Daronte Jones and the Defensive Staffing Thread

[HTTR]

Looks like "E" is pretty much on the money, from Keim

Yep. And it doesn’t bother me at all about the Giants and Cowboys. The Giants have handed the keys to Harbaugh, so no surprise they hired his guy. And Dallas is idiots.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Yep, Washington seems as if it is waiting for a guy to make up his mind and meanwhile is letting other capable coaches sign with other teams.

This reminds me a bit of the narrow-vision focus on Ben Johnson in 2024 and wrote off some other coaches who actually wanted to take a HC job.

I am 100% positive that someone like AP learns from that horrible mistake.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Dah-Dee]

What the hell is going on, this guy is 47. 47! He's ancient! A literal graybeard. No way he'll fit in at juicetime meetings with the OC and his toddler minions.

Edit for clarity:

/S

 

[RWJ]

 

[BayouBrave86]

Amos going to reach his full potential under this guy. I wonder if we go with Caleb Downs at 7 now?

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Well, it seems like they got a guy who has good upside and isn’t viewed as a complete bum.

An it’s not a retread guy with 10 years of average production.

And it’s not the historical worst DC in the NFL which is what Moron Dumbass Jay Gruden pulled off.

So it seems like it’s a good move.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[RWJ]

Amos going to reach his full potential under this guy. I wonder if we go with Caleb Downs at 7 now?

If not Bailey, I'm all about Downs at #7 and am hoping so.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

If not Bailey, I'm all about Downs at #7 and am hoping so.

Let’s take the draft stuff to the draft thread please.

 

[burgold]

Well, it seems like they got a guy who has good upside and isn’t viewed as a complete bum.

An it’s not a retread guy with 10 years of average production.

And it’s not the historical worst DC in the NFL which is what Moron Dumbass Jay Gruden pulled off.

So it seems like it’s a good move.

Also seems like a guy who has options and somehow chose this team instead of staying home or going elsewhere.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Also seems like a guy who has options and somehow chose this team instead of staying home or going elsewhere.

Well, he did get a promotion and was probably going to get a DC job so he most likely wasn’t going back to the Vikings.

However he did have options for DC and came here.

So that part, I agree and it’s very promising.

 

[HOF44]

Vikings fans seem to think he would have been the DC there if Flores left.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I’m not in love with it. But I’m not at all upset by it. And I think he is among the best we were going to do. Probably one of the better staffing decisions we’ve made. Not a lot else that I would have preferred. He’s going to bring some fun blitz packages, which I love.

I have concerns with how they are focusing so much on takeaways because some of that is luck and personnel driven potentially.

I like the idea of solid blitz packages, but I don’t know that Jones was the guy behind them. I could (pessimistically) look at it like EB; EB was around Andy Reid and clearly tried to implement that scheme here and it was an unmitigated disaster.

Right now, due to what has transpired, you can't trust this staff on its evals. It's almost like, if they win a bidding war for someone, you'd feel solid. Otherwise, you'd have at least some doubts (but sure, we can always hold out some hope - realistically though, you would have doubts given DQ's hiring prowess).

Also seems like a guy who has options and somehow chose this team instead of staying home or going elsewhere.

Did he have options?

I actually think in some ways it mirrors Blough. I don't know a lot about his history. Whitt had somewhat of a pedigree, he had some history in the league. My problem here isn't Jones, it's really trust in the evaluator who should have the most information.

I think it was reported that Jones was interviewed for other DC roles in the league in this hiring cycle and passed over for other hires, so who were these other options we beat out?

I'm all about hope, it's cool, but being honest, I don't know that he was anyone else's number one guy. That's OK, but I am fully in wait-and-see. Unless I missed something which is definitely possible; I am incredibly busy right now at work (although have to get my BGO fix apparently...).

 

[HTTR]

I have concerns with how they are focusing so much on takeaways because some of that is luck and personnel driven potentially.

I like the idea of solid blitz packages, but I don’t know that Jones was the guy behind them. I could (pessimistically) look at it like EB; EB was around Andy Reid and clearly tried to implement that scheme here and it was an unmitigated disaster.

Right now, due to what has transpired, you can't trust this staff on its evals. It's almost like, if they win a bidding war for someone, you'd feel solid. Otherwise, you'd have at least some doubts (but sure, we can always hold out some hope - realistically though, you would have doubts given DQ's hiring prowess).

Did he have options?

I actually think in some ways it mirrors Blough. I don't know a lot about his history. Whitt had somewhat of a pedigree, he had some history in the league. My problem here isn't Jones, it's really trust in the evaluator who should have the most information.

I think it was reported that Jones was interviewed for other DC roles in the league in this hiring cycle and passed over for other hires, so who were these other options we beat out?

