The Raven

Hostler is meeting with the team tonight, per Aaron Wilson.

Really not pulling for him and wonder how he'd fit with Castillo. Doesn't Pitt use a man blocking scheme?

Traditionally, yes, but they have also phased in zone blocking in the past two years. They leaned on it a bit more this season.

I suppose Wilson and Shanahan are the top two candidates? I hope so

No thank you to Kirby. He may be well respected, and be a fiery animated guy with a great personal story... But as far as success, the running game wherever he has been hired has actually gotten worse under him than his predecessor.

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2013/11/26/5146682/steelers-running-statistics-rushing-nfl-leaders-dick-hoak-kirby-wilson

I'd prefer someone with a clear record record of success, please.

That's no fault of his. It's well documented that the Steelers' offensive line has been the issue. 

Yea that's the thing about having a unknown, us fans just don't know enough. You'd think he'd put a heavy emphasis on the run, but he might actually feel that you gotta win with the QB, bring in a QB coach that can help him coordinate the pass game and produce an explosive balanced offensive attack.

I like the fact that he's so well respected and he's a teacher of football. He's never been a OC at any level, so I wonder if the Ravens liked what Hostler brought to the table as a game planer last year and might actually have him work with Wilson much the same this year?

Those are good thoughts there. It'd be interesting to have those two work together, as they see the game from the RB's and WR's perspective. 

One concern if they take that approach. Having Hostler work with Wilson might result in the current system being reflected in the next. We might see some remnants. 

A second interview with Kirby Wilson? We must be pretty interested in him

I really like this idea...Justin Tucker raining 2s all dayyy

I know right? Haha.

I don't think there will be a change though. Probably won't get enough support from coaches and players. 

I understand the personnel issues Hostler faced his last time out. I just want a proven, real, live OC in here for once now that we have our franchise QB. Personally, if we're going down the "unproven" road yet again, I'd rather go with Kirby Wilson.

Now here's something I can understand. I would definitely prefer a proven OC that has gotten results. We're 2-3 players and a play caller away from contending for the Superbowl again, so I want an OC that won't be an experiment. 

I just want to say thank you for being the voice of reason amongst the rest.

I have to question what anyone thinks a new OC would do if we still had average at best players? Probably not much. We need to upgrade no matter who is the next OC.

With Hostler we have someone who is already familiar with the team and with the offensive philosophy. The players like him which says a lot. I would imagine the offense won't change overly much and we saw a year ago how good Joe can be in this system with the right players around him.

And thank you for listening and also being reasonable!

Hostler runs  a air corydell type offense and he learned the most from Norv Turner and Mike Martz whom both run a air corydell type offense.

Source? Hostler never worked with Turner or Martz. 

Torrey still can't catch with his hands consistently, get off press coverage, use his speed in and out of his breaks, or track the ball. But other then that, yeah, he's come a long way. Deonte Thompson?!? Why in the world did you even bring him up? He has what 20 career snaps at WR?!? He has shown absolutely nothing and that's being generous. And yes, he has had injuries, but he also has been healthy and not made it to the field outside of preseason.

And what does Derrick Masons opinion of him have to do with anything. Do you honestly think he would say that Hostler was inept? He gave the typical "company line".

Torrey has greatly improved and it's not arguable. I brought up Deonte because he was a horrid route runner in college, but training camp reports said that his route running improved a ton. Yeah you gotta take it with a grain of salt, but he's improved. 

Derrick Mason said it the other day on WNST, not while with the team, for what it's worth.

 I'm being very reasonable I dont see how a guy that help Caldwell last year with developing offensive game plans should be rewarded. He basically contributed to our offense down falls and I'm not even sure how much he  contributed  last year during our super bowl run. I just dont see how he should be qualified to be our offense coordinator and if he was such a  potentially good offensive coordinator but had  a bad showing with the 49ers due to bad personnel then tell em why didn't Jim Caldwell request to interview Hostler for the lions offensive coordinator job? 

