David Blough and the Offensive Staffing Thread

[DogofWar1]

Why would you get mad about it if they brought McDaniel in instead? It's not like 2020 when they booted Kevin out the door for Scott fucking Turner

Okay, well let me clarify, if we lost Blough, and then he was successful, AND we proceeded to suck, I'd be livid.

If McDaniel came in and was baller and we won consistently I wouldn't care.

But my blood pressure spikes thinking about how so many good HCs of today were in the building at varying points in the 2010s.

 

[actorguy1]

Yeah, a second year as an assistant QB coach (except the last 6 weeks or so as interim QB coach)

 

[SkinsLife]

I am fine with this.... we had no shot at any good OC anyway... Mcdaniels was always a pipe dream. Either he is a hit or he is a bust that takes Quinn and possibly Peters with him on the way out. Either way its a win for the org.

 

[bowhunter]

Blough me

 

[Neophyte]

While it would seem to be a longshot... there's an outside chance they will wait to see if MM gets a HC position, and offer him the assistant head coach - offense position.

We already have an Assistant Head Coach on the offensive side of the ball - Brian Johnson.

 

[Chris]

Classic Friday night news dump. 🤣

 

[Chris]

We already have an Assistant Head Coach on the offensive side of the ball - Brian Johnson.

Right now we do. 😉

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Neophyte]

I am beyond frustrated. It’s like they didn’t even try.

To be fair, we have no clue what was happening behind the scenes.

Lots of reports about Blough being high on Campbell's list in Detroit. Maybe the #1 name even.

I'd be shocked if DQ didn't talk to McDaniel at some point over the last 2 days though. If he hears that McDaniel has interest from 3-4 teams already and he really wants a HC gig immediately, that makes it had to sit still.

Boone said somewhere in this thread already. We could find ourselves out of the running for any of our top candidates while waiting on McDaniel only to lose him to a HC job.

 

[Faithful Fan]

Can somebody help me understand the appeal of this guy?

He had a 13-23 record as a college quarterback, an 0-7 record as a pro quarterback, and was an assistant QB coach of a team whose quarterbacks regressed in a 5-12 season. That’s his entire resume as far as I can tell.

The only good things I can find about him are that people say he is smart and he has an Olympic athlete for a wife.

I guess we have to hope that DQ saw something in the meetings and practices that really knocked his socks off.

 

[ExoDus84]

This is a head scratcher. Blough me, Quinn.

In all seriousness, these guys have to be plugged in, and so they must know with a pretty good certainty McDaniel either wouldn't come here as OC, or wouldn't be available due to HC interest. If that's the case, then so be it. But this is a swing for the fences kind of move. The kind of move that gets a guy fired real quick if it goes sideways, so Quinn (and us) better hope he's on to something.

 

[Boone]

Okay, well let me clarify, if we lost Blough, and then he was successful, AND we proceeded to suck, I'd be livid.

If McDaniel came in and was baller and we won consistently I wouldn't care.

But my blood pressure spikes thinking about how so many good HCs of today were in the building at varying points in the 2010s.

There is absolutely zero correlation between the success of Sean McVay, Lefleur, or other wunderkinds and Blough. The only thing they all have in common is that they earned reps as young hotshot assistants. That rep may prove to be valid or wildly offbase. Time will tell, but just because guys like McVay were let go and wildly successful does not mean the guy we retained is going to be successful.

 

[Faithful Fan]

It applies to every HC/OC/DC/ST/QB coach hire I believe. But there are definitely no loopholes for in-house hires

I think the rule is that in house candidates cannot count towards the minimum of two minority candidate interviews.

 

[Boone]

To be fair, we have no clue what was happening behind the scenes.

Lots of reports about Blough being high on Campbell's list in Detroit. Maybe the #1 name even.

I'd be shocked if DQ didn't talk to McDaniel at some point over the last 2 days though. If he hears that McDaniel has interest from 3-4 teams already and he really wants a HC gig immediately, that makes it had to sit still.

Boone said somewhere in this thread already. We could find ourselves out of the running for any of our top candidates while waiting on McDaniel only to lose him to a HC job.

That being said (taking McDaniel out of the equation), going with someone with zero experience after letting Kliff Kingsbury walk when there are competent OC candidates out there is rightfully going to raise some eyebrows.

I sort of feel like the whole inability to navigate the differences with Kliff and then hiring a loyal subordinate with no experience - smacks of some ego issues. Blough certainly isn't going to tell Quinn to stick to what he knows - the D - even if it needs saying. He will be an OC with little cache who can be browbeaten and directed. Not sure that's always a good thing.

