Great article WV. The most powerful quote I'm paraphrasing was the team record doesn't reflect a coach's leadership nearly as much as it reflects the talent a team has at QB.
JJ was never a terrible coach when he went 1-15 behind a wide eyed rookie QB any more than Bill Parcells was a terrible Head Coach when he went 1-15 with Phil Simms and Scott bruenner playing. QB in NY or Drew Bledsoe going 1-15 as a wide eyed rookie in New England.
And last but not least, didn't it almost appear as though BB was gonna fail another Head Coaching gig when his second season in NE started off winless all the way until Bledsoe's lacerated kidney? Enter a QB who is now in many best ever discussions and all of a sudden BB was getting seen as an elite Head Coach.
Here's what I know about Mangini. When he had a HEALTHY Brett Favre they embarassed an undefeated TN team at TN. When Favre got injured - their offense was injured and they hit the wall. When Mangini had a healthy Chad Pennington in his first year in NY - they won 10 games. When he was faced with the lesser of 2 evils between an injury worn Pennington and Clemens - they played down to their QBs a la Bill Belichick when we were sentenced to the Todd Philcox football follies. BB only had 1 winning season out of 5 in Cleveland. He went after grey beard running backs like James Brooks, Joe Morris and Lo White (who was older than Snow White at the time).
Wouldn't that SUCK if your career was sentenced to Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson? Maybe RAC wasn't so stupid afterall when he realized that Phil Savage sentenced him to Trent Dilfer leading off with Charlie's Fryes on deck, Dumb Ass in the hole and Brady's Quinns batting cleanup at the QB position. In hindsight, was going 10-6 with a knucklehead like DA and pretty low ranked defense such an atrocious job of coaching AROUND the challenges? I haven't ruled out witch craft on that head scratcher just yet. Fact of the matter is - we had a Pro Bowl QB before the Cinderella story had an early midnight. Arizona thinks they found the missing slipper while Leinart seems to be taking on the Brady Quinn role there. Stay tuned as that could get really interesting if a certain Oregon State Beavers patriot shows up to message boards with abrasive names for Leinart hopefuls.
- Tom F.
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