Missing Out on OL Coach Jeff Stoutland (Now with the Eagles)

It's times like this when I miss the late Will McDonough of the Boston Globe with his unparalleled access to all the NFL front offices. I'd love to hear his take on current Patriots offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo from those who have worked with him with the Giants/Dolphins/Jets. The real poop.

When the same group of guys performs far below what they have in the past and the only difference is the position coach, it's natural and expected that fingers will be pointed at him. Goes with the territory. (The one change is at the insistence, apparently by this very same coach, to have a borderline roster guy become a starter. Simply bizarre to have Jordan Devey in the starting line-up. I wonder if Belichick himself pulled the plug on that failed experiment.)

DeGuglielmo's track record is certainly respectable. But is it stellar? It's hard to tell, a cipher. He was either an assistant on successful programs (Giants) or he came in to an established group. He inherited a Dolphins line, for example, with two very good tackles. The interior struggled with pass protection.

Past is prologue.

A Chip Kelly program seeks out & often gets the best available assistant coaches. That franchise certainly found that in the best offensive line coach in all of college football, Jeff Stoutland. While his Alabama teams dominated--as well they should have with NFL talent all over the place--he also had lines with much less top-shelf talent perform at a very high level, esp. the 2000-2006 years at Michigan State.

Stoutland calls himself a "pighead." He's done _an amazing job_ so far in his career. Going from Scar to Pig would have been awesome by me--a similar hands-on approach. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-eagles/Eagles-OL-coach-Jeff-Stoutland-Im-a-pig-head.html?c=r

We could have gotten Jeff Stoutland, but Scar retired too late, in Jan. 2014. Stoutland (just his name is cool like Dante's) was hired by the Eagles in Feb. 2013. I don't know how the Eagles OL is performing. The fans down there don't seem disgruntled as many of us are here in New England.

Timing is everything in life. It certainly is here.

This line would still suck balls under Dante.

Michigan State struggled at OL with position coach Mark Staten. Then they bring in former Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman to solidify the group...and voila. On a dime the same group of guys perform at a much higher level.

No way we have this crappy OL with Dante still coaching. No way. I just don't believe it, KontradictionN.

KontradictioN said:

This line would still suck balls under Dante.

Click to expand...

Ya people seem to be forgetting that while it wasn't as absoultely horrendus as this one the line was still bad last year

State said:

I don't know how the Eagles OL is performing.

Click to expand...

It's been bad, but a lot of that is due to injuries. They've lost 3 starters and a backup that would be starting. After Jason Peters was ejected last week, the Eagles were down to one original starter, who was playing out of position.

Dante wouldve made some difference but Solder getting beat one on one .Hooman sucking it up . All these are not coaching. Boston media loves to assign blame any which way to show some decline on the pats team.
Iam extremely concerned as any fan about this oline but its time the players and coach suck it up and play together. No excuses. And seems like they are trying

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-...4768853/o-line-met-as-a-group-early-wednesday

It's week 3. I'd wait with tarring and feathering Guglielmo until week 5 at least ...

KontradictioN said:

This line would still suck balls under Dante.

Click to expand...

it would be almost as bad as it was last year.

SVN said:

Dante wouldve made some difference but Solder getting beat one on one .Hooman sucking it up . All these are not coaching. Boston media loves to assign blame any which way to show some decline on the pats team.
Iam extremely concerned as any fan about this oline but its time the players and coach suck it up and play together. No excuses. And seems like they are trying

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4768853/o-line-met-as-a-group-early-wednesday

Click to expand...

Without Mankins, Solder is getting beaten like an African drum. What's most disturbing, to me, is that they're sliding protection his way and aren't leaving him on an island all that often and that side of the OL is still losing battles that are 2 on 1. Solder is not a franchise LT. He doesn't look like he'll ever be, sadly. But an improvement at LG would still do him a world of good.

chasa said:

it would be almost as bad as it was last year.

Click to expand...

I have to assume that, between this and the other thread, you're trolling me. I'm having trouble believing that anybody could honestly think that last year's OL was as bad as this one.

State said:

Michigan State struggled at OL with position coach Mark Staten. Then they bring in former Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman to solidify the group...and voila. On a dime the same group of guys perform at a much higher level.

No way we have this crappy OL with Dante still coaching. No way. I just don't believe it, KontradictionN.

Click to expand...

Nate Solder is a middle tier LT at best, Marcus Cannon is playing out of position, Wendell is the worst C in the NFL and Connolly is only slightly better, Connolly is a back-up RG at best, Devey shouldn't even be on the team, and Vollmer is a shell of what he used to be (probably because he's still hurt). So yes, Vince Lombardi himself could miraculously rise from the dead today, take over coaching responsibilities for the OL tomorrow, and it would still look like wolverine **** on Sunday.

