re: Alabama Hires Patriots' TE Brian Daboll as Offensive Coordinator

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3. He was an offensive coordinator three times

Judging harshly, you could say that Daboll has been a failure as a coordinator in the NFL. In his four seasons as offensive coordinator with the Browns, Dolphins and Chiefs, his teams ranked 29th, 31st, 20th and 32nd in scoring.

But that’s not the entire picture, of course.

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and you have to look at who he had to work with at the position. In Cleveland, it was Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson one year, and Colt McCoy and Jake Delhomme the next. Daboll had Matt Moore and Chad Henne in Miami, and Matt Cassel and Quinn in Kansas City.

What’s more, Daboll wasn't equipped with much skill elsewhere. His most productive receivers were Mohamed Massaquoi, Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Bowe...

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Basically, Addicts, if it weren’t for the perspective of Phin Phanatic’s Brian Miller, we’d know nothing about this guy. So, for those of you who haven’t already Googled him. Here’s the career rundown of Brian Daboll.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Daboll played safety at the University of Rochester. After college, he signed on to coach at William & Mary for a year in 1997 before trailing Nick Saban as an assistant coach at Michigan State in 1998. He apparently impressed Saban, as the now-Alabama-dynasty head coach recommended Daboll to his friend Bill Belichick after just two years working together. It was a serendipitous moment, because Belichick had just taken over the head-coaching job at the Patriots in January 2000.

Belichick signed Daboll as a defensive backs assistant coach – a role Daboll held through the Brady-Belichick duo’s first Super Bowl victory in 2001. In 2002, he was promoted to the other side of the ball as the team’s wide receivers coach.

In an interview for his alma mater’s website, he said that the fact he had never played receiver and had always focused on defense was not a problem.

“As a coach, you tell a player what has to be done, how they are supposed to do it, and then you make sure they do it right,” Daboll said. “You find a way to help the players. And they are always looking for what they can do to get better.”

After the 2006 season, he changed position groups again, following Eric Mangini from the Patriots to the Jets. In New York, Daboll served as the quarterbacks coach from 2006-2008 – a period that included Brett Favre’s up-and-down year after his first retirement psych-out. In 2009, he once again followed Mangini (still occasionally called “Man-genius” at the time) – to Cleveland. Once again, he was promoted.

Serving as the offensive coordinator, Daboll and Mangini tried to sort out the tangled mess that had just gotten Romeo Crennel fired as head coach. Two bad quarterbacks. No talent at skill positions aside from an ego-maniacal receiver named Braylon Edwards and tough runner on his last legs named Jamal Lewis. The team sputtered, quarterbacks switched back and forth, and after two years that staff was purged as well.

Then, Miami Head Coach Tony Sparano decided to give Daboll another chance. He came with a new offense in a critical year for the team, and, initially, it was a disaster. Miami scored just seven touchdowns in their first six games. But, after going 0-7, the team sprang to life with Matt Moore at quarterback and the team finished their last games 6-3.

Now he’s the Chiefs OC, and like Brian Miller said, this guy is basically a mystery.

So how do we judge what we are getting with him, and how do we think he can help us? I think a good place to look first is at the growth of Matt Moore.

Moore is not a physically talented quarterback. An undrafted free agent out of Oregon State, his career followed a very similar trajectory as Matt Cassel’s. After mostly riding the bench for two years, Moore was spectacular in the seven games in which he replaced an injured Jake Delhomme in Carolina in 2009, throwing eight TDs and just two INTs. In his six starts the following year, however, he disappointed, ending with a passer rating of just 55.6 on the season.

Filling in for an injured Chad Henne under Daboll in Miami, Moore seemed to redeem himself, again showing people that he could be a productive quarterback.

Who does Moore credit for his eventual success? Daboll.

“I’ve never been more prepared playing under Daboll. He just gets me ready to play. And then obviously getting used to his style, it’s been great. I don’t have a bad thing to say about the guy,” he told the Palm Beach Post last year.

Sparano, who didn’t know Daboll before hiring him last year, seemed to also lay the credit for the offense’s rebirth at Daboll’s feet, telling the Palm Beach Post he’s one of the “brightest football guys I’ve ever been around, particularly offensively.”

But Daboll’s success wasn’t just with Moore.

Reggie Bush, whom the Dolphins acquired in a trade with the Saints (giving up just a backup safety and trading places in the 6th round), had the best year of his career. It wasn’t just a career year. Bush had more rushing yards in 2011 than he had the previous three seasons combined, averaging 5.0-per carry – a season average he had only bested once with the Saints: in 2009 when he only had 70 carries.

Much like the Patriots did with him, Daboll’s forte appears to be playing to the strengths of his individual players, something I like to hear given the unique skill players on the Kansas City Chiefs roster.

But, perhaps owing to his youth and inexperience, 36-year-old Daboll is also known for playcalling that can be on the bad side of wacky. Dolphins receiver Brian Hartline said publicly last year that they wished they had gotten better play calls at times during the season. In Dallas last year, they failed to score a touchdown after four trips to the red zone, and lost a close game that they had largely dominated (sound familiar?).

In the end, the Dolphins finished the year with the 23rd-ranked passing offense and 11th-ranked rushing offense, just a few spots above the Chiefs in both categories.

So what do we know about Brian Daboll? Still not much, but I am very intrigued to see what Daboll has to offer. One other important point is that I do believe it is telling that the Chiefs decided to go with a young, up-and-coming coordinator, as it gives the impression that they have a succession plan in place when Romeo eventually rides off into the sunset.

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In 2010, Jake Delhomme was nearing the end of his career. By then, he had pretty much seen it all. He was 35 years old, beginning his first and only season with the Cleveland Browns.

