David Blough and the Offensive Staffing Thread

[Conn]

How can something be desperate when they chose to let Kliff go and they hired Blough after interviewing a lot of people and he was clearly their first choice. McDaniel may have fell in their lap and they still chose Blough without even interviewing McDaniel or seeing what happens to him.

I believe this is the first hire for any team at any position. That's not desperation. That's going for what you want. He's the least qualified guy in the whole coaching search for any position. That's not someone you choose out of desperation unless every chip is already off the board. Again, we choose him before any chip was taken off the board.

Desperation is us choosing DQ after losing out on Johnson and McDonald. They clearly wanted Blough. Even if Pritchard was the first choice, it doesn't mean he was the only choice. Maybe they felt like we had multiple good options. It maybe like on our old Shanahan team, our first choice may have been McVay but we let him take a job already so we went with Lafleur. Maybe they genuinely liked both or maybe they were ok with letting Pritchard go because they knew they had another gem in the wings.

You are correct that desperation can’t really be the word for what happened here (unless they were turned down by a bunch of guys for interviews first, which we haven’t heard).

But I can’t just sit here and let you say they interviewed a lot of people like that’s significant lol.

They didn’t interview real candidates, or people with other teams interested in them. They clearly already knew they were going with Blough (which you seem to be implying, to be fair). You can spin that as a positive (he’s just such an obvious stud in the building that they HAD to hire him immediately before anything else happened, they made a plan and executed it) or a negative (they’re arrogant enough to think they already have all the best answers in their own building after winning 5 games and failing on both coordinator hires, no thorough search process, went with comfort over outside ideas). But what you can NOT do is pretend they interviewed a bunch of qualified candidates and deliberated over the best potential hire lol. They clearly did not enter this process with any sort of open mind. They went in with a plan 1A and executed it with no hesitation (hopefully not so obviously that we get punished for making even more of a mockery of the Rooney Rule than most teams already do). The interviews we did were purely in service to hiring Blough ASAP.

They’ll live or die by that choice.

 

[method man]

Neither of those moves felt like what the Blough hire feels like to me because at the end of the day…if McVay and McConnell didn’t work out…Jay was still on the team and he was an offensive minded coach who could assume control of the offense. Just like Dan did last season for the defense.

The safety net that existed during the Gruden years with his OC choices doesn't exist here now. The Blough hire seems to be a true leap of faith by Quinn, a high risk/high reward choice that 99% of the time was deliberately avoided during Snyder’s ownership. Zorn was only given the job after being hired as OC because the fanbase wanted nothing to do with Jim Fassell as head coach and Snyder panicked.

I don’t see this as remotely the same.

They currently have Brian Johnson and Anthony Lynn, two experienced playcallers on the staff. They will probably add more JAG playcalling options in the event Blough completely shits his pants

 

[method man]

You are correct that desperation can’t really be the word for what happened here (unless they were turned down by a bunch of guys for interviews first, which we haven’t heard).

But I can’t just sit here and let you say they interviewed a lot of people like that’s significant lol.

They didn’t interview real candidates, or people with other teams interested in them. They clearly already knew they were going with Blough (which you seem to be implying, to be fair). You can spin that as a positive (he’s just such an obvious stud in the building that they HAD to hire him immediately before anything else happened, they made a plan and executed it) or a negative (they’re arrogant enough to think they already have all the best answers in their own building after winning 5 games and failing on both coordinator hires, no thorough search process, went with comfort over outside ideas). But what you can NOT do is pretend they interviewed a bunch of qualified candidates and deliberated over the best potential hire lol. They clearly did not enter this process with any sort of open mind. They went in with a plan 1A and executed it with no hesitation (hopefully not so obviously that we get punished for making even more of a mockery of the Rooney Rule than most teams already do). The interviews we did were purely in service to hiring Blough ASAP.

They’ll live or die by that choice.

I know we've been debating this but, again, I would not be surprised at all if the Lions made or were going to make a verbal offer for Blough and that being the forcing function that caused them to act quickly. You pointed to the Lions interviewing McDaniel today but I believe it is because these guys made up their minds a day or two ago and then spent the next 24 to 48 hours working on a contract and Rooney Rule candidates. In this scenario, unless he wanted to burn a bridge, my bet is Blough let Campbell know yesterday.

