Been thinkeratin' about this whole DC thing and it strikes me that Sparano is being very very coy with whomever will be the DC. Think about it, George Edwards and Jim Reid leave, the two Lb coaches leaving the door open for a new Defensive Coordinator to put into place his own choices, meanwhile Edwards and Reid were promoted from humble positional coaches to large College Defensive Coordinators. Edwards in particular has an impressive resume', he has worked for Saban, was retaned by Parcell's and worked for Sparano. But I digress. By removing via promotion the OLB coach and the ILB coach, Sparano could go in any direction, if we run the 3-4, Groh is supposedly a sharpy on Lb play and will choose Lb coaches tailored for his 3-4. If we go with Zimmer, we would need new Lb coaches anyway as the 4-3 requires a somewhat different skill set and techniques out of the linebackers. The only time limit is the Jan 29th senior bowl game and week, however Sparano also waited until AFTER the Dolphins were awarded the ability to coach the Southern Squad, if he had fired Pasqualoni before being named the Senior Bowl coach, they would have disqualified the Dolphins and awarded that opportunity to a different staff. So basically, like a baseball double switch, Sparano has reserved the Senior Bowl role, the two lb coaches got promotions, and the door is wide open to whomever Sparano hires to put his own coaches in place and managed to keep the options open to run a 3-4 or 4-3 and from the outside looking in no one can tell which direction Sparano will go in to hire his Defensive coordinator. A darkhorse candidate for DC is Dallas's Dave Campo, which could be the reason there was not a replacement already selected, the 'Boys have to lose first.. Sparano and Tuna handled this beautifully, now if Tony would just chat with Ray Handley about clock management and use of timeouts.
Looks like Zimmer got a 3-year deal with the Bengals today. IMO, the only way we'd go 4-3 is if we simply do not have the personnel for the 3-4. That has been Belichick and Parcells' way. But we've been in the 3-4 for two years already. I think they want that continuity (aside from a new system). Still hoping it's Groh. Jeff Darlington mentioned Bill Sheridan as a possible LB coach, he the recently deposed DC of the Giants. He has coached linebackers most his career.
Problem is, Al Groh has never really been any good as a DC. Imvho if he is hired it is merely due to cronyism and not past performance, there is little else to justify the hiring.