 

[Discobob]

We already have an Assistant Head Coach on the offensive side of the ball - Brian Johnson.

True, but there is no real limit to assistant head coaches... Johnson is AHC offensive pass game coordinator.

You could give MM a title like, Assistant Head Coach Offensive Architect (or something equally pretentious).

Point being, there's no reason you can't do it... but again, I'm not saying I'd be money on it happening.

 

[heisenberg]

I get that his lack of a resume is scary but why is everybody acting like its unheard of?
Lots of brilliant coaches are promoted way before their resume suggests they should be.
Obviously we're yet to know if blough falls into that category but a whole lot of people smarter at football than me have recognized his potential and thats good enough for me to be ok with this swing for the fences.

 

[Boone]

I get that his lack of a resume is scary but why is everybody acting like its unheard of?
Lots of brilliant coaches are promoted way before their resume suggests they should be.
Obviously we're yet to know if blough falls into that category but a whole lot of people smarter at football than me have recognized his potential and thats good enough for me to be ok with this swing for the fences.

I don't think you can separate the hire from the circumstances that necessitated it. We let a highly regarded extremely experienced OC walk because Dan Quinn couldn't convince him to operate the way he thought he should.

Replacing him with a virtual unknown is a pucker factor 10 move.

Might work out, but I wouldn't bet my 401 K on it.

 

[KDawg]

To be fair, we have no clue what was happening behind the scenes.

Lots of reports about Blough being high on Campbell's list in Detroit. Maybe the #1 name even.

I'd be shocked if DQ didn't talk to McDaniel at some point over the last 2 days though. If he hears that McDaniel has interest from 3-4 teams already and he really wants a HC gig immediately, that makes it had to sit still.

Boone said somewhere in this thread already. We could find ourselves out of the running for any of our top candidates while waiting on McDaniel only to lose him to a HC job.

While I understand, I predicted this would happen and we’d all be shocked and then come around and be positive about it.

That is already happening.

I have nothing against Blough.

He might be great. Doesn’t change the fact that this is incredibly underwhelming.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I am not negative or positive. I got no idea if he's a great offensive coordinator. Clearly, Dan is blown away and sees pararells to other young stud assistants he's had in the past and he let go to have success elsewhere.
Ballsy move. As to the decision in a pure generic way, I like it better then them going with a retread coordindator like Daboll, I like it less then going with a coordinator with proven pedigree and upside.

On ES few of us were excited when Sean was elevated from TE coach to offensive coordinator, yawn boring at the time, maybe a little excitement but not much when Kevin O'Connell took over play calling.

Then you got other young coordinators who ended up busts like Scott Turner. Though I do recall some muted hype about Turner, he had some NFL naysayers when he came here.

Don't know. I just got to see it play out. The upside to this is I like the training -- Ben Johnson, Kevin O'Connell, Kliff.

David Blough? Examining ex-QB's candidacy as Detroit Lions OC

David Blough spent parts of 3 seasons as QB with the Detroit Lions under Dan Campbell and has a prior relationship with quarterback Jared Goff

sports.yahoo.com

Blough went into coaching immediately after his playing career, and told the Free Press in his final season in Detroit he was interested in coaching flag football in the Olympics.

"The ideas that Ben [Johnson] has on a Sunday come from somewhere, or he invents them, and the people who are the most innovative I think will have success in the Olympics," Blough said at the time.

Asked if he had any innovative offensive ideas, Blough said, "I do have thoughts in my head. It would be fun. After watching the Pro Bowl [when they played flag football] – really the Pro Bowl and then [playing] in Arizona, I was like, 'You could get really creative.'"

Johnson credited Blough for introducing one of the many trick plays he ran as Lions offensive coordinator in 2022-24, a reverse flea-flicker pass to tight end Sam LaPorta that went for a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys last year.

The Lions called the play, which called for LaPorta to block at the line of scrimmage before releasing downfield, "Boilermaker."

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I’m super disappointed, primarily because I could envision the McDaniels/Jayden relationship to be the stuff dreams are made of.

I cannot do that with Blough.

But I can’t help but have this smidge of belief that maybe, just maybe- Dan is ahead of the curve, and believes in this dude so much - this was the plan all along. It’s one of those moves that you either look like a genius or an idiot. It’s also a move that makes or breaks his tenure here, and I’m okay with that.