08-05-2016, 10:28 AM
(08-05-2016, 03:35 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I thought I would take a quick sec to respond to your assumption. No, I wouldn't say it would be fair to say that I considered Guenther a lazy hire. At least not to the same degree as Zampese. Did it raise an eyebrow? Yeah, probably. I'm not sure I can ever fully trust that they are doing their due diligence when an in-house promotion comes up. And that's just from my perspective. But to each their own.
The reason I didn't have as much issue with the Gunther hire is that his career path is a tad more typical. He didn't come on here until Zimmer came in and he's slowly gained more and more responsibility. Had he not been promoted here he probably would have gotten a look elsewhere.
But Zampese? 13 seasons as QB coach here. T-H-I-R-T-E-E-N. That's a long time to be a position coach. Long, long time. Why was he never hired away? In 13 seasons not a single team gave him a job as an OC. Why is that?
Why wasn't a team, who pays top dollar for their staff, dropping off a truck full of cash to make him their QB coach at least? You mean to tell me he was one of the highest paid position coaches here? Not only did he not get hired away as an OC, he didn't get hired away as a higher paid position coach. That raises eyebrows.
And you know what bothers me most, why didn't we promote him when Brat was fired? Why did we promote him when Jay left? Two times we needed an OC, and he had more seniority than anyone, yet he didn't get the job. Why is that?
And none of this even takes into account how I think of his QB's progress history. Palmer had his best year in year 2, his first full season starting. He, in my mind, got progressively worse. And some may disagree with this, but Dalton didn't exactly make leaps and bounds progress until Hue took over. (Coincidence?) Year 1 to 2 improvement wasn't huge and was to be expected with added experience. Year 2 to 3 wasn't a huge leap. Year 3 to 4 was a huge decline. And then finally last season.
I'm just saying, it's not like he has an unbelievable track record as a QB coach. It's ok, but far, far from great.
It's for these reasons I question the hire, not just because or only that he was in house. Why did he stay in one spot for so long, why was passed over multiple times? Which leaves me with my current question: Was he really the best option of everyone out there or does this team value familiarity more than actual ability?
I think they actually have done more then their share of homework on the in house guys because they work with them every day of the season. That's much more time spent then you can possibly spend trying to do interviews and you're actually seeing how they coach in person. Marvin has proven he can hire quality coordinators so with that in mind I don't know why he would promote a guy before he's ready. He knows the job and the qualifications. On one hand you wanna say you can't trust the organization to do their due diligence and then use it against them that they passed on Zampese twice when an OC position arose. If I remember right from what I've read Zampese was passed on the first time (When Jay was hired.) because Lewis didn't feel like he was ready. When Hue was OC it was just a no brainer to promote him from RB coach he was hands down the most qualified. Jay came from the outside, Hue fell from Head Coach to out of the NFL until Marvin threw him a bone and Zampese has been here 13 years learning. Those are 3 totally different OCs from totally different backgrounds.
I didn't think anything was typical about the Guenther hiring and I had some of the issues with that hiring that you do with Zampese being hired. He was basically a no name coach to fans and the only confidence we had in him was that he tutored under Zimmer and we were told he helped design the blitzes. Why was he never hired to be a DC before now? It didn't really matter at the end of the day Lewis knew he could do the job and he hired him. Really the only difference between the two is one guy has been here 13 years.
If you believe in the guy that you've worked with practically every day and it's a good fit why would you pass on him? He knows the players, he knows what works and what doesn't and he has already meshed with the organization. I see your points but I think the positives outweigh the negatives on this one.
