Just some thoughts on things from the press conference...

First, I think it was either Marvin himself or Lazor as a condition of staying that got Paul Alexander to not be offered a new contract.

Second, it sounded like the blocking scheme change that occurred near the end of the season and revived the ground game came from Lazor. If yes, that would have really put the nails in Piano Man's coffin as it is pretty ridiculous when the OC has to get involved in line blocking philosophy.

Third (and this is really speculating), some of both Marvin's and Lazor's comments made it sound like they are going to be using more rollouts and designed throws on the run and less timing passes next season. If this is true I would be thrilled, as our receivers are not the type of exacting route runners that excel in a timing offense. It also sounded like they feel Tyler Boyd is ready to step up.

Lazor also made comments to the effect that the present playbook comes across like it was written by three different OCs. Again the language was not as blunt as I would like but he really seemed to be saying the playbook was going to get surgery with an eye to having an actual core offensive philosophy.

There was more, but this stuff stood out to me.

(01-03-2018, 11:25 PM)Joelist Wrote: Just some thoughts on things from the press conference...

First, I think it was either Marvin himself or Lazor as a condition of staying that got Paul Alexander to not be offered a new contract.

Second, it sounded like the blocking scheme change that occurred near the end of the season and revived the ground game came from Lazor. If yes, that would have really put the nails in Piano Man's coffin as it is pretty ridiculous when the OC has to get involved in line blocking philosophy.

Third (and this is really speculating), some of both Marvin's and Lazor's comments made it sound like they are going to be using more rollouts and designed throws on the run and less timing passes next season. If this is true I would be thrilled, as our receivers are not the type of exacting route runners that excel in a timing offense. It also sounded like they feel Tyler Boyd is ready to step up.

Lazor also made comments to the effect that the present playbook comes across like it was written by three different OCs. Again the language was not as blunt as I would like but he really seemed to be saying the playbook was going to get surgery with an eye to having an actual core offensive philosophy.

There was more, but this stuff stood out to me.

 I think its all nebulous. All they have to do on offense is keep chopping and keep grinding while running on their own gas.   

Interestingly, those phrases never came up. While not as blunt as I would have liked I did note the lack of the usual "chop and grind" platitudes. There was some actual scheme talk.

I think Lazor really threw Piano Man under the bus without really throwing him under the bus. It comes in Part 2 of the presser when he talks about doing a better job of evaluating what the Olinemen can do well and putting them in a position to be successful. That explains why the yards per carry went up the last two games. I the it took him awhile to get Alexander to get out of the way of the offense. He was trying to make these players do things they weren't good at and might never be good at. In other words, Paul A. knows one way to coach, and it's not effective. Hence, his ass is gone.

(01-04-2018, 01:16 AM)Shady Wrote: I think Lazor really threw Piano Man under the bus without really throwing him under the bus. It comes in Part 2 of the presser when he talks about doing a better job of evaluating what the Olinemen can do well and putting them in a position to be successful. That explains why the yards per carry went up the last two games. I the it took him awhile to get Alexander to get out of the way of the offense. He was trying to make these players do things they weren't good at and might never be good at. In other words, Paul A. knows one way to coach, and it's not effective. Hence, his ass is gone.

Lazor also mentioned he wanted Linemen that were more agressive. He mentioned that the QBs love training camp because it's like a 7 on 7 but the lineman have to go out there and hit eachother in pads for practice. The linemen have to love doing what they do.

*cough* Ogbuehi *cough*

(01-04-2018, 01:16 AM)Shady Wrote: I think Lazor really threw Piano Man under the bus without really throwing him under the bus. It comes in Part 2 of the presser when he talks about doing a better job of evaluating what the Olinemen can do well and putting them in a position to be successful. That explains why the yards per carry went up the last two games. I the it took him awhile to get Alexander to get out of the way of the offense. He was trying to make these players do things they weren't good at and might never be good at. In other words, Paul A. knows one way to coach, and it's not effective. Hence, his ass is gone.

Indeed. He should have been escorted out the door many years ago, but alas, change occurs at an alarmingly sluggish rate under the Brown-Lewis consortium of mediocrity. 

(01-04-2018, 01:20 AM)Synric Wrote: Lazor also mentioned he wanted Linemen that were more agressive. He mentioned that the QBs love training camp because it's like a 7 on 7 but the lineman have to go out there and hit eachother in pads for practice. The linemen have to love doing what they do.

