Gross here again and normally I hate to write about football, basically because if I felt like you needed another random loser’s opinion of the Baltimore Ravens, I would most likely point you in the direction of your local watering hole. However, I found today to be fascinating. Today, Jim Caldwell got hired by the Detroit Lions, who had seemed to of had Ken Wisenhunt all but wrapped up. Now I am not going to sit here and trash Caldwell, like I heard most of the past couple weeks on the radio. That guy is not a coordinator, he came to us as a QB coach, basically a guy who was buying time until he got a chance at another head coaching job. When we fired Cam the guy really had no choice but to take the OC job, if he didn’t he wouldn’t be sitting where he is this evening. But anyway, I am not writing to talk about Caldwell but rather to talk about five guys, not burgers and fries, but five guys that I would enjoy calling plays for the Baltimore Ravens in 2014. Unlike most articles I am not going to list one through five, let’s go five through one so that you don’t just scroll through my article to avoid my shitting writing, yes I am going to make you suffer.
5. Ken Dorsey – QB Coach – Carolina Panthers
Now this one is a bit of a stretch. The guy just came into the league as a first year coach. Most of us remember him as the stud QB for the Hurricanes before being the failed Browns and 49ers QB and then he quietly bowed out of football. But good news for Canes fans, he is back in the game! Yes, this season Dorsey took the job as QB coach after being the Pro Scout for the Panthers for the past two seasons. Clearly this kid has done a decent job in any role with this team. This team has essentially gone from trash and looking like Cam the bust to the #2 seed with a disappointing playoff loss, in which I didn’t think Cam played all that bad by the way, San Fran is just really, really good. But anyway, Dorsey came in this year, along with Mike Shula and really made Cam look like a QB. Under Dorsey and Shula, Newton saw his completion percentage go up, his touchdowns go up while his interceptions stayed about the same, and his overall QB rating, which I think is sort of crap anyway, but it went up! Not to mention, if you watched the kid play from last season and then you watched any of his games this season he just looked like a more complete QB. So why Dorsey? Well it’s kind of simple really, we can’t have Shula, he won’t make a lateral move for no reason so you have to look to promote a guy. Yes, I agree, Dorsey as a second year OC is a far stretch, but he is young and he knows the QB position and maybe, just maybe he will be able to help Joe take that next step.
4. Kyle Shanahan – Former OC – Washington Redskins
I am sure the majority of people are looking at this and shaking their head or fists violently saying, “Is this guy and idiot? Did he pay attention to D.C.?” Yes I did pay attention to the absolute mess down there, but when has there never been a mess down there since Snyder took over? I am going to look past the terrible D.C. experiment with the Shanahan’s and look back to when Kyle was in Houston and the offense was prolific. Shanahan was the OC in Houston for the 2008 and 2009 seasons and while there the Texans were top 5 in yards per game both seasons and 17th (08’) and 10th (09’) in points per game under Kyle. By the way, for those of you who hate this name on the list, with all their problems, the Redskins were 9th in the NFL in YPG last season and 23rd in PPG, both better than the Ravens. However, the biggest “X-Factor” in the whole thing is that if the Ravens are hell bent on Castillo and the zone read blocking scheme, who better than a Shanahan to take control of it and make it his own. At the end of the day I think the guy is a bright young mind, who has been around coaching for a long time and while I think he would be a strong hire for the Baltimore Ravens, I am not sure if he is the best hire for the Ravens.
3. Rob Chudzinski – Former Head Coach – Cleveland Browns
One year in Cleveland and this guy gets booted? Wow. I mean he had Jason Campbell/Brandon Weeden/Brian Hoyer and Willis McGahee/Chris Ogbonnaya (don’t worry I looked up that spelling). With all these offensive juggernauts he ended up 18th in yards per game of total offense, by the way the Ravens were 29th! Oh and by the way split the season series with us. I mean with what this guy had I thought he did a nice job, he featured his best weapon, which was Josh Gordon and he wasn’t fearful to run the ball, I thought it was one of the better Browns teams we had seen in the past few years. Now this was a guy who really broke through when he was the OC with Miami when Larry Coker was there and funny enough the OC to a guy on this list for that 2001 National Championship, Ken Dorsey. He then went on and had a couple NFL jobs, OC for the Browns in 07-08 and most recently before the head gig, OC for the Panthers in 11-12. Now I lump Chudzinski in with Shanahan, a guy that knows offense who would be a solid pick for OC, but again, not sure if this guy is the best pick, especially coming off being let go after one season as a head man.
