Curious Case of Mike Mularkey

[VY]

5 hours ago, Mind Character said:

I'm hoping to get some clarity on a few questions...Browns fan here who never gets a chance to really watch Titans football.

I grew up a huge Eddie George, Steve McNair, and Warren Moon's Oilers fan so I've always had nothing but love for you guys.and am hearing we're looking at Mularkey as OC.

Curious as to what happened to everyone's opinion of him as last year from the outside looking in the offense Robiskie and Mularkey put together received rave reviews as being an exotic smash mouth that was hard to stop. Common takes were " this is a forward looking offense that is creative and tough."

The Offense was ranked 9th in overall offensive efficiency in 2016.

From the outside looking in, it also seemed that nfl ppl and you all thought adding a WR1 would help the offense go to the next level.

Now, all the takes are "Mularkey and Robiskie don't know what offensive playcalling is...they are the worst ever"........."our offense is in the stone age"...."our offense is not creative at all"..."this offense is hurting Mariota"

Can you help an outsider understand why the issues aren't mainly attributable to Mariota's hamstring injury, Demarco Murray's knee/hammy, and/or Corey Davis' injury/inexperience, and the interior OL struggles.

I'd love to get your insights specifically on offense (as Mularkey could be the Browns OC) not necessarily him as a HC of the entire team.

Thank you.

I'm not sure of how much of it was Mularkey or Robiskie, but part of the issues - on top of what you mentioned - was that the play design was awful. We had the most narrow, tight formation any given play. Up until the last few weeks, we generally never had more than 2 or 3 guys running routes, and all of those were way too long-developing. Often Mariota would have quick pressure and there was no easy bail-out option for him. 

Ostensibly the tight formations were to keep Mariota protected with extra blockers in, but really that just made it a challenge for him to find anyone open. I think the biggest thing was just a stunning lack of ability (or willingness) to change things in-season (e.g. going to no huddle). That stubbornness was his downfall, and hopefully he'll learn from it. But his whole mindset is predicated on playing with a lead, and pounding the ball. If we were ever down it was a real challenge to come back unless we could run the ball effectively (and get big chunk plays). Really I think fans just tired of his overall mentality, even as much of a nice guy as he is. Maybe going back to OC will be good for him. Best of luck to you, he's a solid culture guy and maybe coming into an org looking to put in stability is his wheelhouse. He has limitations, but maybe can help get the Brownies out of this rut.

[titans0021]

6 hours ago, Mind Character said:

Curious as to what happened to everyone's opinion of him as last year from the outside looking in the offense Robiskie and Mularkey put together received rave reviews as being an exotic smash mouth that was hard to stop. Common takes were " this is a forward looking offense that is creative and tough."

The Offense was ranked 9th in overall offensive efficiency in 2016.

From the outside looking in, it also seemed that nfl ppl and you all thought adding a WR1 would help the offense go to the next level.

Now, all the takes are "Mularkey and Robiskie don't know what offensive playcalling is...they are the worst ever"........."our offense is in the stone age"...."our offense is not creative at all"..."this offense is hurting Mariota"

Can you help an outsider understand why the issues aren't mainly attributable to Mariota's hamstring injury, Demarco Murray's knee/hammy, and/or Corey Davis' injury/inexperience, and the interior OL struggles.

I'd love to get your insights specifically on offense (as Mularkey could be the Browns OC) not necessarily him as a HC of the entire team.

Thank you.

Mostly touched on above, but the issues just went far beyond the personnel problems, and those definitely didn't help anyone. The problem, at least in my mind, was fairly simple. The offensive regression, at least in the run game, started about halfway through last year. My guess, and obviously I have no real way to confirm this but I still feel comfortable saying it, is that team's simply figured out our offense and the best way to attack it.

For the first half of 2016, we were one of the few teams in the NFL that had a base offense that was really a power formation. Teams weren't used to it, and defense's never really practiced against it. So it was, at least for the first couple months, really tough to game plan for. But, as more and more tape gets out there, you start to recognize tendencies and the staff's major failure was a complete and total unwillingness to change things. To reverse the tendencies. Instead, they doubled down. More two or three tight end sets. More snaps for Dennis Kelly as a sixth offensive linemen. More two-man routes. Those were the things that were already being figured out by late last year, but we showed an absolute unwillingness to try something new.

