A lot of people seem to be wholy on board with the notion of offensive continuity, but I'm not sure that people are defining continuity in a similar fashion. "Continuity" seems to be an amalgam of the following:
Coaching Personnel
Terminology
Blocking Scheme
Receiver Routes
Ideal QB attributes
In 2015 it seemed like the program lacked not only year-to-year continuity, but also internal continuity:
The QB coach was not on the same page as the OC with respect to the ideal QB attributes for the system.
The WRs (and maybe the WR coach) showed little route mastery throughout the year.
IMO the lack of internal continuity was as big, if not a bigger issue, in 2014 than the year-to-year continuity. Although promotion of ARod or Harding would seem to address the year-to-year continuity issues, there still seems to be a disconnect between where ARod would ideally take the offense and where Harding would ideally take the offense (assuming Harding is pretty locked into DC's scheme).
If Harding is promoted, do we still have the same internal incongruities with regard to QB play under ARod (who favors TW and Manning) that we saw in 2014? If we're going with ARod as OC, are we really expecting him to continue with DC's system which ARod didn't seem to fully adopt even while DC was coordinator? I'm just not convinced that either of these internal hires solve the internal continuity issues that plagued 2014.
I think there is some merit to promoting ARod in that he's had one of the better offenses under KW, he has good relationships with the players, and he's a strong recruiter. I just see an ARod promotion as starting over rather than continuing anything that DC started, and would evaluate ARod on the same criteria as an outside candidate. Harding seems to be the only real option for a true continuity hire.
This post was edited on 1/19 11:42 AM by jrj84105
Coaching Personnel
Terminology
Blocking Scheme
Receiver Routes
Ideal QB attributes
In 2015 it seemed like the program lacked not only year-to-year continuity, but also internal continuity:
The QB coach was not on the same page as the OC with respect to the ideal QB attributes for the system.
The WRs (and maybe the WR coach) showed little route mastery throughout the year.
IMO the lack of internal continuity was as big, if not a bigger issue, in 2014 than the year-to-year continuity. Although promotion of ARod or Harding would seem to address the year-to-year continuity issues, there still seems to be a disconnect between where ARod would ideally take the offense and where Harding would ideally take the offense (assuming Harding is pretty locked into DC's scheme).
If Harding is promoted, do we still have the same internal incongruities with regard to QB play under ARod (who favors TW and Manning) that we saw in 2014? If we're going with ARod as OC, are we really expecting him to continue with DC's system which ARod didn't seem to fully adopt even while DC was coordinator? I'm just not convinced that either of these internal hires solve the internal continuity issues that plagued 2014.
I think there is some merit to promoting ARod in that he's had one of the better offenses under KW, he has good relationships with the players, and he's a strong recruiter. I just see an ARod promotion as starting over rather than continuing anything that DC started, and would evaluate ARod on the same criteria as an outside candidate. Harding seems to be the only real option for a true continuity hire.
This post was edited on 1/19 11:42 AM by jrj84105
