Assistant Coaches Extended

[JeffGollin]

I'm reluctant to prematurely jump to conclusions, but am close to concluding that, in addition to Wiz's short term success (i.e. made the playoffs, made the Super Bowl, looks like we'll make the playoffs again) the biggest thing he and the Cardinal front office has done has been to assemble a franchise that appears to be (a) well-managed and (b) (if no one screws it up) rock solid and stable for the long haul.

- The overall talent on our roster continues to improve.

- Our off-season conditioning and training has been solid and effective.

- We're developing our younger players

- The team overall seems to be maturing (i.e. fewer dumb mistakes; more resiliant when facing adversity).

- The roster has seen less turnover of its core players

- Our assistant coaches seem mature, well-grounded, good teachers, good people etc. - and now most if not all will be around for more than a cuppa.

- The stadium is always filled.

- Which means there's more ready-cash available where necessary.

- We haven't been in cap trouble (yet).

That sort of stuff. I want to wake up each morning in the not-to-distant-future and feel pretty confident that my favorite football team will beat the teams it ought to beat, be competitive everywhere else and not embarrass us.

As a franchise, we're getting pretty close to that. Extending all the assistant coaches is part of this bigger picture and well deserved.

(Note to all you young 'uns: Some of you may be asking: "What's the big deal? Aren't NFL teams supposed to be this way? I'll just say that some of us Cardinal old timers remember all too clearly too many bad old days when we almost always "got it wrong." Things have definitely improved).

 

[john h]

Not sure of the exact details but Jurecki on the radio yesterday said that all of the assistant coaches were extended. When Wiz first got here his assistants were given a 3 year deal, and any new ones since then were given deals as well to end this year. Becuase of the possible upcoming lockout in 2011 the Cards gave the assistants a choice of signing a one year deal or a two year deal with the 2011 year getting paid only 50% of their normal salary if the lockout does happen. Jurecki noted that this form of deal and overall tactic concerning the lockout and extended assistant coaches is the norm in the NFL right. Every team is doing it that way.

Anyways he said that every assistant accepted the extension with all of them deciding on the one year extension except for Grimm and the DL coach who decided to go with the 2 year option.

He didnt have any inside info on this but it is his opinion that this is a precurser to Wiz given an extension this offseason with one year left on his deal (technically its two more years but the last year is a team option). Again that was just his opinion.

This is a New Cards approach not the Old Cards approach. Now to the players.

 

[john h]

Pay these coaches!!!

What has really impressed me in recent games is the defensive schemes our coach has come up with. We stop the great runner. We block the great rushers. Our two RB's know how to block and are big enough to block. Our TE's are doing a great job blocking. Even Fitz gives you a big effort blocking.

I did not address this when Mitch made his recent post but would like to mention. When teams get on a roll like we did against the Vikings it infects the entire team. Players in the game start playing over their heads. Runners run harder. Lineman find strength they did not know they had. DB's suddenly get faster and hit harder. Opposition players find themselves facing a Frankenstein monster. Games like this can continue in following games but this outburst can leave as fast as it arrives. Last year we caught fire. We are currently on fire and once players start thinking they are good then it becomes the reality. Some coaches can help with this as our defensive coach put players in a position to succeed. Some can fire up teams much better than others. Great play gets the fans on fire and it shows up as crowd noise which further excites the players. We are on fire lets keep it that way.