David Blough and the Offensive Staffing Thread

[Higskin]

 

[Conn]

Idk about that. Don’t love how Penix has looked in limited action and I imagine Kirk Cousins really runs that QB room, with his experience and the way he’s a buttoned-up, organized, smart guy.

Give him an interview as he hits the job market from that organization blowing up, to do Doug Williams a favor, sure.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I must admit, after listening to Logan who is always glass half full, go on and on and on about how difficult this is going to be for Blough - I’m leaning way more towards this being a disaster.

 

[Primus Porcus]

Yeah this is true for SF, they have been building this for a while. This definitely a make or break off season for Peters though.

Peters? or Quinn?

I think Peters has done plenty given what he's had to do with the roster. I don't see Harris moving on from him after this year at all. If Blough blows up in their faces, I could see movement surrounding Quinn, but Peters is safe.

 

[Higskin]

I must admit, after listening to Logan who is always glass half full, go on and on and on about how difficult this is going to be for Blough - I’m leaning way more towards this being a disaster.

Yeah, I listened to Take Commander yesterday too and came away deflated! I didn't realize how hard it is to marry playbook, to play calling, to run/pass game, to sequencing, to staffing, etc. etc. etc.

They really need an experienced play caller who's done it to help Blough and someone willing to be collaborative without the OC title.

 

[burgold]

Yeah, I listened to Take Commander yesterday too and came away deflated! I didn't realize how hard it is to marry playbook, to play calling, to run/pass game, to sequencing, to staffing, etc. etc. etc.

I don't think you need to be.

Every NFL year, we see at least half a dozen new offensive coordinators. Now, not all of them are first year rookie OCs, but enough are. I'm sure there's a steep learning curve. I'm equally sure that it's a bumpy road with some better games and some worse ones as each coordinator learns his roster and what they do best.

But I also don't see that many trainwrecks. I don't see many teams suffering from a rash of delay of game penalties because the play caller is staring blankly and just lost. I just see some coordinators who are better at their job and some who are worse. I see some who are growing and improving and some who are innovative and some who are predictable. So sure, Blough will have tough games, but he'll also develop and we'll discover whether he has that knack of knowing what to call and when, how to set up plays, how to maximize team strengths and minimize weaknesses.

In any case, don't let yourself get deflated because you spend your time imagining everything that could go wrong and how hard it is. If Blough was hopeless and helpless, he wouldn't have been someone that Detroit and others wanted to talk to, too. He wouldn't have had the growing rep we've been hearing about even before this OC search. Moreover, if he was a buffoon, Quinn wouldn't have raced to ink his name before getting a chance to interview anyone else.

 

[KDawg]

I don't think you need to be.

Every NFL year, we see at least half a dozen new offensive coordinators. Now, not all of them are first year rookie OCs, but enough are. I'm sure there's a steep learning curve. I'm equally sure that it's a bumpy road with some better games and some worse ones as each coordinator learns his roster and what they do best.

But I also don't see that many trainwrecks. I don't see many teams suffering from a rash of delay of game penalties because the play caller is staring blankly and just lost. I just see some coordinators who are better at their job and some who are worse. I see some who are growing and improving and some who are innovative and some who are predictable. So sure, Blough will have tough games, but he'll also develop and we'll discover whether he has that knack of knowing what to call and when, how to set up plays, how to maximize team strengths and minimize weaknesses.

In any case, don't let yourself get deflated because you spend your time imagining everything that could go wrong and how hard it is. If Blough was hopeless and helpless, he wouldn't have been someone that Detroit and others wanted to talk to, too. He wouldn't have had the growing rep we've been hearing about even before this OC search. Moreover, if he was a buffoon, Quinn wouldn't have raced to ink his name before getting a chance to interview anyone else.

I think it’s a lot harder than you think it is coming from someone that has coordinated and worked with offenses at the varsity and collegiate level and has spoken to NFL coaches.

It should be a concern and if he navigates it he is 100% worthy of the promotion. He may be anyways, but navigating that isn’t easy. And it’s being downplayed too much.

And its difficulty doesn’t mean he’s hopeless or helpless. It means he’s inexperienced and he is going to be facing a whole lot of issues that he’s never had to face before as an assistant QB coach. His time as a full time position coach was limited to in-season work. That doesn’t include all of the offseason planning. His offseason experience is as an assistant positional coach and he is now being asked to coordinate an entire side of the football.

It matters and shouldn’t be downplayed.

That doesn’t mean he can’t. But we should really keep that in mind.

 

[Chris]

Humans, by and large, learn everything through both experience and failure. Blough has neither of note.

Maybe he is a wunderkind. Maybe he is not. Only time will tell.

 

[Commander Wraith]

I must admit, after listening to Logan who is always glass half full, go on and on and on about how difficult this is going to be for Blough - I’m leaning way more towards this being a disaster.

It’s a crazy change in Blough’s responsibilities that has potential to go wrong in so many areas.

