Morris Looking At Offensive Coordinators

January 20, 2009 at 10:18am by Scott   •  5 Comments »

So, with the Glazers firing Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen on Friday and Raheem Morris firing pretty much everyone else yesterday, Morris is basically hanging around Mobile, Alabama by himself today. Which actually says more about the realization of Dr. King‘s dream than anything else going on this week.

Except for that.

But he’s going to have to put together a staff soon, and offensive coordinator is the most interesting position available. The Times has put together a list of some potential candidates that they say the Bucs are going to talk to, although they don’t say how they know this. Their list includes Scott Linehan, Rob Chudzinski, Chan Gailey and Greg Olson. What? You haven’t started masturbating feverishly over this crack group of offensive geniuses yet? HATER!

So first we have Linehan. He recently presided over the demise of a one-proud St. Louis Rams franchise that had offensive players like Steven Jackson and Torry Holt at his disposal and still went 11-25. Before that he was the OC for the Dolphins during Nick Saban‘s first year, which we all remember fondly. It actually wasn’t too bad a job since he really only had Gus Frerotte as a quarterback and rookie Ronnie Brown and a retreaded Ricky Williams at tailback. They wound up going 9-7 that year, with Chris Chambers being their real offensive weapon. And before that he was the OC for the Vikings when they were putting up all those gaudy numbers. This also looked like another good job by Linehan. Of course, when you have Randy Moss on your team, it’s easy to look like a hero — ask Josh McDaniels. But, you know, credit where credit is due and all that.

So, is it just me, or is Linehan getting progressively worse as he moves from city to city? He went from being a strong coordinator under Mike Tice in Minnesota to completely losing his locker room and his jock in St. Louis. We want an experienced guy to make up for Morris’s lack of it, but sorry. If you get fired mid-season, I don’t want Tampa to be your next job.

Chudzinski was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland last year. Seriously. The only thing this guy has going for him is that he seems to be a good tight ends coach. He’s coached Antonio Gates, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow II and Bubba Franks when all of them were good. Say, the Bucs just happen to have a spot open for tight ends coach. That’s just crazy enough to work! Having him as an offensive coordinator is just crazy enough to suck the Buccaneers into a huge fucking vortex of failure.

Olson is the current Buccaneer quarterbacks coach. And he has been a offensive coordinator before. Under who, you ask? Scott Linehan in St. Louis. I think we’re all pretty sure that there’s going to be a young quarterback taking snaps this season for the Bucs, so they need a coordinator who has a good track record developing young talent. Olson was in Detroit to help Joey Harrington earn his draft slot, and then before that he was in Chicago for Rex Grossman‘s rookie year. How did I now know this shit before now? Olson is the grim reaper of young quarterbacks. He sucks down their potential like a vampire and leaves behind husks of despair and sack-fumbles. Not only should Olson not be the OC, he should be stuffed into a sack and have the sack tossed into a river and have the river hurled into space.

And that leaves Gailey. He was most recently with the Chiefs where they just posted a #24 offensive ranking. But he did turn a guy like Tyler Thigpen into someone who is actually competing for a starting position in the NFL. And he did have two receivers with a thousand yards each (Tony Gonzalez and Dwayne Bowe). Prior to that, he was the head coach at Georgia Tech for six years where he brought along talent like Calvin Johnson and Tashard Choice. He won the ACC Coastal in 2006 and was fired mostly for his mediocre records and losing a shitload of bowl games. Also, he never beat Georgia in six years. That’s gonna get you fired in Atlanta. You may remember, Gailey was also the Cowboys’ head coach for two years following Barry Switzer. Gailey made it to the playoffs both years and was still fired for going one-and-done each time. Jerry Jones recently said he was premature in firing Gailey.

“I regret just giving Chan [Gailey] two years,” said Jones, the Cowboys’ owner and general manager. “When you really look at what he’s done since he’s left here and look at what he had done here – he took us to the playoffs twice. And I’m not talking about the fairness of it. I’m just talking about how I should have worked hard on some things where we could’ve made adjustments that were meaningful.”

I guess I’ve revealed again here (the police have told me to stop that), but in case you haven’t guessed, I’m picked Gailey out of the choices given. Tons of experience, a lot of success, good player relations. Gailey is all business. Want an example? Jerry Jones recalled a conversation with Gailey in his first minicamp with the Cowboys:

“I sidled up to him on the practice field and said, ‘Chan, you’re the coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Take a deep breath and smell the roses.’ He just stared straight ahead and said, real matter-of-fact, ‘I’ll smell the roses when we win.’”

He’s not going to relate to the players on the same level as Raheem Morris, and that’s just fine. Hell, he’s the guy who got Michael Irvin to take his job seriously. Bill Cowher, whom Gailey worked under from 1994-1997, had good things to say about him:

“The one thing I can promise is he’ll earn the players’ respect. They may not like him at times, but he’ll always have their respect because he’ll tell it like it is.”

That’s apparently something that was missing from Jon Gruden‘s style of coaching — telling it like it is.

Gailey doesn’t run a West Coast system per se, but his offense does require a lot of quick thinking and short passes. But he’s also willing to adapt to his players, which may have been another Gruden shortcoming. Getting the most out of a player like Kordell Stewart, who insisted on being a quarterback when he was obviously more suited to being a wide receiver, is proof enough of that.

This would be an excellent hire and provide much needed balance and credibility to a team that is seriously lacking on experience. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that he is the right candidate for OC. I’m glad Morris is smart enough to not be looking at any first time coordinators, but he needs a guy with a proven track record here.