NFL - Random Opinions

This is an unfortunate statement, i like Lynn. He deserved to win coach of the year in 2018 instead of Nagy.

The crux of your argument seems to be that him being there will hold back Herbert. How so? Because he isn't a QB whisperer? Thinking of my own team, there's been a growing list of QB whisperers in Chicago over the last decade, none of them have actually done anything to bring on any actual QB's though. And besides, Lynn was hardly slow to announce Herbert as the starter, seems to me he has coach's support.

Good HCs are hard to find in this league and i know nobody needs me to give a list to back up that statement. They should give Lynn more time. I see people mentioning the Steelers here, what would they do with Lynn.

 

Not hire him in the first place.

 

I can understand how you might think it was my suggestion that having a 'quarterback whisperer' is the path to take, but that's not where I'm coming from.

Anthony Lynn has the Chargers trending in the wrong direction overall. They finished up 5-11 and started this season at 1-4. Now, granted, the QB situation to start this season was not the best for a coach to try and right the previous season's wrongs, but his resume is not going to lend towards getting extended second chances. That means at some point in the near future the Chargers are going to start looking at other options. Patience is not going to be a virtue with ownership and I'm of the belief that if confidence doesn't exist in the immediate then I need to see evidence that it will return in short order.

One of the reasons that it's hard to buy into him being more than a decent position coach is the players that he coached and the results that he provided. Fred Taylor, Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Thomas Jones, Ladanian Tomlinson, Shonn Greene, Chris Ivory, Bilal Powell and Chris Johnson were the primary backs that he worked with. The only really notable work was done with Shonn Greene. The rest of the group performed exactly how you would expect them to if you were simply viewing the name without the jersey or the coach. Greene exceeded expectations in back to back seasons, but they weren't so over the top as to point at and say "there is a really solid job of coaching". To be sure, players play and coaches coach, but it does provide the only real time indicator of influence combined with production that you can get from that exact sample.

Now, we really can't judge him too strongly on his time as the assistant head coach in New York, but during his two seasons the team trended backwards from 8-8 to 4-12. Again, that's not something to squarely hang on him but it is part of his resume.

It was similar in Buffalo where the Tyrod Taylor led offense exceeded expectations in year one but regressed some in year two. Part of that can be put on the coaching shuffle that ultimately had Lynn takeover as head coach but, once again, there's nothing outstanding to point at as a reason to give Lynn an extended leash.

That brings us back to where my original line of thinking comes from. Lynn had an opportunity coming off of a strong season to build up the kind of front office capital that would have kept him off of the hot seat going through the transition away from Rivers. He doesn't currently have that and if he puts himself into the position of having the team continue to trend downward in Herbert's second season he is all but assured to not remain the head coach in 2022.

Where I'm coming from is this - I have little to no confidence that Lynn is going to be able to navigate the waters and right the ship over this season which puts him behind the 8-ball in an AFC West that will not be an easy division to stack wins in, with maybe the exception of Denver. If the focus is going to be on building the team around Herbert and into the future then Los Angeles should begin their coaching search this off-season.

 

I agree with Tim on Gase. How team hires him afetr the mess in miami is beyond me. Let alone a team in the same division. What you though hey he completey screwed the dolphins he must be a secret jets man.

 

@Tim

I found it interesting on your choice of these two QB's. Actually . . . more interesting in who you didn't choose.

 

Now you have me wondering...

Who am I missing?

 

The reigning MVP ?

 

Gotcha.

He’s over the 6’ mark so he didn’t fit my comparison model.

 

He was looking at midget QBs.

 

Great perspective Tim and a very interesting read too. Its certainly true i did not see you wheeling out such an eclectic list of names at RB : )))

But im having trouble putting together a fully coherent point with that and even more trouble tying it to Lynn in 2020. Thomas Jones and LT you must be referring to the Jets right? They were at/near the end of their careers, what wand do you reasonably expect a RB coach to wave at that point in their careers? Was Chris Johnson the Jets too? His career fell off a cliff after the Titans. If im right and he was at the Jets that was for like 2mins, thats Lynn's fault as well? Come on Tim, its logical to look back at previous coaching roles...to an extent, but it feels there's a little reaching going on here.

