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Now that Pettine is gone, who should be the new DC?


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13 hours ago, Brat&Beer said:

Buddy Ryan definitely ran a 4-3 when he was the Bears DC and Eagles HC. Don't know if that changed when he went to Houston. 

 

Edit: He was always 4-3. 

That's interesting. That means only Rex Ryan branched out away from his father with his 3-4 defence (I wonder why). Fisher continued the 4-3 and it appears Phillips started out as a 4-3 coach too but at some point (don't know when) he made the switch to 3-4. I've only ever known Phillips as a 3-4 coach from his days with the Broncos and Rams.

Still my point stands, LaFleur is heavily looking at coaches who branched out from the Buddy Ryan tree. Maybe 3-4 concepts within that tree perhaps translates well to 4-3 which allows LaFleur to explore the possibility of making the switch. Who knows.

I'm still struggling to see how Ryan Nielsen fits into this. There's a very tenuous link to Wade Phillips via Dennis Allen. I'm trying to see if there's a more concrete connection somewhere.

As I previously pointed out there are some interview candidates who were not first choice for coordinator when a co-worker became the head coach. Staley took Barry with him instead of Evero. Dan Campbell took Glenn with him instead of Nielsen. I wonder if LaFleur has a soft spot for those guys because like them he himself was passed over before so he knows there are talented coaches out there who have been ignored like him.

Interesting story about that.

McVay became Rams head coach on January 12, 2017

Kyle Shanahan became 49ers head coach on February 6, 2017.

At that point LaFleur had three options available to him to become coordinator. It seems he waited to see if Dan Quinn would offer him the coordinator job. The Falcons coordinator gig was more attractive because it was a playcalling role. On February 7, 2017 Dan Quinn would hire Steve Sarkisian.

LaFleur was left to choose between his friends for a non-playcalling coordinator role. The very next day on February 8, 2017 he chose to join the Rams. I would love to know what made him choose McVay over Shanahan. Maybe it was a simple as already having a QB in place with Goff whereas the 49ers didn't have one.

Shanahan ended up appointing himself coordinator instead.

Edited by Chili
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3 minutes ago, VonKarman said:

Is it really important to be a 4-3 or a 3-4 coach nowadays? Those are no longer base defenses. I just want a guy who know how to adapt his scheme to his players and disguises looks.

I see it the same way.  Maybe you have one more/fewer interior guy vs. edge player on the 53 but we generally like our edge players to be on the larger side so there is not so much of a difference. How we run our nickel and dime is more relevant than any “base” scheme. 

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9 hours ago, CWood21 said:

Too lazy to look through the thread, but has anyone come up with a good reason why Jim Leonhard gets so much love aside from the fact that he coaches for Wisconsin?

His defenses have been top of the nation good while not having top of the nation talent. I would argue especially for last year they have been even better then the stats. The Badgers offense was atrocious this year and yet the defense just kept chugging out great games. 

If you want to watch some games I suggest the Indiana, Northwestern, and Minnesota games from last year. All show off I think why Leonhard is considered so highly. 

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I think I've got a better handle on Ryan Nielsen now.

For his entire NFL career he has worked under Dennis Allen. It may sound limited until you find out Dennis Allen's history.

Wade Phillips gave Allen his first shot in the NFL with the 2002-03 Falcons and worked under Gary Gibbs with the 2006-08 Saints.

Its possible Allen knows the 3-4 via Wade Phillips but it's more likely he helped coach the 4-3 via the Buddy Ryan tree.

Gibbs first foray into the NFL was with the 2002-05 Cowboys under Zimmer.

Dallas defensive coordinator in 1989 was Dave Wannstedt who had Butch Davis and Dave Campo on his staff. Butch Davis took over in 1993. He hired Zimmer in 1994 as defensive assistant. Dave Campo took over in 1995. 5 years later in 2000 Zimmer took the mantle as defensive coordinator. Jerry Jones clearly liked promoting from within. Garry Gibbs was given his first NFL shot by Zimmer in 2002 and four years later he left to become defensive coordinator for the Saints in 2006 and he hired Allen as his defensive assistant. Guess what....a few years later he worked under Gregg Williams in 2009 who is part of the Ryan tree via Jeff Fisher. There's the another Ryan tree connection I was looking for!

So it's fair to say Allen has his roots in both the Zimmer tree and Ryan tree which (we hope) was passed on to Nielsen. No wonder LaFleur interviewed him. I'm quite confident now that LaFleur is also looking closely at the Zimmer tree (Gray and Nielsen) and it increases the likelihood he will look to interview one of the Tampa coaches after the superbowl. Most likely Kacy Rodgers who was on Zimmer's staff in Dallas with Todd Bowles.

In my research I spotted Tony Oden who has ties with both Gregg Williams and Saleh. I'm surprised we didn't interview him as he just yesterday joined the Jets as senior defensive assistant/cornerbacks.

Edited by Chili
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6 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

If he was the DC at [insert any other college here], would people be pounding the table for him?  Absolutely not.

If he was a DC at a major program like OSU, Michigan, LSU, Bama, etc... People would still be quite excited. I think you're completely wrong if you feel otherwise.

We really arguing the fact that people will be a bit more excited because he's from UW? Seems pointless.

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Just now, Packerraymond said:

LaFleur will do 2nd interviews for the finalists, so I wouldn't expect anything today. I'd say sometime between tomorrow evening and Monday we should get a leak of who we're picking.

Dang! I guess that means we won't be interviewing Tampa or Kansas coaching staff.

IMO there's four clear cut candidates.

Jim Leonhard (Rex Ryan/Pettine 3-4)

Jerry Gray (Zimmer 4-3 and Ryan/Fisher 4-3 and to a small extent Pettine 3-4)

Ryan Nielsen (Zimmer 4-3, Ryan/Phillips 4-3, Ryan/Fisher 4-3, unclear if he knows Phillips 3-4)

Ejiro Evero (Kiffin 4-3, Fangio 3-4, Capers 3-4, Phillips 3-4, Staley 3-4)

 

As you can see you have two candidates who strongly lean towards the 3-4 (Leonard and Evero) and two candidates who strongly lean towards the 4-3 (Gray and Nielsen). It's literally 50/50 at this point for LaFleur.

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9 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

You don't see the hypocrisy in that?

Meh, again, I think you're talking about apples and oranges to an extent because one involves management involving itself in coaching philosophy/decisions (MLF-Pettine) and one doesn't. Now if our new DC doesn't want a guy like Gray, fine, give him that option, I don't really care either way. 

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3 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

If he was a DC at a major program like OSU, Michigan, LSU, Bama, etc... People would still be quite excited. I think you're completely wrong if you feel otherwise.

We really arguing the fact that people will be a bit more excited because he's from UW? Seems pointless.

Because we've heard it for the last decade and a half since this websites' inception.  With the exception of TJ Watt (who got universal hate for some reason), anytime a halfway decent Wisconsin player is draft-eligible there's a fawning over them.  People were convinced that Vince Biegel was on a similar level as TJ Watt, if not better.  Jonathan Taylor would be a top 10 RB entering the league.  Remember the Jared Abberderis fan club?

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1 minute ago, packfanfb said:

Meh, again, I think you're talking about apples and oranges to an extent because one involves management involving itself in coaching philosophy/decisions (MLF-Pettine) and one doesn't. Now if our new DC doesn't want a guy like Gray, fine, give him that option, I don't really care either way. 

It really isn't.  On one hand, you've got a HC who is being told they need to keep a DC around in order to get the job.  And on the other hand, you've got a HC telling a DC they need to keep a positional coach(es) around.  It's the same thing, just at a lower level of authority.

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