Now, with a healthy Mariota, Mularkey and Robiskie probably keep their jobs. Because a healthy Mariota can still use his athleticism and intelligence to beat a defense, even if the play calling does him no favors. But what this year truly highlighted is that, if Marcus isn't able to bail them out, they have no idea what to do. You watch a team like New England or Philly or the Rams or almost any good offense, and you see how they work to get their quarterback in rhythm and to give them some easy throws. You watch the 2017 Titans offense, and you see a consistently failing running game that was constantly utilized on first and second downs, and from the first drive, you're immediately forcing your QB into 3rd and 7 and obvious passing downs where teams drop into coverage and our receivers struggle to create throwing windows.

The feeling for most of us is that we think we actually have a good quarterback. Maybe not a top 5 guy, but someone that could be comfortably in the top 10 for a long time. The last thing we want to see is that quarterback have to overcome coaching to be productive. You look at Goff in LA or Wentz in Philly and you see just how much a modern offense and an adjustable game plan can benefit young quarterbacks, even those coming off of rough seasons. We need to try to find that. Because sticking with Mularkey apparently meant sticking with Robiskie. And sticking with Robiskie meant sticking with a coordinator, and a system, that hadn't had real success in 25 years.

[dtait93]

8 hours ago, Mind Character said:

I'm hoping to get some clarity on a few questions...Browns fan here who never gets a chance to really watch Titans football.

I grew up a huge Eddie George, Steve McNair, and Warren Moon's Oilers fan so I've always had nothing but love for you guys.and am hearing we're looking at Mularkey as OC.

Curious as to what happened to everyone's opinion of him as last year from the outside looking in the offense Robiskie and Mularkey put together received rave reviews as being an exotic smash mouth that was hard to stop. Common takes were " this is a forward looking offense that is creative and tough."

The Offense was ranked 9th in overall offensive efficiency in 2016.

From the outside looking in, it also seemed that nfl ppl and you all thought adding a WR1 would help the offense go to the next level.

Now, all the takes are "Mularkey and Robiskie don't know what offensive playcalling is...they are the worst ever"........."our offense is in the stone age"...."our offense is not creative at all"..."this offense is hurting Mariota"

Can you help an outsider understand why the issues aren't mainly attributable to Mariota's hamstring injury, Demarco Murray's knee/hammy, and/or Corey Davis' injury/inexperience, and the interior OL struggles.

I'd love to get your insights specifically on offense (as Mularkey could be the Browns OC) not necessarily him as a HC of the entire team.

Thank you.

The issue was simply that Mularkey was too stuck in his ways and couldn't find ways to innovate the offense when defenses clearly figured it out. Instead he kept around an archaic offensive scheme led by a guy who sounds like he is about to **** all over himself, which in turn, turned into Mariota's regression because he was trying to unscramble his brain before every play with Robiskie babbling a bunch of randomness in to his ear (I'm over exaggerating but if you do ever have the spare time to listen to a Robiskie interview it really is pretty bad lol).

Mularkey is loyal to a fault (not giving the reigns to Henry when it was clear Demarco was done, and not moving on from Robiskie which cost him his job), is extremely stubborn and doesn't learn until it's often too late. What I mean by that last part is that in his previous tenure with Jacksonville he was way too domineering with the players, but he found out that approach didn't work and loosened up when he got to Tennessee and found success here after doing so. Obviously he had a more talented roster here than in Jacksonville, but my point is that he recieved a better response with the looser approach he took here rather than the domineering approach in Jacksonville but he learned it too late because he was gone. All I can say is that I hope he learns his lesson here and doesn't make the same mistakes at his next gig, whether that's with Cleveland or else where. He's shown he can change but not unless it's after its too late and he's with a different franchise.

[capton_cutclass]

8 hours ago, VY said:

I'm not sure of how much of it was Mularkey or Robiskie, but part of the issues - on top of what you mentioned - was that the play design was awful. We had the most narrow, tight formation any given play. Up until the last few weeks, we generally never had more than 2 or 3 guys running routes, and all of those were way too long-developing. Often Mariota would have quick pressure and there was no easy bail-out option for him. 

