{"id":67,"date":"2003-01-19T14:58:16","date_gmt":"2003-01-19T14:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=67"},"modified":"2003-01-19T14:58:16","modified_gmt":"2003-01-19T14:58:16","slug":"coaching-carousel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=67","title":{"rendered":"Coaching Carousel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Raven coaches are certainly making their rounds this week.
\nMarvin Lewis scampered off to
\nCincinnati<\/a>.
\nJack Del Rio landed a job in
\nJacksonville<\/a>.
\nCongratulations to them both.<\/p>\n

Marvin Lewis finally fulfilled a lifetime dream: he became the head
\ncoach of an NFL football team. This has been his quest for several
\nlong seasons. Success on the field as a defensive coordinator, both
\nin Pittsburg and Baltimore, led to many interviews but no job offers;
\nalways in the final running, always left
\nout in the cold<\/a>
\nin the end.
\nLast year, he seemed
\npoised<\/a>
\nfor a job in Tampa Bay, only to have
\nthat change in an instant. This year, he finally got his shot.
\nToo bad that shot is with the Cincinnati Bungles.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if he really deserves my congratulations or my condolences.
\nCincinnati is a
\nscary<\/a>
\nplace for a head football coach.
\nFailure
\nthrives<\/a>
\nthere. It feels like destiny.
\nPaul Brown, their penny pinching owner, doesn’t what hell he’s doing.
\nHe fields the smallest and, more importantly, least accomplished
\nscouting staff in the league. Put simply, they suck.
\nHe’s content to replace his coach
\nevery few years, while ignoring the sad support staff behind them.
\nPlayers continually
\nrun<\/a>
\nfor the hills. Who can blame them? The chances of winning
\nin that cold Ohio town are slim. In the wacky world of the NFL’s
\nsalary cap, it’s been said that the every team has a chance,
\nexcept for the Bengals. Lewis has a tough road
\nahead of him despite the fact that the Bengals actually have some
\ntalent on their squad. He needs to correct that reputation and hope
\nthat Mr. Brown will write a couple
\nof big checks along the way. I wish him luck (but not
\ntoo much luck; the Ravens are a division rival).<\/p>\n

The fortune of Jack Del Rio was a bit more surprising; his
\nascent through the coaching ranks was
\nswift<\/a>.
\nThat said, it was not undeserved. Two years ago, Mr. Del Rio
\nwas a linebackers coach in Baltimore. One year ago, as the
\nPanthers defensive coordinator, he led their 31st ranked squad
\nto second place in total defense, impressive work for which he was
\nquickly awarded. He has some good things going for him.
\nAs the second youngest head coach in the league, he doesn’t
\nlack intensity. He’s also had the opportunity to work alongside
\nJimmy Johnson, Tony Dungy, and Brian Billick, some of the most
\nsuccessful coaches of the last decade. I too wish him luck
\n(I’m sure he thanks God that the Bengals job didn’t fall to him).<\/p>\n

So why do I bring these subtle changes in the job market up? There
\nare two reasons. The first is a bit sentimental: it clears
\nup a mess that resulted in a nasty game of musical chairs
\nlast season for the Ravens. In Marvin’s quest to be king,
\nhe was on the brink of becoming the head coach of the Tampa
\nBay Buccaneers. This quest was fully supported, even encouraged,
\nby the Ravens, who waited anxiously by the phone to see if
\nMr. Lewis got his wish or returned to the team to be their
\ndefensive coordinator for another season. Mr. Lewis was lucky.
\nHis current job was waiting while he attempted
\nto get an upgrade. Then some problems occurred.<\/p>\n

His hand picked
\nsuccessor, the current linebackers coach of the Ravens, got a
\nbetter job offer in Carolina. Come be our defensive coordinator.
\nThe Ravens couldn’t offer Jack Del Rio the same position;
\nthat spot was waiting for Marvin Lewis, if he needed to settle
\nfor it. Jack Del Rio was gone. In the meantime, Lewis lost
\nout on the race for the job in Tampa Bay. Well, at least
\nthe Ravens got to keep their defensive coordinator, right?
\nWrong. Lewis spurned the Ravens’ offer and accepted the
\nsame position for the Redskins. Ravens 0, ex-coaches 2.<\/p>\n

This left me with some mixed feelings. I was a bit upset
\nthat Marvin Lewis took advantage of the good will of my
\nfavorite team. On the other hand, the Redskins offered him
\na boatload of money. How could he turn it down? In the
\nprocess, we lost a promising young coach in Jack Del Rio
\njust because of some unfortunate timing.<\/p>\n

A year later, all is well. Marvin Lewis can work out his
\npunishment in NFL’s equivalent of hell. I can now forgive
\nhim. Jack Del Rio early departure was actually fortunate.
\nIf he had stayed around, his stay would have been very
\nshort – a single season as coordinator would have caused
\nmore turnover than good.<\/p>\n

The second reason I mention the changes is that I think they
\nvalidate Brian Billick’s knack for discovering coaching talent.
\nMr. Billick had a heck of a year himself, quietly leading a
\na team decimated by the salary cap to a solid 7-9 year.
\nMany predicted that the Ravens would have one, maybe two wins.
\nBillick proved there was life in those young players’ legs. In many
\nways this season was even sweeter than that of two years ago,
\nwhich ended with the Vince Lombardi trophy above his head.
\nHe didn’t have a good base of talent to work with. The
\nteam was the youngest in the league, filled with players
\ndrafted in the 6th round or below and a sprinkle of good
\nplayers. Ray Lewis, the unquestioned star and leader of the
\ndefense, and Michael McCrary, the speedy defensive end,
\nwent down early in the season. As a result, a large portion
\nof the budget watched from the sidelines.
\nStill, the Ravens fought and scrapped their way to a respectable record,
\nending with a couple of tough losses to playoff bound opponents.
\nBillick deserves a lot of credit; too bad he didn’t receive
\nthe award he really deserved: coach of the year.<\/p>\n

All in all, as the page is flipped on another season, football again promises
\nto be exciting. There will be some familiar faces on the other sidelines.
\nThe Ravens, still a very young team, get the league’s most exciting player
\n back with another year of experience under their belt. Brian Billick and Ozzie
\nNewsome, who was recently knighted the Ravens’ GM, get a little
\nmoney to spend on the free agent market. It should be fun to
\nwatch. I can’t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-Raven coaches are certainly making their rounds this week. Marvin Lewis scampered off to Cincinnati. Jack Del Rio landed a job in Jacksonville. Congratulations to them both. Marvin Lewis finally fulfilled a lifetime dream: he became the head coach of an NFL football team. This has been his quest for several long seasons. Success on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}