The plus side is that 1) being a former qb, and working with Daniels for 2 years, he will have a sense for what will work best in terms of Daniels receiving information, processing that info, and executing it, as well as having a pulse on/familiarity with the offensive personnel.

And 2) he has the benefit (that many new OCs don’t have) of a common denominator of Kliff’s offense - the scheme, the verbiage, the game planning, the sequencing, etc.

Now, if he basically starts over schematically (instead of using Kliff’s offense as a foundation, even if it is phased out over time), then best of luck buddy… that’s a lot of work, and a lot of continuity lost, and brings into play a whole new set of variables for potential failure.

 

[burgold]

I dunno, KDawg.

I don't see it being downplayed at all. If anything, I see the opposite.

There's a tremendous amount of handwringing and wailing and worry. I imagine it's a hard job. You did it and you know it's a hard job, but you also did it (presumeably successfully) as have thousands of high school, college, and pro coaches every year. So it's not an impossible job. And that's the vibe I'm resisting. The vibe I get from the board... that this is an impossible job and Blough has no chance to succeed and this is worse than a fool's move. It's a move that has no chance of turning out well.

I just don't see the need to be that negative. Blough could bomb, he might struggle before learning to tread water, he might be a savant. I'm willing to let the hand play out without making myself a wreck.

 

[Chris]

The vibe I get from the board... that this is an impossible job and Blough has no chance to succeed and this is worse than a fool's move. It's a move that has no chance of turning out well.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I think it’s a lot harder than you think it is coming from someone that has coordinated and worked with offenses at the varsity and collegiate level and has spoken to NFL coaches.

It should be a concern and if he navigates it he is 100% worthy of the promotion. He may be anyways, but navigating that isn’t easy. And it’s being downplayed too much.

And its difficulty doesn’t mean he’s hopeless or helpless. It means he’s inexperienced and he is going to be facing a whole lot of issues that he’s never had to face before as an assistant QB coach. His time as a full time position coach was limited to in-season work. That doesn’t include all of the offseason planning. His offseason experience is as an assistant positional coach and he is now being asked to coordinate an entire side of the football.

It matters and shouldn’t be downplayed.

That doesn’t mean he can’t. But we should really keep that in mind.

you would know more than us since you do this for a living.

But to double down on your point, listening to Logan Paulsen on Take Command, and he generally gives a positive spin on most things.

He sees this as really daunting for Blough. He goes heck he has to draw the diagrams of his plays and other basic stuff that other coaches already have ready. The amount of work he has to put in to just get started is staggering. Then he has to coin his plays. Ultimately teach all the language to the players.

And he goes McVay even admitted that first season he was a bit overwhelmed and got much better as he went along. But he didn't have a feel for how to get a feel for the game until he went through it trial and error and thankfully he had Jay to help him. Shanny also said that having Forrestor was a godsend to help him through that first year calling plays.

Grant said he talked to someone who knew Blough well, from another team, and said he will have growing pains and in turn hopefully they have patience with him in season 1.

The gist am getting from all of this is Blough should be much better in season 2 than this season.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I must admit, after listening to Logan who is always glass half full, go on and on and on about how difficult this is going to be for Blough - I’m leaning way more towards this being a disaster.

I saw this after my post. Yeah Logan got my attention, too. And I don't recall if I am mixing a little of Keim's podcast with Logan but I think its primarily Logan.

The overall vibe I got from Logan is its going to very hard to hit the ground running and almost for certain Blough 2027 >> Blough 2026.

It's to create a new offense yourself, then teach it for the first time, then orchestrate it for the first time, and learn the ebbs and flows of a game all in one fell swoop -- you can be a genius but even so you will have growing pains, zero chance you won't.

What got my attention the most, and I've heard this in multiple podcasts now that Sean admitted to some that he wasn't that hot in his first year at the job but learned so much from it and then got comfortable.

All of that's fine, but in a win now season, I gather they cannot afford a wait until 2027 season.

The counter for me to this is:

A. Maybe Blough leans in hard still to Kliff's theme but more run oriented version of it, and slowly weans in the Ben Johnson stuff.

B. Jayden with weapons and a good O line can transcend ups and downs from a play caller

 

[DixieFlatline]

you would know more than us since you do this for a living.

But to double down on your point, listening to Logan Paulsen on Take Command, and he generally gives a positive spin on most things.

He sees this as really daunting for Blough. He goes heck he has to draw the diagrams of his plays and other basic stuff that other coaches already have ready. The amount of work he has to put in to just get started is staggering. Then he has to coin his plays. Ultimately teach all the language to the players.

And he goes McVay even admitted that first season he was a bit overwhelmed and got much better as he went along. But he didn't have a feel for how to get a feel for the game until he went through it trial and error and thankfully he had Jay to help him. Shanny also said that having Forrestor was a godsend to help him through that first year calling plays.

