I do know one thing, if the team collapses and it isn't because of major injuries than we all know Turner should be the OC somewhere and should not be a head coach.
That's a little like saying that if Adlai Stevenson loses in 2008, you'd be convinced that he's just not an electable presidential candidate.
Once again your conclusion is incorrect Redman. The point is that people WAY overrate coaches (and QB's)who are on winning teams and way underrate coaches (and QB's) that have been involved with losing teams. You can't really make a fair judgment until you see the talent the coach has to work with. Everyone said Dungy and Manning don't know how to win the big one... (Not) Surprisingly, Manning won the big one and he didn't even have to play that well because his TEAM played very well.
Some very complimentary quotes were made about Turner from Aikman and many others. Don't you think it is at least possible that Turner is pretty good, but he coached for 2 of the 3 worst/meddling owners in football?
Unfortunately, too many people just can't believe something until they see it with their own eyes. Fortunately for me and some others that gives us a huge advantage in fantasy football. Again, I am NOT saying Turner is great, but I am saying that he MAY be a quality coach and we don't know it ujtil he is given some talent to work with.
I expect Aikman to praise Norv. Norv is as responsible as any single person in making Aikman the QB he was . . . but not as Aikman's head coach. He was a QB coach and ultimately OC at the time. I don't view Aikman as an unbiased, clear sighted appraiser of Norv's qualities as a head coach. Ditto Jimmy Johnson (who BTW was a long-time advocate of Wannstedt too, much to to the chagrin of 'Phins fans). Again, you pin it on Snyder and ignore Norv's first five years in Washington. Throw out 1994 (his rebuilding year) and you have a team that improved in 1995, started 7-1 in 1996 before collapsing, was one stupid personal foul penalty on Michael Westbrook (for removing his helmet in frustration, driving the team out of FG range against the Giants - a perfect reflection of the undisciplined team under Norv) away from the playoffs in 1997, and started 0-7 in 1998 before somehow managing to finish 6-10 in 1998.
Why was Norv retained after 1998? It wasn't the 6-3 finish to the 1998 season. The main reason for that finish was the emergence of Trent Green, but he departed following that year in FA to St. Louis. Plain and simple it was the ownership situation in flux after the death of Jack Kent Cooke that prevented the team from making any big changes, including resigning Trent Green or certainly hiring a new head coach. Any other team in the league would have replaced him at that point because he'd clearly established that his program wasn't working - probably a good third to a half of the teams would have fired him mid-season after that 0-7 start. Snyder had to retain him because by the time he got control of the team in early summer 1999, it was too late to hire a new head coach.
How unfair was Snyder? Snyder fired the GM because of a Smith-Schotty-esque fued between Norv and Charlie Casserly because he couldn't keep them together and the GM was easier to replace at that point than the head coach was. Snyder even promised Norv that if he made the playoffs he'd be retained past the 1999 season - a promise that he kept.
But if you want to blame it on Snyder as meddling owner in Washington, then I have one question for you. Why did Norv subsequently agree to sign on with a worse situation in Oakland under Al Davis if it was so horrible in Washington? The answer either isn't flattering to Norv or it isn't flattering to your theory about Snyder. Either Norv knows that Snyder wasn't to blame in Washington for his failure, or Norv is too stupid or too desperate for another head coaching position to refuse to repeat such a bad situation. Frankly, I see cause for concern with Smith in San Diego along those same lines given that Smith is clearly already dictating that Norv do things that ordinarily would be in the coach's discretion (i.e. hiring Cottrell as DC), but at least Smith isn't the owner and the team is in better position.
I'm not here to bash Norv. He's not a bad man and the team will have a winning record this year absent major injuries. I've said he's the safe pick and what I mean by that is that the wheels won't come off. Mark my words though: you will see more stupid penalties and you will see poor game management. You will also see shockingly poor play calling from him at times, which is more shocking because of the sparkling reviews of his offensive coaching abilities. Denver is good enough at avoiding those problems that San Diego may not even beat the Broncos out to win the division. The truth is that AJ Smith had better pray that he did as good of a job of building that team as he thinks he did because for that team to be not just a good team but an elite team it will have to do so in spite of Norv more than because of him.
and add make decisions that puts the team in the best position to win.
