National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Larry Bird once said, “I believe coaches need to move every three years if they are going to be effective. Athletes get tired of listening to the same voice.”
It isn’t that surprising to know that Bird played for four different coaches over his 14-year NBA career in Boston. That averages out to about three and half years per coach.
I know there are football coaches who have said the same thing over time and now I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t happening with Steelers Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau. This is LeBeau’s 11th straight year as the leader of the defense in Pittsburgh and despite lofty rankings two years ago, the defense just hasn’t been the same recently.
Solid veteran players have moved on and due to poor drafts the depth has not been refilled. LeBeau hasn’t forgotten how to coach, but has he changed anything about the way he does it?
LeBeau is loved by his players and former players and he is respected by football people across the country. While that is great and all, the results have not always matched the admiration. I take no joy in saying that his time has come and gone because I like stability as much as the next guy and LeBeau has been part of that.
The Steelers cannot be afraid of change however. If they could change their offensive coordinator what’s stopping them from changing their defensive one? Rhetorical question so I’ll move on…
As much as I wonder if his message has run dry, I also wonder if his system has done the same. His basic principles really haven’t changed; stop the run, pressure the QB and tackle the catch. Good offensive coordinators have figured this out and it’s starting to show more and more. Limited skill at key positions will make things even more vanilla.
High school and college football coaches can last forever because players come and go every 2-3 years so the message stays fresh. Professional coaches, despite free agency, will often coach players for five years or more and that same message over and over can begin to fall on deaf ears.
Maybe 11 straight years of Dick LeBeau’s coaching is falling on deaf ears now too. Bill Cowher admitted when he left that maybe he had over-stayed his welcome because the message just didn’t change.
The same can be said for Mike Tomlin too. Now in his eighth year, maybe his message has gone unheard as well in recent years. If the way he talks to his team is anything like his press conferences I can understand why.
If it sounds like I’m bashing both men, that isn’t my intention. I’m posing a question that I think has merit and I think it’s a question Art Rooney II and company need to strongly consider.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio
photo courtesy pittsburghsportsreport.com
12 comments
Maybe it has and maybe it hasn’t I can’t say. To me the real reason for the fall of the D goes back to the Superbowl XLV loss to the Packers. I know you all think that’s stupid and that’s fine it’s your opinion but I see it to be true. Why all of a sudden would the D fall off the mountain like that. I heard Warren Sapp say the D was old well so what that D was old and nobody said anything when they DESTROY the opponent. Ex. Vince Young: Gets Spiked on his head and now he is long gone from the league. This D would punish the opponent by sacking the QB, laying out Big Hits and causing turnovers and now all of a sudden they can’t do that anymore that is hard to believe. That loss to the Packers shattered there confidence to continue to do the same thing they had prior to that game. They would put fear into there opponents and you knew it was all over for that team facing the Steeler D now that ability to be physical and instill fear is gone and to this day I still wonder if the Steelers had won that Superbowl does the D fall off the mountain or do they just continue to be the beats they were?
Thanks to our defense we won the Super Bowl XL, becouse Big Ben get the worst rating % for a Super Bowl winning QB, you can ask for a good defense if you don’t have good players!!! We losse Aaeon Smith, Casey Hampton, Joey Porter, James Harrison, Lammar Woodley, Larry Foot James Farrior, Ryan Clark each and every one were a PRO BOWL players right now we only have Troy Polamalu Dick LeBeau made the game plan, but if you don’t have good players that execute it won’t work. at all, who will replace LeBeau Keith Butler or Rob Ryan!!! Plase give him a breake!!!
Hey I am cutting LeBeau quite a bit of slack it’s not his fault he can only coach these guys he can’t play for them. All I said is that some of the guys from that superbowl have not gotten over that defeat. I wish people would believe me on this matter but sadly I doubt anybody will ever believe me on the matter.
First of all, SB XL was eight years ago. A lot has changed since then most importantly of which is the lack of talent and depth. That’s an easy excuse for LeBeau to make isn’t it? He just doesn’t have the players. The problem is that nothing has changed abut his defense and there other defenses in the league with less talent playing better than this one is. I’m not suggesting that LeBeau has suddenly forgotten how to coach, but I am suggesting the system is old and predictable regardless of who is executing it.
And for the record Vittorio, I agree that SB XLV was a major factor in teams solving the Steelers D but I would take it even further and say that teams like the Rich Gannon Raiders had solved the LeBeau’s 3-4 as well.
Interesting and well thought out post.
I wasn’t aware that Larry Bird had made that statement. That’s interesting, although there are plenty of counter examples in the NBA. And I’d also say that the dynamic of an NBA coach to his players is very, very different from that of the NFL.
As for Cowher’s quote, I was also not aware of that. While trying to contradict something that someone says about himself is dubious, just as hindsight can be 20/20, memory can also distort things.
I say that because when the Steelers lost their 2003 finale to the Ravens in OT, a friend of mine from Cincinnati (and the guy knows football, he predicted Billy Belecheat’s rise when Belecheat was just a failed head coach in Cleveland who’d rode Parcell’s coat tails) brought up the “Maybe the players are just tuning out Cowher.”
I didn’t buy it then and one reason was that with the turnover in today’s NFL, guys aren’t around long enough to get to the tune out point, if that point exists. Cowher himself would make that argument to Peter King a MMQB column published shortly before Super Bowl XL.