I'm all about hope, it's cool, but being honest, I don't know that he was anyone else's number one guy. That's OK, but I am fully in wait-and-see. Unless I missed something which is definitely possible; I am incredibly busy right now at work (although have to get my BGO fix apparently...).

Well, I guess if you don’t trust the evaluator, you’re not going to like anybody he hires. So you might as well just get on board with this and hope for the best. That’s really all any of us can do.

 

[bowhunter]

Although I care about blitz packages and interceptions, what I care most about is the ability to outcoach our opponents. Game plans and half time adjustments are importanter. It is the cerebral part that should predicate when blitzing and tight coverage are the right call. Being that Jones was second in command at Minny, we really don't have a lot of data on how all of that will play out with Jones, at least not until next Fall. I'm sure that a high ranking assistant to Flores is no slouch however.

So until we have more data, Put me down as an "8" on @KDawgs Whelmometer

 

[skinsinparadise]

Impossible to know of course but I like this hire in theory. Keim said he's heard really good things about him when asking around. That wasn't always the case when he asked about others.

Loved hearing that he's expected to be able to run some of Flores' blitz packages.

 

[Conn]

At this point in the process, with who was still available and on our radar, I think this was about as well as we could have done. I preferred this guy or Scott just due to blind upside, over a known mediocre guy like Morris. And I’d rather go with that sort of risky guy because at least if it blows up, hey at least that gets us closer to the next stage of this franchise’s future. And if he’s good enough and flashes real potential as the year goes on, that means we had a good enough year to stay on the current path, likely. So either way, clarity.

I imagine they know a lot about this guy through their relationship with Flores, and believe he’ll bring that aggressive style here. He had a pretty normal progression up through the ranks over the years, which is good. He’s 47, the exact same age as Whitt (so getting his DC job two years later) when a lot of us wondered why it took so long for him to get his opportunity if he’s such a secondary whisperer…but he also spent some time coaching college so his path has been different I guess.

I’m glad it’s someone with new ideas. Who is incentivized to make a name for himself and get creative with whatever defensive pieces he is given in order to carve out his future and keep Quinn (and himself) employed. With experienced DC’s like Morris you just never know how motivated they are after being fired so many damn times and starting over again and again. This guy is getting his shot. Like Blough, they have the opportunity to make Quinn look very smart or very dumb. I’m here for it.

Interested in if we make any changes to the defensive staff, or if we essentially found someone with just enough desperation to their prospects that they’re willing to just plug in at the top of our D operation. I really hope we get some new assistants in here because whatever we were doing was not working.

After that, AP’s up to bat. He and Newmark need to crush this FA period and then the draft. If they don’t, all these coaches are toast whether they were good hires or not.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Well, I guess if you don’t trust the evaluator, you’re not going to like anybody he hires. So you might as well just get on board with this and hope for the best. That’s really all any of us can do.

Like I said - if these guys were looked at by other teams, I feel better about them.
Case in point, I do believe Blough was looked at seriously by the Lions for a position, and I know others asked for him last year. There are reports that I believe right now, that Detroit was strongly considering hiring him.

Jones was interviewed by multiple teams - but passed over as far as I know. It's definitely a good sign there was interest, although the pessimist in me sees Rooney rule as well. However, I do think he was looked at seriously by the Cowboys - but again, passed over there. So, a bit mixed; I would feel better if we won a hot coordinator among a group of teams, because of my distrust for DQ's eval skills.

Like you said - I am hoping for the best regardless! I am on board for sure, I like to look at it for a bit with clear eyes at the hiring time, but after that I am on the hope train.

To be honest, I was not so upset that they were waiting and not hiring anyone. I was hoping they were gunning for Kuhr, Scott... one of Vrabel's or Macdonald's guys. I think both of those HCs seem like the types who will develop their coordinators and possibly assistant coaches. I was particularly excited for Kuhr since he called NEP's plays this year and their postseason D has been great.

The good news is certainly that it could have been worse. I hope that the changes at coordinators make a difference - but I also feel (hope!) that AP has made some changes in his process. I think his process has had a few clear issues. I think that is possibly an understated reason why these two coordinators were fired ultimately - so without some change there, it's uphill for Blough and Jones too.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Again, I come back to this: At the very least, he was in demand. He probably wasn’t staying in Minny,

According to Keim, Jones interviewed with 5 teams. At least that means he was in demand to some extent.

I still go back to when Jay Gruden hired Joe Barry when nobody else wanted him and then promoted Greg Manusky when nobody wanted him.

And Ron hired Jack who was jobless.

This is an improvement.

At least the guy we hired is a guy who other people want to talk to.