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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.
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.