What type of improvements can we expect in player development from coaching?

[Whatever]

(05-09-2019, 09:42 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I occasionally read on the boards that changing coaches will help player development. Kind of like ZT will sprinkle his magic fairy dust over the roster and our Madden ratings will raise from 59 to 73.

This isn't new. Last year, Pollack was expected to do the same thing with the offensive line. It's really hard to compare the work he did though because the line had 4 new starters (Hart/Redmond/Price/Glenn). The line was slightly better than the year before, but still a bottom 5 offensive line.

Then, there was Austin. He was brought in to revive the defense after Guenther left and we saw that disaster unfold. The thing is, Austin was fairly well regarded around the league as a young defensive mind.

Then, Lazor took over for Bratkowski. Once, again...let the lazor show begin! The offense was good at times early last year, but when Eifert got hurt the wheels came off.

What improvements can we realistically expect as far as player development from these new coaches? Should we expect 800 yards from Ross? 100 Tackles from Jefferson? 6 sacks from Billings?

Young players tend to trend upwards while they're on their rookie deals.  They become accustomed to the speed of the game and have time and coaching to address weaknesses in their game.  You have to remember that the Bengals were the youngest team in the league last year.  A majority of the roster is still in that initial development curve.

Personally, I'm an iron sharpens iron type of guy, and when I hear stuff like Marvin not wanting the offense to show up the defense in practice, that sounds counterintuitive to me.  You want the guys pushing each other to the limits in practice so they can get better.  Holding one unit back hurts everyone's development.

Under Marvin, we also seemed to have a lot of favorite playing.  There were certain guys who were Marvin's boys and were going to play regardless of how they actually played.  That breeds complacency, and that's the enemy of development.  We'll have to see how Zac does in this regard long term, but at least this year, those guys will be sweating for their spots.  Conversely, there were always guys that played well when given the opportunity, but always seemed to be in Marvin's doghouse.

Another related issue seemed to be a lack of scheme flexibility under Marvin. It always seemed like we had some square pegs in round holes and the system wasn't really tailored to the player's strengths.  For example, WJ3 is a great man CB, but we bring in Austin and have him running a bunch of zone concepts.