The Skillz Report

Give & Go: New Coaching Blood

 

By D-Rock; originally written 1/18/13

 

All the NFL head coaching vacancies that the media have been busy reporting and speculating on have been filled.  The latest hire was Bruce Arians (former OC at Pittsburgh, and more recently Indianapolis) by the Arizona Cardinals.  Arians has worked with quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Andrew Luck.  Now he gets to work with quarterbacks such as John Skelton, Ryan Lindley, and Kevin Kolb.  Yay.

Chip Kelly, who has led the Oregon Ducks to many successes in college football, is now the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. This will be his first coaching job of any kind at the NFL level.  A lot of people are questioning whether his style of offense can be applied in the NFL.  Personally,/ I smell disaster.  I caught some of his press conference the other day, and, at a couple of spots he was trying to be humorous...and both times his jokes fell flat.  He bombed harder than "The Love Guru".  (Raise your hands if you even know what "The Love Guru" is.  [crickets])  

If Chip Kelly looks as uncomfortable on the sidelines as he did in this press conference, then the Eagles are in real trouble.  Time will tell if there are silver linings in his playbook. (Oh, snap!  Two movie references in one paragraph!)

Marc Trestman.  THE Marc Trestman.  I remember the name Marc Trestman from when he served as the offensive coordinator for the 49ers once upon a time.  One thing I remember about him was that when he was first hired by the 49ers (in 1995; a season after their fifth Superbowl victory and taking the place vacated by Mike Shanahan) the broadcasters and media described him as a "former insurance salesman".  

 

I did not understand the concept (at the time) of hiring someone off the street like that and until recently I had assumed the 49ers job he got almost 20 years ago was his first stint in ANY football capacity.  (I mean, the guy looks like he should be going over my W-2 and making sure my 1040 Form is filled out correctly.)  Apparently he played QB in college and coached for many years prior to 1995.  Who knew?  No, really, WHO knew???  

Marc Trestman's latest stint was up in Canada where he led the Montreal Allouettes to 2 Grey Cups (woo...hoo?).  I watched a large part of his press conference yesterday and I took at least 2 things away from it.  One was the vomit-inducing rhetoric that he spewed about how he was gonna change the Chicago Bears organization (talk is cheap, my friend).  

 

For example, one point of emphasis he wanted to make was that he wants everyone in the organization to have a connection and a respect for one another; to have everyone treated equally.  I envisioned Brian Urlacher walking around the Bears facility hugging any janitor or secretary that he came across.  (Is Trestman a football coach or a Kindergarten teacher?)  Another thing I took away from the press conference was his inability to answer media questions about specific things he will do/change.  He should have just started off the press conference a la Mark McGwire and stated, "I'm not here to talk about the future."