and there are many coaches out there that will think they're a key piece to getting the Cowboys over the hump.

Saying no one wants to come here is just like the people saying, "Cowboys need to get rid of all of the coaches" and then when they let several go those same fans claim, "No one wants to stay here!" That's just not how it works with NFL coaches. Every NFL coaching position is a stepping stone. If you're an assistant quarterback coach for one team and another offers you the head quarterback coach position, you would be an idiot not to accept because that's a notch-level-up toward becoming an offensive coordinator and head coach one day.

Let me clarify by saying I'm not against this hire. My point is that at this time there are several other landing spots that could be considered far more desirable than the Cowboys who could be looking at its last year under Jason Garrett. Aside from the Raiders, there are new coaching staffs being assembled in Detroit, NY, Indy, Arizona, Chicago, and now Tennessee.

 

[Cumart21]

This is pretty much exactly the sort of hire people wanted a week ago when they decided we were idiots for elevating Marc Colombo. Tons of experience. Some very OLs under his belt. ZBS guy. Why do we hate him again? Because the Bengals weren’t a good team last season, is that it?

Stop making so much sense

 

[erod]

Maybe we can swap linebacker coaches with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, too.

 

[Reality]

Let me clarify by saying I'm not against this hire. My point is that at this time there are several other landing spots that could be considered far more desirable than the Cowboys who could be looking at its last year under Jason Garrett. Aside from the Raiders, there are new coaching staffs being assembled in Detroit, NY, Indy, Arizona, Chicago, and now Tennessee.

Again, you are assuming 2018 is Garrett's last season. The Cowboys have had two back-to-back winning seasons and if the Cowboys have a winning season in 2018, even just 9-7, Jerry will use that as an excuse to keep him.

As a fan, I'm not happy with the team right now. But as a coach, I would rather work for the Cowboys even for one year than go work for several other teams. I don't say that as a Cowboys fan, but just a objective view. Jerry has come out publicly and said he never even considered firing Garrett. The odds of one of those teams you mentioned still having the same coach they are about to hire in 4 years is slim.

Coaches don't think like that. They are looking for position upgrades that help them get to where they ultimately want to be .. head coach and making a lot more money.

For example, let's say you are an assistant quarterback coach for an NFL team serving under a quarterback coach who will likely be there and in that position another 2+ years. You have the option to go to Dallas or any of those teams you mentioned.

In Dallas, you have Prescott who played well in 2016 but regressed some in 2017, so there's room for improvement.

In Detroit you have Stafford who is already a really good quarterback. If you go there and he does well, it's not because of you. If you go there and he does worse, it's all because of you.

In New York, they have an aging Eli Manning who has already won two Super Bowls. If you coach him and he does well, it's definitely not because of you. If he does worse, you get half the blame along with his age. If they draft a quarterback, then your coaching performance will depend heavily on a player other people pick for you that likely won't play well enough to get you noticed and if he does, he'll probably get most of the credit.

In Indianapolis, you have Luck who's returning from injuries and surgeries. If he does well, he was already great. If he does poorly, it's either because of you or he hasn't recovered.

In Arizona, who knows what you'll have to work with there.

In Chicago, you better hope Trubisky plays as well as they expect him to because if he doesn't, it will probably be your fault before his.

In Tennessee, Mariota is already a good quarterback. Only one way to go there and it doesn't end well.

My point is that coaches look at a lot more things than fans do. Fans hate Garrett so fans say, "I wouldn't work for him" but coaches in lower positions don't think like that. They mainly focus on one question .. "Will that job give me the best chance to show my skills as a coach so I can get another offer for a higher up position either with that team or another team in a few years or sooner?"