Reading this article about ongoing coaching shake-ups, and the fact that we’re hiring new DL and CB coaches, presumably to take over from guys we hired last year.
What I appreciate, which seems so rare, is this combination of being utterly relentless in the drive to get better, but also managing to treat people like people, and build an organization that people feel loyal to and want to be part of. Those goals seem like they’d be at cross purposes, and nearly impossible to achieve. Obviously you’re still going to end up with hurt feelings sometimes–like Jamal Williams and Buggs. But they somehow seem to do it better than any other team I’ve followed.
Also, as a sidenote: After years of cluelessness from our coaching staff and front office, followed by years of paranoid delusions with Quinn and Patricia, it’s SO nice to have a front office that sees the same issues everybody else does. Where are the two biggest areas we need to improve? Pass rush and pass defense. Where are the first areas where we make coaching changes? That’s it. There’s none of that “don’t believe your lying eyes, we’re the experts, stick with the system” bullshit. It’s a breath of fresh air.
It’s a bit ambiguous if we’re moving on from Scott and Bly, or whether we’re simply augmenting these positions with additional coaching. If Scott and Bly are retained, it may be a subtle sign that the Lions might be planning to add multiple draft picks to both areas. The quickest way to get a rookie up to speed is one on one coaching. One coach splitting his efforts versus having a few sets of eyeballs refining these guys every moment.
If you’re up front and honest with people, the vast majority will respect you even if they’re disappointed in the moment. Eventually, anyway. Hard truths are still truths.
No different than bringing in Fox to help out Glenn. I think this is also a bit of a hedge against losing coaches in the future. The more you have on staff, the easier it is for them to slot in/move up when people leave.
This was fairly unsurprising though. His credentials from his time coaching at UNC weren’t exactly exemplary. At least Scott was pumping out terrific college DLs.
But is Dre gone or is he just getting reinforced?
Edit: didn’t see Townsend was CB coach as well.
So Scott and Bly are either being demoted or moving on it seems.
You’re totally right, I haven’t actually seen that either of those guys are officially out. Either way, it’s pretty clear the Lions decided (in agreement with everyone on this board, and all other Lions fans with eyeballs), that these are the areas where we need help.
In the end, going 3 games deep in the playoffs means the organization made a shit load more money and they can afford whatever payroll they want. Now, each of these positions has the potential to be the full time guy OR move up to OC or DC if we lose one or both of those positions.
Nailed it! I really do love having these sub-Coordinator positions, because I think it’s a great intermediary step towards becoming a coordinator, it helps the current coordinator with fresh sets of eyes, and it develops two candidates to succeed your current coordinator.
Yep, the “if and when” of losing those positions means that we have at least seen how these guys interacted with the staff and players…what they bring to the table. Promote from within when the time comes.
Every NFL team turns an annual profit of at least $100m (that’s what the salary cap is really for), finding $250k or $500k for a coach is a drop in the ocean.
Or not, and don’t you think that money is generally earmarked before the season even starts? I do, Lions made $76 million in the 2022 season. They probably made at least twice that this season.
My mistake, $65 million is the baseline. Still at least 100 times more than what’s required to hire an extra assistant coach.
The only thing that money gets earmarked for is the owner’s pocket. Because of the salary cap the cost of running a team is very stable, so there’s nothing to earmark it for except for stadium or practice field renovations.
Owners don’t own teams because they love football, they own teams because they love money.
This just seems totally detached from reality? There are definitely teams that are cheap, run by people who just want to do the bare minimum and collect their profit. The Bengals have been that way forever. I think they didn’t even have a full scouting department until a couple years ago. Arizona has had that reputation in the past.
Owners that care about building a winning organization separate themselves by taking every opportunity to add value in areas that are not controlled by the salary cap. Like additional coaches, analytics staff, etc. If you are looking at the Lions since Sheila took over, and you’re not seeing ownership that’s investing in this organization to do everything possible to help them succeed, I think you are not actually paying attention.
I praised Sheila in another thread for investing in the team with additional coaching hires. But out of the $75 million annual profit a few coaching or analytics hires are literally pocket change. It’s also probably more than covered by the massive increase in ticket prices for the coming season.
There’s a reason why there’s always a long queue of mega rich people who want to buy teams when they go on the market, and that’s because they literally print money because the salary cap keeps running costs much lower than they would be in a truly free market. It’s the same reason nobody ever wants to sell their team too.
Owners have PR teams and make sure they get the local media and members of the national media on friendly terms. But make no mistake, their priority, like all rich people, is to keep making more money. Sheila might be good in comparison to other owners, but she’s still rinsing the fans, exploiting the players and counting her annual profit the same as every other owner.
