Quote
PHDram
Who was on the verge of being fired for having a similarly archiac offense until he was forced to hire Martz?
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I have no dog in the present fight here (about the article above). But the forced to hire Martz line caught my eye. DV was not forced to hire Martz. This is the real story. Rhome, the Rams OC, was in trouble with DV as early as August of 98. At one point DV even took over the playcalling though he couldn't keep that up. The offense in 98 was not only slowed by Banks, it was slowed by the loss of Bruce and Hill. At the end of the season DV fired Rhome on his own--it was an entirely foregone conclusion. He then cut a deal with Shaw on 2 items--the Rams would bring in veteran competition for Banks, and DV would look for a coordinator outside the current staff. Shaw recommended Martz as an interview. DV interviewed him and Matt Cavanaugh. In the end DV said one of the main reasons he chose Martz over Cavanaugh was that because Martz knew the same system Rhome ran (Coryell), there would be less of a transition for the team. (Cavanaugh ran a WCO).
So he was not forced to hire Martz. That was his own choice. In terms of waking up the offense, no one at the point of Martz's hire knew how bold he was going to be. That was a revelation. Previously he had been Norv Turner's qb coach in Washington, and if anything what they seemed to be heading for was a version of that, which was a run-heavy type of Coryell offense. So no one would even know in advance that what Martz brought was something dynamic. He had never been a coordinator before. So it was not possible to know that in advance.
In terms of the Banks story, which I am just adding on because it ties in, the original idea was to hire a veteran to compete with Banks. Their first choice was Gannon but he turned them down. A logical second choice was Green because Martz knew him from Washington. However, Green's agent let it be known that unless he was signed as the starter (starter, period...no "competition" ) Trent would go elsewhere. That meant dumping Banks and DV made his choice (after talking to all his offensive coaches, including both Martz and Stiles, both of whom were interviewed about it later.) DV dumped Banks as we know. Green came in then Martz demanded that his guy, Justin, be the #2. DV wouldn't allow it and insisted that Warner was the #2. That story comes from Martz himself.
A lot of history there. A lot happened in a short time.
In terms of the article above, it's weird...I am not committing a dog to that fight but yeah something must have gone wrong with DV's relationship with the team and the owner, looks like. It's odd what he's doing in that article. I don't quite get it. It's not factual what he says and it smacks of misremembered history.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2016 04:46AM by zn.
