Insight from...Rex Ryan?

[Mr. Scot]

Actually, yes. And believe it or not, pretty good insight.

Ryan is asked why college coaches struggle to succeed in the NFL. His response includes some inside info from a phone conversation he had with Urban Meyer shortly after he took the Jags job.

Per Ryan, Meyer "didn't seem to be listening" to the advice he was giving and at one point arrogantly told him "this is gonna be easy".

Listening to what Ryan says about Meyer offers some solid clues as to why Matt Rhule has failed. The part about having relationships with all players as opposed to just "his guys" is particularly damning of Rhule given the talk about "a lack of meritocracy" in the Panthers locker room.

[CarolinaLivin]

Quote

Many of the 20-plus players, staffers, team and league sources interviewed for this story believe the same attributes that made Rhule a successful college coach are undermining his efforts in the NFL.

https://theathletic.com/live-blogs/nfl-coaching-firings-interviews-hire-updates-news-on-matt-nagy-jim-harbaugh-mike-zimmer-and-more/HE5Vg4t6NXXL/

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, CarolinaLivin said:

https://theathletic.com/live-blogs/nfl-coaching-firings-interviews-hire-updates-news-on-matt-nagy-jim-harbaugh-mike-zimmer-and-more/HE5Vg4t6NXXL/

Yep. That was a pretty solid article.

[Shocker]

I don’t think comparing Meyer with Rhule is very fair to Matt.  Completely different people in terms of integrity and personality.

[Khyber53]

Good listen. Don't want him as our coach, but he does know the business and understands what is required at this level.

Surrounding himself with a bunch of assistants and coaches who don't have experience at the pro level probably spelled doom for Rhule as much as anything. He brought along his own echo chamber. That's never a good thing.

[Khyber53]

1 minute ago, Shocker said:

I don’t think comparing Meyer with Rhule is very fair to Matt.  Completely different people in terms of integrity and personality.

But there may certainly be a very similar level of hubris between the two.

[MHS831]

I wonder what the reaction would be if the Panthers brought Rex in for an interview---I never really took him seriously as a coach, but when I hear him speak, I am usually enlightened.

[Mr. Scot]

2 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

But there may certainly be a very similar level of hubris between the two.

The comparisons in question don't have anything to do with personality, but with methodology.

And when it comes to that area, there are some rather unfortunate similarities.

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, MHS831 said:

I wonder what the reaction would be if the Panthers brought Rex in for an interview---I never really took him seriously as a coach, but when I hear him speak, I am usually enlightened.

Even shitty NFL coaches know waaaaaaay more about football than the smartest of fans. Which makes their dumbass decisions all the more baffling.

[CRA]

10 minutes ago, MHS831 said:

I wonder what the reaction would be if the Panthers brought Rex in for an interview---I never really took him seriously as a coach, but when I hear him speak, I am usually enlightened.

Rex is one of those guys that is a great NFL coordinator.  Meh, HC. 

A lot of those types.  Some luck into QBs and some don't.  

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, CRA said:

A lot of those types.  Some luck into QBs and some don't.  

I had high hopes for Tepper when he came in talking about a .500 league and the three key pieces needed to consistently rose above that are HC, GM, and QB. He was right. But then he hired Rhule and gave him full control and I was like... WTF? Then Rhule signs Bridgewater and I'm like... WTF??? Then after that flops we trade significant assets for Sam Darnold and immediately pick up his option and I'm like... WTF??!!!

Maybe Tepper will actually take his own advice the next go round.

[AU-panther]

People start overthinking all of this.

Here is the biggest issue with college coaches, in college the team with the better players usually win. 

So what happens with these guys like Meyer they start to think their process or their culture or their toughness they install is the reason they win, or they start to believe they are better with the Xs and Os,  in reality they are largely winning because they have better players.  That is why you often see them do odd personnel decisions when they get to the pros because they are trying to create some culture they think was the key for their winning at the college level.

Now they get to their pros and turns out their "culture" isn't really anything special and they aren't really superior from an Xs and Os perspective, so it falls back on the players.

All this talk about Rhule and his favoritism is a bit overplayed, did it hurt?  maybe some, but its not the real problem.

The major problem for Rhule is he did a bad job of picking players.  He failed at QB and he failed at the offensive line, lets don't overthink this.  Fact is, he doesn't have the better players at some really important positions, so now it's up to the Xs and Os of his coaches, and so far that is looking good.

I said before the season started, there was a mindset among this staff that they could take bad players, with good traits and coach them up, and that very rarely happens at the pro level.  Once  a player is in the league for a few years you usually have a pretty good idea of what they are.

Is this ego?  of course it is, all coaches have it or they wouldn't be at this level.  Ron did the same thing with Matt Kalil.  The questions is can Rhule learn from it if he retained for another year.

 

 

 

 

[Tbe]

1 hour ago, AU-panther said:

People start overthinking all of this.

Here is the biggest issue with college coaches, in college the team with the better players usually win. 

So what happens with these guys like Meyer they start to think their process or their culture or their toughness they install is the reason they win, or they start to believe they are better with the Xs and Os,  in reality they are largely winning because they have better players.  That is why you often see them do odd personnel decisions when they get to the pros because they are trying to create some culture they think was the key for their winning at the college level.

Now they get to their pros and turns out their "culture" isn't really anything special and they aren't really superior from an Xs and Os perspective, so it falls back on the players.

All this talk about Rhule and his favoritism is a bit overplayed, did it hurt?  maybe some, but its not the real problem.

The major problem for Rhule is he did a bad job of picking players.  He failed at QB and he failed at the offensive line, lets don't overthink this.  Fact is, he doesn't have the better players at some really important positions, so now it's up to the Xs and Os of his coaches, and so far that is looking good.

I said before the season started, there was a mindset among this staff that they could take bad players, with good traits and coach them up, and that very rarely happens at the pro level.  Once  a player is in the league for a few years you usually have a pretty good idea of what they are.

Is this ego?  of course it is, all coaches have it or they wouldn't be at this level.  Ron did the same thing with Matt Kalil.  The questions is can Rhule learn from it if he retained for another year.

 

 

 

 

That is very true. I also think him and his guys are just not good at the  X’s and O’s. 
 

They don’t know how to put their guys in the best places to succeed at this level. 
 

They’re getting out coached because they don’t know what they don’t know.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, Tbe said:

That is very true. I also think him and his guys are just not good at the  X’s and O’s. 

They don’t know how to put their guys in the best places to succeed at this level. 

They’re getting out coached because they don’t know what they don’t know.

As someone pointed out before, it's not really all that necessary at the college level. If you've got superior players or you find a favorable matchup you can easily exploit, you're golden.

The checkers vs chess analogy really applies quite well here.