Coaching Trees: This Branch Grows Again


At Field Vision Sports, our conversations frequently tumble back into schemes and tendencies that coaches and coordinators deploy on Sundays. Ben Johnson just “schemed” himself into a job with one of the cornerstone franchises in the NFL. Frequently, skill players will sign with a brand-new team in free agency and expect comparably excellent statistics in their new digs but melt when the new OC has different plans. Each and every Sunday, we see similarly constructed teams defeated the teams of the other ilk, poorly constructed teams.
Now, the tips and tricks of calling plays are not the only trait that makes a good coach. Hopefully, Ben Johnson has the juice to work his scheme into the culture he will attempt to build with Caleb Williams at the helm. The NFL is still the league of the alpha; therefore, toughness is valued more than actual gold sometimes.
Of all the Run ‘N Guns and wishbone philosophies, the most prevalent belief system remains Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense. The title originally applied to the Air Coryell offense, but history was messily written (and stolen) by the victors. The Shanahans, LaVell Edwards, and others have added their own nuances and textures to Walsh’s original intents, but the purpose remains highly efficient passing emphasized by a quarterback able to process defenses and receiver options as quickly as possible.
Bill Walsh did an alright job with the help of the middling talents of Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, and the rest of the 1980s and 1990s San Francisco 49ers. Like the others of its kind, the NFL is a copycat league, so Walsh proteges were hired across the pros and college similar to anyone whose shared a headset communication with Sean McVay for a few cycles.
One of the most independently successful of former Walsh mentees was Mike Holmgren, who played and coached under Edwards at BYU. Steve Young’s performance as a Cougar led the then-San Fran coach to hire his position coach, Holmgren, to the same gig in the Bay. His prominence through George Seifert’s seizure of the head coaching mantle after Walsh, led the Green Bay Packers to choose Holmgren to lead them from their dark age of the 1980s.

(AP)
Holmgren hired an all-star cast of coaches for his inaugural staff. Andy Reid, as the tight ends coach, was just one of the future head coaches on staff including Jon Gruden and Dick Jauron. Brett Favre went on to win a fistful of MVPs and a Super Bowl. When Steve Mariucci accepted the head coaching job at Cal-Berkely, Reid’s responsibilities were shifted to coaching quarterbacks.
Much has been said about Andy Reid’s wizardry with the quarterback position, but some don’t realize how deep the magic runs. Favre’s backups through the 1990s astonish those who don’t know how enamored the NFL was with Holmgren’s version of the West Coast, featuring more bombs via the WMD attached to their QB’s shoulder. Mark Brunnell and Matt Hasselbeck eventually became long term starters. Heisman winners Ty Detmer and Danny Wuerffel spent limited stints holding the clipboard. Doug Pederson got his start in coaching while still in pads by helping The Gunslinger prepare for the bright lights.
When the legendary staff fully dissolved after 1998, Holmgren off to Seattle and Reid to Philly for his first coaching job, the younger coach truly cracked the offensive code, dominating the NFC for an entire era. Pederson’s official pro coaching genesis was in the latter Reid years with the Eagles. Donovan McNabb, LeSean McCoy, and DeSean Jackson are just a few of the electric performers that rose under Andy’s tutelage. Even when the team and coach parted ways after a tumultuous 2012 and a succeeding downfall, the Eagles tried to hire the closest person they could to Andy Reid, his new offensive coordinator in Kansas City.
The Philly Special theatrics are the fonder memories of the Pederson era in Philadelphia, but the end also included the welcome of the next era. Pederson sat Carson Wentz, after his inability to regain the love of the infantry from Nick Foles, and inserted the recent 2nd round pick out of Oklahoma (and Alabama). Hopefully for Jacksonville, Pederson’s firing cracked the door for the most successful period in Eagles history (this side of the merger).

(ESPN)
Now, I’m not the biggest Nick Sirianni fan because I believe that Howie Roseman deserves a lion’s share of the credit because of the sheer density of good players on Philly’s roster. Year in and year out, Roseman finds a way to draft the absolute best player available, a luxury he can afford being that he’s stacked the roster. Continuously dipping into the well in Athens, Georgia, seems pretty obvious but Philly’s the only one doing it. Jeffrey Lurie must have special fertilizer for his money tree because Roseman is also fearless in free agency. Saquon Barkley and Jalen Carter fit into both of those categories and are, perhaps, the two most important contributors on the team.

(NFL on FOX)
Super Bowl LIX (golly, FeLIX just loves Roman numerals) should be a barnburner similar to Super Bowl LVII. That is the expectation, but I’m sure Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock were expecting Speed’s fanfare when they released The Lake House (they didn’t). There is some potential narrative closure if Andy Reid were to retire after the game in NOLA (he won’t). The Packers won Super Bowl XXXI over the Patriots in the same city in a stadium with a different name, the Louisiana Superdome, and it’s spiritual sequel could see Big Red call his final play (again, no). His fingerprints are all over this championship just like it was just a few years ago with hints of his philosophical forefather felt heavily across the NFL.