1. For all his ability to spot NFL talent, it's ironic as to how poorly his team in Arizona is being built. Green has touted and projected his team as a playoff contender since he arrived, proclaiming his offense is a Top 5 system...but Green has shown egregiously little understanding of what makes for a Top 5 offense...the following decisions corroborate this notion:
A. Not signing or drafting a franchise QB...in lieu of first hailing Josh McCown as the QB of the future; second by benching McCown on the eve of a rare two game winning streak the night before an away game, thus starting what has become a QB carousel; third by using $4M of cap space to sign an over-the-hill QB veteran who has clearly struggled to stay a starter in the league with two other teams (wouldn't that $4M have been far more wisely spent on the offensive line?).
John Navarre, Green's seventh round draft pick in 2004, is the only QB signed on for next year. Yet, his brief tenure with the team has been a tenuous one...getting a sip of coffee as a starter in the throes of last year's mid-season decline.
Next Year's QB: TBA...but it would be a major surprise if it's any of these three players. Green built a reputation in Minnesota as being able to win with new QBs left and right...but that charm has worn out in Arizona.
Answer: The Cards don't have a chance to become playoff contenders until they have their QB of the future firmly in place.
Best Solution: Getting their hands on a proven young veteran like Drew Brees.
Likely Result: A rookie will be playing QB for the Cardinals next year after the poor choice free agent QB they sign this off-season struggles.
B. Showing no understanding of how to build an decent offensive line. Not only does Green cut the best player without getting anything in return for him or having any respectable depth behind him, Green cuts (re-assigns, yeah right)the veteran offensive line coach and puts the line in the hands of a coach with zero NFL coaching experience.
When asked why he didn't address the weaknesses at both guard spots through free agency, Green quipped, "We like what we have in Reggie Wells and Jeremy Bridges." Did Green even watch the tapes from last year's games? How can he possible believe that either one of these players can solve the running attack woes? Green's eye for NFL talent is obviously more honed to perimeter players.
C. Green saw that last year's OC, Alex Wood, was too inexperienced to be effective...so what does Green do? He hires another coordinator who had never called a play in an NFL game...someone who almost no play-calling experience at any level. Green believes that because Keith Rowen coached in Green's "system" years ago, that Rowen is the most qualified coach for the job.
BTW...doesn anyone still have an idea what Green's offensive "system" is?
The reason why the Cardinals have struggled awfully on offense is Dennis Green. No QB of the future, no offensive guards to propel a running attack and no experience at the OC spot.
For those of you who want to blame Rod Graves for these egregious errors in judgement...get real...Dennis Green has been calling the shots since he arrived. Rod Graves is a token GM...a sycophant to Green. Rod Graves would have held on to Pete Kendall (who is STILL better than any offensive lineman on the team...and was one of the few Cardinal players who had the cajones to get in guy's faces when the team was laying an egg...a guy who's been unjustifyably villified by many of the fans on this board).
D. On defense, Green has implemented "his" slant NT philosophy...yet hasn't signed or drafted a player who is capable of playing it properly. What's all the more comical right now is that the slight Rodd Kolodziej is starting at the position...and getting blown eight yards down the line of scrimmage almost every play...because the guard to his outside has perfect leverage on him and RK doesn't have the strength to hold his groung against that kind of leverage. Heck, he isn't even being taught to take a knee and collapse the block at least, so there isn't a 5 yard wide hole in the middle.
The fact that we as fans have to watch this idiotic strategy being employed by so-called professionals is outrageous. I know it's not working. You know it's not working. The FOX broadcasters know it's not working. Yet, Dennis Green must still think it's working...because there it is game after game.
Don't blame Clancy Pendergast for the strategy...and don't blame him for the fact that he has to try to devise unorthodox startegies to try to compensate forn the lack of talent he has in the middle of this defense. Pendergast has tried everything he could under the circumstances...and he is the only coach on the staff who has shown any clue as to how to try to adjust to weaknesses...which is why, Clancy Pendergast will be fired by Dennis Green and made a scapegoat. Green will cite philosophical differences as he did with Bob Wylie the exiled o-line coach.
In the draft and free agency, Green stockplied perimeter players on defense...Rolle, Green, Blackstock and Mitchell (who is too slight to play MLB). Green hails speed as his m.o. Fine...but speed without bulk up front to occupy the offensive linemen is a moot point, as we are seeing first hand.
