Brian Schottenheimer hired as Offensive Coordinator with the St Louis Rams, springing New York Comparisons.
After announcing he would not return to the Jets after last season (and who could blame him), Brian Schottenheimer was one of the most sought after offensive coaches on the market this offseason.
After interviewing with the Jacksonville Jaguars for a possible head coaching position, and possibly joining a man who beat him out for an NFL head coaching job, Nick Saban, as offensive coordinator for the University of Alabama, Brian Schottenheimer has accepted the Offensive Coordinator spot with the St. Louis Rams.
Schottenheimer’s success truly lies in the hands of franchise quarterback and former Number One overall pick Sam Bradford, and his success or failure in developing him. Otherwise, the Rams have a similar offense to the ones that Schottenheimer coached in New York. He has one of the best backs in the league in Steven Jackson, who’s averaged over 1,000 yards every year but his rookie year, when Marshall Faulk was still with the team. The most success Schottenheimer’s offenses had were through the ground game, whether with Shonn Green, Thomas Jones, or Ladanian Tomlinson.
Following the (and pardon my cliche) “ground and pound” method took Schottenheimer to three playoff appearances and two AFC Championship games, but this past year with the Jets, Brian took his father’s approach and went all Marty-Ball on us, and put the offense in the hands of third year quarterback Mark Sanchez. The results were worse record-wise, as the Jets failed to make the playoffs and the locker room is till continuing to crumble. Sanchez’s numbers, however, remained relatively similar to his prior two years, if not better. He threw for 26 touchdowns, nine more than his previous high. His average yards per throw remained a steady 6.4, and his quarterback rating was a 78.2, a career high.
His attempts were a career high as well, with 543, and with more drop backs and a lack of development, mistakes in the form of turnovers ensued. His inability to read defenses and make the proper throws to a talented arsenal of weapons resulted in 22 turnovers (18 Interceptions, four fumbles).
Sanchez was coached under Schottenheimer for the entirety of his three year NFL Career, and at the end of the Sanchez-Schotty era, what have we found out? Schottenheimer never developed Sanchez into anything past a game-managing quarterback, yet put the offense in his hands. Increased repetitions do not translate into development, nessecarily. That’s the coaching aspect, the film room, and the understanding of the specific offense which falls on the coach to make sure his players do and understand all of these specific things. The results on the field show that the two never connected.
In comments this week, even Rex Ryan, the man who defends and sticks up for his team despite all the hot air that floats out of East Rutherford said:
“The verbiage (of Schottenheimer’s offense) that we had last season was probably a little much… I really am excited about having Tony Sparano here to be our offensive coordinator. When we were in the interview process, he showed me the verbiage… all this type of stuff… I’m like, “Wow.” I can visualize our football team in this type of system. I can see Mark being extremely effective playing the quarterback position.”
In other words: Tony Sporano will be more effective at developing a quarterback than Schottenheimer was. We saw how potential league fallout Matt Moore did in Sporano’s system this year (2,500 yards, 19 touchdowns, 9 Interceptions, 87.1 QB rating). A career was revitalized via the coaching of Soprano, and a career has stutter started via the coaching of Schottenheimer.
The good news for the Rams is that Sam Bradford has a much bigger skill set than Mark Sanchez. Though he was injured throughout the 2011 season, his rookie season Bradford threw for 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions (a high interception rate is expected for rookie quarterbacks thrust into the game from Week One). His yards per game in both seasons were been around the same (219 in 2010, 216 in 2011). Bradford has showed his efficiency despite two different offensive coordinators and very different schemes in his first two years (Pat Shurmur’s West Coast offense in 2010, and Josh McDaniels’ Spread Offense in 2011).
The tools are there for Schottenheimer to succeed but if, and only if, he can coach this young quarterback differently than the one he coached in New York. He must remain balanced and committed to the running game, and pass efficiently as needed while continuing to increase Bradford’s role as he develops and gets healthy again.
Look for the Rams to play a lot like the Jets have for the past few years. Jeff Fisher’s Titans teams were always a physical bunch that established the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense. Fisher ran the ball effectively with Eddie George and Chris Johnson, and passed the ball efficiently with Steve McNair and Vince Young. His defenses were always nasty (see Haynesworth, Albert) with a use of every defensive lineman on his roster on a rotation. Sound familiar? Well, kind of. Except for the quarterback thing.
New defensive coordinator Gregg Williams coaches a lot of the same schemes as Rex Ryan did/does on defense. They call him Dr. Heat, and he applies pressure often and from all angles. With talent in the front seven, where Fisher and Williams like to focus their defenses with DE Chris Long and LB James Lauranitis, this young aggressive defense will be a force to be reckoned with.
Much like Gang Green’s.
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