Our game plans weren't the reason the offense was bad. The offensive line was the reason the offense was bad.

Maybe Caldwell knew he was in our plans and left him be? Maybe they didn't work well together? Lot of potential reasons.

The raven I can but we need an play book that play to the strength of our team, he had a hand in the scheme and Play calling. Did that do much, to me no it didn't. What is it gonna take? What happen in the Detroit game to our QB?

Playbooks can change, it has changed since Cam left, and Hostler can change it more.

You have a good point here, but outside of Flacco, and Torrey (and Pitta if he comes back) we don't exactly have the best personnel either.  (Oline outside of Monroe and Yanda is shoddy too)

 

This is more of me wanting to abandon the current system altogether rather than not giving the guy a chance.... I think Hostler will implement the Air Co no? 

I think Hostler is a west coast kind of guy. He worked under Mike Nolan, who is part of the Billick coaching tree. Just based off that, I would think west coast. I don't know for sure, though.

its not that ,we don't want a in house hire we want some one from outiside because how terrible our O was that why not becasue he a bad guy or bad position coach we just want some new blood in here.

I get that, but we don't know enough about Hostler. The rumor is that Cam wouldn't listen to Hostler's suggestions, but Caldwell did, and our passing game improved when there was protection.

My point is just because he is here and knows the players, doesn't make him qualified to run the offense. The position he has coached for the last 6 years has been the least productive group on our roster. The players lack the fundamental skills of an NFL WR. And none of them have improved on these things. That's not lack of talent, it's called poor coaching. It's not a coincidence that our 2 best WRs were free agent acquisitions who learned these skills before coming here.

I've been critical of Hostler for 3 years now. I'm not one of these kids that reads a post about him being bad, and then start ranting about it. I wanted this guy fired with Cam long ago. And now we're talking about promoting him?!?

Torrey hasn't improved? Sorry, that's incorrect. A lot of our WRs have actually improved, even Deonte Thompson. Even Derrick Mason is on record as saying Hostler is a good coach and he helped him learn a lot.

Are people here allergic to looking at all the facts or do they just like to believe whatever supports their negative agenda?

Seriously, look at the facts. I know all the cool kids like to bash everyone because it's the easy thing to do, but come on.

Hostler had bum quarterbacks, a piss poor receiving core, and a shoddy offensive line. How can anyone expect good things from that combination? We as Ravens fans should know that's a recipe for failure, no?

So what in there makes you think he would do a better job here? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what we have isn't much better then what San Fran had. He also had a hand in the play calling and offensive design this year... And we were terrible. I just don't see any change there. It would be one thing if we lot it up this year, but we didn't. It's time for a fresh face and new ideas. With so much of the old staff gone, it's time to finish the job!!!!

Never said he would do a better job here. Insufficient data. And yes, what we have is a bit better than what they had in 2007. Play calling and scheme this year was mostly good, aside from a few blunders.

I understand the want to get a fresh face, but Hostler might not be as bad as some think. 

If Hostler is the offensive coordinator then expect the same ol playing calling we saw last year basically boring and predictable. I would seriously be disappointed in Harbaugh if he makes Hostler the offensive coordinator maybe even forget about watching them play next year. I think it says alot when Caldwell didnt even request to intreview Jim Hostler for his team offensive coordinator vacancy. Jim Caldwell litterally worked with Hostler for most of the season last year developing offensive game plans and he showed no interest in Hostler at all as a offensive coordinator .

Yeah, maybe. Like I said above, insufficient data to judge Hostler.

Guys I know it's the popular thing to bash Hostler but you should probably be reasonable and look at all of the facts. Look deeper than the surface, I know you can do it.

Just looked into what the 49ers did in 2008, after Mike Martz took over the OC position. 23rd in total offense. 13th in passing. 27th in rushing.

Hmmm... Even a good coach like Martz struggled the next season.

How foolish of us to judge without actually looking at the details....

