Chasing Success
Posted: August 2nd, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 68 Comments »Buck Showalter has done an amazing job as the manager of the Orioles. Prior to his arrival, the team hadn’t had a winning season since 1997. Since Showalter took over in 2010, the Orioles have a .532 winning percentage. They have a wild card playoff berth and a division title. They are currently sitting atop the AL East and have had the best record in the American League at various points this year.
Showalter just became the second winningest manager in Orioles history with tonight’s win over the Rangers. When asked about that after the game, Showalter gave a typical Showalter answer, saying that just means he’s had the chance to coach a lot of good players. Showalter is a great manager, but he’s exactly right. Coaches must have good players…the right players…to make their ideas come to life and to make their systems work.
I recently wrote a piece for PE.com on the opportunity that Jim Schwartz has here in Philly. Schwartz is considered a defensive guru, but:
- He’s never had a defense finish #1 in yards or points
- He took over a unit in Tennessee from Gregg Williams, another defensive guru
- He took over a unit in Buffalo that had been 10th in yards allowed and had 57 sacks the year before
- He worked under Jeff Fisher, a defensive head coach
- He coached in Tennessee, Detroit and Buffalo, hardly signature franchises in terms of history fan base or media exposure
Schwartz is a good coach.
The Eagles job is his chance for greatness.
- He is working for an offensive head coach, and a rookie head coach at that
- He is taking over a defense that hasn’t finished Top 10 in points or yards since 2011
- He inherits a talented group, and one that fits his scheme well
- He inherits a young defense that could potentially play together for a few years
- He will now have a ton of media coverage, which will help grow his reputation if he does well
Think back to 1998. Who the heck was Jim Johnson? I had heard of him, but certainly didn’t think of him as some defensive wizard that would eventually belong in the same sentence as Buddy Ryan and Bud Carson. Johnson turned out to be the perfect coach for that group. He had a great staff (Tommy Brasher, Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier, Steve Spagnuolo) and some great talent. When the 2000 season rolled around and the Eagles added Carlos Emmons and Corey Simon to Hugh Douglas, Jeremiah Trotter, Brandon Whiting, Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor and Al Harris, you had a special group of players and coaches for JJ to work with. He did some terrific things from 2000-2008, helping the team to reach 5 NFC titles games and a Super Bowl.
Johnson hasn’t coached a game since 2008, but he still gets talked about. Troy Aikman will tell a story about facing him during some games. You’ll hear Cris Collinsworth tell a story about something he saw JJ do in a game years ago. Jon Gruden has his share of JJ stories. Former assistants like Rivera, Spagnuolo or Sean McDermott still tell stories about him. These aren’t Philly people. They are spread all over and they appreciate the amazing job that Jim Johnson did when he ran the Eagles defense.
Schwartz has a stronger reputation than JJ did as he takes over the Eagles defense. But this is a chance for Schwartz to go from good coach to great coach. He can do something special with this group. Right now you would compare Schwartz to someone like the man he once replaced, Gregg Williams. Both are good coaches who have had success at multiple stops. But neither has done anything schematically that will fill playbooks for future generations. Neither has sustained greatness at any one stop. They’re good defensive coordinators.
I’m excited to see if Schwartz can do something like JJ did, becoming a great coach and elevating his team in the process.
*****
One coach we know isn’t great is Bill Davis. I still consider myself a fan of his, but the numbers aren’t pretty. I would make the case that Davis has had a lot of bad luck in his chances as defensive coordinator. That isn’t to exonerate him, but rather just to serve as a reminder that you do need the right situation to thrive.
Paul Domowitch wrote a great piece on Davis and the fact he’s away from the NFL for the first time in a while. Davis offered some thoughts on what went wrong last year.
“That was one of the biggest mysteries that I was trying to solve,” Davis said. “How did we play so good in the first eight [games] and so bad in the last eight? Our confidence was rolling. Other than the Washington game [a 23-20 Week 4 loss] when they had that long [15-play, 90-yard] drive to beat us, we had a pretty solid [first] eight games.
“Then we had some injuries. DeMeco [Ryans]. Nolan Carroll. Jordan [Hicks]. Jordan’s injury shouldn’t have derailed us as much as it did. But we were really struggling with the linebackers covering the running backs and the tight ends. It poses a lot of problems when you can’t get that matchup right.”
