Dennis Green: How Would You Evaluate Him?

[sportznutt]

We were awful here before he came. We had terrible players on the field, no hope of ever winnning a damn thing, and then along came Dennis Green, a man with a nice football background who was supposed to save us. In the two seasons he's been here, we've won 11 games. Doesn't sound too appealing.

However, within those two years, he has also helped the Cardinals acquire Larry Fitzgerald, Bertrand Berry, Kurt Warner, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Dockett, Edgerrin James, Antrel Rolle, Matt Leinart, Leonard Pope and more.........all of them with a TON of potential.

So, weighing out the pros and the cons, how would you evaluate the performance of Dennis Green?

 

[CardinalChris]

With Wins..... I love the talent, but need to see results

 

[Mulli]

I still like him okay I guess.

 

[abomb]

I believe Denny and Michael Bidwill have turned around the franchise. DG has basically purged an entire 53-man roster in 2 seasons. I hope he gets an extention because I would like to see what he can do in years 4+.

 

[Mulli]

I believe Denny and Michael Bidwill have turned around the franchise. DG has basically purged an entire 53-man roster in 2 seasons. I hope he gets an extention because I would like to see what he can do in years 4+.

 

[Big Red Line]

He's already the best thing to happen to the Cardinals franchise since Don Coryell. And when the team begins to win, he will be the most valuable Cardinals leader in the last 50 years.

He and Michael Bidwill are working together to accomplish an extremely difficult task: make a winner out of a loser when almost everyone around the team--including the fans--has been conditioned to deal with a loser.

Monday morning quarterbacks and over-emotional haters can spew whatever second guessing and ignorant garbage they want. The fact remains: the team is much, much better than it was before Green arrived. He's made the hard decisions, taken the short-term flack, and plowed forward with a winning attitude.

As a fan, and nothing more or less, I am enjoying the resurgence without worrying about some arbitrary timetable. This team soon will be very, very good. When is the only question and it's fun for a fan to find out.

Right now, I'm worrying about the center and defensive backs. We're not quite there in either area. Can we cobble something together in 2006? Or will it take another off-season to finish the process? Or, and this is most intriguing, both?

 

[Cheesebeef]

evaluation? Dissappointing. I was one of the biggest supporters of the hiring, but even though the talent level is semmingly light years ahead of the Mackage, the product on the field is still sorely lacking. He's got this year to prove he's made major strides - 7-9 (sad, this should be 8-8, but we are the Cardinals) or better. Anything less and his ass should start looking for work with Weight Watchers again.

 

[Redheart]

I like him if he likes me....

 

[lobo]

i don't know who mentioned coryell, but i certainly agree he is the finest coach to come along since then...coryell was a revolutionary of sorts...an outstanding coach...green is not in that mold but an excellent evaluator of talent and given maybe another year after this will have this team in great stead...there were three things "i wish" he could take a mulligan on:

if it was his idea to hire lindsay last year..bad idea
ditto for for o'day on special teams
and lastly i believe he thought pete kendall ratted him out to the union regarding practices and he got rid of him...i wish we had him back as well

other than those moves i like what he has done.

 

[Bobcat]

I believe Denny and Michael Bidwill have turned around the franchise. DG has basically purged an entire 53-man roster in 2 seasons. I hope he gets an extention because I would like to see what he can do in years 4+.

I agree with ya. But now the Players have to start to believe that they are winners. Most of all of his new players are winners, that is why not so many of mac's and Tobin's players are still around. I know some would say, Davis, Boldin, Wilson, and Wakefield. But really only 7 players still remain from the past.

BOBCAT

 

[seesred]

I like what DG has done with our team. The list of signed and players who want to stay has taken a 190 turn for the better. We have a lot of talent and he never stops looking IE..New tackle coming in this past monday to hopefully solidify the line. He walks the walk and talks the talk.

Now the record. There are lots of ifs in this Cardinals team the past two years. The first year he purged...We didn't have enough talented players for anyone to question. The second year..We might have had enough talent and I know that injuries are part of the deal, but give me a break we were starting non players off the street. And, still we were close in almost all our losses.

