Chris Foerster is the new OL Coach?

[Jimbo]

Adam Schefter is reporting that the Skins have hired former 49ers assistant Chris Foerster as their offensive line coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4845510

 

[servumtuum]

Well, there could be posts galore on this one-I just found a 49ers forum at footballsfuture.com that said thank you to the Redskins. Some sample quotes.

Attn: Dan Snyder
Attn: Mike Shanahan

Thank you for hiring Chris Foerster as your O-Line coach

Signed,
San Francisco 49ers fans

Co-Signed,
NFC East pass rushers

Best pawn off to the Redskins since the team got 3rd and 4th round picks for Brandon Lloyd

DeMarcus Ware is going to have a field day whenever he plays Washington now.

Not all the posts reflected this perspective, however;

Are you kidding me? Someone stole our o-line coach away from us?

The only thing to be said in his favor is how little talent he had to work with. Fans, being fans, like to think our guys are decent. They aren't. This is one of the worst lines in the league. Heitmann is vastly over-rated by fans on this site. Staley is solid, but nothing to get excited about as a LT. Sims and Snyder are awful. And, I can see potential in Rachal, but he certainly hasn't reached it yet. Both he and Baas are sub par and would have a hard time finding a starting spot on most teams.

Forum link.http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=371191

And of course opinions vary elsewhere also-this from the article at BlacherReport.com;

Foerster has been highly regarded for the job he did with the 49ers line. He has a tough task in Washington, as Mike Shanahan plans to make the offensive line his top priority and rebuild from top to bottom

Article link.http://bleacherreport.com/articles/330155-redskins-oline-coach-chris-foerster-profile

This could be interesting-we get a whole new coaching staff to talk about. Who said the off-season was gonna be boring?

 

[riggins44]

http://ravens24x7.blogspot.com/2006/08/so-tell-me-why-does-chris-foerster-get.html

Looks like he wasn't too well liked in Baltimore as well. From what little I could find he seems to teach the zone blocking scheme.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Its a tremendous fallacy to think a coach at any position can actually take a group of NFL-caliber OLinemen, and make them worse. They are what they are. Great guys, like Buges and Gibbs, take an average OL and make it perform great, however they are mostly teaching and refining technique, and its not like these OL get to NFL teams having never played the position before!

Gore has had some fantastic numbers the past few years...not sure what they are complaining about.

 

[The Burgundy Ghost]

http://ravens24x7.blogspot.com/2006/08/so-tell-me-why-does-chris-foerster-get.html

Looks like he wasn't too well liked in Baltimore as well. From what little I could find he seems to teach the zone blocking scheme.

There's the problem if he teaches zone blocking with the Ravens.....the Ravens O-line has been for the past decade a big mauling O-line with Ogden being the most athletic player despite also being huge.

I also (I've watched the Raven's O-line over the year) know that they're power run has always been decent, their true fault was in their pass pro.
Their pass pro ruined any hope in Kyle Boller, much like the Skins lack of pass pro ruined Ramsey.

I'm in wait and see mode.....but at least Shanahan found a coach that is familiar with zone scheme and is comfortable running/teaching said scheme.

Also, I noticed OSU ran a great deal of zone/stretch in the OSU/Ole miss Bowl game, maybe Okung is the guy to go with based on his knowledge of zone blocking?

 

[Billfishead]

Wow...

I'm willing to give all these new coaches a chance, but if you ask me, Shanahan is a solid C- in recruiting top not coaching talent.

Yikes!

That being said, who would you have recommended for the coaching staff and how do you come up with a C- grade?

I believe he picked the best available people to teach the style of football he coaches.

 

[Neophyte]

Wow...

I'm willing to give all these new coaches a chance, but if you ask me, Shanahan is a solid C- in recruiting top not coaching talent.

Yikes!

While I don't have an opinion yet, I would like to see some justification for this statement. Why do you believe this?

 

[EatSleepRedskin]

From all accounts, the guy has been a "disappointment" to say the least wherever he's been.

This one, I'll just have to trust that Shanahan knows what he's doing.

 

[bgsky320]

The Niners were 22nd in sacks allowed this year vs. 30th for the Raiders. However, we were last in 2008 and tied for last 2007. The Raiders were 24th in 2008 when Cable was OL coach for part of the season and 22nd in 2007 when he was in the position for the entire season. So maybe I got a little too excited, but at least it looks like it would be somewhat of an improvement.

 

[riggins44]

Supposedly he has studied all the coaches and assistants that would be available. His preferred (2) OL coaches went to other jobs.

 

[Neophyte]

And who exactly would you have picked up that is better, tr1? Talking about lateral moves is nice but in the real world it is a lot like us fans talking about trading down in the draft. You have to find someone to dance with if you are going to do that and maybe no one wants to dance.

Denver denied permission for us to speak to their guys to start with about what were essentially lateral moves. Perhaps other teams did as well. We just don't know.

So I ask again, who would you have hired of the guys that were available?

 

[Bulldog]

Do you think the fact the 49ers in the past acquired Jonas Jennings and other such bust/failures had some effect on the performance of their OL?

Also, I find it amusing that WHENEVER an assistant goes from one team to another invariably the former teams' fans light him up and talk about getting rid of 'rubbish'

Rarely do I remember a fan of an opposing team say 'great hire' or 'we are really going to miss him' when an assistant leaves.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

There is zero available metric other than peer review as to whether or not a position coach is a "good" coach or not. The fact that this guy was still in the NFL is a fantastic sign.