2. Norv Turner – Current, Soon as he can Former OC – Cleveland Browns
This is officially the only positive list that will have multiple listings for offensive Cleveland Browns, just to let the record show. What’s there to say about Norv that people don’t know at this point? The QB guru. Give him credit, the guy has made himself a reputation and a career for knowing offense and developing young QBs. He has guys on his list like Troy Aikman, Doug Flutie, Kerry Collins, Philip Rivers and Alex Smith. In fact, if you still ask him Alex Smith still gives Norv a ton of credit for his development as a QB when they were together in San Francisco. Now I could sit here and throw out numbers and show you how everywhere he has gone in 29 straight years, offenses have been successful and improved but let’s not waste time. The guy can flat out coach and he is probably the most logical choice for the job, especially with everyone looking for Flacco to take the next step towards the stupidest word used in football, “elite.” I really like Norv, he would be a fantastic fit for the Baltimore Ravens and I have no doubt that things would improve, however, the only thing I worry about is after 29 straight seasons of NFL football, do you get burned out at all?
1. Kliff Kingsbury – Head Coach – Texas Tech
The more and more I read about this guy, the more I would love to see him calling plays for the purple and black in the fall. This guy has success everywhere he has gone. He is young and a perfect fit for the game as it evolves into this passing frenzy. To give you an idea of what football thinks about this 34 year old, Bill Belichick drafted him in 2003. After five years of bouncing around as a QB, his coaching career began in 2008 when he was a small time assistant for Kevin Sumlin in Houston. Then in 2010 he was the QB coach for Houston, following it up in 2011 as a co-offensive coordinator and winning the Offensive Coordinator of the Year award from FootballScoop.com. By the way this is all on Texas Tech’s website under his bio if you want a good read. However, in 2012 he was the OC for Texas A&M for a guy by the name of Johnny Manziel who happened to go on to win the Heisman as a freshman. This led him to his current gig as head coach of Texas Tech. Texas Tech made some noise this year starting off 7-0 before dropping 5 straight and then going on to beat a high powered ASU squad in a bowl game. His offense was 8th in yards per game while the head man at Texas Tech, they were 13th the year before. As the OC at Texas A&M with freshman Johnny Manziel, 3rd in yards per game where they were 7th the year before, so slight improvements everywhere he
went. This guy is young, confident, and has a gifted mind for offense and how the game is played. I think he would bring a bright, energetic, youthful mind to offense in the NFL and could really be a spark that took this Ravens offense to the next level. Sure it may be safe to bring in some of these other guys and see slight improvement, but a daring move like this could take the offense and make it great. I think the Ravens should make a splash, change it up and go with a youthful guy that understands these young football players and now some haggard old guy that struggles to communicate with the players. Look around both the NFL and the FBS, the youth movement in coaching is upon us and I think he is an excellent fit. However, the biggest concern I have is that some people have said that Texas Tech is a bit of a dream job for Kliff and he is making $2.1 million as the head coach…might be a little steep for an OC in the NFL, guess it would depend on how impressed Steve would be with his interview, if he got interviewed.
So there it is, when it comes down to it, I don’t think it’ll be Kliff sadly, more likely we will make a strong run at Norv, which I am fine with it’s a solid pick. Some people have been saying he is heading towards the Minnesota gig, if that ends up being the case I think my vote is to go after Kyle Shanahan. Either way, whoever we end up with, we need a guy that is going to come in here and change this offense. Make the offense work within this zone blocking concept, make the passing game both efficient and dynamic, in which I thought it was neither last season and run the ball with consistent, positive yardage.
