12-10-2020, 04:23 PM
In general, I don't think ZT is likely to be fired. The only way I can see it happening (even if we lose out), is if the front office is livid about the following criticism. And it is a valid criticism.
When we hired Taylor, it was said that his scheme was OL friendly because it was based on play action. So, besides drafting Jonah, the idea is that you can allocate resources elsewhere and get by with a bunch of mid round picks on the OL. Outside of Whit, the Rams didn't have a lot of big names on their OL when ZT was there. I remember interviews with Callahan where he flat out said sometimes you can get around lesser lineman by having backs and TEs chip, etc.
So the front office says sure, we'll get you your version of whit and just guys like Hart and a 4th round rookie in Jordan, etc, and you scheme to make them look good. Then we draft Burrow who played a bunch of empty sets in college, who said he liked empty sets, and ZT got so enamored with an offense looking like LSU's, that he just ran empty sets. We don't even run much, let alone use play action. Empty sets by definition mean we don't keep many backs/TEs in. So then we had Burrow overexposed behind an OL built for play action and other types of protection that is no longer there.
So, if the front office is livid that they were told to find one thing based on scheme, and then the scheme changes and gets their #1 QB killed, sure they might fire ZT. It might not fall under the "growing pains" they expected.
To be clear, while this is definitely dysfunction between coaches and front office, I don't think it's a type of dysfunction that necessarily needs a new coaching staff to be fixed. Not that I would be disappointed if the whole staff is fired, but I also know they do a thorough autopsy after every year. The bigger question I have is what the results of that autopsy will be organizationally. ZT has made mistakes as we knew he would (hence I didn't want to hire him), but that doesn't necessarily mean the same mistakes will keep holding us back indefinitely.
When we hired Taylor, it was said that his scheme was OL friendly because it was based on play action. So, besides drafting Jonah, the idea is that you can allocate resources elsewhere and get by with a bunch of mid round picks on the OL. Outside of Whit, the Rams didn't have a lot of big names on their OL when ZT was there. I remember interviews with Callahan where he flat out said sometimes you can get around lesser lineman by having backs and TEs chip, etc.
So the front office says sure, we'll get you your version of whit and just guys like Hart and a 4th round rookie in Jordan, etc, and you scheme to make them look good. Then we draft Burrow who played a bunch of empty sets in college, who said he liked empty sets, and ZT got so enamored with an offense looking like LSU's, that he just ran empty sets. We don't even run much, let alone use play action. Empty sets by definition mean we don't keep many backs/TEs in. So then we had Burrow overexposed behind an OL built for play action and other types of protection that is no longer there.
So, if the front office is livid that they were told to find one thing based on scheme, and then the scheme changes and gets their #1 QB killed, sure they might fire ZT. It might not fall under the "growing pains" they expected.
To be clear, while this is definitely dysfunction between coaches and front office, I don't think it's a type of dysfunction that necessarily needs a new coaching staff to be fixed. Not that I would be disappointed if the whole staff is fired, but I also know they do a thorough autopsy after every year. The bigger question I have is what the results of that autopsy will be organizationally. ZT has made mistakes as we knew he would (hence I didn't want to hire him), but that doesn't necessarily mean the same mistakes will keep holding us back indefinitely.
