Bengals have asked to interview Saints defensive assistant, Michael Hodges. He played at Texas A&M when Ol coach Jim Turner was there. He's young but has been coaching since graduating from A&M. I don't foresee this interview getting blocked.

https://www.neworleanssaints.com/team/coaches-roster/michael-hodges

Michael Hodges enters his second season as a full-time NFL assistant.

As a defensive assistant, Hodges’ responsibilities include producing self-scout breakdowns reports, compilation of scouting reports, breakdown of Saints opponents, assist in the organization of playbooks and assist in working with Linebackers Coach Mike Nolan and Saints linebackers during practice.

Hodges came to New Orleans after serving on the coaching staff at Eastern Illinois University from 2014-16. From 2014-15, Hodges tutored the linebackers. In 2016, he was elevated to co-defensive coordinator, while also coaching the team’s safeties. Hodges came to Eastern Illinois after serving two seasons as a defensive graduate assistant coach at Fresno State, where he coached the inside linebackers and assisted with film breakdown, scouting and game preparation.

Hodges played linebacker at Texas A&M where he earned second team All-Big 12 honors as a senior when he led the Aggies in tackles and honorable mention as a junior after beginning his career as a walk on. He was a two-time Academic All-Big 12 selection and was named a first team Academic All-American in 2010. He graduated in 2010 and earned his master’s from Texas A&M in 2011. He was presented with the 2010 Heart Award, which is the highest honor for a Texas A&M senior football player.

PLAYING CAREER: Texas A&M, 2008-11.

COACHING CAREER: Fresno State, 2012-13; Eastern Illinois, 2014-16; New Orleans Saints, 2017-.

Well, this doesn't qualify as "knocking it out of the park."

As long as it's not Joey Porter, I'm down!

These aren't coaches from the Dolphins so no complaints here.

(02-22-2019, 01:48 PM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Well, this doesn't qualify as "knocking it out of the park."

(02-22-2019, 01:48 PM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Well, this doesn't qualify as "knocking it out of the park."

Stop it.

(02-22-2019, 01:48 PM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Well, this doesn't qualify as "knocking it out of the park."

It seems like you'd probably be looking at some kind of assistant to a position coach or, as in this guy's case, a defensive assistant.  Slim chance you'd get a current LB coach to make a lateral move, right?

It is good  that he has experience breaking down opponents and scouting.  The big question is can he teach how to stack, shed, cover, read and, for the love of God, tackle.

(02-22-2019, 02:03 PM)NKURyan Wrote: As long as it's not Joey Porter, I'm down!

If the Steelers are done with him, gotta think everybody else is too, if they weren't already.

(And around these parts, it's Jerry).

(02-22-2019, 02:57 PM)McC Wrote: It seems like you'd probably be looking at some kind of assistant to a position coach or, as in this guy's case, a defensive assistant.  Slim chance you'd get a current LB coach to make a lateral move, right?

It is good  that he has experience breaking down opponents and scouting.  The big question is can he teach how to stack, shed, cover, read and, for the love of God, tackle.

well seems like he knows how to tackle... so worse case he can just show them how lol


Also any named LB coach available is available cause he just got fired for not being great at his job...

(02-22-2019, 02:17 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Stop it.

Evidently, some were expecting the All-Time All-Madden coaching staff to come and work for Coach Taylor.    

The truth is, we really don't know jack about most of these coaches as men, or as coaches for that matter.  So much emphasis is put on coaches coming from backgrounds of championships and overwhelmingly winning records that much is lost in weather the man can actually coach and communicate his ideas to players.  There are plenty of fantastic coaches out there, that did tremendous jobs, simply by elevating the talent that they were given to work with enough to keep them in games.  Just like there are also plenty of coaches that had the luck of situation and plethora of talent to make them look like geniuses.

I've said before that if the front office was sold on Zac Taylor enough to allow him full control over assembling his staff, then he deserves for the fans to respect his hiring selections.  

(02-22-2019, 02:57 PM)McC Wrote: It seems like you'd probably be looking at some kind of assistant to a position coach or, as in this guy's case, a defensive assistant.  Slim chance you'd get a current LB coach to make a lateral move, right?

It is good  that he has experience breaking down opponents and scouting.  The big question is can he teach how to stack, shed, cover, read and, for the love of God, tackle.

This.

(02-22-2019, 03:04 PM)3wt Wrote: This.

Now give him something to work with.

(02-22-2019, 03:04 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Evidently, some were expecting the All-Time All-Madden coaching staff to come and work for Coach Taylor.    

