NFL offseason thread

Before anyone accuses me of getting political, that's a Nixon reference!

 

Not sure what this means in the Winston-Mariota Sweepstakes, but ...

http://tbo.com/sports/bucs/bucs-hire-former-atlanta-offensive-coordinator-koetter-20150108/?page=1

 

For those wondering if your life has been a waste, the new Bears GM is 37.

 

Dick LeBeau, 77, resigns. "I'm resigning this position, not retiring."

 

Maybe not surprising for those in Steelers land, but surprised me. Was there any rumblings of that?

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...rs-defensive-coordinator/stories/201501100138

Here is a link with more on the change. The quote LTL mentions certainly makes it clear how LeBeau feels about the whole thing.

amreader, there was some talk, but it seemed to fade with the four-game winning streak at the end of the regular season. The defense got better later in the season, but it was awful in the loss to the Ravens. It's hard to put that on LeBeau given the piss-poor job Colbert and Tomlin have done in building that defense. Letting Keenan Lewis get away was a huge mistake and giving similar money to Cortez Allen was even worse. Injury excuse or not, their top free agent acquisition this past offeseason, Mike Mitchell, failed miserably. They did nothing in free agency or the draft to address their problems at cornerback. Jarvis Jones is looking like a bust at outside linebacker. Ryan Shazier is fast, but he's way too easy to push around for an inside linebacker.

I wonder if this move is partly about philosophy. Tomlin ran a 4-3 scheme in Minnesota, but he adapted to LeBeau and the personnel when he arrived in Pittsburgh. The result was one Super Bowl victory and another appearance, but things have changed. The players got old and more and more teams seem able to adapt to LeBeau's approach. The Steelers don't have the players to make it work, especially at outside linebacker, so perhaps Tomlin and Colbert saw this as the time to overhaul everything.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Steelers switch to the 4-3 in the next year or two, which is probably a better fit for some of their personne. Lawrence Timmons will do just fine in any system. He and Cameron Heyward are the only real standouts on defense and Heyward seems better suited to a 4-3 system that would allow him to be more of a playmaker than a guy taking up blockers.

If that is the purpose, I don't mind this move, but I would have rather seen LeBeau leave on better terms.

 

I'm not even a Steelers fan, but man, it will be weird if he's in another coaches box or another sideline next season. Feels like Pittsburgh should have been his last stop.

That said, if he still wants to coach and another team will have him, good for him.

On another note, the Giants appear interested in Steve Spagnuolo, Raheem Morris and Pepper Johnson to replace Perry Fewell as defensive coordinator. Spagnuolo obviously had great success with the G-Men, but I'm typically not a fan of retreads. Of the three, my preference would be to see them hire Pepper Johnson. He's done a nice job in New England, he has the ties with the Giants, he's well-respected, and he's young enough to infuse some new vigor in the team.

Or they could hire LeBeau.

 

I kinda like the idea of bringing Spagnuolo back, but I can understand the appeal of a younger coach like Johnson.

Regarding LeBeau, I'm sure the Steelers suggested that he would retire, then the two sides settled on a resignation. I just hope it is a part of a real change rather than just promoting Keith Butler and staying with the same scheme.

 

I would hope so. There's no sense in bouncing LeBeau if you're going to keep the same scheme. It seems obvious that the personnel hasn't been as good this season (Polamalu, for instance), whereas I don't think the game has passed by LeBeau. If he still wants to coach, he'll help someone.

As far as Spagnuolo goes, without some personnel changes, I have a feeling the Giants defense just won't return to the form it had under him when he had guys like Strahan, Umeniyora and Tuck wrecking quarterbacks.

 

Different team, same situation.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/11/report-rex-ryan-expected-to-be-bills-coach/related/?utm_network=twitter&utm_post=3321989&utm_source=TW @NBCSports&utm_tags =

Although the Bills D could be incredible under Ryan.

 

The Bills D is already incredible.
That ain't the problem.
How they think Ryan is the solution stuns me.

 

I posted this on the coaching carousel thread