The Full Monty Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Alex Gibbs, the man who oversaw Shanahan's great-performing offensive lines of relative nobodys in Denver, is currently with the Seahawks while we have Chris Foerster, who was previously in San Francisco with a decidely less stellar reputation. Would his presence here, tutoring Trent Williams and our rookies (Capers, Cook, etc.) as well as our veterans, make you a lot more confident for this year and beyond? edit: downside to Gibbs seems to be his intermittent periods of semi-retirement, but that didn't stop Pete Carroll... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsHokieFan Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 No doubt about it. Him or Dennison, who recently served as o-line coach in Denver. Chris Forester is one of my concerns on this coaching staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daskns4life7620 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 He didn't exactly do a great job of mentoring Duane Brown Houston's LT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kappaluvacee Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Alex is a great coach, nut there's no guarantee he'll have any more success in SEa than our new guy. The rest of his assistants are here so I like us better overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldskool Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Absolutely. With the formerly potent Denver rushing attack while both Shannahan and Gibbs/Dennison were there, to me it's a bit of a chicken and the egg mystery. The one thing that I always liked about Shanny and his days at Denver was the commitment and the skill level that was displayed in their run game. I'm very wary of how the rushing attack will look this year, much more so than the teams passing game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
authentic Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Of course, Gibbs is like one of the founding fathers of the zone blocking scheme. So yeah i do have my reservations about Foerster. However, I do trust that Shanny did his homework on all of his assists and found it worthy to hire him. Hopefully it pans out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldskool Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 This article I found from earlier this year talks a bit about what the Skins will do with the rushing attack that actually made me feel a bit better about it. http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/redskinsjournal/2010/04/23/redskins-ol-coach-chris-foerster-everybody-starts-with-a-clean-slate/ How much does Mike Shanahan’s scheme, in particular, help an offensive line? “This is a very good system for offensive linemen. They do a lot of different things that do help linemen. The one thing that the linemen have to be willing to do is run. This zone-blocking scheme, now, there will be a mix of power. There’s going to be the zone-blocking scheme that you all have heard a lot about. But this is a very good system for offensive linemen. “Really, we’re on the offensive. We’re not taking it on the chin all the time from the defense. There’s a lot of this offense that fits very, very well together—the passing game complements the running game, the running game complements the play-action game, and so on and so forth, to make it for the offensive line, so it’s not the quarterback in the same place every time, the same run where the linemen get to anchor down. We make those guys run and defend the field sideline to sideline, run and pass, which really helps offensive linemen and hopefully will help our guys develop more quickly.” Does last year’s zone-blocking scheme give these guys a good foundation for your new scheme? “In the NFL, a lot of people are doing the same things. Obviously everybody runs a version of the outside running game. Our commitment to it will be the difference, maybe, between what they did here last year. I can’t speak much on what they did, but obviously there are some similarities and a lot of these guys have run the zone blocking scheme before. All the players have done some form of it. It’s just a matter of us all getting on the same page with how we do it here.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holmester Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 The reason I am not worried about it is because I think MS is going to be spending more time with the OL here in D.C then he did since his early days in Denver. With KS as OC and Lafleur or whatever with QB's I think Mike is gonna spend the majority of his time with the lineman and RB's. JMO tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 One would think that Mike Shanahan would monitor the O-line coaching and step in if there's problem. It's not rocket science anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paloosa Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Why is everyone worried about Chris Foerster? Didn't his offensive line do well at SF? Didn't Frank Gore have a break-out season a few years ago behind Foerter's OL? SF had other issues that made them a bad team and the OL was not one of them. So Foerster will be fine because he has the Shanahan to help him become even better. Alex Gibbs is a great teacher of the Zone blocking scheme but will that help Seattle be any better than Foerster's Redskins OL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrelgreenie Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Alex Gibbs, the man who oversaw Shanahan's great-performing offensive lines of relative nobodys in Denver, is currently with the Seahawks while we have Chris Foerster, who was previously in San Francisco with a decidely less stellar reputation.Would his presence here, tutoring Trent Williams and our rookies (Capers, Cook, etc.) as well as our veterans, make you a lot more confident for this year and beyond? Yes, but that doesn't mean that i think Foerster will be unsuccessful. I think between Shanahan and Bobby Turner they have a pretty good handle on what they want from the OL. I imagine a train the trainer type of situation w/ Shanahan/Tunrer showing Foerster the scheme specific aspects needed to effectively execute their system especially as it pertains to the running game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes and Skins Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Certainly I think anyone would feel more confident if one of the guys who developed the ZBS into what it is today. Foerster I think has the ability to be one of the top OL coaches remember he had nothing to work with in SF outside of Joe Staley and Chilo Rachal and he at least made that OL somewhat decent. I'm sure if he were still there he'd be licking his chops of an OL of Anthony Davis Mike Iupati Staley Rachal and the last one is slipping my mind right now What I'm saying is give it a pre-season and a year before we can assume one way or another and Foerster's big tell tale sign of his job as a coach is the development of Trent Williams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tris Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 He didn't exactly do a great job of mentoring Duane Brown Houston's LT. This was my immediate thought as well. 2007 the Texans were 22nd in rushing in the NFL with Ron Dayne leading the way with 773 yards. 