The big tell is the timing of this hire. If the Lions were not sniffing around, this hire is probably not getting announced Friday night. If the thinking is getting a staff hired sooner than later, they have time as no team has announced their head coach just yet and the market feels frozen until teams can interview Minter, Brady, Scheelhasse, Hafley and any other candidate in the playoffs after the first batch of games

 

[Dlts20]

You are correct that desperation can’t really be the word for what happened here (unless they were turned down by a bunch of guys for interviews first, which we haven’t heard).

But I can’t just sit here and let you say they interviewed a lot of people like that’s significant lol.

They didn’t interview real candidates, or people with other teams interested in them. They clearly already knew they were going with Blough (which you seem to be implying, to be fair). You can spin that as a positive (he’s just such an obvious stud in the building that they HAD to hire him immediately before anything else happened, they made a plan and executed it) or a negative (they’re arrogant enough to think they already have all the best answers in their own building after winning 5 games and failing on both coordinator hires, no thorough search process, went with comfort over outside ideas). But what you can NOT do is pretend they interviewed a bunch of qualified candidates and deliberated over the best potential hire lol. They clearly did not enter this process with any sort of open mind. They went in with a plan 1A and executed it with no hesitation (hopefully not so obviously that we get punished for making even more of a mockery of the Rooney Rule than most teams already do). The interviews we did were purely in service to hiring Blough ASAP.

They’ll live or die by that choice.

There is no one who is both qualified and has buzz. Everyone wants the next offensive guru so there has been a purge on them for the last 5 years or more until there is none left. Were you really that thrilled about the Jags OC, Lafleur, or whoever. For all we know, Lafleur is to Matt like Jay Gruden is to Jon.

All of the guys who are qualified are coming off from getting fired like Kliff, Dabol and McDaniel so it's not like they are on the up either. They didn't leave on top and on their own terms like Ben Johnson. Then McDaniel is the one prize but you will have to wait a long time to see if someone picks him for a HC position and even if we get him, he's probably one and done which would be horrible for Jayden to go through again.

 

[burgold]

It's unusual for me to disagree with KDawg, but this time I do. I don't see desperation at all. We were the first team to make a move. This was decisive. This was us having a plan and believing in it enough to make a move that might get ridiculed. Now, It may turn out to be genius and it may turn out to be stupid, but it wasn't desperate as there are still a million choices left out there and lord knows we could have waved a wad of cash out there and lured a vet OC out of retirement if all the major OC prospects rejected us. We've done that before.

If there is desperation, I think it is this.

Two years ago, Peters waited on Johnson. He waited so long that nearly every other candidate was snapped up and it was clear whoever Washington chose would be scraps they settled for. PR-wise they did a great job of making Quinn not sound like third choice scraps, but effectively that's what he was because every other team had grabbed their guy. This year, maybe Quinn and Peters were curious about McDaniels and called him, but the guy wanted to see how the HC thing settled first. So, if they pushed their chips in on McDaniels, it would require waiting and losing out on all the those high priority OCs who got scooped up as other teams nabbed their HCs. Combo that with that fact that we've read how this is a meager year for HC prospects and Quinn probably saw that the pickings would be slim if they had to wait to see if McDaniels didn't land a HC position. This means that waiting for McDaniels could leave them with nothing but the dregs.

So, they decided to pull the band aid and go for the bird in the hand they really believed in. They knew it's a gamble, they know it's high risk, but they like Blough and understood it was likely that if they waited on McDaniels then there was a high probability that they lose both on top of everyone else who isn't a washed-up retread.

So, this wasn't desperate. It was strategic and it was decisive. By nabbing Blough now, they got their guy or maybe they got their 1a or the second guy.

The only question is whether they are right. That, we won't know for a little while.

 

[method man]

It's unusual for me to disagree with KDawg, but this time I do. I don't see desperation at all. We were the first team to make a move. This was decisive. This was us having a plan and believing in it enough to make a move that might get ridiculed. Now, It may turn out to be genius and it may turn out to be stupid, but it wasn't desperate as there are still a million choices left out there and lord knows we could have waved a wad of cash out there and lured a vet OC out of retirement if all the major OC prospects rejected us. We've done that before.

If there is desperation, I think it is this.

