According to recent reports from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, if Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas had their way, Jim Bates would not be the Broncos’ newest assistant coach — he’d be their head coach in Miami.
Such campaigning says a lot about Bates — but they’re far from the only ones to want the veteran of 37 sideline seasons to practice his trade in their midst. Similar calls went out from the Miami Dolphins’ locker room when the then-interim head coach interviewed for the position just hours after a résumé-burnishing win over the New England Patriots. Miami, however, opted for Nick Saban over Bates, and South Florida is still lamenting how that choice turned out.
But here’s what Bates’ charges said about him in December 2004:
Then-quarterback A.J. Feeley, who started down the stretch under Bates: “If you ask everybody around this locker room he’s a guy you want to play for and a guy you want to earn his respect. As a coach, that’s what you want, a group of guys that want to play for you. He’s got my nod.”
Tight end Randy McMichael: “People say we’re a different team under him, and it’s true. I will play for that man anywhere, any day of the week.”
A year later, when Bates was in Green Bay and head coach Mike Sherman was dismissed, players again openly campaigned for Bates to become the team’s head coach.
“I thought he did a great job with the defense and I would love it if Coach Bates got the job,” Packers nose tackle Grady Jackson told the Appleton Post-Crescent last year. “The players really respond to him.”
“Players really love Coach Bates and he has a way of getting the most out of them,” Green Bay tight end Donald Lee also told the Post-Cresent as the Packers conducted their search for a head coach. “He was like that in Miami and he was like that here. There’s no question he’ll make a great head coach somewhere. Hopefully, it’d be here.”
Time will tell how Bates does in Denver. But a good indication of how he’ll fare rests in how so many of his players thought the best course for their team’s future was to have the 60-year-old coach shepherd them through what changes awaited.
I have to admit I like the move, but maybe you can help us out a bit Andrew…
The duo-coach system, did it really work out all that well on offense? Sure, Shanny is “the man” when it comes to the offensive game plans, but did having Heimerdinger AND Dennison in lead offensive roles cause any issues?
Will the players on D have any issue having a Defensive Coordinator AND an Assistant Head Coach-Defense?
All very confusing…
TSG
http://www.milehighreport.com
The primary advantage of the arrangement is that you can have one “supervisor,” as it were, on the sidelines and another in the press-box coaches’ booth, whereas simply having a coordinator and no assistant-head coach means the man in the position has to choose one spot or the other. It is interesting, though, having the Packers’ previous two defensive coordinators aboard. Slowik was a part of playoff appearances there, but his unit ranked in the bottom half of the league, while Bates’ Pack defense ranked seventh, but the team went 4-12. But perhaps this will be a great arrangement here. Slowik’s players have almost universally spoken in glowing terms of his work since his arrival in Denver, and you can see above what Bates’ guys had to say about him. All that being said, I don’t think the players will have an issue with the d-coord and an assistant head coach on defense. They’re pros and can adapt.
I think this is a great pick up. One question I have is with the formation. Will the team continue to use the 4-3 or does Bates like to go with a 3-4. With the great athletes we have at LB, maybe that change might be for the better???
I still think it would be fool-hardy to switch to a 3-4, which is probably why the Broncos are trying to bring in a 4-3 specialist. As for Slowik, I don’t know how good of a DB coach he actually is…BUT it doesn’t hurt to have Champ Bailey and John Lynch helping you mold young players. I like the Bates pick and I hope it happens.
I believe Bates and Slowik will probably work together to create gameplans that will be designed to generate more pressure from the DLine. From where I sit it looks like Slowik gets promoted to help Bates make the transition to a new team that is essentially keeping it’s entire staff except for Coyer.
Bates would need to learn our various schemes and come up with better ways without rocking the boat too much I suppose. I’ve never really understood coaching, so I am just guessing here. All I know is that a Broncomaniac has to remain optimistic.
The guy seems to be a real players coach, hopefully the D will buy into his ways.
I’m sure they will. As long as we dump more than half of our DLine in the offseason. Those Browncos come off as lazy to me. I like Chuck…(something)… and Dumervil. I think we should also keep Myers and Engleberger, but get rid of the rest of them and bring in some fresh blood. I’d take heart over pure physical ability any day.
Just look at Randy Moss…take him or someone like Steve Smith? Smith is good because he has the heart without the prototypical type of stature that most Wideouts have. Moss has it all physically but lacks any drive to succeed.
That’s why like Elvis so much…he is always going to be underrated by the media pukes, but I think his heart and drive will win the day for him. Just like it did for Darrent Williams.
I like the choice of Bates. I don’t understand why they would promote Slowik to DC and make Bates the Assistant HC/Defense. It seems that it would make more sense to just make Bates the DC. I hope Bates at least will be the one designing the defense and will be firmly in control of what happens on defense. There’s nothing worse in an organization than an unclear chain of command. I don’t know how this same arrangement worked on the offense, but something was clearly wrong and Plummer lost his job in the process. The fact that players on previous teams liked Bates and openly lobbied for him to be the HC is admirable and indicates that players respond to him well. He appears to be a players’ coach, which may explain why he hasn’t been offered the HC job on previous teams. Those kind of coaches usually don’t fair well at the HC position but it seems to work really well at the other coaching positions. I’m glad that Shanahan brought in someone who has proven he can design and install a top 10 defense. Let’s hope he convinces Shanahan to upgrade the D-line to include a a real space eater at DT and a legitimate every down DE.
Ok, is it me, or does Shanny look like he is setting the table for a quick exit stage left? New Assist. Head Coach? wait, 2 Assist. Head Coaches? Something is going on here. I just hope that all this GURU that the Broncos are bringing in pays off.