Ricky Henne@ChargersRHenne More coaching hires;Kevin Spencer-Special Teams,Joe D'Alessandris-Oline,Fred Graves-Receivers.Will have more later on http://chargers.com. Joe D is a solid pickup for the line, Coached Bills last 3 years. Last year on crappy Bills team he had NFL fewest sacks and 4.9 rushing average with SPiller.
Link to Joe D's page on Bills: http://www.buffalobills.com/team/coaches/joe-dalessandris/688adbac-4dd4-49d8-be7c-98463346bf27
Graves has been a WR coach since 1975! Love this line in his bio: Graves has been known to employ some unorthodox tactics as a coach; his receivers routinely catch bricks in order to improve their hands.[5]
Fred Graves is in his fourth season with the Titans and 35th season in coaching. In his three seasons with the Titans, Graves has developed his corps into a reliable group of receivers. Both Justin Gage (55) and Nate Washington (47) posted career highs in their first seasons with the Titans. Last season he groomed rookie wide out Kenny Britt into the Titans leading receiver (701 yards), becoming the first rookie to lead the franchise in receiving yards since Chris Sanders in 1995. Britt’s receiving yardage total was the fifth highest by a rookie in franchise history and ranked fifth among NFL rookies last year. In 2008, Gage ranked third in the NFL in average yards per reception (19.1) and posted a career high six touchdown grabs. A stickler for precision, Graves’ receiver group has ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in two of the last three seasons in fewest drops per catchable pass (16 in 2007 and 22 in 2008, according to STATS, Inc.). Graves joined the Titans from the Detroit Lions, where he coached the wide receivers in 2005. In his one season with the Lions, the corps of wide receivers totaled 148 receptions for 1,810 yards and Roy Williams continued to mature into a featured target with a career-high eight touchdowns. Graves spent one season coaching the wide outs for the Cleveland Browns in 2004. His first NFL job was with the Buffalo Bills on Gregg Williams’ staff from 2001 until 2003. In 2002, the Bills receivers posted eye-popping numbers with the trio of Eric Moulds, Peerless Price and Josh Reed combining for 231 receptions, 3,053 yards and 21 touchdowns. Moulds became the first Bills receiver to reach the 100-reception mark in a season and earned a Pro Bowl selection. Graves spent 26 years coaching in the college ranks with 19 of those years (1982-00) spent at his alma mater, Utah. While coaching for the Utes, he held a number of positions, including assistant head coach/wide receivers (1994, 1998-00), offensive coordinator/wide receivers (1995-97), wide receivers (1982-89, 1991-93) and running backs (1990). In his tenure with the Utes, he tutored future NFL players Kevin Dyson (Titans) and Steve Smith (Carolina Panthers). Graves’ coaching career began at Northeast Missouri State (1975-76) and includes stints at Western Illinois (1977-78) and New Mexico State (1979-81). Born in Los Angeles, Calif. (3/2/50), Graves played halfback and split end for the University of Utah and led the team with 45 receptions in his senior year. Graves and his wife, Michele, have a son, Marcus (14), a grown daughter, Amber, and two grandchildren, Teneil and Isaiah. His wife Michele was a former softball coach at the University of Utah and a Utah Softball Hall of Fame Inductee.
Having them catch bricks is dangerous and seems more of a liability than a benefit. That said, I like it! (In all seriousness, I think I'd rather throw medicine balls at them instead)
I remember an interview with Jerry Rice, and that is how he said he got his 'soft hands' ball catching skills.
Looks like we're goin to a Zone Blocking scheme guys, just looking at it from what our new OL coach has done in the past. Talking to Bills fans, they said they almost entirely ran a ZBS, and i think we have the pieces for it, and it makes it easier to find ourselves a new LT, as the power man scheme we ran before required a stronger more powerful LT.
It would be nice if Joe D can have these guys play with a tude and if they'll be going zone then the cut will always be a option.
I thought as soone as we lost Dielman and McNeill that we should have changed to a ZBS. Just didnt have the bigs to run a power scheme.
Michael Gehlken @UTgehlken Ron Milus, ex-Broncos secondary coach, new Chargers DB coach. Kent Johnson, formerly of Browns, new strength & conditioning.
To be fair, Rahim Moore was grading out among the better safeties in the conference in the regular season (the magnitude of the incidence massively inflated the knocks on him - even Ed Reed makes a dumb mistake from time to time). This is still the coach that helped identify and groom UDFA Chris Harris into a guy that had Torrey Smith on lock-down - something none of our current CB's could manage.
I likey more zone. You rarely see a really dominant power-iso OL in the league these days unless they're spending multiple 1st round picks across the line (like San Francisco; next closest is probably Minnesota or Baltimore). Meanwhile you've got highly effective lines in Seattle, New England, Houston, Miami, and Buffalo that all work from a primarily zone concept and seem to be able to plug-and-produce. Now if we somehow add Joseph Randle to this mix - we could have potential for a scary run game with the right pieces fit in.
I didn't have an opinion per se, they seemed to have done a fine job against us and 12 others. So he's prolly an upgrade...
Some others on the CMB have brought up a concern thats pretty valid to this, but there's talk of the league making the cut block illegal, and something they consistently watch for. How would this effect the outlook of a new Zone scheme and i guess all the existing ZBS teams...?
You don't judge a coach on one play. If one play was valid enough we should be axing our entire defensive staff for 4th and 29. Not that the Denver secondary looked good at all that entire game....but it was also just one game. I honestly don't know how their secondary fared all season long.
It doesn't change the fact that Moore completely blew the coverage on a play that cost them their season. That being said, Milus seems like a solid coach. It was stupid of the Donks to fire him just because of one bad play. They were obviously using him as a scapegoat for their early playoff exit.
Yeah, I reckon Milus is a bigtime upgrade and should really bring on our young guys aswell as identify players he can mould into proper NFL corners.
The only thing that proves is that it's not guaranteed success. But, then again, anybody who believes anything creates guaranteed success probably shouldn't be getting involved in sports conversation to begin with.
I won't get involved with the zone blocking debate as I have never liked it. I see it as a setup for the crack-back opportunity and that's just chickenshit to me.
Somebody a little more football x's and o's savvy than I explain to me exactly what "zone blocking scheme" is.
I'm not sure if you're entirely serious, here, or not, but I 'll offer one fan's quick take (I'll leave it to someone else to watch the hours of Alex Gibbs vids, and pass AG's theories off as theirs) Like it sounds, OL focuses on clearing an area instead of traditional hat-on-hat action. Numerous linemen pushing in the same direction. When Denver did it for years, it was so successful it looked like cheating...(many still feel it was) but when the Raiders did it last year, it just looked sad. The scheme generally favors quicker (= usually smaller) O-lineman. So, like transitioning to a 3-4 defense, a switch can be awkward if your personnel was assembled to play the traditional style. I think a ZBS may require a sharper RB, too. You're counting on the guy with the rock knowing when to break back against the flow...he needs to be patient and make a split second decision which hole to choose...instead of being told in advance what gap to hit. So the patience--that usually comes with experience--is very helpful. Honestly, I like Mathews' ability, a lot...but I don't think that making that kind of quick decision has been a strength of his so far (who knows, maybe in 2014 or even 2013).
Bollocks!! You should know by now, neat one-liner solutions, regurgitated strongly in forums, are always guaranteed success!! (just because stupid 'professionals' don't often take the barista's advice, don't mean it ain't fool-proof gold!!)