Green inherited a talented free safety in Dexter Jackson...who knows what in the world happened with him...yeah, most of you will claim that Jackson was too soft and couldn't take Green's off-season regimen...but...is that really the truth? Why then did Tampa Bay scoop him right back up again? Why then is he a starter for one of the best, hard-nosed DCs in the game, Monte Kiffiin?
In Jackson's place...Green first turns to a decent waiver wire pickup in Ifeanyi Ohalete...but then turnsthis off-season to a long in the tooth strong safety in Robert Griffith, who couldn't get to a deep ball if he was on a motor scooter...and hasn't been all that reliable in open field tackling either. Shrewd move? To make matters worse, he cuts Ifeanyi Ohalete, leaving Griffith absolutlely no competition or reasonale backup.
The middle was weak enough...but to add a SS convert to FS without range and suddenness was a flat-out brain fart.
Add to all these poorly thought out personnel move...the dubious atmosphere he's created for the players...by threatening to cut them all one minute, and doing nothing to coach them up on the sidelines the next...really, what player would really want to play for this guy?
Yesterday, there was more disgust in Mike Holmgren's face when one of his players got called for a penalty, with his team up by 14, than we saw all afternoon in Green's face as his "playoff contender" team was getting its lunch handed to them again.
Green offers no emotion whatsoever to the players...even during the team's best game at Mexico when things were going well, Josh McCown actaully had the temerity to try to talk with Green and Green seemed basically disinterested...and started walking away.
Yesterday, Green's prize ballboy and perhaps most loyal supporter, Larry Fitzgerald, walks off the field with 20 seconds left on the clock. Sure, maybe Fitz had to take a dump...but, either way, Fitz's walking is symbolic. This team has no heart left...none. We saw it quite visibly in the players' faces yesterday...even when BJ caught the TD to make it a game again...token signs of excitement were shown at best...even when Edwards made his spectacular TD catch and run...the look of stoned tuned-out faces awaited Edwards back at the huddle after BJ's bonehead penalty (at least BJ was hustling on the play and was trying to help Edwards out...yeah he should have thought better...but he was hustling...give him props for that at least).
The defesne flat-out QUIT, yesterday. Yes, the Seahawks' line was superior to the Cards'...but watching Kolodziej, Dockett and Moore get blown out play after play...and watching the linebackers tiptoe around blocks and over-run the ball at every chance...and watching one missed tackle after another, was INEXCUSABLE.
Like the FOX announcers said...there are no leaders on this team. Why? Because there's only one ego allowed on this team...and it's Dennis Green's. The players yesterday played the way he coaches...with little to no emotion...just zoned out...disconnected...isolated...removed...on the peripheree, not in the middle of the action...of the play...of the WORK.
Green's two year hiatus from the game made him soft, if he wasn't soft to begin with. He's not the worker that a Dick Vermeil is...he's not a worker that a Tony Dungee is. Green's merely a figurehead...a Bear Bryant (let everyone else do the work), but without one iota of Bear Bryant's charisma. The game has long passed Green by. Yeah, he can still draft good players come April...but that's about all the hard work Arizona is going to get from Green. That's about it. It spoke volumes last year when Alex Wood couldn't call a play to save his life and Green sat back and did nothing. With all his experience? One would think he would at least take over and call asome plays for the players who have to suffer from poor coaching. But, maybe that's a function of merely running the scout team in practice. Yet, one would think he would know his system, wouldn't he?
You see, Dennis Green doesn't really care all that much about the players...heck recently he doesn't even know some of their names...he's been calling LeRon McCoy--LeBron James and Langston Moore--Langston Hughes...and this is NOT a joke.
I feel fully vindicated for my instincts way back two summers ago in the aftermath of the Kendall and Shelton debacles that Green must go. You guys can still villify me if you want...but the facts speak the truth. And if you want to keep making excuses for Green...and if you actually believe the team will be a playoff contender next year...don't waste your time getting all too excited (like you got suckered into this year)...the way this guy coaches (or doesn't coach), combined with the brain farts he makes in games, in hiring staff and in ignoring key areas of the roster...none of this is going to change.
And, worst of all...who is Dennis Green loyal to? The fans? Yeah, right. The media? What a joke! His coaches? He's been hanging CP out to dry lately. His players? You have to be kidding yourself if you think he's loyal to the players...if he was loyal to his players he wouldn't stand there stoic as a staute while his players are getting their proverbial butts kicked.
Dennis Green is loyal to one person only: himself. Period.
