Devils' Advocate--- Pat Shumur
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I saw this thought started elsewhere and I couldn't find it.
So....I'm trying not to be TOO much of a hater, and wondering what reasoning Holmgren could POSSIBLY have to keep Shurmur.
Let's all play devils' advocate. What are the advantages and potential good to maintaining P.O.S (Pat Oswald Shumur) as our head coach?
1. Youth/Stability/Tenure
IF (big if) Shumur pans out well as a coach, he could offer long-term stability for the Franchise. He could be a mainstay such as Belliceck, Jeff Fisher, Andy Reid or Tom Coughlin. There is something to be said when good teams find good coaches and stick with them (and the schemes, etc) for a while. If P.O.S finds his niche, we could have a solid HC for a while.
2. Defense
I can see some of the big picture Holmgren and Heckert are doing. With the solid (if not downright stellar) Defenses in our division, it's safe to say that there will not be many offensive shootouts against division rivals. If our FO builds a strong, steady defense, it will not take as much on the offensive side of the ball to win games. This relieves SOME pressure off of P.O.S.
3. Rapport
I remember Stephen Jackson and Sam Bradford having good words to say about Shumur. As well as (I think) Joe Thomas prior to his new contract. Whatever it may be, there are some apparent positives to Shumur. (i think this are quickly cancelled out by ineptitude, but they are there, nonetheless). I remember Shawn Rogers getting all pissy when slighted by Mangini. We haven't heard such reports about P.O.S.
4. Team youth
We are basically building the team from the ground up around Shumur. There are not a lot of "Mangini's guys" or "coach X's guys" that would cause divisions. A lot of these guys are young, and for better or worse- Shumur is their coach. Another example of H&H TRYING (in their own special way) to put P.O.S (as a young, inexperienced HC) in a position to succeed.
These are some of the positives I can think of. I'll address some negatives in a second post.
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Negatives
1. Mis-management.
This simply needs to be addressed. Repeatedly. This team has failed time and time again to be prepared. This is where Holmgren needs to come alongside Shumur (and our special teams co-ordinator) and say, "hey. this isn't good enough. let's try to improve in these areas."
I would HOPE this would improve by getting an OC next year (or moving Shumur to OC).
I think/wonder if Holmgren purposely placed too much responsibility to have P.O.S. drinking from a fire hose to make future seasons seem easier by comparison.
2. Competive Nature
This could be what concerns me most, because I don't understand it, and it's probably most difficult to change. There are times when, strategically and for the player's morale, the HC has to make agressive play calls. There are times when it simply makes sense to "go for it." Shumur has failed repeatedly to pick up his balls and man up in those moments. He may be a decent HC (fingers crossed, in this thread at least), but he appears to lack competitive fire. I know different people/personalities express it differently. But, being extremely competitive myself, I don't get it. I'm the kind of person to stab someone over a game of checkers. To compete as a HC in the NFL, you should HATE (and i mean, HATE, HATE, HATE) losing. All the currently great teams and players do. In this sense, I really don't understand P.O.S' mediocre, passive play-calling. It seems like, at times, he seriously doesn't want to win. (and it's REALLY hard to play devils' advocate here... some choices have been down right inexplicable, deying common football sense from anyone's perspective). Hopefully, someone will help Shumur get his Waterboy on.
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P.O.S (Pat Oswald Shumur
Are those really his initials? How fitting.
Nevertheless, I understand what you say. My only hope is that he turns into a new Bill Walsh who was also seemingly aloof....and lost...when he first started.
However, it is a bad sign when your backup QB completely ignores what you tell him and decides to call and run his own plays in a critical situation. That tells me that that QB has no respect for his coach and feels free not to bother listening to him. And that is just one instance. How many others have there been that we don't know about.
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The team needs an OC. That might be sufficient to clear up some of these issues.
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