The 50 Shades of Cowboys Coaching Grey

[T-RO]

This forum has become a tedious boring fixation regarding the head coach. Ya'll know nothing John Snow.

Let me tell you folks: This has always been a league where COACHING COORDINATORS are the under-appreciated difference makers. And it's more that way now than ever.

Two quick lessons from history.

-Remember Ditka and that historic Bears defense? Well NFL historians worth their salt know it was Buddy Ryan's 4-6 defense and his defensive player development that made that happen. Ditka was a blowhard idiot. Ryan moved on from Chicago and quickly built a defense every bit as good in Philadelphia. Ryan knew nothing about offense so he made a terrible head coach. Could Buddy Ryan coach defense? Holy ****.

-The Greatest Show on Turf? That was birthed by the forward thinking of OC Mike Martz...combined with the magic of finding the right grocery clerk to play quarterback. Head Coach Vermeil was man enough later on to give Martz credit.

Coaching Coordinators won those Bears and Rams Super Bowls. And there are numerous other examples of coordinators being the coaching anchor on the road to a title.

To current times:
What makes Belichick successful is not only the installation of an all obsessed Borg-like culture, but the fact that Bill functions (in reality) as the team's defensive coordinator. And he's one of the best ever at understanding defense.

Bill runs the Patriots. Garrett, by contrast, runs almost nothing aside from very modest control of his staff. Reality? The Jones hire and fire whatever staff they want...anytime they want. Garrett doesn't draw up X's and O's. He doesn't call the plays. He coordinates meetings and claps on game days.

Now to that staff of Cowboys:
Sanjay Lal, WR coach
Jon Kitna, QB coach
Kellen Moore, OC
Gary Brown, RB coach
Marc Colombo, O-line coach
Rod Marinelli, Linemen, some DC duties shared?
Kris Richard, Passing coordinator, perhaps functional DC
Ben Bloom, LB

I'll continue this discussion as I have time. Too much to say for one post. And we'll look at the pockets of greatness and mediocrity with this coaching group.

In case anyone thinks I am defending Garrett...or care a whit about Garrett...you aren't paying attention or are a bit dull in the cerebral region.

 

[BigCowboysHomer]

Well NFL historians worth their salt know it was Buddy Ryan's 4-6 defense and his defensive player development that made that happen.

NFL historians worth their salt know that Ryan's defense was called the 46 defense, not the 4-6 defense. It was not a defensive alignment like the 4-3 or the 3-4, it was named after the jersey number - 46 - of safety Doug Plank.

Unlike most defensive formations that take their names from the number of defensive linemen and linebackers on the field (i.e. the 4–3 defense has 4 linemen and 3 linebackers), the name "46" originally came from the jersey number of Doug Plank, who was a starting strong safety for the Bears when Ryan developed the defense, a role typically played in the formation as a surrogate linebacker.

 

[T-RO]

NFL historians worth their salt know that Ryan's defense was called the 46 defense, not the 4-6 defense. It was not a defensive alignment like the 4-3 or the 3-4, it was named after the jersey number - 46 - of safety Doug Plank.

Glad to have the hyphen police here to clear that up.

If anyone wants to know about the scheme:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46_defense

The defense was far from a 6 DB dime D. It swamped the line of scrimmage with vengeance.

 

[Flamma]

-Remember Ditka and that historic Bears defense? Well NFL historians worth their salt know it was Buddy Ryan's 4-6 defense and his defensive player development that made that happen. Ditka was a blowhard idiot. Ryan moved on from Chicago and quickly built a defense every bit as good in Philadelphia. Ryan knew nothing about offense so he made a terrible head coach. Could Buddy Ryan coach defense? Holy ****.

He almost did it again with the Oilers. But the chuck and duck offense reared its ugly head at the worst possible time. As talented as that Houston Oilers team was over the years, they always found a way to choke.

 

[T-RO]

He almost did it again with the Oilers. But the chuck and duck offense reared its ugly head at the worst possible time. As talented as that Houston Oilers team was over the years, they always found a way to choke.

DC's often fail as head coaches because they are too conservative with their sensibilities of offense.

 

[Flamma]

DC's often fail as head coaches because they are too conservative with their sensibilities of offense.

He was the DC in Houston. That's why their D looked much like the '85 Bears. Those defenses were fun to watch. I think he was head coach in Philly and Arizona? Whatever the Cards were called at the time. The Cardinals were a disaster, he didn't have the personnel. And in Philly, even though that defense was really good, he didn't run the 46 a lot. I guess that's because he wasn't the DC?

 

[chagus]

Some great history on this post. Nice!