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nobody

Thoughts on coaching

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The coaching even at the NFL level isn't overly impressive to me.  I think that's why people who are competent look like geniuses because there are a lot of coaches out there who are just do-what-we-always-do guys.  Think Jeff Fisher, Nagy when he was coaching the bears saying they didn't bring him in to run the ball which was bunk coaching.  They brought you into win games however you need to.  Hue Jackson who just has the most obvious and readable schemes ever.  a lot of these genius moves are obvious to anyone who played video games.

Belichick got credit for deferring receiving the kickoff to the second half like it was some genius idea.  I was advocating for that for 20 years just from playing Madden. 

Take McVay for instance.  He might actually be a genius for all I know, but what was his big innovation?  He disguised his plays by not giving them away pre-snap from the formation.  Seriously?  We were doing that all the way back in Tecmo Bowl.

Or using pre-snap motion to help diagnose the defense.  I was doing that in NCAA football 2005.

Or McDaniels in Miami getting credit for having his speedsters get a running start parallel to the line at the snap to free them from getting jammed.  Wow, what an amazing innovation!

They finally started getting rid of fade routes at the goal line which I've been saying for 25 years are stupid plays.  They only work like 12% of the time. 

Or Shannihan taking time to understand what the keys are on the opposing defense so he can design plays to take advantage of their rules.  When I heard that I was like, "wait, you mean they haven't already been doing that?  WTF?"

Tush push - oh, let's take our 240 pound qb and push him forward when we need a yard.  Like yeah, no sh¡t.  Why haven't people been doing that?  And why aren't more teams doing it, and why are more teams not training a fullback or TE to do it to save the wear and tear on the QB?

When they moved the kickoff up under the old rules, I always thought, "why aren't they kicking it high and making it land at the 1?"  At least Belichick started doing it and they started getting better field position and he'd pull it out on special situations with great success.  Announcers were amazed that someone could think of that.

Belichick again did something that was obvious that everyone fell all over themselves for.  I never understood why defenses used their number 1 CB in bracket coverage.  You have two guys in bracket coverage.  Do you really need one of them to be an elite cover guy when you have two guys?  No.  So bracket them with your 2nd corner and another DB.  Belichick understood this obvious thing, and implemented it, and was labeled a gneius for it.

Peyton Manning basically calling the offense at the line of scrimmage.  What a novel concept.  See what the defense is doing and call a play that exploits it.  He did it extrememly well, but why is Manning one of the only QBs that has done that to the degree he did it over all these years.

Wade Phillips was great at what I call linking the front seven to the coverage.  This is obvious, but I never understnad why DBs give big cushions when a defense is bringing pressure unless it's 3rd and long and you have plenty of room to tackle short of the first down.  The whole point of pressure is you're getting to the QB quickly, so your DBs need to understand that and play tighter.  You don't have to worry about double moves or long developing routes because your pressure is going to make the QB have to throw quickly, but you'd be surprised at how many defenses sit back in soft coverage while blitzing giving away a free 6 yards on a slant when it's second and ten.

We think of the NFL as the optimized league, but in reality, it's just a bunch of guys doing stuff, but it's not really as complex as folks would have you believe.  And college?  in college, it's leaps and bounds less sophisticated.


I'd say the most innovative coaching I'm aware of (I say that because I'm sure there is plenty I haven't noticed):
Belichick - "read the rulebook" game - in the super bowl run in the playoffs when he came up with the exotic formations in which Baltimore got confused on who were the eligible receivers.  He saved it for when they needed it, and he pulled it out right when he needed it.  That got them a Super Bowl they wouldn't have won if he was out sick that day.

Lebeau - Zone blitz - I know it was probably invented in some high school somewhere, but I'm giving LeBeau credit for bringing it to the NFL.  This to me was a real innovation.  He saw that the caliber of athlete was getting better and adjusted the scheme to take advantage of it.  It confused offenses for several years before they finally caught up, and I don't think it was obvious to drop linemen in coverage while bringing LBs in as the 4th rusher counting on them getting enough pressure quickly so the defensive end isn't out there for too long.

Belichick again - scheming up a two tightend offense with two extremely versatile tightends allowing them to adjust the play in real time to be a spread look if the defense went heavy or they could squeeze in and pound it if the defense tried to play coverage.

Then of course there are things like the read/option, run/pass option that I don't even know who pioneered, but it was at least clever.

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You should write a book 

(Wish I could still click the button to include a thumbs up with my post)

👍

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Rule changes.  Have made it more difficult on coaches ability to coach, less practice, less hitting, no tackling in tackle football.  Today is prime time to be a player in the NFL.  

Look at the so called good teams, take KC, I hope KC wins their third super bowl in consecutive seasons, just so I can say I heard about it, but could KC really beat anyone of the great teams from the pass, nope.  It’s a watered down version of football is today’s game.  

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1 hour ago, weepaws said:

Rule changes.  Have made it more difficult on coaches ability to coach, less practice, less hitting, no tackling in tackle  touch football

Fixed.

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2 hours ago, Ray_T said:

Fixed.

So is the NFL.  It’s all run by Vegas, ESPN, and the Illuminati.

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14 hours ago, JagFan said:

So is the NFL.  It’s all run by Vegas, ESPN, and the Illuminati. mafia

fixed.  

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