There is a bright star up ahead and hopefully we will see it come to pass. With a bounce this way instead of that way. An injury healed in 2-4 weeks instead of season ending and a healthy Warner ( IMO the kid could lead us if needed) we can win 9-11 games. If we have a losing season as of right now I would say give him more time.

The only other question would be how we lost . A season of NE game routs would make me look awfull hard at what the next step should be.

GBR
40

 

[NavyVet]

I don't understand why Green gets the label "great talent evaluator". Seems to me the scouting department does all the work. Green's contribution is limited to running the draft and taking the best player available.

IMO, Steve Keim is the man who should be lauded.

 

[Mulli]

i don't know who mentioned coryell, but i certainly agree he is the finest coach to come along since then...coryell was a revolutionary of sorts...an outstanding coach...green is not in that mold but an excellent evaluator of talent and given maybe another year after this will have this team in great stead...there were three things "i wish" he could take a mulligan on:

if it was his idea to hire lindsay last year..bad idea
ditto for for o'day on special teams
and lastly i believe he thought pete kendall ratted him out to the union regarding practices and he got rid of him...i wish we had him back as well

other than those moves i like what he has done.

 

[lobo]

I don't understand why Green gets the label "great talent evaluator". Seems to me the scouting department does all the work. Green's contribution is limited to running the draft and taking the best player available.

IMO, Steve Keim is the man who should be lauded.

not quite....green has a very very big hand in this...does he go to workouts and college games and watch film NOT a whole lot, but plenty of other stuff...by the way we didn't really get pro-active in higher level scouting until DG came in...this team was a notoriously low investor in scouting...this is not opinion but fact...you are just starting to see the results over the past few years.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think Green has done half his job well, we've upgraded the talent on the roster without question. The other half is picking the correct coaching staff to utilize that talent, and this is the year he has to show that's been done. There were clear problems with that the first 2 years, hopefully we've finally got the right staff in place to start playing like a well coached team in games.

 

[Rivercard]

I think Green has done half his job well, we've upgraded the talent on the roster without question. The other half is picking the correct coaching staff .

And then there is game preperation. We need more consistent weekly team execution and better game management decisions than we've seen the last two seasons.

 

[Scott MS]

Green has done a good job, but not a great job.

For instance, Lovie Smith (from a 5-11 record to 11-5 record) and Nick Saban (from 4-12 to 9-7) have done better turn around jobs for their respective teams than Green (4-12 to 6-10/5-11).

Granted, that 4-12 team was probably worse than the record indicated.

.

 

[CardLogic]

And then there is game preperation. We need more consistent weekly team execution and better game management decisions than we've seen the last two seasons.

This definately is Denny's weak area, needs to improve.

But overall, Denny Green is way better than the last guy, and better than the guy before that, and way better than the guy before him, and better than that nice guy that was before the "winner", and... ( Are you seeing a trend here! )

 

[Russ Smith]

This definately is Denny's weak area, needs to improve.

But overall, Denny Green is way better than the last guy, and better than the guy before that, and way better than the guy before him, and better than that nice guy that was before the "winner", and... ( Are you seeing a trend here! )

To me that's part of staff selection though. Whether it's Denny himself or one of the assistants, someone has to do that better. If they don't, it indicates we still don't have the right staff in year 3. Remember, when Green started interviewing he told people right on ESPN he had coaches lined up that wanted to work for him. you could forgive that he didn't get it all right the first year, barely the 2nd year, but if in year 3 he's still got bad misses on the staff(like Lindsay last year or the OC the first year), then he's not doing his job.

 

[Big Red Line]

I think Green has done half his job well, we've upgraded the talent on the roster without question. The other half is picking the correct coaching staff to utilize that talent, and this is the year he has to show that's been done. There were clear problems with that the first 2 years, hopefully we've finally got the right staff in place to start playing like a well coached team in games.

Well said.

 

[Brighteyes]

I think he's the best coach to hit this club in a long time.