*cough* Ogbuehi *cough*

yep...Lewis also specifically mentioned Westerman and Redmond as practicing well and earning their chance.

Hard in the bland world of coach press conferences to get anything substantial out, but i think Lazor's points were interesting and maybe indicate that character/aggression may be a primary consideration then something like quick feet and 40 times.

Lazor has a real chance this off season to make his personal stamp on things so will be very interesting to see who he takes as OL coach, any FA activity , and the focus in the draft

(01-04-2018, 01:16 AM)Shady Wrote: I think Lazor really threw Piano Man under the bus without really throwing him under the bus. It comes in Part 2 of the presser when he talks about doing a better job of evaluating what the Olinemen can do well and putting them in a position to be successful. That explains why the yards per carry went up the last two games. I the it took him awhile to get Alexander to get out of the way of the offense. He was trying to make these players do things they weren't good at and might never be good at. In other words, Paul A. knows one way to coach, and it's not effective. Hence, his ass is gone.

Agreed...kind of like PA was trying to square peg some round holes on the OLine.   Which makes sense then that only when things are forced on him by injury that things actually changed.

I know we still ended up as last in the league on offense but I do kinda like the way Lazor carries himself. Think there's more steel/self belief there then meets the eye

(01-03-2018, 11:25 PM)Joelist Wrote: Just some thoughts on things from the press conference...

First, I think it was either Marvin himself or Lazor as a condition of staying that got Paul Alexander to not be offered a new contract.

Second, it sounded like the blocking scheme change that occurred near the end of the season and revived the ground game came from Lazor. If yes, that would have really put the nails in Piano Man's coffin as it is pretty ridiculous when the OC has to get involved in line blocking philosophy.

Third (and this is really speculating), some of both Marvin's and Lazor's comments made it sound like they are going to be using more rollouts and designed throws on the run and less timing passes next season. If this is true I would be thrilled, as our receivers are not the type of exacting route runners that excel in a timing offense. It also sounded like they feel Tyler Boyd is ready to step up.

Lazor also made comments to the effect that the present playbook comes across like it was written by three different OCs. Again the language was not as blunt as I would like but he really seemed to be saying the playbook was going to get surgery with an eye to having an actual core offensive philosophy.

There was more, but this stuff stood out to me.

Lazor surgery?  

(01-04-2018, 12:55 AM)Joelist Wrote: Interestingly, those phrases never came up. While not as blunt as I would have liked I did note the lack of the usual "chop and grind" platitudes. There was some actual scheme talk.

Marvin said nebulous like, 6 times, when asked about specific changes to himself, philosophy, adjustments, etc. Basically he was blaming the players and saying hame day coaching doesn't matter.... Followed up by him saying they have to coach better. He threw out buzzwords like "we're going to spend in FA.... He said this exact thing before during the presser announcing his 2015 extension.... which didn't happen, btw.

What was funny to me is that he was using the word nebulous to mean something that it doesn't.

He basically just trotted himself out there and retreaded the same bs he has for 15 years: Blaming everyone but himself, saying the owner wants to win, and that he has a job to do. Any scheme talk was incredibly vague. They said a bunch of words and said nothing of note, really.

(01-04-2018, 01:16 AM)Shady Wrote: I think Lazor really threw Piano Man under the bus without really throwing him under the bus. It comes in Part 2 of the presser when he talks about doing a better job of evaluating what the Olinemen can do well and putting them in a position to be successful. That explains why the yards per carry went up the last two games. I the it took him awhile to get Alexander to get out of the way of the offense. He was trying to make these players do things they weren't good at and might never be good at. In other words, Paul A. knows one way to coach, and it's not effective. Hence, his ass is gone.

Great catch. I believe Lazor also said something else I think referring to PA.....

He said that they wanted to assemble an offensive staff where they can have disagreements about players or plan as well as arguments without it becoming emotional. He said that they need to be able to get on each other and say thing that each other might not like, but then get over it and be able to go to lunch together because they were a team and a family.

I believe he was directly referring to PA being emotional about schemes and certain players and throwing a fit/being emotional.

I really like Bill Lazor and enjoy his interviews tremendously.

(01-04-2018, 01:20 AM)Synric Wrote: Lazor also mentioned he wanted Linemen that were more agressive. He mentioned that the QBs love training camp because it's like a 7 on 7 but the lineman have to go out there and hit eachother in pads for practice. The linemen have to love doing what they do.

