I think the speculation in the article is off-base. In my view, Petzing was hired because there is a higher degree of potential for continuity, i.e. he’s not likely to leave for a HC job after one season. One could not say the same for McDonald, who (if he doesn’t get a HC job now), will likely remain on HC lists in 2027, and after one great season with the Lions offensive weapons, could parlay that into a job elsewhere.
There are a LOT of job openings. He may get another HC position now.
we didn’t get Micky D because “were good”
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Isn’t the obvious answer here the most likely one? McDaniel coming from being a play calling head coach most likely wants an OC job where the offence would be handed over to him to be ran as he wants - subcontracted out if you will.
while I think the lions wanted a more collaborative approach as to how the offence functions.
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I think they also wanted someone who could impart discipline effectively – correcting players without alienating them. Mickey D’s offense was not a well-oiled machine the past couple of years.
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But that isn’t how the NFL works. An offensive HC doesn’t give up the offense, they instead hire someone to run their offense. The same for defensive HC and his defense.
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McDaniel need to flop in SD
For our mental health, this needs to happen
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Won’t happen. Home run hire for Harbaugh and the Chargers.
Imagine the infighting on this board by week 6.
I’m gonna book a vacation or something
Continuity cannot hold a candle to swinging for the fences, especially when referring to a franchise that has never hit it out of the park in most of our lifetimes. If the window has not closed, it certainly has been lowered, and “settling” for an average OC because he offers stability is absurd.
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I think there’s a misunderstanding on the board about Petzing’s resume. Why is McDaniel glorified and excused for Tua and OL and weapons, yet a man who did arguably more with less (Kyler/jacoby/no OL whatsoever) is vilified as mid or trash. Show me where McDaniels O in Miami was leaps and bounds above Petzings in AZ? People are mad because the media labels McDaniel as ‘a genius’, quirky, runs an explosive design…I didn’t see it. He’d likely still be employed in Miami if he were that amazing. He was demoted. For good reason. I think fans just get upset when their team doesn’t grab the headlines.
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This is a reasonable post.
Exactly this. McDaniel will do well in LA more than likely due to the players they have and Harbaugh, but the Cardinals had a better overall offense the past two years with Petzing than McDaniel did with the Fishies, and Petzing was without several starters. McDaniel has had some success at OC, but was 35-33 overall as HC and 0-2 in the playoffs. He is not the home run hire everyone thinks he is in my opinion.
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McDaniel is name recognition and nothing more.
Do you know who else was a name recognition hire? Matt Patricia.
Do you know who wasn’t a name recognition hire? Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson.
Go and check out how ‘great’ McDaniel’s offense was the last two years. And then compare it to Petzing. And then compare the talent available. Go and look at James Conner’s career before he had Petzing, and then what he did with Petzing.
Also consider this. Miami had problems with players routinely not turning up for meetings, and the players also whined about how intense joint practices were with the Lions and Bears. The Lions pride themselves on attention to detail, and high intensity. McDaniel was too soft to be a fit on this team.
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I have no doubt McDaniel will be well received in LA. Harbaugh likely told him it’s all yours geek. We weren’t doing that here. Hate it or love it, this offense was built a certain way to be run a certain way. I’m sure Dan loved the idea of McDaniel because it’s super sexy, but likely slept on it and said to himself Can I afford to start from scratch and risk everything going south with O. We are 2 OLmen away from being back to top 3 imo. Why fix what ain’t broken? It’s trading winning with fans and media for winning on the field.
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No one has ever said anything this nice to me before 
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This is true, but it doesn’t undo the fact that they hired a retread from a horrible team
At the very least, the skepticism is highly warranted
I wouldn’t say skepticism is “highly warranted” anymore given the more in-depth analyses that have come forth since the hiring. In fact, at this point I’d say “a modicum of skepticism is naturally warranted” which I’d say about any course of action. Nor would I say that Petzing is a “retread” – he hasn’t been around long enough to wear out the rubber on his tires in the first place.
On the other hand, AZ is and has been a horrible team, but that doesn’t fall squarely on the coordinators; that falls to the terrible ownership, the questionable draft choices (including Murray and Harrison) and the uninspiring coaching of Gannon. All of which needs to be taken in context when evaluating Petzing’s work.
It’s time to let go of knee-jerk reactions.
When he shows something. So far his resume is less than what we all hoped for. That isn’t crazy to say.
Well, it’s crazy and it’s not crazy.
First, the crazy. You’re claiming to be a mass mind-reader by saying “what we all hoped for.” You don’t have any particular insight into what anybody else hoped for except you, and besides that there was a lot of variation in the opinions expressed by fans for what they wanted.
The not crazy, but possibly ignorant: If by “resume” you mean points and yards at Arizona, without respect for their front office, personnel, injuries, and head coach, that’s ignorant – he was working with trash, and got a lot out of a lot of players no one saw coming.
Furthermore, the deep dives into Pelzing’s work instead shows he’s got a LOT of things on his resume that both fans and our own front office said they were looking for:
- Worked with a lot of position groups (all but the OL)
- Good communicator
- Effective power-run schemes
- Sophisticated and effective heavy run packages
- Very detail oriented
- Very intelligent
- Shares philosophy of Ben Johnson and Dan Campbell
- Young but experienced in play-calling
- Outside of Campbell’s tree
This is more than enough to be cautiously optimistic. Optimistic, for all of the reasons above. Cautious, because we all demand results, but those won’t become apparent until next fall. And we really don’t know what he’ll bring to the passing game – but that’s what passing game coordinators are for as well.
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