Think about it. Billick was an offensive coach for the Vikings and got hired to coach the Ravens as this offensive guru. He was a total bust as an offensive coach there. His system was complicated, he kept trying different journeymen, finally invested draft capital in Kyle Boller, etc. He took over a team with a strong defense and had a great defensive coaching staff that has produced multiple head coaches and guys who are good defensive coordinators elsewhere. They won a Superbowl entirely on that defense. He had a tough guy attitude, loved to yell and was a jerk to the media, to the point where he is one of the few coaches that Pancakes will openly criticize for being a jerk. Every year Billick tried to fix that offense and he just couldn't do it. The only thing that saved him was a great running game and a strong offensive line, but they kept busting on wide receivers and quarterbacks and he finally got fired. Here we have OBrien. The offensive genius from New England that can't replicate that. His offense gets worse every year, he has cycled through journeymen, finally invests in Watson. He's made the playoffs entirely because of the defense (literally one of the worst offensive teams to ever make the playoffs) and has busted on wide receivers and quarterback decisions. He has an ego the size of Jupiter, bristles at the media, etc. Thoughts?
I compare him to Josh McDaniels, who had a short disastrous tenure at Denver then went back to Belichick.
Very comparable, OP. They both also fired their long time friends (Billick fired Fassel/OB fired Godsey) who were the offensive coordinators, and both HC's took over the play- calling on offense. Although Billick did hire someone else as OC the following season.
Billick actually coached a very good offense with the Vikings. He didn't have brady. Bob hasn't successful offenses other than Brady. His offense at penn state was pretty mediocre.
I'll take Jonathan Ogden over Duane Brown anyday, even though I know that was an Ozzie pick. But yeah I do get that feeling that they try to fit the players to their system, and not conform their system to the players.
I think this still stands. OBrien is a good head coach in the sense that he definitely gets the most out of guys. This is indisputable at this point. There is a good "toughness" culture around the team. He just can't create an offense and he isn't a good talent evaluator. It was such a mistake not to bring in a real offensive coordinator this year, even if it was just his friend Chip Kelly. He needs someone who is creative on the offensive side to scheme things.
Part of being a great coach is understanding that what you think works isn't always the case. How many times did we try to pound it up the middle on 3rd and 1 yesterday and get stuffed? Our line is terrible and foreman should be the short yardage back not lamar miller. O'brien is really stubborn, Deshaun Watson is a stud, we all know that, but he was a stud in a spread offense. You can't take him, throw him under center and expect him to be the same guy. Watson needs to spread the field, make quick throws and a spread field gives him room to run. Instead bc of o'brien and his stubborn ways there were always 8-9 guys in the box and he took forever to call play action. I think Watson is going to be a stud but I think we need a different coach for him to reach his potential. I would honestly love to see Dabo Swinney be our coach, he's won a title in college, he knows watsons strengths, and hes a damn cool guy.
