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Let’s go over a few things he said. Didn’t get around to it with so much focus on Mr. Coffee speaking the same day . . .
A couple of weeks ago, when Mr. Coffee and Woody Johnson spoke on the same day, it was actually Mr. Johnson who people thought had the better press conference.
Like I’ve said many times, this really doesn’t matter much in the big picture, but the owner hasn’t always received high marks for his press briefings. But for what it’s worth, most of the press was giving him high marks for his performance and Mr. Coffee got panned.
Today, I want to go back to something Johnson said that we think need to be put under the microscope.
The first question he was asked was about retaining Todd Bowles.
Before I get to his answer, I think it’s important to point out that Bowles being on the hot seat was a media-created angle. Whether you like Bowles or not as a coach, he was never in trouble. I actually have always found it irresponsible when people write “hot seat” stories late in NFL seasons, and automatically include coaches who have a bad record that campaign. And then these stories take on a life of their own – “Bowles is on the hot seat!” Right or wrong, he was never on the hot seat in 2016.
Here is what Woody said when asked why he was bringing Bowles back.
“I have confidence in Todd Bowles,” Bowles said. “We went through a pretty exhaustive search – a 10-day search – going through that process with Ron (Wolf) and Charley (Casserly) and Neil (Glat), and some other guys here, I have the same feeling about him (today as I did then). (He’s) very, very smart. (He) played the game (and) understands it from the player standpoint and from a coaching standpoint. He was (assistant) coach of the year with the Cardinals.”
Like I said before, Johnson performed pretty well in his press, but there were aspects of this answer that were questionable.
Let’s start at the end.
“He was (assistant) coach of the year with the Cardinals.”
That really doesn’t mean much at this point.
We know Bowles was a very good assistant coach, but that is irrelevant in relation to him being a good head coach. And the jury is still out on him as a head coach.
Rex Ryan was an excellent assistant coach.
I’m being Captain Obvious by saying a lot of great assistant coaches don’t turn out to very good head coaches. I could name hundreds of them.
So if Mr. Johnson believes that Bowles being assistant coach of the year with the Cardinals is relevant to what he’s doing now, I respectfully disagree with him.
You can be a great assistant coach, and below par head coach. I’m not saying Bowles in below par. 2017 will tell us a lot. He was pretty good in 2015, and not as good in 2016. 2017 will be a tiebreaker as to whether 2015 was the real Bowles, or was 2016.
January 13, 2017
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