I've been saying this since we signed Parcells. His choices for coordinators and assistants has been abysmal IMO. Retaining Zimmer was a total shock to me as I thought he would be the first one out the door after Campo was fired. If we were going to keep anyone I thought it would be Joe Avezzano and the kicking coach (name escapes me).
Zimmer was the last guy I thought Parcells would want since his style was completely anathema to Bill's. Campo/Zimmer's 4-3 "bend-but-don't-break" style is the opposite of Parcells 3-4 attacking defense that he usually employed in terms of priorities. In one, you try to limit what the offense can do, in the other you try to dictate to the offense what to react to.
Bringing in Payton and Carthon to run the offense was typical of Parcells' desire to surround himself with familar people. I don't know how much of our offensive woes can be attributed to Payton as I think it is more Parcells who is dictating the conservative approach.
Parcells always had top quality coordinators and assistants in the past and it was a large part of why he was successful. The lack of quality assistants is also a large part of why he hasn't been so successful here in Dallas. Same goes for Jimmy in Miami. He had some excellent assistants working under him in Dallas (and at Da U) but when he went to the Dolphins he didn't have those same caliber of assistants and it showed.
Every successful HC has had a good staff working under/with him. Barry Switzer was up front about that when he came to Dallas. He said that his style was to hire great assistant coaches and let them do most of the work, When he came here he was stuck with Jimmy's leftovers and it didn't work too well after the first couple of years.
Gibbs was smarter than Parcells IMO in hiring guys like Gregg Williams, Joe Bugel, and others who had the pedigree and a proven track record. Parcells, on the other hand, went mostly with younger guys, or guys with little experience at the position, or with guys that didn't fit his style.
STs coach Bruce DeHaven is an enigma to me. He had a long history of outstanding success with the Bills and 49ERs as a STs coach but our STs units have sucked since he came on board. He was the one assistant that Bill hired that I thought was a good hire but it hasn't turned out that way for some reason. He needs to go.
I'd like to see us replace Zimmer, DeHaven, and Sparano (OL coach). I think Payton will go to the Packers so he will need to be replaced as well but not because he isn't getting it done.