*cough* Ogbuehi *cough*

I'm beginning to be a fan of Bill Lazor.  Obviously, we'll have to wait and see how this translates to the playing field next season, but for now, at least he's saying all the right things.  Getting hands on with the OL, desiring a more aggressive approach in blocking, suggesting more throws from the run/moving pocket.

Personally, this is music to my ears.  I have been griping about some of these very things for quite a while.

(01-04-2018, 12:55 AM)Joelist Wrote: Interestingly, those phrases never came up. While not as blunt as I would have liked I did note the lack of the usual "chop and grind" platitudes. There was some actual scheme talk.

For Marvin, that is a rather succinct change in style of addressing a presser.  To me, that indicates that he's actually happy and enthusiastic, albeit in a mundane, Marvin sort of way.  

(01-04-2018, 10:13 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I'm beginning to be a fan of Bill Lazor.  Obviously, we'll have to wait and see how this translates to the playing field next season, but for now, at least he's saying all the right things.  Getting hands on with the OL, desiring a more aggressive approach in blocking, suggesting more throws from the run/moving pocket.

Personally, this is music to my ears.  I have been griping about some of these very things for quite a while.

We've been complaining about all this since we were all on the OG boards.
But talk is cheap. I'm still hesitant to believe until I see what happens in FA and the draft.

(01-04-2018, 11:37 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: For Marvin, that is a rather succinct change in style of addressing a presser.  To me, that indicates that he's actually happy and enthusiastic, albeit in a mundane, Marvin sort of way.  

I envisioned this when MB and ML discuss football:

(01-04-2018, 09:52 AM)PDub80 Wrote: Marvin said nebulous like, 6 times, when asked about specific changes to himself, philosophy, adjustments, etc. Basically he was blaming the players and saying hame day coaching doesn't matter.... Followed up by him saying they have to coach better. He threw out buzzwords like "we're going to spend in FA.... He said this exact thing before during the presser announcing his 2015 extension.... which didn't happen, btw.

What was funny to me is that he was using the word nebulous to mean something that it doesn't.

He basically just trotted himself out there and retreaded the same bs he has for 15 years: Blaming everyone but himself, saying the owner wants to win, and that he has a job to do. Any scheme talk was incredibly vague. They said a bunch of words and said nothing of note, really.

The chief thing of interest from Marvin was his not using his usual “chop, grind, shovel” nonsense. He was still too vague in general but more specific than he is usually. It was Lazor who yielded the most hard information because he actually said some things about scheme and such.

(01-04-2018, 12:25 PM)ochocincos Wrote: We've been complaining about all this since we were all on the OG boards.
But talk is cheap. I'm still hesitant to believe until I see what happens in FA and the draft.

Hey, I was devastated when Mike didn't retire and Marvin was retained.  Not a thing any of us can do to change either of those things.

What I can do as a fan of the team, is look for any positive that might come as a result, and hope it reflects in a better team next season.

At the least Marvin has a new phrase to add to his repertoire ..NEBULOUS! 
Say nebulous three times nice and slowly.. See how it just kind of rolls off your tongue? 
Nebulous
Nebulous
Nebulous! 
Well!  I for one am nebulously excited..and nebulous will soon be the one word being searched for on google more than any other word in the greater Cincinnati area.. 
Try it..Try using nebulous in your next casual conversation with someone. They'll give you new respect just wondering how you figured out what in the hell nebulous actually means.. I bet your friends won't know the meaning of nebulous! 
Most people will assume it's just a made up word having to do with something out in the vast reaches of space, but they will be wrong. It is actually a word referring to Mike Brown's brain. 

(01-04-2018, 01:01 PM)grampahol Wrote: At the least Marvin has a new phrase to add to his repertoire ..NEBULOUS! 
Say nebulous three times nice and slowly.. See how it just kind of rolls off your tongue? 
Nebulous
Nebulous
Nebulous! 
Well!  I for one am nebulously excited..

Add 'nebulous' to the list:
*giggle*
we need to do better
*giggle*
*Clap*LET'S GO*Clap*
*giggle*
journalistic jargon
*giggle*
nebulous
*giggle*

You underestimated the process of fixing the team..
Step one: Get out Mikey's dusty old dictionary 
Step two: Find at least one underused word that leaves the public scrambling to look up the definition of said word
Step three: Use said word repeatedly in next press conference to leave the conference attendees in a nebulous state.

See how easy that was? Now why didn't someone think of using nebulous sooner?