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Jeff Alexander began his career as a college and NFL football Handicapper.
Handicapping New NFL Coaches! by Jim Feist
Coaching in football, more than in any other sport, is essential to a team’s success. The Harbaugh brothers are flying high after meeting in the Super Bowl. New York fans have called for Tom Coughlin’s ouster a few times over the last six years, but he has helped deliver two Super Bowl titles, while Bill Belichick has had one losing season (his first, 2000) since taking over the Patriots, taking them to five Super Bowls.
In the NBA, any team that has Lebron or Kobe or Duncan/Parker and Ginobili, for instance, would be a very good team, and likely a dominant one. In baseball, a team is essentially only as good as its starting pitching (or payroll). Joe Torre won four World Series with the Yankees, but many forget he was run out of town after coaching the Mets and Cardinals to poor seasons.
Football is very different. There are so many players involved on the field that it requires an excellent coach and coaching staff to teach, motivate and organize into a successful unit. Think for a moment about football on-field personnel: 11 starters on offense, 11 on defense, special teams players, and even specialized personnel, such as third-and-long defensive backs or running backs used only in short yardage situations. It takes hours of time, patience and talent to organize players into an effective group. As preseason kicks off this weekend, here are some teams that made coaching changes to try and upgrade weak areas.
Chicago Bears
Chicago brings in former Montreal Alouettes coach Marc Trestman. He led the Alouettes to Canadian Football League championships in 2009 and 2010 and has NFL experience with the Raiders and 49ers as offensive coordinator. He twice coordinated the No. 1 NFL passing offense (49ers in 1995, Raiders in 2002). That’s why folks in the Windy City are excited to see his wide-open offenses teamed with QB Jay Cutler (19 TDs, 14 INTs), star WR Brandon Marshall (1,508 yds) and second-year WR Ashlon Jeffery. The Bears ranked 10th in rushing, 29th in passing in 2012, but will likely reverse that this fall.
Cleveland Browns
Toledo native Rob Chudzinski is the new head coach, replacing Pat Shurmur. He was the offensive coordinator at Carolina and learned his craft under Norv Turner in San Diego, so he is a proponent of wide-open, attacking offenses. And their new OC? Norv Turner! The coaches have many holes to fill, though. The offense was 19th in passing, 24th in rushing and has 29-year-old QB Brandon Weeden (14 TDs, 17 INTs) beginning just his second NFL season. WRs Josh Gordon and Greg Little are average and RB Trent Richardson may have ran for 950 yards, but averaged just 3.6 ypc.
The Browns new defensive coordinator is Ray Horton, who was DC with the Cardinals the last two years. He is spearheading the transition from a 4-3 system to his 3-4, multifront scheme. The additions of outside linebackers Paul Kruger and Quentin Groves, and defensive lineman Desmond Bryant could improve their pass rush, along with LSU DE Barkevious Mingo, the No. 6 overall pick. The Browns have gone 10-4-2 and 10-6 under the total the last two years and look better on defense than offense for 2013. Will that trend continue?
Arizona Cardinals
Speaking of ugly offenses Arizona ranked 28th in passing using 4 QBs, dead last in rushing with just 75.3 yards on the ground per game. New coach Bruce Arians served as interim coach for the Colts last year and adds 33-year old QB Carson Palmer (22 TDs, 14 picks with the Raiders). His arm has never fully bounced back from a serious ’08 elbow injury and his decision making is now suspect. The backups are Ryan Lindley and Drew Stanton, so good luck, guys! They’ll play behind an o-line that’s inexperienced and their top two backs averaged 3.2 and 2.7 ypc last year. That’s why they took G Jonathon Cooper (North Carolina) with the 7th overall pick.
There is also a new defensive coordinator in Todd Bowles, who adds a 3-4 base. For the past two years the ends were asked to ‘two-gap’ — stymie the offensive lineman trying to block them and control the gaps on each side. That’s the philosophy of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 3-4 scheme.
Philadelphia Eagles
Andy Reid’s West Coast style is out and former Oregon Coach Chip Kelly jumps to the NFL with his speed-oriented, no-huddle offense. But will it work at this level? Reid hitched his wagon to coach-killer QB Michael Vick and it sunk him. Vick is back, plus Philly gave mobile QB Dennis Dixon a two-year contract. Dixon was the quarterback at Oregon under Kelly. This could be the foundation of a change in NFL offenses, or Kelly could go the way of many other successful college coaches whose styles flopped in the pros (Steve Spurrier, Bobby Petrino, Butch Davis, Lou Holtz, Nick Saban).
Dallas Cowboys
They dumped defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and bring in 72-year old Monte Kiffin, who didn’t do a very good job with the USC defense the last two years. Kiffin is faced with the task of converting a 3-4 defense into the 4-3 Tampa-2 scheme. The defense has LB DeMarcus Ware (11.5 sacks) and DE Anthony Spencer (11 sacks) but was 19th against the pass and 22nd against the run. They moved up to draft LSU CB Morris Claiborne with the No. 6 pick a year ago and added Brandon Carr (KC, 5 years, 50-mill) but didn’t improve. Dallas was a money-burning 6-10 ATS last season.
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