kirby going to the vikes

So was Bill Parcells. So is Bill Belichick. I don't care if he's the biggest obnoxious jerk in the world if he can do his job effectively and get a few more healthy years out of Ben. The point is that you ought to be professional enough to work with all people, even difficult people like Haley.

 

Agreed. Belichek is probably the biggest Ahole in the league. There's Aholes everywhere, professionals suck it up and do their job regardless.

 

I don't think Haley gets much credit at all actually. There's a few people that give him credit, most on here don't seem to like him and a lot would love to see him fired.

The reality is that it is his system, it's his playbook and it's his offence that Ben is calling/running. Do I think Haley is ultimately responsible for any success we have, no, I don't, but I do think he's a big part of any success or failure we have.

 

Agree wholeheartedly. I thought the Steelers finally found a formula that worked well last year. Letting Ben run the no huddle within the architecture of the Haley system.

 

Exactly it's not like Ben is out the drawing the plays as he goes. Haley hands him what plays they are planning to use that week and Ben goes from there.

 

He was on the field and not winning. We're 16-16 the past 2 season after going 24-8 the previous 2. Ever since Todd Haley got here there has been an endless string of excuses for losing, and losing has become excusable. The standard used to be the standard ... now we're satisfied with rallying to finish 8-8. We used to demand a strong running game, now we finish 27th in rushing and everyone is satisfied and call it "progress". The bar has been lowered, team performance has followed ... and it's gotten real irritating.

I don't know about you, but I don't tune in on Sundays hoping the Ben stays healthy. I tune in hoping they win. When the season starts I'm hoping for another Lombardi Trophy, not a stream of lame excuses for why a team with a legitimate franchise QB missed the playoffs again.

 

Thank God Todd Haley is around to fix that problem. The winning and all those trips to the Super Bowl were getting old.

 

The local media is carrying tons of water for Haley.

 

Not to be controversial here TTF but I'm sorry if Bruce Arians is credited for getting Ben to two Superbowls and is called a Superbowl winning coach then you have to give at least a small amount of credit to Haley for some of the improvements. Otherwise we are back to the argument that this is all the product of Ben and the coaches don't amount to diddly on this team.

 

Doesn't that speak well of Haley, TTF, that he is willing to get input from his QB and positional coaches? I know, I know, he was forced to get input by Mike Tomlin. I just don't believe that. Even Ben himself had high praise for Haley late in the season when things were clicking. He said the communication with the OC was better than it had ever been and that includes his buddy BA. Haley deserves more credit than many seem to want to give him. And the plays that Ben was running were straight out of the Todd Haley playbook, quick hitting and developing designed to allow Ben to get rid of the ball quickly and keep him upright. That's much different than the slow developing 7 yard drops and fling it 40 yards downfield that we used to see out of the BA playbook. Let's give credit where credit's due.

 

Not saying that, Blast. But I have worked for difficult people in the past that treated me fairly and gave me opportunities that I might not ordinarily have. Some of my best bosses would have been considered difficult people to some. I'm sure the people that report to me would consider me difficult at times. But you know what? Get over it! Do your job and stay focused on what the real goals and objectives are and you'll be fine. If the boss man is being explicitly unfair, those things have a way of working themselves out. It just seems to me that Wilson wanted to take his ball and go home because Haley hurt his wittle feelings. Waaah! Waaah! But to be fair, that is just speculation at this point.

 

I am far from happy with the last two years. In fact, I'm not happy with the last 3 years. That year we lost to Tebow in the playoffs, we were a very overrated team that year. We beat a lot of bad teams and bad QB's that year. I don't blame Haley for our troubles though, at least no more than any other coach we have.

Our running game has sucked since Tomlin took over this team. We have had Oline problems since then as well. Our defence has sucked for 3-4 years now. Even when we lost to GB in the SB, we were quite clearly the second best team that game. If their WR's hadn't dropped so many passes, they would have humiliated us that game. Our defence is a big reason why we are losing games. For a long time our defence kept us in games, that hasn't been the case for years now.

Haley is far from the only problem. In fact, I just don't see Haley as a problem whatsoever. I couldn't care less if he is fired, but if he is, expect similar results from the next guy that comes in. We have problems on our Oline and we have major problems on defence. Until those are fixed, don't expect a SB contending team.

 

Do you guys really think the Rooney's would tolerate absolute discord among the staff? I mean if a lot of the coaches were saying "it's either Haley or me" what do you think they would do? I really think they are some of the least melodramatic people in the game and I think they might really consider moving on if they felt there was genuine dysfunction. I also think that if the Rooney's felt that all the bizarre off the field stuff was really that serious they also would have let him go.

 

That's a catch-22 in my opinion BF the coaching thing I mean. Several turning it down and such. While this Franchise is considered to be at the very top or near to it as far as how it is run advancement with in the organization is slow very very slow in some cases. It is however a stepping stone for guys looking to advance their coaching career with other teams, looks good on a resume. So I can see why some would not want to take the job. Also lets throw in the rumors about Haley's personality, that in and of itself is cause for concern when mulling a job offer. Many didn't think he would last a year, some thought he was on his way out this season, why hitch your wagon to that if you know you are back on the street very shortly. So yeah I can see guys not wanting anything to do with Haley based just on his rep.

As far as the horrible boss thing and why you would stay even if you hated the situation. Some of us don't have the luxury of quitting when faced with that situation. When I was a young man I would do it in a heartbeat. Now with two kids of my own, a step-daughter and wife depending on me no matter how much my job sucks and how idiotic the management team is I can't afford to quit. The health insurance alone is worth putting up with a job I barely tolerate at times. 27 dollars a week for the family plan and it pays for almost everything. Two kids born for zero out of pocket expenses, step daughter had her tonsils out almost 5 grand for the doctors visits and again zero out of pocket expenses. I stick it out for that reason alone plus not alot of places will pay you almost 15 dollars an hour to put stuff in a box all day.

 

I have said it before in threads about Haley, I think he had to be a jerk just to establish his position and it was bound to rub guys the wrong way. Guys coming to him saying "umm Todd we don't do things that way" and Haley having to tell them "I'm sorry the way you are used to doing things is over feel free to apply with the Colts for a coaching position." Going to create friction.

 

IMO yes he does. There is normally a guy open and we seem to try and exploit the other teams weakness. I questioned his play choice sometimes but never the actual play. You can hate the screens all you want but how many times was a wr running open down field when we went to the fake screen. I also like the fake screen draw. Arians never used the screen to set up anything Haley/Ben do

 

Yeah I mean the NFL is the ultimate league for enormous, macho, egos. What qb that's making $100mil wants to be told what to do by a guy that's making nowhere NEAR that? Or even what coach wants to be told what to do by another coach? Haley is a relatively young guy and I could see a guy like him or Josh McDaniels having a tough time on a staff of guys that have been around a lot longer ya know? But IF the rumors that Haley was a Rooney hire are true do you think that made Haley feel a little like he could be a little more hardcore and they would have his back?

 

I wouldn't say "innovative" but I would say "effective" because Ben was getting rid of the ball, played a full season, and AB had an off the charts year. Also before Heath got hurt last year he was having a great season as well and if he's back to 100% this year I think he will have another great year. He also got Bell involved in the passing game and he even broke Franco's record. So I would say that his plays have been effective. It's not anything earth shattering from an innovation perspective but plays have been called to the strengths of the personnel and I didn't feel like that was the case under BA. My reason for that is because I never feel like he considered just how crappy our line is and it was irresponsible in how much danger it put Ben in. So that's my 2cents on that question.