The truth is, we really don't know jack about most of these coaches as men, or as coaches for that matter.  So much emphasis is put on coaches coming from backgrounds of championships and overwhelmingly winning records that much is lost in weather the man can actually coach and communicate his ideas to players.  There are plenty of fantastic coaches out there, that did tremendous jobs, simply by elevating the talent that they were given to work with enough to keep them in games.  Just like there are also plenty of coaches that had the luck of situation and plethora of talent to make them look like geniuses.

I've said before that if the front office was sold on Zac Taylor enough to allow him full control over assembling his staff, then he deserves for the fans to respect his hiring selections.  

This. People need to lighten up and relax a bit.

(02-22-2019, 03:04 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Evidently, some were expecting the All-Time All-Madden coaching staff to come and work for Coach Taylor.    

The truth is, we really don't know jack about most of these coaches as men, or as coaches for that matter.  So much emphasis is put on coaches coming from backgrounds of championships and overwhelmingly winning records that much is lost in weather the man can actually coach and communicate his ideas to players.  There are plenty of fantastic coaches out there, that did tremendous jobs, simply by elevating the talent that they were given to work with enough to keep them in games.  Just like there are also plenty of coaches that had the luck of situation and plethora of talent to make them look like geniuses.

I've said before that if the front office was sold on Zac Taylor enough to allow him full control over assembling his staff, then he deserves for the fans to respect his hiring selections.  

Ok. We should all just shut up and see what happens.

For the record, all I said was that it wouldn't be a home run hire, and on its face, it isn't. 

(02-22-2019, 03:19 PM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Ok. We should all just shut up and see what happens.

For the record, all I said was that it wouldn't be a home run hire, and on its face, it isn't. 

Here's the thing.  How do we know that he's not a home run hire?  Most big names were nobody's, until someone took a closer look at them and gave them a shot at something better than what they were doing before.  Evidently Zac Taylor is bigger on communication skills and raw coaching ability, than he is on name recognition.  Weather this group of "no names" that he assembles goes on to make names for themselves, or they fall flat on their face, we won't know until they get a chance to show what they can do.

(02-22-2019, 03:01 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: well seems like he knows how to tackle... so worse case he can just show them how lol


Also any named LB coach available is available cause he just got fired for not being great at his job...

Good point.  

(02-22-2019, 03:04 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Evidently, some were expecting the All-Time All-Madden coaching staff to come and work for Coach Taylor.    

The truth is, we really don't know jack about most of these coaches as men, or as coaches for that matter.  So much emphasis is put on coaches coming from backgrounds of championships and overwhelmingly winning records that much is lost in weather the man can actually coach and communicate his ideas to players.  There are plenty of fantastic coaches out there, that did tremendous jobs, simply by elevating the talent that they were given to work with enough to keep them in games.  Just like there are also plenty of coaches that had the luck of situation and plethora of talent to make them look like geniuses.

I've said before that if the front office was sold on Zac Taylor enough to allow him full control over assembling his staff, then he deserves for the fans to respect his hiring selections.  

i think the perception that Taylor was slow to select a willing DC and the non-hire of JDR was a buzzkill for some on these boards.  

It would be equivalent to drafting a player with 3rd or 4th round grade in the first round.  

(02-22-2019, 02:57 PM)McC Wrote: It seems like you'd probably be looking at some kind of assistant to a position coach or, as in this guy's case, a defensive assistant.  Slim chance you'd get a current LB coach to make a lateral move, right?

It is good  that he has experience breaking down opponents and scouting.  The big question is can he teach how to stack, shed, cover, read and, for the love of God, tackle.

This has become so prevalent across the league, mostly because of the agreement with players assocation teams don't have contact much at all and a shorter time for actual coaching..

Everyone thinks scoring is because of the great offensive mind and skill players but much of it is because of lack of drills and tackling and the blame is not that much on the coaches but on that agreement between union and owners

(02-22-2019, 03:26 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Here's the thing.  How do we know that he's not a home run hire?  Most big names were nobody's, until someone took a closer look at them and gave them a shot at something better than what they were doing before.  Evidently Zac Taylor is bigger on communication skills and raw coaching ability, than he is on name recognition.  Weather this group of "no names" that he assembles goes on to make names for themselves, or they fall flat on their face, we won't know until they get a chance to show what they can do.

That's why I said "on its face." He may end up being a great coach. Just was hoping, maybe, that because we didn't exactly get an A list guy for our DC that we might get a little more of a known quantity in our LB/DL guys. 

(02-22-2019, 03:30 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: i think the perception that Taylor was slow to select a willing DC and the non-hire of JDR was a buzzkill for some on these boards.  

It would be equivalent to drafting a player with 3rd or 4th round grade in the first round.  

Sure, I would have been happy had JDR been named DC, but I'm not ready to jump off of a cliff because he wasn't.  All that says is that Taylor wasn't so overwhelmed by a famous name, that he forgot what it was that he was looking for in his ideal candidate.