Aside from those rare, talented specimens who excel at their positions organically, how much influence can a position coach have on a players career? As an example, Najee has the the physical ability to be an above average back, but seems to lack depth of vision when hitting the holes. Could a good running back coach provide value and supplement where the player’s ability falls short?
Even a bad chef can fuck up the world’s best steak. A good chef can make it how you’d expect. And a great one can make you something you didn’t even know you wanted out of that steak.
But even the best chef can’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad.
I know James Harrison wouldn’t have had much of a pro career with out Dick Lebeau and I’m fairly certain he’d agree with that.
He was undrafted. Cut multiple times. But the right tutelage turned him in to an elite player, even more impressive was his age when he finally broke out. Heck he was 30 when he won DPOY.
I know Watt broke his record in sacks. But TJ has been starting since his rookie year. Harrison wasn’t a full time starter until 2007, five years after entering the league.
Yes they do. Now does that mean they can turn garbage players into All-Pros? No. It just means they can raise the floor of bad players and they can raise the ceiling of the great ones. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh we have a two fold issue when it comes to our OL/Najee/Pickett.
Firstly the biggest issue with our OL is that they are not premier talents. Objectively speaking there is less to work with for a coach with them than other players. Of our 7 non-rookie OL to start the year, only two were picked before pick 90 and that’s James Daniels and Isaac Seumalo. No coincidence that they are likely the better parts of our OL as well. The other 5 are Chuks(#92), Mason Cole (#97), Dan Moore (#128), Spencer Anderson (#251), and Dylan Cole (UDFA).
So what you’re seeing from the OL is the result of us going bargain bin shopping every year in the draft for OL talent. These guys were considered later round prospects for a reason. Starting BroJo and then going T or C again next year with our first two picks would be the fastest way to fix our OL. Pay for Guards in FA as well.
RB wise theres just not much you can do with a guy like Najee. Coaching can’t change his athleticism which is primarily as a downhill runner who needs volume. Vision can be fixed yes but our coaches cannot make him into a different kind of RB. At best he would improve marginally because at the end of the day he is not built for the style of team we currently have. Put Najee behind a team like the Lions and he would likely be doing over 4.5 YPC and averaging 80-100+ scrimmage yards a game. This team doesn’t have the OL talent to support him and would’ve been better off using shifty backs.
QB is highly coaching dependent yes but at the same time you can often see when a QB has “it” quickly. We’re 19 games into KPs career, yes he’s had a shitty OC and OL but usually QBs who are struggling like him at this point don’t turn it around. He is making the same mistakes Week 1 his rookie year today in Week 7 of his sophomore year. That is not a good sign. Coaches cannot force him to throw a ball in stride, not get happy feet in the pocket, etc. they can only teach him stuff like progressions, timing, reading defenses. At the end of the day it’s on him to execute. The Titans have the worst OL in the league by far and have basically one good weapon in old-man Hopkins. Will Levis came out and put on a show that I haven’t seen KP even sniff in 18 more games of film.