In the Eagles’ first eight games, opposing running backs and tight ends caught 74 passes against the Eagles for just 561 yards and two touchdowns. In the last eight, they had 84 catches for 1,098 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“The pass defense wasn’t near where it needed to be,” said Davis, whose unit gave up a franchise-record 36 touchdown passes. “But it wasn’t all secondary breakdowns. A lot of it was linebackers on running backs, and a couple linebackers on tight ends, that were driving me nuts.
“I thought that was going to be a strength. I thought it was something that wasn’t going to be a problem. But Kiko [Alonso] had the knee [injury] and Mychal [Kendricks], sometimes Mychal kind of drifts on you at the wrong time. He makes some great plays, but there are other plays that hurt you.”
Kendricks is one of the league’s most athletic linebackers. But he plays better when he doesn’t have to think a lot. The same with Alonso.
But after Hicks went down with a season-ending pectoral injury against Dallas in Week 10, the Eagles found themselves with a dilemma.
Hicks and Ryans had been the defensive quarterbacks. With Hicks out and Ryans — slowed by a nagging hamstring injury and at the tail end of his career — playing limited snaps, Davis found himself having to rely on Kendricks and Alonso to make the defensive calls and make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be.
“One of the things that got us was, one of the inside linebackers needs to be the quarterback,” Davis said. “DeMeco was that guy. When he was in there, everybody else just had to worry about [doing] their own job.
“Then DeMeco gets nicked up and goes down and the young kid [Hicks] comes in and does a great job. He was a great quarterback. But then he gets hurt, and now, Mychal or Kiko, one of those two have to be the quarterback. And neither one of them could do that. That’s not what they do best.
“When they had to be the quarterback, things changed, and it got a little difficult [for them] to do their own job. You have to line everybody else up and then line yourself up and they couldn’t do it.
Alonso was traded to the Dolphins in March along with another major 2015 disappointment, cornerback Byron Maxwell. Kendricks, who signed a four-year, $29 million extension last summer, still is with the Eagles. But Davis thinks he’ll play much better for his successor, Jim Schwartz, than he did for him last year.
“I think Mychal will flourish for Jim,” he said. “Because he’ll be able to just play, like he was able to do for us in 2014. He’s highly athletic. He’s a great pass rusher. If he can pick up his coverage game, he’ll be back to where he was.”
The injury to Jordan Hicks proved far more devastating than any of us could have imagined. I’ve heard from multiple people that Kiko Alonso isn’t that bright and Mychal Kendricks is one of those players who struggles when he has to stop and think rather than just attacking. With Hicks out and Ryans limited, the defense didn’t have the right minds in the middle. Quick, someone tell Kiko to start eating dinner with Casey Matthews’ family so he can start to get a great football education.
I really do hope Davis gets a job coaching LBs somewhere in 2017. He seems like a genuinely decent guy.
_
[…] Tommy Lawlor Buck Showalter has done an amazing job as the manager of the Orioles. Prior to his arrival, the […]
Reposting from last thread…
Kellen Moore (Romo’s backup) broke his ankle. Out a minimum of 8 weeks from initial guesses I’ve read.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/08/02/cowboys-backup-qb-moore-breaks-ankle/
ESPN said it was a broken fibula, so leg not ankle. No timetable for a return yet.
Ouch; they’ll really need Foles now from what I read. The only other name of note in the “QB” room is Dak Prescott; not much of a QB.
I’m surprised Nick is floating around in roster purgatory. I thought the Broncos would certainly chase him down.
They are all filled up on their share of Eagles backup QBs.
Great reply!
They don’t need a case of Philly-itis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KGcwE4FtGw
Warning, not suitable for all ages.
Don’t start downplaying Schwartz…that’s the biggest thing giving most fans hope this won’t be a lost season!!
I didn’t take that as down playing at all…
Schwartz is considered a defensive guru, BUT:
He’s never had a defense finish #1 in yards or points….
He took over a unit in Tennessee from Gregg Williams, another defensive guru….
He took over a unit in Buffalo that had been 10th in yards allowed and had 57 sacks the year before….
He worked under Jeff Fisher, a defensive head coach….
That’s basically saying he had Fisher and took over GW’s unit in TENN…and Buffalo was already good before he got there.
