Detroit Lions Weblog

Mamma Mia, It’s Marinelli!

The Lion’s have finalized their head coaching search. They have selected Rod Marinelli. Marinelli, who has never been a head coach or defensive coordinator, appears to have been selected for his ability to teach young players, his high reputation league-wide as a position coach, and his reputation as someone who places a very high value on discipline, work ethic, and attitude. Many will question Matt Millen’s hiring of Marinelli. It seems very similar to the hiring of Marty Mornihnweg due to Marinelli’s lack of experience. Also, Marinelli’s name arose relatively late in the game as a potential candidate so many will fear that the Lion’s have settled for Marinelli over their other choices.

With Russ Grimm and Marinelli you have two coaches who are at relatively the same point in their careers. I have no problem with the Lions selecting Marinelli over Grimm. Jim Haslett, who was the groom left jilted at the altar, never really excited observers due to the poor performances of the teams he coached in New Orleans. It is hard to get excited by a retread coach.

The most curious aspect of Marinelli’s hiring for me is that the Lion’s defense have a few players who don’t really fit into the Tampa Cover-2 zone defensive scheme. The Tampa Cover-2 is also used by the Bucs, Colts, Bears and will be used by the Vikings, after naming Mike Tomlin their defensive coordinator. The Cover-2 zone defense features smaller, quicker, more athletic LB’s and DE’s and emphasizes pressuring the QB and not allowing deep passes to hurt your defense. Teams are often successful throwing underneath against the zone coverage, which the fast LB’s are usually able to neutralize.

The decision to hire a defensive coach after placing such a high emphasis on selecting offensive players in recent drafts is also puzzling. I wonder how much personnel turnover will need to occur to adjust to the new scheme and if the defense will become a draft priority in upcoming drafts. I am also concerned that along with the recnt Tomlin hiring, that Marinelli and Tomlin will be attempting to draw their staff from the same relatively small philosophical pool. I wonder if Marinelli will remain a stubborn devotee to the Cover-2 system, like Mooch did with the West Coast offense , or will he be willing to adapt to the personnel that the Lion’s currently possess.

Here are the 5 players the Cover-2 will have the most impact upon:
1) Kenoy Kennedy-will he become a LB ala Cato June with the Colts.
2) Shaun Rogers-he will probably need to lose weight to fit the scheme.
3) Will James Hall and Cory Redding become DT’s instead of DE’s, they are not typical of DE’s in this defense.
4) Shaun Cody-should fit the scheme well.
5) Boss Bailey-can he become a Derrick Brooks-like playmaker in this scheme?

My hope of hopes is that Marinelli can distinguish himself among the indistinguishable failed history of Lions coaches (Monte Clarkenweg, Darryl Rogersweg, Wayne Fontesweg(pronounced Font-tehz-weg), Bobby Rossinweg, and finally, Steve Mariucciweg) that stretches back (optimistically) over the last 25 seasons. Marinelli will have to make a lot of sweeping changes in order to avoid the baggage of past organizational failures from tainting his future plans. At this point, I remain cautiously optimistic that he will be able to do so.