McDaniel Says He Will Call His Own Plays

[EDGECRUSHER]

This was from his press conference yesterday. I have to imagine he will be heavily involved in working with whomever he hires as OC, maybe someone he worked with before in San Fran.

I don't think he said anything about the defensive coaches but if he wants to fire them, now is the time so they can latch onto other teams. The longer it goes on, the more I think he is keeping them and that's probably a good thing. They were excellent in the 2nd half. I don't think they are a problem and you don't want to bring in someone who runs a different defense and causes us to switch out a lot of personnel again.

[CF DolFan]

He said this today in his press conference. He comes across as genuine, as well as very nervous, but I have to worry if he will be structured enough to be a head coach. It's easy to be a players coach when you can blame things on the head coach. "I need to you to do this because so and so said that's what he wants". It's completely different when you have to hold players and other coaches accountable. I realise I'm old school but I also have been around enough sports to know that the cool bro hippy type coaches have a really hard time with structure and the teams suffer.

[EDGECRUSHER]

^^^

This is what I was thinking too. I don't know if he is a leader of men and that doesn't mean be a hard ass. Flores was a hard ass and the team quit on him many times, no showing every crucial game we had. Winning gets people to follow you so that's probably his best route. Put the work in, show people you know what you're talking about and they will listen.

[Dave Gray]

In terms of personality type -- being a hard ass vs. being a player's coach -- I think that it can work in many different ways and it can fail in many different ways, too.

I don't love the idea of the head coach calling plays, necessarily.  It's fine, but I think there sometimes just isn't enough time on the field to call plays, but also be there to respond to your players, challenges, adjustments, etc.

[Dolfanalyst]

In terms of personality type -- being a hard ass vs. being a player's coach -- I think that it can work in many different ways and it can fail in many different ways, too.

I don't love the idea of the head coach calling plays, necessarily.  It's fine, but I think there sometimes just isn't enough time on the field to call plays, but also be there to respond to your players, challenges, adjustments, etc.

I struggle to think of a sizable percentage of the greatest head coaches in NFL and college football history who weren't serious and stern.

Of course that doesn't mean being serious and stern is a guarantee that a head coach will become one of the greatest in history, but what it does mean is that a coach lacking those traits probably stands far less of a chance than normal of becoming one.

[Dolfanalyst]

^^^

This is what I was thinking too. I don't know if he is a leader of men and that doesn't mean be a hard ass. Flores was a hard ass and the team quit on him many times, no showing every crucial game we had. Winning gets people to follow you so that's probably his best route. Put the work in, show people you know what you're talking about and they will listen.

When your level of talent is such that there isn't a single player on the team that receives a single vote for the NFL all-pro team, going up against the best teams in the league will very likely take on the appearance of no-showing.

[Sunstroke]

When your level of talent is such that there isn't a single player on the team that receives a single vote for the NFL all-pro team, going up against the best teams in the league will very likely take on the appearance of no-showing.

On the flip side of that talent coin, McD gets the only squad that placed 3 players on the NFL all-rookie team this past season (Waddle, Holland, Phillips) and also has extra early draft capital this year.

Eager to see how he builds the roster from here...

[EDGECRUSHER]

When your level of talent is such that there isn't a single player on the team that receives a single vote for the NFL all-pro team, going up against the best teams in the league will very likely take on the appearance of no-showing.

The Bengals were one game better than us and are in the Superbowl. Our talent level is not as dire as you think but our coaching certainly was.

[CF DolFan]

I don't love the idea of the head coach calling plays, necessarily.  It's fine, but I think there sometimes just isn't enough time on the field to call plays, but also be there to respond to your players, challenges, adjustments, etc.

He did make it a point of saying that he wouldn't be calling plays from the corner and that it was a collective effort. I can't rememebr exactly how he said it but he said it was something about not sitting in a corner and doing his own thing. I don't know if it was a shot at Adam Gase but it sure seemed like it ... hahahahaa.

The Bengals were one game better than us and are in the Superbowl. Our talent level is not as dire as you think but our coaching certainly was.

I'd look at their record vs playoff teams and ours. Heck ... the only one we beat got blown out just like we did against playoff teams. The Bills emabarrassed them badly. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Seems a bit premature. 

I would have waited to hire an OC first before making any announcement regarding who would be play calling. 

[CF DolFan]

Seems a bit premature. 

I would have waited to hire an OC first before making any announcement regarding who would be play calling. 

I said the same thing. I wasn't happy with us retaining our special teams coordinator based on this past year's performance but am hoping we will see some good hires in the near future.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Seems a bit premature. 

I would have waited to hire an OC first before making any announcement regarding who would be play calling. 

True, but maybe he already knows who he wants and they discussed it already. We'll see how it works out.

[masterfins]

It's just another mistake repeating itself if McDaniel plans on calling the plays.  I could understand him making calls in certain situations, but to be the lead play caller is just a mistake.  The HC has so many things to keep track of that adding on that chore when you have no experience in the position you were just hired for is crazy.  If he was a veteran HC then okay, go ahead and call your own plays, but not as a rookie.  And whether he knows who is going to be his OC or not, it just completely undercuts that coach and it becomes the blame game when the losses start stacking up.

[Dolfanalyst]

The innovative offensive mind at HC, calling offensive plays, has been a big part of the most successful formula for winning in the NFL in recent history.  Andy Reid, Bruce Arians, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Kliff Kingsbury, Zac Taylor.  You have a laundry list there of virtually all of the current best teams in the NFL.  To hire McDaniel, an innovative offensive mind, and have him not call plays isn't intelligent.  Ross and Grier are following a big part of the most successful formula for winning in the present-day NFL here.

[Dolfanalyst]

The Bengals were one game better than us and are in the Superbowl. Our talent level is not as dire as you think but our coaching certainly was.

Somehow you're using team records as a measure of talent but not of coaching.  A team record of 9-8 could just as easily indicate a team bereft of talent that was coached up as it could a team that could've played better because of its talent but was undermined by its coaching.  How are you using the team's record to make the determination of which of those possibilities was occurring?