I believe Mike McDaniel has a proven talent available at OC.
We hired Drew Petzing as our OC. In my opinion, Petzing has a wider range of outcomes. I see this hire having more risk and more uncertainty. However, I do believe that Petzing will have the tools with this offense that he hasn’t had before.
I have, in previous posts, expressed that I would feel far more comfortable if we had a top 5 O-line to support any OC, but especially if we are dealing with a more unknown (higher range of outcome) coordinator.
ARSB can tell me that I do not know what I am talking about. He would be right. I am looking at this through the eyes of risk assessment.
However, I do believe that McDaniel will be a short-term plug in. I do believe Petzing will have a couple of years with the Lions. I also think Petzing can continue to design offenses that will remain in that top 5 range assuming that we do not alter things too much.
I’m not saying this as a brag, rather sharing my own emphasis for the last couple of weeks….
It starts with the end of our season and the failure to reach our goals. The tone from Dan and Brad.
We have an identity. It begins with the OL. The OL performance this year was not up to par.
When we are looking at changes, are we going to be looking at changing who we are, or are we going to reinforce who we are?
A WCO is an offense that makes do with linemen, not emphasize linemen. It’s an offense that doesn’t impose its will in the trenches. The flashy names this year from the Shanny tree do not possess the same vision that we do in that sense.
So, a name out of the blue (to me, anyway) is given the job and my first lookup is to see what coaching tree he comes from and which blocking schemes he’s been in.
If you had described a coach and his history with Davidson, Sparano and Fraley, he would have been #1 on my list.
I don’t know how this all came together or if the interviews were serving some other purpose, but I can’t help but feel a certain comfort with this hire due to the shared background in his development. This is as good a fit as Ben, potentially better if the ill-timed finesse plays are supplanted by more of a mauling offense.
What this woman wrote on X was catty and unprofessional. I can understand why USA Today would choose not to use her services any further, since there are likely scores of drop-in replacements.
On the other hand, the whole “cancel culture” nonsense continues to be out of control. Having the “wrong” opinion shouldn’t be an automatic loss of one’s livelihood.