2008, Gibbs' first year, they draft Steve Slaton and behind his 1,282 yards (6th in the league), they jump to 13th. They also traded up in the draft to grab the afore mentioned Brown, who started 16 games at LT. 2009, Slaton struggles for only 437 yards (team high). As a team, they slip to 30th in rushing. Brown struggles mightily, allowing 7 sacks, 11 hits and 35 hurries as well as giving up eight penalties. In Gibbs' second year, both Slaton and Brown regress, and the rushing offense is attrocious. However, the pass pro is solid, giving up the 5th fewest sacks in the NFL. Great QB, WR, and TE play most likely had a hand it that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illone Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I'll give this guy a chance before I clammor for someone else. Have a feeling this staff will be better than the previous staff, which is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartacus87 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Yes. Foerster is average at best. Gibbs is the founding father of the ZBS. So yeah, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with it. But as others have said, I think having Bobby Turner on hand will help a LOT. If it were just Mike Shanahan to help out, I'd be a little more concerned, but having 2 out of the 3 guys from the Denver offense helps. Shanahan is the head mastermind and Turner will help implement the specific run-blocking schemes. All Foerster will have to do is oversee the unit and basically not screw anything up. I would like to believe he can handle that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Batman Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I think Shanny/Allen did a good job finding Foerster. There was certainly just cause in hiring Gibbs; his proven track record makes him one of the untouchables in coaching still working today. However, after Vinny, I never thought we would draft O-line in the first round OR trade for a well-established OL and not give up a 1st round pick for it. Shanny/Allen have taught me to never say never again. I trust that they have selected the best man to teach our blockers to help our RBs pound the rock. (Points to the first person to solve the riddle in my post, by the way ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlied72 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Running game hands down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 He didn't exactly do a great job of mentoring Duane Brown Houston's LT. Houston actually has a pretty good OL and Brown isn't really a weak link. He isn't as good as Winston, but he was a project coming out and hasn't come to fruition yet. In response to the OP, I think Gibbs is probably a far better coach than Foerster but I'm hoping Foerster will be alright. Shanahan wouldn't have hired him if he were an idiot and we'll have some talent on our OL this season for him to work with. Also I'm pretty sure Gibbs and Shanahan had a falling out a couple of years ago so there was probably no chance he'd have come and coached for us. If he had, it probably would have been a distraction anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shemp nixon Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I read somewhere that Foerster is a ZBS coach, but a couple of places he's been(Ravens,49ers), were not zone teams.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes and Skins Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I read somewhere that Foerster is a ZBS coach, but a couple of places he's been(Ravens,49ers), were not zone teams.... Actually that is somewhat true but also false Nolan was the HC in SF and IIRC they actually had a few of the ZBS elements into their O scheme. When he was in Baltimore, they also had some ZBS elements into their scheme. He has been in places where it wasn't the primary focus but it was also used just not as heavily. Similar to what we were the last couple of years where we still used a power scheme but had a lot of the ZBS elements I'm not too worried about Foerster because he's been in the game for a while and he was a coach under Dungy in Tampa so I'm sure he has to be a good coach if he was working under Dungy, who has a great track record of developing coaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gutlead74 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 without a doubt YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldskool Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I read somewhere that Foerster is a ZBS coach, but a couple of places he's been(Ravens,49ers), were not zone teams.... He did use some ZBS principles when coaching those teams but you have to use a system that will allow the players you have to be successful. SF or Balt simply didn't have the OL needed to run (and run being the optimal word with ZBS) the system effectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellsMyHero28 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Houston actually has a pretty good OL and Brown isn't really a weak link. He isn't as good as Winston, but he was a project coming out and hasn't come to fruition yet. Brown, coming out of Tech was drafted too high. There was a run on tackles in that draft and Houston panicked and stretched to draft him. Everyone in Blacksburg was pumped because Duane was a fan favorite but he shouldn't have been drafted where he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enter Apotheosis Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 We've been over this before. Obviously Alex Gibbs would be an upgrade over Chris Foerster... but ultimately Mike Shanahan's scheme is the primary driving force behind his success in the run game. Shanahan is also known for keeping a very close eye on his position coaches and will make sure they are doing what he needs them to do to have the line ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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