That's right. It has been floating around Detroit for the most part of the week that Mariucci is on his way out and Dick Jauron will take over for the rest of the year. Hopefully it doesn't happen, because Mariucci is great for the Lions, and he's not quite the problem. Injuries hit hard, WRs are dropping the ball, WRs aren't panning out, QBs are looking horrible, the OL needs to be improved.
Mariucci, if fired, won't be jobless for long. Some team will be smart enough to hire him.
Mariucci is a horrible coach because of his massive hard-on for Jeff Garcia, who has been playing hurt all year, has made some ridiculously bad throws, and this constant in-out of Garcia and Harrington isn't giving the team a chance to come together and understand the system and what will happen with that quarterback there.
He's also employing the most ridiculous RB by committee ever, considering Kevin Jones is one of the most talented young backs in the league and he's only giving him 10-12 carries per game.
All the blame can't be put on Mariucci for the failures of the team, though, obviously. The wide receivers and tight ends drop so many passes it's actually disgusting, the offensive line has had problems blocking all year, but there's still no excuse for playing carousel at quarterback and running back and no player at those positions knowing what their fate is in this week or the next.
I'm sure he'll catch on, and knowing him, he'll bring more bad player management and more Jeff Garcia somewhere else.
Garcia was brought in because he understands Mariucci offense system. Heck, Garcia was pretty successful with it in San Fran. With that said, Garcia does suck. I'd love to see more of Harrington out on the field, because I think he's finally just coming around. But how much can you really do as a QB, when the WRs are dropping balls that were perfectly thrown and the OL is not giving you the amount of time to successfully read the field and make the throw.Originally Posted by McKain
Now I agree with you Kevin Jones being one of the best young RBs in the game right now, but I disagree with you about the committee being rediculous. A committee in football can actually be good, because it makes some harder work for other teams to prepare. Just looking at some stats, though, Jones does get the majority of the carries. Out of Jones, Bryson, and Pinner, and a total of 248 rushing attempts between them, the percentage of carries broke down like this:
Bryson - 18% of carries
Jones - 64% of carries
Pinner - 18% of carries
So as you can see Mariucci, when he does run, will most likely hand it off to Jones. But putting Bryson and Pinner in there every once in a while is not a bad thing, it'll keep Jones rested and give him a break. As of right now, Bryson isn't doing to bad when he is given the ball averaging 5.2 yrds per carry.
Even if Mariucci does continue to play around with the QB position, all the better for him, it'll only push Harrington harder.
I don't feel Mariucci is the problem, heck not even Matt Millen's fault. It's just that we're weak at the QB pos. with Harrington just coming around, and we need to obtain a better OL. The OL is key to any offense.
It's not pushing Harrington harder when he has two good weeks in a row, then has a mediocre first half and is pulled for no apparent reason other than the receiveres being incapable of catching, and then Garcia comes in and stinks it up HORRIBLY. When he's being pulled for a guy who actually ends up doing worse than him, it's not pushing Harrington to do better, it's showing him how little Mariucci thinks of him.
If the committee is not the problem, then not running enough is the problem. 26 rushes a game? that's ridiculous with how much talent they have at RB (mainly in Jones, though Bryson and Pinner are both okay as well). It's made especially worse when you realize Jones is only getting 14 carries a game, when he clearly is just loaded with talent ready to be unleashed. Mariucci and his coaches clearly don't want to put the game in Harrington's hands, yet they clearly don't want to put it in their most talented player's hands, either. It's not Jones being rested, it's Jones being misused, because he's the type of back who should be getting 18-20 carries a game instead of the 10-15 area.
Sure, committees can be good when used properly (see: Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Atlanta, or Denver for how to run a 2-3 back situation well). Detroit isn't doing that. In all those circumstances, there's basically 2 backs of equal talent who are situationally excellent.
Parker is a speed back, Bettis is a goal line back, Staley is a both-ways guy and a receiver.
Priest Holmes was the more explosive all-around back and receiver, Larry Johnson was more of a power straight ahead guy.
Warrick Dunn is the speed guy, the outside guy, the receiver, Duckett is the power guy, and Vick is the random 30 yard run guy.
Tatum Bell is the fast guy, Mike Anderson is the power guy.
Committees work well when utilized well. How is detroit using their's well? All three of their runners are fast, but only Jones can do anything else (use his power to gain runs, mainly). So how can they committee three guys who basically run the same way? They can't, really, because a committee is based upon specialization to gain the most yards in every situation. Jones needs to be utilized more or the running game needs to be utilized more, something that gets him more carries and keeps him in the game.