Objectively speaking, the results don’t bear out the “tune Cowher out” argument.
That 6-10 season was followed by a 15-1 season, and followed by Super Bowl XL. I’d even argue that Cowher’s “message” so to speak, was effective in 2006, as the team started 2-6 but bounced back 6-2.
So I am skeptical of the “players tune out a coach after x point.”
Coaches can and do lose teams, but I suspect that has to do with deeper reasons than simply tiring of the same voice. Cowher lost the ’98 and ’99 Steelers down the stretch, as the guys quit on him (and they quit badly.)
In contrast, he didn’t lose the guys during the ’03 6-10 campaign because they fought that final game tooth and nail all the way through OT.
How does this apply to Dick LeBeau? Well, its hard to make a direct connection, so I’ll make an unrelated one.
Back in the 1990’s, during his first stint with Pittsburgh, Carnell Lake ended a hold out. When a reporter asked LeBeau about the impact of getting Lake back, LeBeau’s response was “I just became a better coach.”
The point is coaches can do a lot, but at the end of the day you’ve got to have the players.
And Dick LeBeau’s not to blame for Aaron Smith, Larry Foote, James Farrior, Casey Hampton, James Harrison, Ryan Clark and yes Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor getting old. Ditto LaMarr Woodley’s second contract flame out.
Now, I will say that LeBeau is extremely well liked by the press, and that has a HUGE impact on the tone of coverage he gets. To that end, its reasonable to ask if he’s trying to force his system on players who aren’t quite up to it. Maybe that’s the case. Maybe not. (Dale Lolley did make this point.)
As for Tomlin, I think that it is generally accepted that the Tomlin we see in front of the camera is not the same Tomlin you see in private. Numerous reporters have hinted at this, and one journalist who covers the Steelers said something similar to me in a private email (although that was a number of years ago.)
Anyway, although I have a different view, I like your article, and respect your level-headed approach and don’t at all blame you for making the point — getting outscored 50 to 9 in 6 quarters will start these kinds of conversations.
KT, I appreciate your respectful and well-thought comment here. I really enjoy the folks who visit the site and comment regularly because they are also deep thinkers and passionate Steelers fans. I have a tough time arguing your point with Cowher because the evidence speaks for itself. My only thought is that my feelings on Bird’s comment and other similar ones is that they are not necessarily the rule. There are plenty of coaches who don’t fall into the category I’m speaking of but I do believe in the idea that some coaches just ‘lose guys.’
LeBeau has not forgotten how to coach. I just believe that he is unwilling to change how he does things to accommodate his current roster. Great coaches adjust when the talent isn’t there and I just haven’t seen that with him.
Thanks for the response. I too agree that coaches “lose players.” As mentioned in my original comment Bill Cowher most certainly lost the team at the end of both the 1998 and 1999 seasons. I suspect that the only reason why Rooney did not fire him was because he knew that Tom Donahoe was actively working to undermine him (and that kind of coach vs. GM stuff will rip any team apart.)
You might be right about LeBeau.
I take a rather counter intuitive approach (at least looking back to the last 2-3 seasons) in that LeBeau deserves to be credited for the performance of the defenses in ’11 and ’12 — for coaxing every last bit of performance he could out of the mix of aging and green talent at his disposal.
But as I mentioned. You raise a legit point. When you get out scored 50 to 9 these kinds of conversations start.
Okay Steeldad you tell me how can you change a 3-4 Zone Defense and make it better? There really is no way to do that. I don’t believe LeBeau is forcing his system on the players I feel that the players just can’t do it. You guys seemingly misunderstood the point on the Steelers Superbowl XLV loss. It wasn’t that the Packers spread them out cause I saw Brady do the same thing to them all the time. It was that the Steelers belief of being Physical and Intimidating to the opponent is all gone. They can’t be what the once were and I don’t what more can be done. You can’t change systems cause that takes time. So in all honesty how can you change something that has been a staple of the team for over 20 years and attempt to find another way to succeed?
First of all, you start by realizing that what you are currently doing isn’t working. You have to get creative the way he did a few years back. Get back to the ‘amoeba’ style defense where guys line up all over the place. Where is the zone blitz? Why aren’t we seeing backers coming and D-linemen dropping? What has happened to the corner blitz? William Gay is one of the best blitzing corners around but he’s never given the chance anymore. I don’t disagree that the current personnel limits what he can do but if this trend continues DLB has to do something other than stay with the status quo. I’d rather go down swinging rather than just standing there taking it.
Well it’s simple: It’s been overdone. Yes I would like see some things different such as more press coverage. The Steelers don’t have a “true” NT that can take 2 blockers and if they did they chop him down across the legs making him useless. Gay could do that but then guys like Taylor and Allen can’t hold up on coverage so that is rendered obsolete. I wish I could tell you that LeBeau could find something new but how do you do that without disrupting something that has stood in place for over 2 decades.
[…] Steel City Blitz took a level-headed, nuanced approach at doing just this and made some respectable points, and in conversations with commenters (full disclosure, one of these was yours truly) he clarified that one of his main trusts was that Dick LeBeau was attempting to force players into a system – a point also raised by Joe Starkey and Dale Lolley. […]