0 Comments

Audibles From the Long Snapper: No Toub, Trestman Speaks, Giants Leave Albany

| January 9th, 2013

Why Dave Toub Would Worry Me as Head Coach

John Harbaugh is the poster child for special teams coordinators being hired as head coach. His success has been undeniable. 54-26. 6-4 in the postseason, where his club plays every year. Cameron Worrell told me Dave Toub welcomed the news of Harbaugh’s hiring as a boon for special teams coordinators everywhere. I believe it. But I think the Bears would be making an error in promoting Dave Toub.

Why? Cam Cameron.

What happens if Toub chooses the wrong offensive coordinator? What happens if Toub – a man with no experience on the offensive side of ball – takes the wrong shot and realizes in a year or so that the system is not working? Harbaugh was able to move from Cameron to Jim Caldwell – a respected play caller and former Colts head coach. But could the Bears afford to make such an in-season maneuver when they’ve gone through a coordinator a year for the last decade?

Phil Emery has spent a few hours with just about every offensive coordinator in the league for one reason: he wants a man of vision on that side of the ball and he wants that man to keep Rod Marinelli and his defensive staff in place. That’s how you win in the league these days unless you have Belichick. Or Coughlin. Look at the success of coaches like McCarthy and Payton for the new model. Offensive visionaries willing to hand over the defensive end to a competent “other” like Dom Capers or Steve Spagnuolo.

I’d offer Toub a substantial raise to stay the special team coach in Chicago. I would not promote him to head coach.

I Don’t Know Who Marc Trestman’s Talking About…

But here he is, breaking down the Canadian game. (My instincts tell me this game won’t be a captivating media presence in Chicago.)

Giants Move Training Camp to the Meadowlands

Some franchises want to win. Some franchises don’t accept losing. The New York Giants are the latter. This week they announced they will not spend their summer in Albany – where they’ve been since 1996 – and will instead hold camp at the Timex Center practice facility in the parking lot of MetLife Stadium.

Is it a big deal? Not for many but it is for me. These kinds of moves are what separate the Giants from a majority of teams around the league. They failed to make the postseason in the year after a Super Bowl title and instead of resting on the laurels of their two shiny rings GM Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin decided to being making structural, organizational changes. Losing is not acceptable to Big Blue and it’s damn admirable.