Tyrod Taylor? He's been on a lot of teams now and he's never truly nailed down a starting job at any of them. Not that i dont entirely reject your point, but i see it as kinda a wash. Did Tyrod get better under Lynn in Buffalo? Nope. But did he also do jack shit at all the other teams he's been on? Yep. Maybe the problem is Tyrod Taylor and not the short time he spent with Anthony Lynn?


So in building my case, half arsed as it is, im gonna be dealing with a little more recent history than 15+years ago. I know i should be doing more research before debating God(jk), but here it is.

There was a LOT of interest in Anthony Lynn in the run up to him getting his first HC job as i recall. Again should've researched but didnt he turn down a job a year earlier cos he didnt like the fit, before joining the Chargers? He was in the race for multiple jobs when the Chargers landed him. None of that jives with the so so picture you paint of him prior to that. I agree with what you guys were saying about the good ole boys network re coaching hires in the NFL, but this isnt that. Your point holds more towards retreads imo, and besides, there was too much interest in Lynn from too many places for it to be that. He got his first HC on merit, and a resume that must have been better than you suggest.

Im not one to usually play the injury card, but we simply cant have this discussion without it sorry. The Chargers have been decimated with injuries this year and last. The list goes on and on, it really is crazy what they've dealt with. Even picking just one guy, Derwin James is a flat out stud, losing him alone is a sickening loss. We see Budda Baker all over the field making plays, how do the Cardinals look without him? In the case of Jamal Adams and the Seahawks we kinda already know.

Almost every game the Chargers lost last year was by 1 score. Its the same this year. Even with just James they're winning a lot of those games and the injury list extends waaaaay longer than just him. I know every team has injuries(altho not like this) and its the kind of thing you can either blow off or read into. If the Chargers were getting blown out a lot over these last 20 or so games, then i think you can start to say then that the coaching isn't compensating/picking up the slack etc, but when they're running teams close week after week, inc the World Champions btw, that speaks to a tight locker room that can face down adversity. HC's create that atmosphere.

Not that Lynn's perfect. There's been some in game decision making that has failed. The 4th & 1 against the Chiefs. The end of the 1st half against the Bucs. There's game management and play calling decisions that need to get better. But so far its outweighed in my humble opinion.

There's actually a real irony at work here Tim, because Anthony Lynn & Matt Nagy share more than a little in common to me. Yet Nagy frequently drives me nuts while here i am defending Lynn lol.

If it all goes down the toilet for the Chargers the rest of the year then i'll be in agreement with you. But the tone of your previous post suggested a decision that was already all but made and i cant get on board with that. Im hanging in there with Lynn for now. I hope he turns it around.

 

Or finding a comfort level within the system, which is pretty much everything for a guy that has had 3 different offensive systems in 3 years...


Would it be possible to give the combo of Berry/Stefanski/Mayfield, at least one year together before we declare it? Especially considering how strange 2020 has been.

 

Any way you slice it Mayfield wasn’t worth the number one overall pick.

 

You think he was? Mahomes should have been your pick. You guys would own the north and Hue Jackson would be talked about as a great coach

 

Wrong year.

 

i can't even call you Captain Hindsight because your hindsight is f'd up....

 

Which the part you specifically bolded from my post would lead towards that comfort level in that system, so you can call it 'chicken or egg' on that one and I won't argue the point. We have a similar take on it but you're coming from a defensive point of view and I was simply giving my opinion.

Again, not saying your wrong but it correlates with what I said, so we're making similar statements on that specific aspect. And, for the record, I've made that same argument regarding Alex Smith's start to his career and he ended up being a decent starter for an extended period of time.

But, that also goes into this -

It doesn't change the idea of the rest of my post though, which basically states that Baker has very little room for growth outside of that aspect and I don't think that is enough for him to be the quarterback the Browns we're hoping they were getting. The AFC North has a strong set of teams at the top and the other two are constantly chasing them. Baker needs to be better than what he is for that to happen, and he likely needs to be better than what he is capable of (basing that off of both predraft eval and current NFL resume).

Like Alex Smith, I think Baker can end up having a long career in the NFL (likely with more than one team) for a few reasons:
1. He has a natural arm for throwing with high level target accuracy and that's not something that is available in every draft class.
2. If he get into the right system it will highlight his skills and mask his flaws, which will buy him more time in the league to develop.
3. #1 overall picks almost always get multiple chances as coaches like the idea of the fixing 'that guy'.
4. As he ages he should mature to a level that sees him capable of utilizing his competitive nature to his advantage, which is something I don't think he always does right now.