You forgot his time in Detroit too. Albeit, it’s not saying much considering how much of a dumpster fire Detroit was when he took over.
His reputation is from his DC time…He was the HC in Detroit..
Tommy, it seemed to me that we were thinking that Davis was going to come in with the 3-4 under which seemed more in tune with the Eagles personnel. But then he ran a more traditional 3-4. Do you think that Davis was somewhat hampered by needing to run the defense Chip Kelly wanted rather the defense he would have run if the decision was his alone?
<<h:t. ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::::!!bc484a:….,….
Tommy in your PE article you say the MT. Rushmore is 100% Campbell, Buddy, Carson and Johnson.
Where would you put Greasy Neale? He coached a pair of shut outs in both title games (how is that for great performance in the biggest game?)
Also here are the Eagles ranks in points and yards under him (all of these ranks are out of 10 and 13 last year)
1 3
1 1
2 2
5 4
7 2
2 1
2 1
6 1
9 6
8 8
Down below is the Eagles ranks under Carson
11 4
19 17
6 6
5 1
Outside of the 91 year (where the defense ran it self) it can be argued Carson didnt do really anything. I put Neale over Carson any day of the week when one consider the length and the greatness archived under Neale.
Questions like that are why I miss having guys like Bill Campbell around. R Diddy isn’t even old enough to give you a good explanation of Neal.
I think way too little of credit is given to Greasy Neale in Eagles history.
Neale is even the forefather of what we know as the 4-3
http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/guide-to-n-f-l-defenses-part-2-evolution-of-4-3-front/
I think by accomplishments he and Buck Shaw have to be 1-2.
Eagles defenses under Shaw was never good, they mainly behind Norm Van Brocklin (one of the greatest QBs of the history of the NFL)
I am currently reading Shelby Foote’s Civil War books, and as always I’m reminded of the old saying that generals are ultimately judged by victories. Someone like Burnside had his opportunities and lost. Grant had his and won.
You can argue Grant was just luckier, and maybe you’d be right. Burnside never has anyone like Sherman to support him. Grant cut his teeth in the West far away from micromanaging politicians. He didn’t command the Potomac Army until he had both a high reputation and full confidence in what he was doing.
Football coaches are similar in many ways. Success seems to be always a combination of opportunities and the ability to seize them. Sometimes the same person can seize one opportunity but not another. Sometimes one person might only succeed in one situation. Some rare people might thrive in any. I suppose the best a coach, manager, or owner can do is, to quote Andy Reid, put his guys in a position to succeed.
Are they easy to get through and enjoyable? History junkie but never read them.
Foote is a very engaging speaking in the Ken Burns Civil War series. I’m sure his writing matches that.
They’re excellent but very long. Foote wrote a narrative of the entire war, which took him 20 years. The result was a long long 3 part novel full of interesting characters and stories. The only thing is it took me a month to read the first one and I’m half way through the second, and it seems like when I finally finish I should get a T-shirt or something.
<<a:y. ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::::!!bx253a:….,..
I just about was all-in for having some empathy for Davis until I saw the home schooling stuff for his kids.
Why do people abuse their children like that?
That criticism aside, I 100% with Tommy that it would be great to see the guy get a LB coaching job again soon. I was a really honest and nice interview.
Home schooling like the religious right or home schooling like college professors? I’ve seen both and don’t dislike the idea of the latter if there’s a real teacher in the home. The former, well I just say I think it’s a very bad idea.
I don’t care who is doing it; it isn’t good. Ask German Eagle why his peeps don’t allow it. Even if the intellect is up to par (in your university prof example) it is still quite anti-social.
I don’t care for the “unschooling” movement as well; unless you’re trying to raise a hermit.
LOL. One of my old professors home schools his kids. The thing about those parents is that they have to be active in socializing them with other students. Granted, it’s different when you’re in a college town and several professors with kids the same age all do it together. Now, I wouldn’t want to do the with my kid (or kids in the future). I think if you go that route, save up and cough up the cost for Montessori. Same principle AND you are socializing with a group of kids.
Gotcha. Although I might argue that the group of kids in that home schooled group isn’t a decent enough reflection of society as a whole.
Hard to say because the literature on home schooling isn’t robust enough. Also so many flavors of it too.
Online charters though have been underwhelming in almost every state though. Personally given their lax oversight it is largely a license to steal money and seriously is a public disservice to the students it is supposed to serve.