Ostensibly the tight formations were to keep Mariota protected with extra blockers in, but really that just made it a challenge for him to find anyone open. I think the biggest thing was just a stunning lack of ability (or willingness) to change things in-season (e.g. going to no huddle). That stubbornness was his downfall, and hopefully he'll learn from it. But his whole mindset is predicated on playing with a lead, and pounding the ball. If we were ever down it was a real challenge to come back unless we could run the ball effectively (and get big chunk plays). Really I think fans just tired of his overall mentality, even as much of a nice guy as he is. Maybe going back to OC will be good for him. Best of luck to you, he's a solid culture guy and maybe coming into an org looking to put in stability is his wheelhouse. He has limitations, but maybe can help get the Brownies out of this rut.

I agree with this to some extent...but the part about us playing with a lead...every time we got a lead this year the defense gave up a TD.

Their was also the problem of predictable playcalling...specifically...2 runs and a pass on 3rd and long. Mariota doing the math and realizing he needs to make a play and throws a pick at the worst possible time.

It could have been and most likely was Robiskies fault...but it also could have been Mularkey being stubborn...so either way it falls on Mularkey

Edited January 16, 2018 by capton_cutclass

[Mind Character]

@titans0021 ; @VY : @TitanSS

I really appreciate your insights and explanations.

That helps me understand that which I couldn't from the outside looking in.

I'll link your posts on our Browns forum as I'm sure my fellow Brownies would like to hear what you all have to say.

The overabundance of tight formations and big bunch formations worry me a lot especially when TEs are the main receivers as those are slow developing plays that can easily be taken away.

The idea of Mariota waiting for a 2 WR concept to come open from a tight formation seems crazy, especially when his strength skill set is more west coast and spread quick hitters and deep seam shots out of play action.

inability to be flexible and adapt with personnel is a problem.

We'll see if the Brownies bring him on...and if so, can he make the proper adjustments.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Mind Character

[ragevsuall17]

Here's an article about Mularkey I shared earlier in the year... it's eerie how closely history repeated itself during his time here (under a different title too)

IT talks about how he's great historically in year 1 at stabilizing an offense... then things go downward after that:  https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-falcons/2011/1/4/1915177/mike-mularkey-head-coach-falcons-broncos-browns

There was another that I found about a year ago, trying to defend him... showed how he adapted his offense from Pitt to Buff to Atl... always uses TE's, but he changed the way he used them in Atlanta since he had Gonzo.  It had charts detailing snap counts, target totals, and splits for his RB's, TE's, and WR's.  It was really in depth, but I've been unable to find it since.  Maybe you'll have better luck searching for it than I've had.

[capton_cutclass]

Not many guys are going to want to come here if given other opportunities....the only way before was with New England and the Jon Robinson connection....but that turned out not to be true. The facts are expectations are going to be extremely high in those 1st two seasons...no real opportunity to build anything long term if your not able to deliver immediate success...sure the team has a solid core but players come and go.

I really want Frank Reich...if we are serious about helping Mariota he seems like the guy.

[ragevsuall17]

Ownership shakiness aside (not AAS in particular, but the NFL's feelings of it)... I think this is an appealing situation.  I would put the Giants as the only current vacancy that is clearly more desirable (Steelers too, if that becomes available... although with minority owners now making waves there, that may hurt them a little in the short term).  

Going into the Titans... you have a solid group of contributing players 26 and under:

• Adoree is 22
• Jonnu is 22
• Taywan is 22
• Jayon is 22
• Corey is 23
• Conklin is 23
• Henry is 23
• Mariota is 24
• Byard is 24
• Lewan is 26
• Ryan is 26

The only core players over 30 are Walker, Orakpo, and Woodyard.

We have over 55M in cap space... and looking at 65M+ with a few "easy" cuts.  Jon Robinson just showed he's willing to do whatever it takes to continue building a winner.  Anyone taking this job must be at least optimistic that Mariota is the type of QB you can build a franchise around.  That may be the biggest kicker... if a candidate doesn't believe Mariota is the guy, then maybe the opportunity to come here isn't as appealing.  

Barring a complete and disastrous Whiz-like collapse, any new coach gets 3 solid years to prove they deserve an extension (Mularkey signed a 3 year contract, and why he had 2 years before the proverbial lame duck fork in the road... not a very common move... most coaches contracts run 4 years... 5 years for the "best" candidates, which is what the Titans gave Whiz... !!!!)

Anyway... this may not be the most ideal coaching situation in the NFL... but it's a very attractive vacancy.  Not many times an incoming coach has the opportunity to inherit a team coming off a playoff win, with a young franchise-type QB entering year 4, with the 5th most cap space in the league, a good, young group of players already contributing, no major holes, and with all draft picks intact.  