Starting to think Hostler was also a victim of poor personnel. San Fran had a second worst 36 fumbles and a third worst -12 turnover margin. They had four quarterbacks play that year: Dilfer, Alex Smith, Shaun Hill, and Chris Weinke. So, they had little talent or continuity at QB. The QBs were sacked a whopping 55 times combined, and Gore only averaged 4.1 yards a carry. From that, one can infer that the offensive line was an issue. His leading receiver was Frank Gore, who had 53 for 436. Vernon Davis had 52 for 509. Then they had this no name WR named Arnaz Battle who had 50 for 600 and an over the hill Darrel Jackson who had 46 for 497. That was Jackson's second last season, and that was one of just two seasons in which Battle met or surpasses 50 catches and 600 yards. 

Hmmm... bad offensive line... bad offense... No receivers... where have I seen this before?

Disclaimer: I am not saying Jim Hostler is good. I am only saying that in his only year as an OC, he had jack [profanity deleted] to work with. He literally had nothing to work with except for Davis and Gore.

Maybe we fans should actually look deeper than the surface before we make judgments. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

http://www.nfl.com/teams/sanfrancisco49ers/statistics?season=2007&team=SF&seasonType=

Lol this got negged? Just another hater. Get in line, bub. Don't like facts, do you?

Aaron Wilson reports that multiple NFL sources at the Senior Bowl are predicting that Jim Hostler will be our OC.

How does Lee play a lot like torrey? I see Lee is a better route runner than torrey. But I thought we wanted guys who can run slants, crossing paterns? What I am missing here?

I'm watching him right now, and all I see him do is curls, screens, comebacks, outs, and nines. I haven't seen him go over the middle much. Maybe it's just the play calling, but I don't see him as a physical, over the middle, possession guy that would so perfectly complement Torrey. 

From what I've gathered, he's a slightly more physical Torrey with a little bit wider route tree. He's not the best against press, like Torrey. There were a few times I saw him try and go east-west and dance too much instead of getting north-south and converting on third. Torrey does that too

Every player will have differences to other players of the same "type", it's not worth debating. I'm interested in the bigger picture and having receivers who can complement each other and do different things.

I agree with you. Lee does play a lot like Torrey. Almost the same player. 

I'm not sure which one I would say is more 'talented', but I think the fanbase is REALLY overestimating Torrey's ability.  He's a very incomplete player, you could make the argument that he's one-dimensional.

He is, no doubt, but physically, Torrey and Brown are equal. The Steelers utilize Brown's speed the same way we should utilize Torrey's speed. Brown gets a lot of quick slants, screens, and hitches, but Torrey doesn't. 

Some of those years was just Ben under siege and being 280 pounds watching LBs bounce off of him, then chucking up a bomb.

That's true, but look at Antonio Brown. You can't tell me he's more talented than Torrey, yet he caught almost double the amount of passes that Torrey did. Just one example. 

Don't know if I can stay behind the Seahawks. While only a handful of players have been proven to have violated NFL substance abuse policy and suspended, the Seahawks have led the NFL in substance abuse related suspensions. Carroll has been associated with many players who have used PEDs. Who knows how many players have used PEDs undetected? 

I think the NFL might soon be facing a battle against PEDs. 

Steelers offense lacked talent at times, but they always figured out how to manufacture an offense. They always figured out how to get the ball to their play makers. Their run game improved as the season went, too.

That's a good point. PIttsburgh got their run game together even with a terrible O-line. He's an interesting canidate but I think that he's the last choice out of the four.

He's my third pick, but he could move ahead of Linehart. Steelers offense has been very versatile and flexible in recent seasons. Wilson may have had a hand in that. Hostler is my last pick. Linehart gets the edge over Wilson just because he's already gotten results as an OC. 

My first pick is still Shanahan.

What are everyone's thoughts on Kirby Wilson? I feel like he's gotten a lot out of the poor RBs they've had paired with a tremendously bad line. Their RBs are also well coached.