Jason LaConfora: Dolphins could consider bringing in Brian Schottenhiemer

I would hate to see what some of you would have said about Mike McCarthy had Miami hired him after he lead the 49ers to the 32nd rated offense in the NFL.

 

If they're going to bring on a former OC, I would rather see Jay Gruden.


Heck, if I were Ross, I would offer the job to Jon Gruden and tell him to hire his brother as OC/Assistant HC and groom him....

 

The problem is people can't ever tell me any positive reason why Brian Schottenheimer should be on the list of Head Coach candidates. They can only ever tell me why he shouldn't NECESSARILY be taken off the list.

He's thought well of. By whom? Anything cited?

I know that New York has thought about firing him several times. I know that Rex Ryan at least twice in Brian's career there has had to step in and insist that Brian change his offense because the players weren't able to execute what Schottenheimer wanted them to.

Yeah, there's the Mike McCarthy defense, that McCarthy was a much more successful coordinator in New Orleans than in San Francisco, his latest one-year stint prior to getting hired by Green Bay. I get that. But Mike McCarthy wasn't given the job because the Packers figured the San Fran deal wasn't his fault. He was given the job for positive reasons that Green Bay found to give him the job.

The people that put forward Schottenheimer's name usually can only come up with one positive which is him "developing" Rivers...except that the quarterbacks coach that oversaw Rivers every year that he's been a starter has been John Ramsdell, who also oversaw great production out of guys like Kurt Warner, Trent Green and Marc Bulger. The more Rivers was coached by Ramsdell, the better he got. Rivers was good right out of the box, but he was not the quarterback in 2006 and 2007 that he was by 2008.

I think if you want to credit Schottenheimer for anything it should be for helping get Drew Brees' career turned around in San Diego. But then, that's sort of a mixed bag too. Schottenheimer took over as QB Coach in 2002, Drew's first year as starter. He was pretty bad in 2002 and 2003 until 2004 when he got things turned around very nicely. He regressed a little bit in 2005. Then both he and Schottenheimer left the Chargers. Brees blossomed in New Orleans, becoming generally a much better and more consistent passer in New Orleans than he was in San Diego.

I mean, Brees is one of the best passers the NFL has ever seen, really...so I kind of wonder, why did it take so long for him to show that? Tom Brady was good in his 1st year as a starter. Ben Roethlisberger was good in his 1st year in the league, period. Phil Rivers was good in 1st year as a starter. Aaron Rodgers was very good in his 1st year as a starter. Kurt Warner was very good in his 1st year as a starter. Peyton Manning was good by his 2nd year as starter, but his 1st year was his true rookie year, unlike with all the other guys.

It took Drew Brees until his 3rd year as a starter before he finally performed well. Why is that? Given that Mark Sanchez also is not developing quickly enough, and that Brian Schottenheimer is the common denominator there...why are we talking about this guy again?

 

As long as Schotty brings in the next Aaron Rodgers with him, I'm cool with it!

 

Just curious, does this qualify as a "Young Don Shula" that Ross is seeking?

 

I was just coming to here to talk about this.

I pray that the Miami Dolphins take this guy away from us and hire him as their head coach. It doesn't surprise me his name is leaking out because the Jets are now the #6 scoring offense and the #1 redzone offense. However, a big part of the success goes to Tom Moore and Plaxico Burress. I pray to God that you guys take this guy off our hands. He can be a young Shula.

Anything is possible.

 

Defensive getting turnovers and giving the offense a lot of short fields?