BOB took Kubiak's 2-14 team and posted back-to-back 9-7 seasons, with no QB and no Arian Foster for the second year. Kubiak also now has John Elway while BOB still works under Rick Smith and Bob McNair, who removed Derek Carr from the draft board. I also think Hard Knocks really messed up the Texans' season for the first few weeks last year. BOB just needs to let the coaches call the plays instead of Brock, who hasn't proven anything yet.
Wouldn't be surprised, fans have long suspected Smith didn't make any actual decisions, but he somehow fooled the owner
That sort of indicates Kubiak is not a good GM. Keep in mind he didn't really want Peyton Manning and that was an awkward marriage. The key with him - and a lot of coaches - is to have a smart GM and have the coach focus on coaching. He probably also learned a lot from his first tenure and had the advantage of a fresh start.
That 2-14 actually had a lot of talent and went 12-4 the year before. The implosion was mostly because of Schaub. The best players on the team now are still from that era and year: Watt, Hopkins, Jonathan Joseph, Mercilus, Kareem Jackson, Newton. Brown and Cushing when they come back. B'OB is lucky to have those guys because he's not exactly re-filling the roster with tons of stars. I'd say only Clowney and Fuller have star potential from the group B'OB has acquired.
It's weird you think that's some sort of gotcha quote I'm trying to hide. I don't like Bob based on his performance as a coach. It hasn't been good. The offensive genius and QB guru has completely botched both. We're winning with defense from holdovers from the previous era.
Its a combo of Trevor Simian playing within himself...effective run game...and a fast defense. Denver really lucked out with the terrific play from the QB position.
Not sure how you could possibly say Bob at this point. Maybe Bob will end up better, but Kubiak has a super bowl and Bob has coached two seasons. I was always a big Kubiak fan, loved his offense and schemes. I'll take his West-Coast/zone-run/play-action approach all day over O'Brien's mix of obvious runs and 5 wide-sets. Wish O'Brien would get some play-action boots going.
Smith got his job on Kubiak's reccomendation. Smith then turned around and stabbed Kubiak in the back when 2-14 happened.
I remember when Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, one of the things he said was "We're never going to win a championship here". I'm still unsure what he meant by that exactly but it turned out to be true, as those same Browns became the Ravens that won 2 Super Bowls. Seeing Kubiak succeed in Denver just makes the problem here more glaring. It's a culture thing. We have a losing culture here. We are the AFC South Bengals. Playoff Participants Award. It's mind blowing to me that the coaches changed, the players changed, yet the results against the Patriots are all almost identical.
What is Frank Bush's job in the NFL these days? The team in Houston should be the Oilers, history be damned.
First, Kubiak has proven nothing without Wade Phillips. Phillips deserves equal credit. Second, Kub undoubtedly learned from his experience here. Not everyone reaches the pinnacle on their first tour of duty (see Belichick, Carroll just to name a couple). And I think it also helped him tremendously to take a step back as OC in Baltimore, I think he has evolved as a playcaller. In their current form, yes I think Kub is a better coach. But only because of experience. I do think O'brien has a bright future.
For better or worse, a Kubiak team would be much better equipped for a short week since they run basically the same plays all the time. The WCO he ran was about execution, and if they executed well, you could know what was coming and still not stop it all the time. This 'game plan' offense works great when you have a really smart guy like Brady making the checks and calls. I think far too often, the Patriots, who run the same concepts on offense, showed pre-snap looks that they knew would lead to certain checks within the system, and then were prepared to counter the checks. They were really ready and content to have Brock check into draws and other running plays based on the pre-snap read.
BOB is not and should not be a better coach than Kubiak at this point. That being said, they both came into the HC position as OCs with QB backgrounds, and from that standpoint Kubiak hit the ground running a *lot* better than BOB has. By his 3rd year here, Kubiak had lifted us from bottom 3 in offense to top 3. From the defensive side of things, things were generally bad until Wade got here, and I give Kubiak almost no credit for having Wade Phillips inserted into his staff. Special teams was almost always a ****show as well. For O'Brien, Romeo Crennel has kept the wheels turning that Wade put in place, so that's a small victory for BOB, but the offense and special teams has been bad to below average. One thing that certainly has improved is the challenge/replay stuff. But that may not be a coaching staff thing?
Philips was not Kubiak's first choice for D Coordinator at Denver. Yet the Broncos defense was the reason for the last championship.
True, I think this could have been due to age as they went after Wade's former DB coach here, Vance Joseph.