I also think it takes a while to turn a team around -- and this team has certainly had it's systemic problems. I guess I'm admirer of the Steeler's Org -- keep a good coach around for a bit and give him a chance.

Has he made any mistakes? Sure. But he learns from them -- and that's not so common in the NFL.

 

[Cheesebeef]

And, still we were close in almost all our losses.

42-19 - Giants
37-12 - Seahawks
34-13 - Dallas
33-19 - Seahawks
29-21 - AN AWFUL DETROIT - who kicked out ass all game long until some garbage points
30-19 - AGAINST THE WORST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE

Actually, in reality we were blown out in more than half our losses (6) and then lost to a pre-season Indy team, which is equally pathetic. That's 7 pathetic losses out of 11, hardly backing up the "we were close in almost all our losses".

That's what bothered me the most about last year - year one, I thought DG did about as good of a job as he could possibly do, but there was SERIOUS regression last year, not to mention porous lack of depth, and then to see a team with suspect depth again, that is what makes DG disappointing to me so far. He's got one more year to right the ship - I hope he's able to do it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I think he's the best coach to hit this club in a long time.

I also think it takes a while to turn a team around -- and this team has certainly had it's systemic problems. I guess I'm admirer of the Steeler's Org -- keep a good coach around for a bit and give him a chance.

Has he made any mistakes? Sure. But he learns from them -- and that's not so common in the NFL.

comparing the Cardinals DG to Bill Cowher is laughable. Cowher took over a Steelers team that had been mired in relative nothingness (1 playofff appearance in 7 years) since the early 80's and IMMEDIATELY made them a CONSISTENT team - 11-5, first year, 9-7 second and Syper Bowl in his fourth. It's easy to stick with someone when they actually produce.

Same goes with Andy Reid, who got the woeful Eagles to the playoff his second year and got them there every year since before laast year, or Marvin Lewis, who turned around a franchise AS BAD AS OURS with the Bengals, taking a 2-14 team to 8-8 within one season and leading the wild-card race until week 15 when his starting QB went down and then winning his division in Year 3. Each other those guys faced situations as piss-poor as ours and each of them righted the ship within 2 years, MAX. It doesn't take more than that in today's NFL, that's why DG's got one more year. If you can't rebuild in 3, you've lost your touch IMO.

 

[Big Red Line]

Cowher did a superior job with the Steelers, yes. But your near-rabid scorn of DG is a bit over the edge. The Cardinals franchise has broken many a player and many a coach. Much has had to be changed. Progress is evident. One measure is Cowher, yes, another is McGinniss, or Wilkinson, or Hanifan, or Winner, or Stallings, or even Tobin.

Let's hope this discussion takes a more pleasing tone (for all of us) as the season unfolds. I know we all agree on this.

 

[Russ Smith]

Same goes with Andy Reid, who got the woeful Eagles to the playoff his second year and got them there every year since before laast year, or Marvin Lewis, who turned around a franchise AS BAD AS OURS with the Bengals, taking a 2-14 team to 8-8 within one season and leading the wild-card race until week 15 when his starting QB went down and then winning his division in Year 3. Each other those guys faced situations as piss-poor as ours and each of them righted the ship within 2 years, MAX. It doesn't take more than that in today's NFL, that's why DG's got one more year. If you can't rebuild in 3, you've lost your touch IMO.

This will sound overly negative but this has always been my take on Green. I don't like him personally but my take has always been, he's going to significantly upgrade the talent on the roster. If he can coach it, great, if he can't, at least the next coach won't inherit the kind of roster Green inherited.

And I think Green realizes that too, this job is not nearly as unwanted now as it was when Green took it. We have the stadium, we have Boldin, Fitz, Rolle, Leinart, we have Edge, if for some reason Green doesn't work out it won't be nearly as hard to hire a qualified coach this time around as it was last time.

So Green has incentive to perform because he can't be thinking they won't can me nobody else will take this job.

I give him this year to show progress on the coaching part, I hope he does because coaching changes are never seamless, there's always a few players you lose in it.