I don't think it's fair to dissolve Marriuci of all the guilt and to not blame Millen at all, when both of them are the ones deciding who goes out there and who goes out there where and how often. Clearly that is an issue, since Garcia and Harrington have swapped in and out what, 5 times by now? When their runnng backs are all the same and aren't properly used in a committee? When their OL is made up of bad players who they won't give up hope on? When their "star" QB is a player who they won't give up hope on but will continue to belittle his confidence?
Man, that got really long and convoluted. Sorry if any of it was confusing and odd.
The whole QB situation is bad. Harrington has really improved this year, but maybe because he has competition for the QB spot. But that can only be speculation. NFL is a business, and it's all about winning games. If it isn't working, then change is needed. That's pretty much a given. If Mariucci felt Garcia was the change that was needed, then he is the HC, and a successful HC at that. Look at Mariucci in his SF days, that team was great.
I really do agree with you, any time you can establish a running game in any game, you'll be more likely to win that game. But that's the WC offense for you.
Jones is great at running outside, or even just breaking away through holes. Just because I said committees can be good, doesn't mean I think Det. should have one. I really don't even see Det. having a committee. More like they give Jones a rest every once in a while, and give some carries to Bryson and Pinner. Bryson is more of a up the middle type of guy, and he's good at it. I think Bryson would be a great goal line back, but if I was Mariucci, the ball would be in Kevin Jones hands. Really, the problem lies in the OL. You can't do anything without an OL.
Millen has had his flaws, but he's built this team up pretty decent. Yah the Mohrneweg (Sp?) hire as HC was pretty bad, but he's picked it up since then. Every yr, it's been BPA in the draft. That's how we landed with three first round picks of WRs. Rogers is injured proned, but who saw that coming? Nobody did. Roy Williams has his games, but he's too inconsistent. Mike Williams, is a big guy. If I was Mariucci, I'd stick Mike Williams at TE. Yah, the blocking may be weak, but seeing this guy come out for a post and going down the middle would be awesome. Balls getting dropped, it sucks, but it does happen with younger players. The WR coach needs to get on these guys, and make them accountable for every ball they drop.
Heck, the OL needs to get better. Fire the OL coach, gets some new OL players in there. Heck focus the whole offseason on just the OL. The defense has been fantastic except they do have their mistakes. The QB can't really come around until he has stability on the OL and his WRs quit dropping the ball so much. Not to mention I believe in balancing passing and running, which creates a more dynamic offense.
Belittle his confidence? This is Harrington's, what, 3rd or 4th yr? Before Garcia came, he's had no competition at the QB position. That's confidence. The Lions gave him the reigns to the team, and it has been a bumpy ride since then. I think Harrington needs to sit down with the coaches, and figure out how he can improve. Yah, he has had two games, and I'll give him credit for that. He's inconsistent. Up until those two games, he pretty much sucked. He was horrible in Chicago week two. Fans are getting sick of him, and Lions would be very happy if they will be able to get Matt Leinart or Vince Young this upcoming draft.
San Francisco also had a much much better team than Detroit does. Mariucci had great successes in SF because he had a great team; nobody knows what he'd do with average talent, all we know is what he does with good talent (SF) and with bad talent (DET).
BPA is not the best way for a team to draft, Millen doesn't seem to realize that. The Lions have had massive holes on the line for years, they need to get some consistency on defense and also some defensive depth. Roy Williams can be a justifiable pick, even with a healthy Rogers their WRs are poor. But then last year, they take... Mike Williams? (who, btw, would make a horrible tight end. He's way too fast and way too undersized to move there) Jammal Brown, Alex Barron, both were there at that pack, both were great players who filled needs, but they went with a great player at a position they didn't need at all. That's a bad pick, whether he was the best player there or not (which he probably was), because they could have taken a slight drop-off in talent to fill a huge hole.
I agree completely on the OL issue, their OL is horrible and full of horrible draft busts like Raoila and Backus, and Woody is the only good player they have on it right now.
Yes, Harrington was the only QB for his first four years, but then they bring in Garcia, which hurt his confidence. Then they say they're going to start Garcia, but oh, he gets hurt. Then when he's healthy again, they decide to swap them back and forth and even give Dan Orlovsky some time. Being taken in and out of the game and in and out of the starting lineup basically shatters the confidence of a player in any league. That's just a poor coaching decision, not for initially bringing in Garcia, but for saying "hey Joey, you're not good enough... wait, god dammit, now we need you again... okay nevermind... wait, okay, you're back in... oh man, you just had two games and weren't doing so bad here, you're gone again, okay Joey?" That's a flat out terrible way to handle a player; if he's not good enough to play the first time, just sit him and start your new guy, don't keep bringing him back because "your" guy sucks. That's what Mariucci's doing, he's trying to make Garcia the starter, but Garcia sucks, so they keep having to go back to Harrington, basically telling him "You're only our second choice here... but our first choice is kind of slumping. Let' sjust cycle you in and out."
