Detroit Lions Weblog

More on Martz, Marinelli has “Wegged” Himself!!

The Lions had to pick a fall guy(s) for their 1-7, end of season slide. Matt Millen has clearly established during his tenure that he is not afraid to remove a finger to save his limb, so to speak. Ultimately, the question still remains, how exactly is retaining the same offensive system, with predominantly the same players, going to alter their glaring failures on offense?

Colletto and Brown are both very experienced and should be more malleable to Rod Marinelli’s input than the eccentric Martz was. That being said, are we supposed to actually believe that the Brow/letto combo will be able to utilize Martz’s offensive design, and the supposed genius that went behind the design, and actually improve upon it, when no one in NFL circles would qualify either of them as possessing the same abilities as Martz. In example, I give you Cris Collinsworth:

“Martz is criticized all the time for not running the ball enough. But the more I watch tape of the Lions, the more I honestly believe that if he weren’t with Detroit, they’d only win three or four games a year. I always thought he was brilliant, the way he designed things.”

Furthermore, wasn’t featuring a specialized division of responsibilities(i.e. Martz being offensive head coach and Marinelli being in charge of the defense) a large part of what lead to Martz’s eventual unseating, anyhow? Won’t featuring two heads of offensive personnel likely lead to the same internal division and power struggles that the Lions have been rife with so often through the years?

In my eyes, this move, at least on the surface, is analogous to Steve Mariucci replacing Sherm Lewis with Ted Tollner as his offensive coordinator during his last season as Lions Head Coach. Marinelli, with the tacit approval of the front office staff in his decision to promote from within, when clearly, their may be better options available (Cam Cameron, Chan Gailey), has essentially sealed his fate as a Lions coach. Sadly, I am willing to lay stakes that Marinelli will not survive any longer than one more season as the Lions Head Coach.

Marinelli’s hands were tied to a certain degree, though. Martz wielded a heavy impact on the Lions personnel decision- making process, especially in free agency and the draft. The lasting remnants of Martz’s influence are woven throughout their entire offense. Will players like Shaun McDonald and Mike Furrey, whose careers have been inextricably linked with Martz, perform at the same high level without him? Their past track records would indicate that they will not.

Would the Lions have selected Calvin Johnson and Drew Stanton in the ‘07 draft without Martz’s input? How does his removal impact their place within the organization?

The irony is, everyone was initially so concerned about Martz’s desirability to other organizations upon his hiring, that no one, that I am aware of, honestly ventured the possibility that Martz and his “chuck and duck” offense might not actually work in Detroit.

Marinelli has officially “-wegged” himself. If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may remember that I have held the belief that the eventually, due to the internal dysfunction of the Lions organization, every Lions coach essentially becomes Marty Mornihnweg. The Lions have featured Wayne Fontesweg, Bobby Rossenweg, Marty Mornihnweg, Steve Mariucciweg, and now, without further ado, Rod Marinelliweg.

The “Wegs” all enter the organization with high-falutin’ ideals and big talk about how they will rapidly, and thoroughly, transform the moribund Lions franchise. They usually bring an Elmer Gantry-styled zeal, and the latest and greatest, fool-proof paradigm of NFL success along with them.

In many ways, the Tampa-2 defense, much like the “West Coast” offense and the “Run and Shoot” offense before it, constitutes the latest in a long line of one of the Lions primary problems—-personnel. If you don’t possess the correct personnel, or don’t stress the foundations with which these philosophies need to be built upon, the grandest of designs will not be successful.

What will be interesting next season, given Marinelliweg’s firing of two coordinators during his two seasons, is when he is backed into a corner, and the Lions continue to fail, what will there be left for him to direct responsibility towards, other than himself? In which case, when the walls are caving in around him, will he still talk about “breaking down tape” and “getting the right fits” and all the other coach-isms he has relied upon so heavily throughout his brief career?