Grant said he talked to someone who knew Blough well, from another team, and said he will have growing pains and in turn hopefully they have patience with him in season 1.

The gist am getting from all of this is Blough should be much better in season 2 than this season.

So I'm a neophyte on this subject, but is it possible he's not starting from scratch? Do up and coming coaches start building a playbook prior to being named a coordinator so they are better prepared for the jump?

 

[Commander Wraith]

I saw this after my post. Yeah Logan got my attention, too. And I don't recall if I am mixing a little of Keim's podcast with Logan but I think its primarily Logan.

The overall vibe I got from Logan is its going to very hard to hit the ground running and almost for certain Blough 2027 >> Blough 2026.

It's to create a new offense yourself, then teach it for the first time, then orchestrate it for the first time, and learn the ebbs and flows of a game all in one fell swoop -- you can be a genius but even so you will have growing pains, zero chance you won't.

What got my attention the most, and I've heard this in multiple podcasts now that Sean admitted to some that he wasn't that hot in his first year at the job but learned so much from it and then got comfortable.

All of that's fine, but in a win now season, I gather they cannot afford a wait until 2027 season.

The counter for me to this is:

A. Maybe Blough leans in hard still to Kliff's theme but more run oriented version of it, and slowly weans in the Ben Johnson stuff.

B. Jayden with weapons and a good O line can transcend ups and downs from a play caller

I’d add that Blough also comes with high end qb experience that guys like McVay and Shanahan didn’t have. Might not mean much in the end, but it also might give him a bit of an edge (likely not nearly as much as the 2 points you made). And as I said before, there’s also the fact that he has familiarity with Jayden (what he likes, doesn’t like, his learning style, etc) and other offensive personnel (I don’t think we’ll wind up with a ton of turnover on that side of the ball). All told, there’s a lot of potential for him to come in ahead of the 8-ball compared to many other first time OCs. (That’s not to discount the potentially huge learning curve of course)

 

[method man]

I saw this after my post. Yeah Logan got my attention, too. And I don't recall if I am mixing a little of Keim's podcast with Logan but I think its primarily Logan.

The overall vibe I got from Logan is its going to very hard to hit the ground running and almost for certain Blough 2027 >> Blough 2026.

It's to create a new offense yourself, then teach it for the first time, then orchestrate it for the first time, and learn the ebbs and flows of a game all in one fell swoop -- you can be a genius but even so you will have growing pains, zero chance you won't.

What got my attention the most, and I've heard this in multiple podcasts now that Sean admitted to some that he wasn't that hot in his first year at the job but learned so much from it and then got comfortable.

All of that's fine, but in a win now season, I gather they cannot afford a wait until 2027 season.

The counter for me to this is:

A. Maybe Blough leans in hard still to Kliff's theme but more run oriented version of it, and slowly weans in the Ben Johnson stuff.

B. Jayden with weapons and a good O line can transcend ups and downs from a play caller

Yeah if I am Blough, I would probably stick with Kliff’s overall structure, language and playbook but make the necessary alterations (motion, more under center and more running plays) to tie to DQ’s vision.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I’d add that Blough also comes with high end qb experience that guys like McVay and Shanahan didn’t have. Might not mean much in the end, but it also might give him a bit of an edge (likely not nearly as much as the 2 points you made). And as I said before, there’s also the fact that he has familiarity with Jayden (what he likes, doesn’t like, his learning style, etc) and other offensive personnel (I don’t think we’ll wind up with a ton of turnover on that side of the ball). All told, there’s a lot of potential for him to come in ahead of the 8-ball compared to many other first time OCs. (That’s not to discount the potentially huge learning curve of course)

The point Logan made wasn't ability but that there are so many layers to the job that you have learn and master on the fly for the first time.

I can't think of a job where I was better at in year 1 than the rest of my career -- in year 1 I ranged from sucking or being just OK but year 2 I tended to heat up, etc. I think most people are like that.

 

[CaptZippo]

Peters? or Quinn?

I think Peters has done plenty given what he's had to do with the roster. I don't see Harris moving on from him after this year at all. If Blough blows up in their faces, I could see movement surrounding Quinn, but Peters is safe.

No, when I said it's a make a break year I wasn't referring to his job status, I was talking about making good FA decisions and nailing this draft to put this team in a good position to build off of.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Commander Wraith]

The point Logan made wasn't ability but that there are so many layers to the job that you have learn and master on the fly for the first time.

I can't think of a job where I was better at in year 1 than the rest of my career -- in year 1 I ranged from sucking or being just OK but year 2 I tended to heat up, etc. I think most people are like that.

Oh absolutely, on both counts. In case I wasn’t clear, I was adding to your 2 counter points - that it’s possible that the continuity makes the transition slightly less dramatic (it’s a huge jump regardless though). And that perhaps his qb experience makes a difference (as compared to Shanahan/McVay anyway, even those 2 had things Blough doesn’t… namely coaching experience).