Susan wrote:This is why I want Harbaugh. Montgomery, Herbert and Fields is a three headed combo that can win some tough, ugly football games and provide an offensive identity to a franchise that hasn't had really since Thomas Jones left.
You can see that Monty is a special athlete, there's some guys in that lockerroom that are absolutely keepers, especially with the right coaching staff.
I don't think Nagy's lost the lockerroom (except for maybe ARob who might just be saving himself for free agency - which I understand) but they're just so banged up and he's really not that dude to lead a gritty team on Sundays.
I really don't want one of these hot offensive coordinator types. They get figured out way too quickly and sustained success in the NFL comes to instilling mental and physical toughness in your roster. This team has potential if they find the right HC.
I'm a fan of that trio. They need to throw to the RBs as well--while I like Cohen--I was never a fan of subbing in one guy to mostly catch and another guy to mostly run--its just too obvious and you need some small element of surprise now and then.
Yeah the instilling mental toughness is for real. KC Joyner's book Blindsided has a bit about the coach types.
There were many issues with the book but his coach type classificaiton was very interesting to me and I think holds some truth to it.
The first axis choice for a coach is whether he is a personnel coach
or a scheme coach. The easiest way to describe the difference between
a personnel coach and a scheme coach is that a scheme coach will try
to beat his opponents with his coaching, while a personnel coach will
try to beat his opponents with his players.
There is obviously not a binary value--but a sliding scale. I'd say Belichik is a scheme coach--and he knows the type of guys he wants.
But when he has better players at a position--he uses them. When they had Gronk/Hernandez they passed the crap to their TEs. When he had better LBs he runs more complex schemes and blitzes more, he plays man or zone depending on what his guys do better (and this season they switched between both--they were man early, zone for stretch and man against Bills). The Bears seem unable to adapt and maximize their talent no matter the case.
Contrast the TE to Bears org and Greg Olsen--instead of building plays for him they shipped him off for beans as the scheme was too dominant. And today Bears with their RBs pretty safely being a stronger unit then the WRs--who should get more touches? Bill would have simply made sure more touches for Monty and Herbert--run and pass. If you look at basic catch rate/% our RB have low catches but high catch rates. Instead of maximizing it--Nagy runs all his hitch routes to WRs who are then turned around and can barely get up-field. He passes to a WR corp with a high drop level, low catch rate and low YAC. We saw Lazor and even Tabor try and change some things up a bit--and we saw some limited success even with minor changes. Some splash plays where the "system" got out of the players way and guys made some plays. Nagy made sure to end that when he came back.
The second alignment axis has to do with the level of physicality a
coach preaches to his players. By physicality, I mean the amount of
emphasis a coach places on having his team administer bodily pain to
the other team.
Many coaches believe that football is a battle of physical will and
that only the toughest teams will be capable of surviving this battle.
These types of coaches are labeled with a hitter alignment.
A coach who places little emphasis on pounding the other team into
submission and instead believes in beating his opponent with athleticism
has an athletic alignment.
Nagy clearly is not a hitter coach (Bill is). A hitter coach "gets" that whole run it down their throat and how it can demoralize. I'd also say playing to the opponent/weather is part of it. I think hitter coaches get that the battle is the trenches (we may just now be getting guys who fit this ironically) and imposing your will on the opponent. I think if you look at our WRs outside Arob they are smaller fast type guys. Pats have guys who catch the freaking ball and get YAC. I'm not sure that's a clear alignment thing but we value 40 times clearly more than the actual ability to catch the ball or run after catch. Pats have a 10% higher catch rate as a team--that is not insignificant. Its athletes (flashy 40 times) vs actual football players who can catch and help you win. This isn't to say they are exclusive but leaning too much on one clearly is an issue.
This isn't to say one philosophy is superior--but I think strong adherents on either end can lose due to inflexible thinking. Nagy clearly isn't even good at his scheme, nor identifying the types of guys who will do well with it, nor adapting it to his opponent, weather, etc. I find it funny Rodgers thinks the weather is barely a factor but maybe after he goes to 12 superbowls like Bill I will count his opinion as equal. I still remember when we played the Pats on a snowy day--Lovie practices indoors while Bill had his team outside practicing in the actual elements and of course we got completely destroyed. The fact that he's a "genius" for keeping practices as close to games is more an indictment on the rest of the NFL coaches than anything IMO.....And the Bills coach sour grapes after the game shows he clearly didn't take the weather seriously as a factor and refused to acknowledge it. Maybe...just maybe the guy who has been to a dozen superbowls is on to something? 50 MPH wind gusts.. hmm maybe an issue
Anyway--back to Harbaugh

I think he's a "hitter" and "personnel" guy and he defers the details of his scheme to his assistants--who then adapt. And I think we have seen they adapt well--so he's not going to let some theoretical system get in the way of getting the ball in the hands of the guys who can help you win.
It seems in general a philosophy I can live with-- by being a "CEO" and delegating the details--you can maximize your ability to instill toughness, discipline and no mistakes and still play a "system".
If the guy is an all in his head OC type--he's overly focused on one aspect of the game and misses the bigger issues IMO.