Now, bringing this back to the Browns - I think Berry was the right hire at GM and Stefanski may end up being the right hire at head coach. I also think that they will be given the opportunity to make a decision on whether or not to continue on with Mayfield as their franchise quarterback or to go after 'their guy' before the end of Baker's contract. That doesn't mean that they will cut Baker or trade him before his deal is up. It means that they will be the decision makers on whether or not to give Mayfield a long term deal or let him walk in FA. They could trade him if they decide to move quickly at the end of this season and if the Browns get swept by the Steelers and the Ravens while finishing with an under .500 record the talk about getting the next arm is going to start getting loud. If they lose the game to Cincy on the road the possibility of implosion in year one gets much higher.

If that happens, someone is going to end up scapegoated...

 

I was thinking about the 2017 draft guys. You had the number one overall pick a couple of years in a row. If you drafted Mahomes you wouldn’t have been picking first overall again.

 

I apologize for the lack of clarity.

My basic point was that as a position coach (RB) there is nothing on his resume, outside of Shonn Greene, that would suggest he was exceptional in that role. What you're saying about the individual players you mentioned is correct, but that's exactly what I was saying in my post. If you read those names, at the age they were, regardless of jersey, the numbers they put up were what you would expect.

I can see how it could appear as reaching, but what I'm doing is trying to establish markers on his resume that would suggest ownership is going to be willing to give him more time if the ship continues to sink. Having points in a career that owners can point to and justify why they still have confidence can be the difference between someone getting a little more time or simply getting the heave when things look bleak.

The problem with Tyrod Taylor is Tyrod Taylor, so we agree. But again, it's about having markers in a resume to point to and say "that is why I believe in Anthony Lynn". His time in Buffalo as both coordinator and head coach is without any of those markers you can point to. He simply had the team perform as you would expect them to if you simply looked at the names on the roster.

No, Lynn is definitely not a retread coach, and he was seriously considered by multiple teams to be their next hire. If I remember correctly, he didn't turn down an offer but removed himself from the running of the 49ers job?

As for it not jiving with the portrait I'm slinging paint on, I think that opinion can be valid. However, it doesn't say anything about how he would perform if given any of those jobs and it still doesn't change his resume leading up to it. Performance matters more than solid interviewing, but it was pretty well known that he was the type of coach players liked and wanted to play for. It wouldn't be the first time we've had a player's coach get into a situation where the realization that it takes more than motivation to win ball games sets in, and the team starts to trend in the wrong way because of it.

Having a strong resume is not a requirement to get a job in the NFL. Having a track record of success buys you time when you struggle at that job.

Lynn's resume doesn't suggest much wiggle room for second chances, IMO.

You won't find me disagreeing with this take, but we have the luxury of viewing it that way. Ownership and the front office are going to expect results regardless of whether or not injuries have occurred. Now, if it had been Philip Rivers out for the entire season it probably does by Lynn more time. That's just the nature of that position and how it affects decision making.

Memories are short in the NFL. If Lynn doesn't right the ship before the end of this season then 2021 is likely his last shot in LAC to keep his gig.

The point of my original post is that I don't have confidence in his ability to do that this season, and I don't see anything on his resume to justify giving him an additional year if he can't.

Oddly enough, being in games that you could have won with one more score and losing them can be just as big of an indictment on a coach as getting blown out.

That's not to say that it looks as bad, because it obviously doesn't, but if a game is within your reach and you can't make those one or two adjustments to steal the win it can also be a window into flaws as a decision maker.

Being a great motivator is one thing. Being a great game day planner is another. Being the kind of coach that can make in game changes is, again, another. All three of these things are necessary to be a great coach. Being one out of three makes you the kind of coach that doesn't stay on the same sideline for very long.

I think Lynn is a great motivator, a decent game planner and an average in game decision maker.

To be fair, we're really basing our opinions on a different set of criteria and I don't have any problem with anything that you posted. There's nothing in there that I can point at and suggest that it's wrong on any factual basis, and I completely understand where you are coming from.

I'm just looking at it from a different, less optimistic angle.

It will be an interesting conversation to come back and rehash at some point.

 

Absolutely, we should check in on this one at the end of the season and discuss how things went.