In PA, the results for them stink on every outcome almost across the board. My favorite thing I saw about them was one of the state lobbyists for them (schillls) said work well with very motivated and self-directed students, or students with strong parental involvement. Talk about a huge, DUH! Those students will do well in almost any learning environment.
I tend to see it that way too. I also feel uncomfortable with private business taking public money – seems immoral to make a profit off of teaching young kids at the expense of them gaining a proper education.
I asked him if he felt good taking money from people who rip off kids and parents and asked him was taking money from people who rip off vulnerable groups.
He tried to keep this cool but blew a gasket, used a profanity, and left the meeting.
That’s the proper question to ask.
The on-line schools are a pure scam.
*for-profit schools
What if the school and management company are “not for profit”, yet pay a CEO and multiple other executives $500k+?
This is the case in many schools yes, but generally not-for-profit is there to separate people from their money and they don’t really provide a solid education or an environment conducive to research. Maybe I’m skewed from working in higher ed for awhile before moving back to the private sector.
That said, there needs to be changes to some of the compensation schemes in higher ed. The schools I worked at, for every person making over $100K, there were probably ten making less than $30K. Public schools (universities/colleges) should post the salaries for everyone to see. I’d be interested to see the difference between for-profit businesses.
I agree a coach needs good players that fit the scheme well and have dawg in them as Dawk would say i.e. they hate losing more than they love winning. They are team oriented and will run through walls to not let the guy next to them down.
I like Schwartz a lot, but I do agree he has been unfairly positioned as the savior this year and some may be expecting too much from him and his unit. The talent on D is good, but not great and is inconsistent throughout the unit. I do not see any elite difference makers other than Fletch. I see the depth at CB, LB, S and even DT as scary thin. Schwartz has got his hands full IMO. If he turns them into a dominant unit this season, he will deserve all the kudos he can get.
It seems to me that between zero and one team on nfl defensive history would meet your standards for quality depth. I’m not saying the Eagles currently have great depth everywhere, but still. I am personally worried about LB depth, i’ll admit that.
My standards for depth? lol, how is wanting to have more than warm body an impossible standard? Its not, in fact the Eagles this season have solid depth at several positions already so it is more than possible to achieve. Look at DE, they have Barwin & Curry backed up by Graham, Smith & Braman. Or look at WR, they have Matthews & Agholor backed up by Randle, Huff & Givens. Or QB with Daniel backing up Bradford as Wentz learns his craft.
This whole, “well, no one else has depth so why do we need to” defeatist attitude is crap IMO. The entire focus should be on fielding the absolute best roster possible at every position and, yes, that includes at least basically capable depth. It is hardly a high or rigorous standard.
For example, at LB, our best backup is Najee Goode. That does not meet even that low standard IMO. We have two very injury prone starters in Hicks/Kendricks and another Bradham with injury history as well who may also be facing a suspension.
Or at S, our best backup is Ed Reynolds? Again, not good enough. Some may say Maragos, but IMO he is even more limited.
Again, I realize what is going on – we are rebuilding and digging out of some bad drafts and personnel decisions. It will take time to fortify the roster back up to the level a contender needs. We need more elite talent and better depth throughout the unit. Thus I think expecting Schwartz to make this into an elite unit is a setup for disappointment. A DC can only do so much based on the talent he is given.
That’s not defeatist. It’s realistic. If the front office could have stocked the roster with superstars top to bottom, they’d have done so. There are obvious trouble spots in the roster, as there are on all of the other teams. I certainly don’t disagree with you there. But this is not the time of year to make any huge changes in addressing that.
I don’t expect a top 5 unit. 10th / 12th (i.e. top third of the league) is the top range I think you’ll see with the group, but there isn’t a reason they can’t be at the mid-point (16th/17th) given the scheme now fits the roster, the guy calling the D has a significantly better match with his strong points / being allowed to run a system that fits his strong points, the DC understands you don’t leave 1 on 1 coverage on Dez Bryant / Megatron / Julio Jones, and the number of plays defended per game should go down.
Mid-point I could see. Schwartz will be an upgrade for sure; I just think we tend to over-react to the DC when it is really the player talent that usually tells the tale IMO. JJ was great, but he also had high level talent. The talent allows a DC to be more creative, innovative and take chances that minimize predictability. Billy’s unit was having trouble just surviving much less innovating. I think it is going to take 1-2 more off-seasons to get the unit’s talent improved.
