Peter King article on Matt Rhule

[Xenos]

Great opening read. This part in particular caught my attention:

Quote

The Panthers will use this time to do something NFL-unconventional. Rhule has each coach watch the other coaches’ videoconferences and how they teach their individual positions. Defensive coordinator Phil Snow teaches on the greaseboard in his garage, the old-fashioned way. Peetz teaches the quarterbacks on a virtual projector, focusing his Microsoft Teams cam, standing next to a monitor with videos running to illustrate plays the way players would see them in a classroom. And they have an overseer. Rhule, in his time in college and the NFL, has coached linebacker, defensive line, special teams, offensive line, defensive line, quarterbacks, tight ends and as recruiting coordinator. So he finds value in having every coach learn every position. And he feels comfortable in giving coaching points to every assistant. Also: He’s assigned each assistant an area of expertise to present concepts and education topics to the rest of the staff, in 40-minute classes beginning this week. Linebackers coach Mike Siravo will give a clinic Monday on how to teach tackling. On Tuesday, Peetz will show routes that best attack a defense’s quarters coverage. And so on.

“Over the years,” Rhule said, “I just felt like there was a real disconnect between how much offense the defensive coaches know, and how much defense the offensive coaches know. And so that’s just allowed me I think to be really confident as a head coach. I’m not some guru, but I do know enough about every position on the field. The ones I haven’t been an expert at, I’ve hired really good coaches there. I’ll learn from them. It’s my job as a head coach to have players play their best football when they play for me. . . . You can’t ask the players to learn the full game if our coaches don’t do that. I think that all comes from my background.”

It bleeds down to the players. One day last week, Peetz handed the teaching for a day to Bridgewater. “He taught some drop-back and play-action,” said Brady, the new offensive coordinator. “We wanted Teddy to do it because I think there’s a fine line. Football’s in the grey. We can sit there as coaches and say, ‘Hey Teddy, you’re gonna take a three-step drop, and you’re gonna hitch, and here’s where the ball’s gonna go.’ But it’s good hearing a quarterback who’s actually going through it and seeing it—what he likes, what he sees, where he wants to go with the ball, where his eyes are going during all of it. He went about an hour and a half.”

Said Peetz: “He did allow a bathroom break. I had to ask coach Bridgewater for permission.”