Two years ago, Peters waited on Johnson. He waited so long that nearly every other candidate was snapped up and it was clear whoever Washington chose would be scraps they settled for. PR-wise they did a great job of making Quinn not sound like third choice scraps, but effectively that's what he was because every other team had grabbed their guy. This year, maybe Quinn and Peters were curious about McDaniels and called him, but the guy wanted to see how the HC thing settled first. So, if they pushed their chips in on McDaniels, it would require waiting and losing out on all the those high priority OCs who got scooped up as other teams nabbed their HCs. Combo that with that fact that we've read how this is a meager year for HC prospects and Quinn probably saw that the pickings would be slim if they had to wait to see if McDaniels didn't land a HC position. This means that waiting for McDaniels could leave them with nothing but the dregs.

So, they decided to pull the band aid and go for the bird in the hand they really believed in. They knew it's a gamble, they know it's high risk, but they like Blough and understood it was likely that if they waited on McDaniels then there was a high probability that they lose both on top of everyone else who isn't a washed-up retread.

So, this wasn't desperate. It was strategic and it was decisive. By nabbing Blough now, they got their guy or maybe they got their 1a or the second guy.

The only question is whether they are right. That, we won't know for a little while.

Again, I think the Lions put pressure on them to move this quickly. Without the Lions in the picture, they have more time.

Peters did not "wait" on Johnson. That was the idiotic formal slow hiring committee structure that fortunately doesn't seem at play here.

 

[Blaze Thunderball]

High risk move. I don't want the organisation to be afraid to take risks, but this is more akin to the strategy at WR this season than e.g. committing serious capital to a productive player with significant character concerns.

Two ways, in my opinion, to mitigate the risk here:

1. Land an established DC with a track record of high performing defenses.

2. Go all in on commitment to landing weapons on offense in free agency and the draft.

If Raheem Morris is named DC and they take a similar approach to free agency as last year, then I'm out on Quinn and close to out on AP.

 

[Solitary Man]

This is the hire I wanted. I actually went further saying Blough should be considered for head coach at the end of the 2025 season.

 

[KDawg]

I am glad so many of you are sold on this move.

I, however, do not buy that this wasn’t a “rushed” move - is that a better word?

Either this was the plan from even before they let Kliff go and weren’t planning on giving anyone else a shot or they got nervous the Lions were sniffing around and made an offer.

Yes, to that end… it’s better to rush than to wait and get no one.

And yes, to the point that is what got us Quinn… absolutely.

I even appreciate the point that if this works out it’s great for the organization and if it doesn’t that works out too because Quinn will be out the door.

But none of that suggests that this move wasn’t rushed and panicked. Firing KK and hiring Blough in this short amount of time suggests that they did not interview “many candidates”, they did not sniff around and talk to a bunch of people to get opinions on who may be great.

They rushed to sign Blough because this was either the plan from the start or Detroit spooked them.

And, for what it’s worth… Detroit may have slowly eased him into play calling duties, something that would feel a lot more comfortable. We have no choice but to let him make playcalls.

I think many are reading me wrong as well. Not against Blough. I’m against the process in which Blough was landed. And, I don’t like the idea that we made a move on Blough now because we were potentially not going to be able to get any of the bigger names. If that is true, it’s probably not good with the free agent class.

We have Jayden Daniels. Who should be able to lure so many great offensive minds (likely including Blough).

I think this whole process has been handled poorly on our end.

I don’t doubt Blough is talented. I admired him as a player for his temerity.

I don’t like a close minded process.

We’ve had months to get DC sorted - and that is still ongoing. We hired Blough in days. It was rushed. Like it or not.

 

[burgold]

The Blough question to me is really more about the rest of the staff. We have some vets with heavy coaching credentials. Will Blough be comfortable bossing them around? Will they be comfortable following his lead? Sports is a field of big egos so whether in their eyes he is deserving could be problematic. I guess we may get an inkling of this just by looking at how much offensive staff turnover follows.

As to Blough himself, I'm in the "let's give him a shot I'm tired of retreads and has beens" camp. Maybe he is an amazing football mind and a worker and a fantastic communicator. Undoubtedly, he's green and will struggle because of it as all of us did after our first serious go at being in charge. To that degree, I hope he's confident enough to lean on his elders when necessary, but also strong enough to chart his own course.

I have no idea if it'll work, but it feels like the second time we have rolled the dice. The first was giving Adam Peters his first shot at the big chair (though obviously, the NFL braintrust long believed Peters had earned his stripes,) but this feels like the first high risk/high reward coaching gamble. It comes at a strange time. It comes when the offense wasn't broken and was, in fact, doing pretty darn well. And maybe that's another major point. If we bring McDaniels or Daboll or anyone else in, then the offense has to start from ground zero. With Blough, presumeably, we start with the Kingsbury model and add to it.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I truly believe this was Dan’s play all along.

Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen.

 

[DWinzit]

TO me it feels like they were hoping to bring in a seasoned OC for a year and let Blough get more play calling under his belt this year. Wasn't Blough the only staff member that protected from being able to be stolen? They liked him a lot then and now. They do have a couple prior OC's on the staff which helps.

I am also wondering if they might be grooming Hartman for a QB coach position. If not I could see them thinking of keeping Johnson around in a staff role

 

[DieselPwr44]

Nobody knew who Joe Gibbs was when he came here.

Fortune favors the bold. We'll see.

 

[Chris 44]

Adding a legit 1A reciever to go alongside TM, adding another RB (R. White from TB), adding a TE, all from free agency will do wonders to making Blough a success year one. This will derail if they don't add weapons and will certainly derail with another season plagued by injuries. The organization can go a long way to making this move a success. Offseason acquisitions will be very telling as to how vested they are in Blough.

 

[Higskin]

Around the 4:00 mark, Keim does say that there was interest from a lot of teams around the league, not just us and Detroit.

 

[DWinzit]

If DQ selects a big name OC and the team only wins 8 games, he may very well get canned

By selecting Blough, if the offense shows promise, especially later in the season and win 8 games, he could very well receive another year as HC

 

[Boone]

This is the distinction, but I will add one likely caveat.

I think all things considered, after two years of asking Kliff to run more (not speculation, rewatch the pressers if you don’t believe me), Quinn wanted Kliff to make some tweaks. The pressers don’t talk about motion and other things but.. maybe? The pressers talk about running and Keim reports this specifically now.

Blough represents what Quinn kind of wanted - some continuity, some tweaks, some flexibility- and Blough was being courted seriously. So as you said prodigy - they “panicked to keep someone” (well put) l and I think this someone is hoped to be the unique solution that checks those boxes DQ wanted, including continuity.

I hope he is ready. The main concern is the trust in the evaluator is low so… just hope he is ready.

I'm just playing Devil's Advocate - but how do we know 'Blough represents what Quinn kind of wanted'? He has never called a single NFL play in live action. Kingsbury represented what Quinn apparently wanted, until he didn't. My point regarding the extreme lack of experience (1 month as an independent position coach) is that he cannot possibly be ready. He doesn't have a 'scheme' or a 'playbook' or any time wearing the headset.

He may grow into a fantastic coordinator. But as Conn and I were going back and forth about, I think it's less likely about Blough's offensive philosophy (has he been at this long enough to have one?) jibing with what Quinn wants and more about Quinn knowing he can control and direct him to do what Quinn wants to do.

I think the big question in all of this (including the development of a 'rift' and ultimately parting with Kliff), is Quinn (a career defensive coach) the best guy to determine what our offense should and shouldn't look like?

 

[Chris 44]

If DQ selects a big name OC and the team only wins 8 games, he may very well get canned

By selecting Blough, if the offense shows promise, especially later in the season and win 8 games, he could very well receive another year as HC

I also think he has to hit on DC, even more so than OC (at least initially). Another bad year on D and he will be in trouble. If he hits on DC it will buy the extra time for Blough to get his feet wet.

 

[Boone]

I want to talk about another factor that has barely been raised.

I think Jayden Daniels was really pissed that they let Kingsbury go. He was trying to avert it with public praise for Kliff just 24 hours prior, even Mom chiming in. He wasn't happy. This franchise (not regime, but franchise) has a long history of it's best players not wanting to re-up for a 2nd contract in DC.

Daniels may be a 'team guy' and 5x the professional than RG3 was, but I think there is still the concern that if his rookie tenure in Washington becomes a clown show/disaster like it sort of looked like in 2025, that he would look for greener pastures. I absolutely could see that happening. The kid wants to be a HOFer and he's not going to risk derailing those kinds of aspirations by hitching his wagon to a franchise that can't figure out how to put together a consistently winning organization.

Setting aside all of the 'pro-Blough' arguments folks are making, this may have been a choice largely designed to make Jayden Daniels happy. Making Jayden Daniels happy is a big, big deal.

 

[Boone]

Poll added. Please let us know where you stand on the hire.