Why, because you've come unarmed to a battle of wits...or because you're ugly? You're basing your argument on 5 years of KR experience against 23 years of experience as a ST Coordinator. As I remember, both Washington and Miller were prone to dropping most of the balls kicked to them as rookies. Now who would have taught them how to correct that problem? RBs coaches?
No, more because you have no idea how to discuss something like an adult. That's okay though, I'll humor you this once. Explain why our special teams played like shit the second half of the year. Explain why Ben Graham went from kicking booming punts that no one could catch, to shanking 25 yarders, to being out of football. Explain why a supposed great kicker was drafted in the second round and never learned how to kick a ball into the end zone off a tee. Explain the boneheaded penalties that got TDs called back on kick returns. Leon Washington is a special talent. He's got a ridiculous amount of natural talent, and is a smart football player. He also has excellent field vision, which he proves whenever he runs the football from behind the LOS. (Field vision isn't a different talent based on whether you're returning kicks or rushing the ball.) Justin Miller was a great kick returner. Was that because of Westhoff, or something else? Would this be the first time a player was only a special teams talent and not much else? How about this. Why don't you do a search with my user name and the word "Westhoff." When you come across posts from just over 3 years ago, read them. When you see that I was one of the first people on this site calling for Westhoff to get the head coaching job Herm was vacating, or when you see the ones where I was adamant that Mangini keep him as the ST coordinator, you can come back and we can discuss this further. The fact is, as I've been saying for weeks, my opinion of Westhoff is as follows: Formerly: Justin Miller & Leon Washington Now: James Ihedigbo It's not about Westhoff having a great career or not. It's about his current ability to be able to coach the team. He doesn't have that ability.
To be fair, you should have noted that Cowher was Marty Schottenheimer's defensive coordinator for the three seasons before he took over as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach.
The whole team fell apart. The offense couldn't find the endzone, the pass rush couldn't find the QB, and I dont' think anyone in coverage could locate the ball in the air. In fact I'd go as far to argue that the ST play was one of the better aspects of the team in the second half of the year, including the KR against the Patriots on Thursday night...which happened during the second half of the year. Ben Graham went from booming punts to shanking them because his original kicking style took two extra steps leaving his kicks open to being blocked, and they were highly unpredictable to begin with so the coverage unit had to spend too much time locating the ball to pursue the carrier. He couldn't make the conversion to kicking spirals and was terrible as a directional kicker. He never learned how to kick in the NFL so he shouldn't have been kicking in the NFL. He was a feel good story at best for his first season. There's also the fact that his kicks, while covering a lot of ground, had no hangtime. The KR was already ten yeards up the field by the time coverage got to him. Lastly, there is the fact that he was a 32 year old rookie who, OMG!!!, kept aging. The Jets held onto him for too long, his flaws were exposed, and he was just too old. You mean an NFL draft pick didn't pan out to expectations? NO!!! If Bradway didn't waste a second rounder on Nugent then we wouldn't have two kickers on the roster right now. It was a stupid pick to begin with. Westhoff can't play...for many reasons...and he doesn't have the power to cut players. He has to work with what he has and a couple of the guys on the team are just no damn good at anything. I never said Leon wasn't special or that he didn't have good field vision. In fact I'll agree with you here. But what makes a good KR and what makes a good RB aren't exactly the same things. That's why RBs aren't the only guys that return kicks in the league. Even great coaches luck into special players all the time: Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, Mike Holmgren and Brett Favre(when he could still play) Belichick and Tom Brady(when he could still play), Dan Reeves and John Elway, Shula and Marino, Bill Walsh and Jerry Rice...etc. The fact that Leon has the physical capabilities to excell can't possibly detract from Westhoff's ability to coach. A great coach without great players is nothing, as great players without a great coach are nothing. Coaches need players to fit their system and challenge their opponents, just as players need coaches to teach them how to use their natural talents in the best way possible. Once again, Miller had a lot of drops as a rookie and was taken off punt returns for exactly that reason. He had a lot of speed and strength but raw talent only gets you that far. That's why he never made it as a CB, and I doubt that without Westhoff pushing him he would have made it this far as a kick returner. He was immature when he came into the league and who else would have focused him? Congratulations, you can utilize your right to change your mind. USA! USA! So the players under his tutelage are flourishing and he doesn't have the ability to coach? Lastly, I was never arguing that he would be a great choice for HC, just that you're assesment of him being overrated was wrong. Try and keep up, junior.
I think that Westhoff is one of the worst coaches on the team. Why? 1. We got stuffed with 2 that's TWO fake kicks this year....his responsibility! 2. Kick returns are helped by having your guys knocking the "gunners" out of the line of return...never happened often enough. 3. vs really fast gunners you need 2 blockers to harass him at the LOS. Took Westy till into the 2nd half to make those adjustments, should have been evident watching film of opponents kicking coverages. Generally, he seemed more interested in "imparting his wisdom" to Mangenius and was too slow to get kicking team out on time, boh punting and FG's. No, it was my hope that he was gone along with Mangenius, Shotty and Sutton.
Here's the overall flaw in your logic: there's no accountability for the players. 1. Westhoff can't play puppet master and control the players from the sideline. At some point they have to execute. 2. Once again. Westhoff can show blockers how to disrupt gunners but it's up to them to actually do it. He can only work with what he has and the back of the roster was particularly thin this year. 3. Kevin O'Dea held the title of ST Coordinator this year with Westhoff as an assistant. I'd be more inclined to believe that it was Westhoff coming up with the gameplans but O'Dea still had to have had some input on these. This year is going to be difficult to judge who preformed well in what capacity unless we know for sure which coach was handling which assignment.