Mariucci has just made bad decision after bad decision in Detroit, and Matt Millen has done the same. Both continue to do it. That's the one problem Detroit needs to address even before it can bring in some OL and a new QB and whatever else they need; finding people who can handle them and handle them well. Mooch and Millen haven't done that yet.
who wants to see more of harrington? Well, other than the opposing team.
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anyone who's seen Jeff Garcia play this year.
He's made some of the most ridiculous throws ever.
the fact is, harrington sucks. does his offensive line suck more? yes. But harrington makes some truly atrocious decisions. I've seen them both play this year more than i want to (living in NFC north country) so i can tell you that harrington is playing worse than garcia is.
at least Garcia made it a competitive game against the bears unlike harrington.
The art of being an engineer: packing 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb box.
"If Hooter's fell, for all practical purposes the world was lost." Von Neumann's War
http://www.myspace.com/rockinray1
yeah, Garcia made it competitive by getting picked off and having a 5.6 YPA.
I wouldn't quite say that Detroit has bad talent. They don't have outstanding talent, but they do have a lot to work with. The only areas lacking talent is the QB and OL positions.
Well that is your opinion, and Millen isn't the only one in the draft room. A lot of fans did like his picks in the draft, but it really can't be his fault that they didn't pan all out. Yes, it's a huge mistake that they have that much money tied up in the WR position. But that'll be something they have to figure out.
How can you say that their WRs would be poor if Williams and Rogers were out there? Williams and Rogers would probably make one of the most young talented duos in the NFL. They have their mistakes, but nothing that isn't fixable.
Never heard of speed being a flaw when your TE. I didn't know 6'4, 230 was undersized for a TE, when some of the best TEs in the league are around that size (Gates, Crumpler, Shockey, Gonzo, etc.) Mike Williams was the BPA, and fans were excited about the pick.
I'm not saying that wouldn't of been a smart thing to do, but for every succesful offensive lineman taken in the 1st round, there are a ton more who have been busts. I'd probably taken a chance on Mike Williams, too. Too much depth can never be bad, but the money issue is a huge one. There's a lot of money tied up into one position, it may be interesting to see how they handle that. Hopefully it doesn't put a strain on their salary cap.
It's a business. People in Detroit have been patient enough to let Harrington develope. It's time for him to bloom or be let go. Harrington should be appreciative of any chance that he gets, and he should understand when he gets pulled that it's just business, nothing personal. The goal of any NFL team is to win and to get to a super bowl. Harrington is getting paid to play football, but yet he's been a bust so far. Millions of dollars have been wasted on Harrington, who hasn't developed into the QB that he could've.
Mariucci, Millen, the whole front office, the whole team, they all got their fair share of fault. It's time to move on with a new QB, improve the OL, get the WRs to catch the ball instead of drop them, and move on. Det. has been patient enough.
When I said "even with Rogers their WRs are poor," I was referring to at the time of the draft, thus making the Roy pick justifiable.
When a player is that fast and fairly big, he is a bad fit at tight end, because he matches up much more favorably against cornerbacks. Getting matched up against a 6'1" 190 pound guy versus facing linebackers and safeties is a big difference.
Dallas Clark is 250, Crumpler is 260, Gates is 260, Gonzalez is 250, Heap is 250, Kellen Winslow is 250, Jermaine Wiggins is 260, LJ Smith is 260, Jeremy Shockey is 250. Mike Williams is weighing in between 225-230 and is expected to lose a fair amount of that weight going to next year, seeing as he is pretty much not in playing shape.
Too much depth is never a bad thing, but taking people a team does NOT have ANY need for at all is a horrible choice when there are players out there who they do need, and badly (and it's showing how badly they need a solid lineman this year).
I'm not saying Harrington should stay, but so far, he IS staying and he IS the best QB they have on the roster right now, but he's being treated like a 5th stringer who's just there as an injury replacement, and that's a poor way to handle any player no matter their position or starter status.
It's also time to move on with a new coach, a new owner, a new front office, a new coaching staff. Mariucci hasn't done it, and he's shown no signs that he even can do it, and the same for Millen.
did they have a chance to win with garcia? yes. did they have a chance to win with harrington? not a chance in hell.
The art of being an engineer: packing 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb box.
"If Hooter's fell, for all practical purposes the world was lost." Von Neumann's War
http://www.myspace.com/rockinray1
They're 3-6 with Joey, they're 1-2 with Jeff.
With Joey, they lost to the Bucs by 4, the Panthers by 1, and in one of those, they had a touchdown overturned and in the other they gave up a last minute game winning drive by Chris Weinke.
With Garcia, they lost to the Bears by 6, and the Falcons by 20.
I'd say Joey has been keeping them in games moreso than Jeff has.
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