The WR, RB and TE we are facing in the pass game do give me pause this season – Billy Davis mentioning how the LB got scorched in the pass game especially on the quick slants reinforced what most of us saw week after week. The CB were not much better. Hopefully this group will perform better and Schwartz can find room to add some wrinkles that give us the advantage.
Color me old school, but WR/RB/TE don’t concern me one bit. I’m not calling them good, or even average for that matter, but if they get some decent blocking everything else will be functional.
TE is ok but if Mathews is out this RB group is the worst in the NFL.
Smallwood might be the start in Week 1.
I’m so irked with some of the lineman (from last year) that I really can’t get too worked up over the skill position guys.
You think Kelce will say ‘he played the worst game of his career’ multiple times again this year?
Possible. I’m so “over” Kelce’s whole routine until he starts playing better.
I’m sick to my stomach seeing Barbre with the “1s” and sick with worry about keeping Peters functional for a full season.
That’s how I feel, and I also think everything that could have gone wrong last year did.
I’d say mid-point but they are going to need some decent health especially at LB.
I dunno man. Davis had them play like a dominant unit for the first 8 games last year. Upgrading not only the roster but the scheme this off-season doesn’t make things worse. I expect the defense to be the strength of this team for the whole season in 2016-17.
Not sure what metrics you’re using to come to the conclusion last year’s D was dominant for the first 8 games and why was that small sample chosen over the remaining 2+ years the defense was mediocre to decent under Davis? Is that like the last 7 games for Bradford projection?
I’d also like to see the evidence they clearly upgraded the defensive roster. They lost Thornton, Maxwell, Alonso, Ryans & Thurmond. They brought in McLeod, McKelvin, RBrooks, & Bradham and brought back Carroll and Watkins.
Should the 4-3 fit the personnel better and should Schwartz be a better DC? I agree on both counts, but that does not automatically mean the unit will perform better. We’ve seen situations where we thought we had upgraded the roster or a unit and things did not pan out.
Changing the personnel and scheme constantly also has its own potential downsides; continuity needs to be found at some point soon and players/coaches given enough of a chance to make it work.
What metric am I using? Whichever one measures the ability of my retina to provide me with a good vision of what unfolds in front of me. Perhaps our retinas function differently.
I was a guy who said Chip was fired to early. So I know you are grumpy but don’t throw all your triggers at me.
The Schwartz and his unit .. he has Cox but the O has 3 Johnsons
..
Sorry.
Is this still funny. Nah, never was
“He inherits a talented group, and one that fits his scheme well” AND added some pieces- Nigel, Rodney Mcleod and Brooks — easy to get excited – not only for this year – but imagine what the next few years bring….
From a huge O’s fan, thanks for the notes on Buck, Tommy. Best thing to happen to the O’s for as long as I can remember. That along with a few great trades by the FO has this team competing each year. Love it!!!!!
Bezt thing for the O’s since the Billy Ripken FF card..
Thats
What i was
Gonna say
Ayyyyy the Orioles reference. I knew you couldn’t keep your excitement for our birdies out of your posts all summer!
No Eagles Almanac this year?
Brian decided he was too busy to put it all together.
If there was ever a year to skip it because of a general malaise among the fan base and possible low sales, this is the year to do it.
Buck was pretty good before Baltimore too. Wasn’t happy when he left NY after a pretty good, but unsatisfied, season…
Damn, when I read the title I was so sure that the slow off season finally brought us to the inevitable impassioned case for Chase Daniels being the last hope for the franchise. Got to say I’m a little disappointed.
Poor Daniel, he’ll get none of the glory this year of being the guy who people are demanding be put in the game and next year he’ll be the guy people are demanding be pulled from the game.
Luckily he’s making good money!
He left under a cloud, but you gotta feel a little bad for the guy. His dream is slipping through his fingers. https://twitter.com/caplannfl/status/761000232930844672
At least they IR’d him so he gets his full salary and a year of credited service towards his pension.
https://twitter.com/caplannfl/status/761008048328495105
Wujciak is super athletic and had an uphill battle to make the roster this year. Its sad its a shoulder because they can bother you the rest your life, but he will have 12 months to get ready for TC next year