I think it has been mentioned but would Nate Solder be better suited at RT from now on with Vollmer at LT. Vollmer is not 100% yet but I think Brady could live with his shortcomings until he gets up to speed. I think Nate Solder's regression is just absolutely pathetic. I think BB envisioned him as a franchise LT but he's anything but that. Solder gets confused on what look like simplistic blitzes. Starting with KC Momday Night we are going to face some Teams that will Blitz the $h!t out of the Patriots Offense until they figure it out. Now the real question is at age 37 is Tom Brady ready for that reality?

PatsFan2 said:

I think it has been mentioned but would Nate Solder be better suited at RT from now on with Vollmer at LT. Vollmer is not 100% yet but I think Brady could live with his shortcomings until he gets up to speed. I think Nate Solder's regression is just absolutely pathetic. I think BB envisioned him as a franchise LT but he's anything but that. Solder gets confused on what look like simplistic blitzes. Starting with KC Momday Night we are going to face some Teams that will Blitz the $h!t out of the Patriots Offense until they figure it out. Now the real question is at age 37 is Tom Brady ready for that reality?

Click to expand...

Brady has torched the blitz better than most quarterbacks in the annals of NFL history when given that extra second to let the play fully develop. Against the blitz with this OL, he won't have that luxury. I really want them to start Stork Monday night. I think that would go a long way to addressing the issues on the OL.

its much more then just coaching they traded away a all pro G one week before the season from a OL that was already weak inside now you have cannon starting at a position he has never had more then a few snaps at before this season so Solder is helping him out a lil and getting beat outside. Bryan Stork keeps getting snaps late cause center is a hard position to pick up as a rookie cause you have Brady calling out protections and maybe if Mankins is there he could be starting,

bottom line they did not need the 6 million they freed up and will not use it this season they could have still had his play and cut him after the season to get his cap space back. but it is what it is they need to pick a line up and stay with that line up Vollmer Solder Cannon Connolly and Stork sounds good to me

Sciz is right. Philly has had their OL trainwrecked with injuries. Three starters out. A top backup too. And they just signed David Molk, who has been out of football for a year and if anything is smaller than Ryan Wendell, as their starting center.

Yet, they don't seem to be panicking. They have better confidence in the scheme and the coaching, apparently.

http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2014/09/eagles_are_in_trouble_without_jason_kelce.html

Imagine if we had that happen here. Then we'd really be in trouble.

Interesting that by Football Outsiders line stats, the Patriots are 10th ranked for run blocking and 18th ranked for pass blocking:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

...but we're 20th ranked overall for both rushing and passing offense:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamoff

FO seems to think we have a skill position problem as much as an OL one...

patsfan-1982 said:

bottom line they did not need the 6 million they freed up and will not use it this season they could have still had his play and cut him after the season to get his cap space back. but it is what it is they need to pick a line up and stay with that line up Vollmer Solder Cannon Connolly and Stork sounds good to me

Click to expand...

Bottom line is that the unused cap space that you speak of will move over to next year and most probably help us sign McC and Revis for a few more years. It is not like the money will disappear if it remains unused.

KontradictioN said:

Without Mankins, Solder is getting beaten like an African drum. What's most disturbing, to me, is that they're sliding protection his way and aren't leaving him on an island all that often and that side of the OL is still losing battles that are 2 on 1. Solder is not a franchise LT. He doesn't look like he'll ever be, sadly. But an improvement at LG would still do him a world of good.

Click to expand...

The bold is both made up and incorrect.

KontradictioN said:

Without Mankins, Solder is getting beaten like an African drum. What's most disturbing, to me, is that they're sliding protection his way and aren't leaving him on an island all that often and that side of the OL is still losing battles that are 2 on 1. Solder is not a franchise LT. He doesn't look like he'll ever be, sadly. But an improvement at LG would still do him a world of good.

Click to expand...

Either I don't know what I'm looking at, the Raiders game was completely different and you're talking about the first two, or that part about him not playing on an island is completely incorrect. Watching every passing play focusing solely on Solder, I saw two schemed LT+LG doubles on edge guys, and Solder came off the double team to pick up a blitzer one of those times. There were four TE+LT double teams, two coming on hard play actions and one where Solder left the double team to pick up a blitzer. I saw one RB chip.

I don't remember if any of those plays were called back for penalties and there were plays that happened so fast that the blocking didn't matter, but officially there were 41 drop backs in the game. I counted him getting schemed help on the edge 7 times with 4 true double teams, only one of which was from an offensive lineman.

Both Stoutland and Joe Andruzzi, my favorite offensive line player after John Hannah, attended the same small school in New Haven, Conn., in Southern Connecticut. Interesting coincidence.