[VY]

3 hours ago, capton_cutclass said:

Not many guys are going to want to come here if given other opportunities....the only way before was with New England and the Jon Robinson connection....but that turned out not to be true. The facts are expectations are going to be extremely high in those 1st two seasons...no real opportunity to build anything long term if your not able to deliver immediate success...sure the team has a solid core but players come and go.

I really want Frank Reich...if we are serious about helping Mariota he seems like the guy.

Nah. Every team in the league has higher expectations now, not just here. Everyone else sees the Rams, Jags and other quick turnarounds and wants the same. Every fan base expects it and every HC candidate knows he has about 3 years to make his mark. Also it’s just us and AZ left at this point so we should have a good group to pool from.

Edited January 17, 2018 by VY

[TitanLegend]

28 minutes ago, VY said:

Nah. Every team in the league has higher expectations now, not just here. Everyone else sees the Rams, Jags and other quick turnarounds and wants the same. Every fan base expects it and every HC candidate knows he has about 3 years to make his mark. Also it’s just us and AZ left at this point so we should have a good group to pool from.

Arizona doesn't have any 2nd interviews planned right now and reports are Munchak is the favorite now, so it might just be us.

[titans0021]

2 hours ago, TitanLegend said:

Arizona doesn't have any 2nd interviews planned right now and reports are Munchak is the favorite now, so it might just be us.

God I hope this is the case. No idea how Munch will do, but I'll be rooting for him. Plus, getting him away from Pittsburgh would be nice.

[deeluxx3]

Wish him the best, but Munch was one of -- if not the - worst head coaches in the NFL when he was here. What an absolute mistake of a hire

[TitanRedd]

3 hours ago, deeluxx3 said:

Wish him the best, but Munch was one of -- if not the - worst head coaches in the NFL when he was here. What an absolute mistake of a hire

Chris Palmer or Robiskie ? game on the line you need a play caller 

[deeluxx3]

39 minutes ago, TitanRedd said:

Chris Palmer or Robiskie ? game on the line you need a play caller 

The Titans' sideline/booth has been a retirement home the past few years

[capton_cutclass]

19 hours ago, VY said:

Nah. Every team in the league has higher expectations now, not just here. Everyone else sees the Rams, Jags and other quick turnarounds and wants the same. Every fan base expects it and every HC candidate knows he has about 3 years to make his mark. Also it’s just us and AZ left at this point so we should have a good group to pool from.

I dont know man theres more to it than just the 9-7 and a playoff win...theres Jon Robinson being a solid GM so far...A big part of it is control. Jon Robinson not in danger of losing his job or having his role diminished. So for a guy like McDaniels who most likely wanted to go to Indianapolis because their GM is basically just a "figurehead" at this point...he will have more control. Which actually works out good for us because even though hes a good coach...as the guy calling all the shots I think he is a little too wild for my taste. At least I know thats how people in Denver felt about him when he was there. I thought for us in a strictly coaching role McD could improve our offense and have success but I think in Indianapolis it will be similar to how it went in Denver. Im not familiar with Detroit or the Giants GM situations moving forward and how much control Patricia and Shurmur have in those towns but I doubt they have a trusted GM like we do in Jon Robinson.

if we are talking strictly about results we had pretty high marks this season and Mularkey was still fired. I dont think a coach coming in here going 7-9 but having a top 10 offense will make people happy. At least I hope it wouldn't. And Im not saying that like its a bad thing I actually think it works better in our favor...high expectations are good in general. And I only meant that the top tier coaching names wouldn't want to come here...guys like Gruden, Patricia, and McDaniels. I think all the other candidates dont care about that and will be happy to come here. Tennessee is a great franchise and city to coach in...its got a decent fanbase and the media isn't as problematic as it is in other cities.

To be honest I wasn't that crazy about Patricia and Shurmur...I was intrigued by McD working with Jon Robinson but its not keeping me up at nights that he is going to go to Indianapolis. I really want Frank Reich...but Im sure there are plenty of guys out there that would be great. To be honest I know teams kind of rush in to picking a name because they want to get a head start on the competition but I think theres also benefit to taking your time to do your research and find that diamond in the rough who you are absolutely positive was the right choice. Two different schools of thought but both I think have advantages and disadvantages.