His offensive coordinator was Brian Daboll, who was a few months younger than the veteran quarterback. Delhomme doesn't have many fond memories from that time because an ankle injury limited him to four starts during his short tenure with the AFC North doormat. But he did come away with a favorable impression of the man shouting plays into his helmet headset.

In their brief time together, Daboll earned Delhomme's respect and taught him a few things, too.

"I loved being around him," Delhomme said. "He's a fantastic X-and-O football coach.... I was lucky enough to have a pretty good background after playing for a while.  But there were still many things I learned from him, the nuances of a defense and things that I thought were fantastic."

It's why Dehomme is convinced Daboll will have success at Alabama, where he was hired as offensive coordinator earlier this week. Delhomme, the former Carolina Panthers star, described Daboll as a "great teacher."

"I always felt like I was getting better by being around him because I was acquiring more knowledge," said former quarterback Chad Pennington.

Daboll was Pennington's position coach for one season with the New York Jets in 2007 during which the former Marshall star posted a 1-7 record and was eventually benched. Even as his tenure as the Jets' starter was nearing an end, Pennington grew close to Daboll, who instructed the quarterback on what to look for when reading coverages. Having coached and played defense, Daboll understood how to attack one. 

"Whether three-by-one, or two-by-two, the motion, a shift, what those things do to a defense, Brian knows that," Delhomme said. "That's what helps him as an offensive coach."

So does his willingness to adapt, according to Pennington. Game plans evolve week to week based on the opponent. It's part of the fabric of the New England Patriots system in which Daboll was indoctrinated and whose hallmark is its multiplicity. 

"Just because one thing or one scheme or one thought process worked one week doesn't mean he will implement and employ the same thought process the next," Pennington said. "He's going to be versatile and not be stubborn, saying, 'OK, we're going to do this and we're not going to care what the defense does.' They really pay attention to who they are playing against and how to attack them."

It's no wonder then that Daboll became the leading candidate to replace Steve Sarkisian -- or more accurately -- Lane Kiffin. Kiffin proved his worth to Alabama coach Nick Saban by showing he could be flexible. He incorporated a hurry-up mode and built his offense around exploiting individual mismatches, which required strategy adjustments every game. 

"He's done a phenomenal job in the three years that he has been with us relative to taking the players that we had and actually molding a system, especially for the quarterback to be successful in and I think those are signs of tremendous maturity as a coach who is just not committed to a system but is committed to doing the things he has to do to help players be successful," Saban said last December.

The one knock on Kiffin was his ability to develop the technical aspects of Jalen Hurts, the rising sophomore who has yet to grow into a refined passer. Pennington is uncertain whether Daboll is capable of making Hurts better in that regard, expressing surprise that Alabama didn't assign another staff member to coach quarterbacks.

"They may be doing that in the future," Pennington said. "I don't think [Daboll's] expertise is in fundamental quarterback work or being a quarterback technician. I do think he can improve the quarterback from a scheme and read perspective."

Then again, that may be good enough for Hurts, who has considerable arm strength but has struggled to process the action in front of him. In October, Saban acknowledged that the coaching staff had limited the scope of Hurts' reads to one half of the field and streamlined the playbook because they didn't want to give him too much to digest. With Daboll in charge, Hurts could conceivably benefit even if the same restrictions are in place.

"New England's stuff is very concept driven and quarterbacks will understand concepts for each side of the field," Pennington explained. "There will be certain concepts and those concepts have certain rules. [The Patriots] have always been very good about the spacing of their routes and that everything has a rhyme and reason... I think it's a quarterback-friendly system and it gives the quarterback a chance to really show his skill-set and be the field general of the offense."

And as Delhomme said, "The best coaches put their players in a position to succeed."

"I think Brian is going to find out Jalen Hurts' strengths and will focus on his strengths," he continued. "Brian will make him a very cerebral quarterback. That's one thing Brian will do. This kid will feel very confident walking onto the field. [Daboll] won't sleep to make sure his players are extremely well-prepared and he does a great job of teaching to make guys want to learn."

Delhomme is living proof. Back in 2010, with Daboll whispering in his ear, the old dog picked up a few more tricks before they eventually parted ways.

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While praising Alabama's appointment of Brian Daboll as the team's offensive coordinator, Chad Pennington made an unsolicited observation about the organization that previously employed the most notable newcomer to the Tide's staff.

"From New England's perspective and playing against them and watching them play over the years, it will be a lot of one-back offensive scheme sets," said Pennington, the former NFL quarterback who once worked under Daboll with the New York Jets.

Yes, "11" personnel was a staple package in the Patriots' offense while Daboll served as tight ends coach. During the 2016 regular season, the lineup combination New England featured most regularly included three wide receivers -- Julian Edelman, Malcolm Mitchell and Chris Hogan -- with tight end Martellus Bennett and running back James White. Eighty-four percent of Tom Brady's 432 passes during the regular season were delivered with three or more wideouts on the field, according to STATS LLC.

The basic structure of the offense New England ran, in many ways, was similar to the one Alabama executed in 2016. During the first 12 games this season, the Tide lined up in "11" personnel 64 percent of the time. Alabama favored a formation that included three wideouts, one running back and one tight end.

Nick Saban explained why last August."One of the strengths on our team, I feel, is the receivers, and we want to continue to try to have an offense that can create explosive plays through those guys," Saban said.

It didn't quite work out the way Saban envisioned. Alabama's wideouts contributed only 32 percent of the Tide's yards from scrimmage as Jalen Hurts became the main offensive engine.

But with Daboll, the evidence shows that the Tide is unlikely to veer to far away from what it did when Lane Kiffin was coordinating the offense -- at least in the way it uses its personnel.

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