LT Bryant McKinnie says he left the Ravens with no regrets and weighs in on transition to OL coach Juan Castillo

[cobrajet]

My problem is that they went away with it when it was scheduled to be gelling and we did better. So now what? You almost can't go back to it now. Therefore, this new scheme experiment was a serious waste of time and may have cost us games.

 

It should never have taken that long to figure out it was not working and McKinnie had some great points on why it wasn't working. I am glad to listen to his insight, because I kind of suspected some of the things he mentioned.

[cobrajet]

Change for the mere sake of change is moronic.Why change schemes that were working so well the latter half of last season?

 

Yes we have some oline injuries in the middle but that does not diminish the fact that Castillo has made some moves that

did not need to be made .

Excellent point brother!!!!!!!!!!!

[jaege]

What does winning a super bowl have to do with him being a good coach or not ? The eagles definitely made the playoffs when he was there(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009) link . In 2010 with the help of Juan Castillo  " Philadelphia's offense set franchise records in total points (439), total net yards (6,230), and yards per rush (5.4, the NFL's top mark).With each of the team's primary running backs averaging more than 5.0 yards per attempt, the Eagles became the first team in NFL history to average at least 4.0 yards per carry in all 16 regular season games, helping LT Jason Peters earn his second-straight Pro Bowl nod"  ( I got this information from the coaches section on Baltimoreravens.com) 

 

In the  years 2009 and 2010 the offense line didn't perform well  in pass protection but in 2008 Quarterback Donovan Mcnabb was only sacked  23 times ( that's not bad at all ) link. I may be wrong but I don't think the ravens o-line ever allowed 23 sacks  in Flacco era

 

 

Most of those playoffs were when he WAS NOT the o-line coach. And he was so wonderful, why did the Eagles fire him?

[The Raven]

Most of those playoffs were when he WAS NOT the o-line coach. And he was so wonderful, why did the Eagles fire him?

 

Completely incorrect. He was OL coach from 1998-2010.

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

So uh.. watching this NEvsMiami game and McKinnie's looking pretty good. Seems like scheme was a huge issue for him here. He's actualldidn't like it, and probably othersttting a good bit of push, more than I've ever seen him get in Baltimore. He's killing it in Miami's man scheme.

So...let me get this straight, if McKinney is healthy, playing well in Miami's man scheme, then it was apparant watching film that he just wasn't giving 100% in our zone scheme. Then obviously he didnt like it, neither do others on the line. So Harbaugh would rather trade McKinney a healthy lineman than admit the zone blocking scheme was the problem. Sounds like more ego than brains.

[jazz1988]

Most of those playoffs were when he WAS NOT the o-line coach. And he was so wonderful, why did the Eagles fire him?

 

He got fired as  a defensive coordinator  not offensive line coach. Castillo was the eagles offensive line coach from 1998 to 2010

[The Raven]

So...let me get this straight, if McKinney is healthy, playing well in Miami's man scheme, then it was apparant watching film that he just wasn't giving 100% in our zone scheme. Then obviously he didnt like it, neither do others on the line. So Harbaugh would rather trade McKinney a healthy lineman than admit the zone blocking scheme was the problem. Sounds like more ego than brains.

 

A little off base there... We found an improvement in Eugene Monroe that rendered McKinnie expendable. Also, Harbaugh DID admit NUMEROUS times that scheme changes were and are coming.

[jaege]

Completely incorrect. He was OL coach from 1998-2010.

 

 

He got fired as  a defensive coordinator  not offensive line coach. Castillo was the eagles offensive line coach from 1998 to 2010

 

 

 

As I said before, I don't make a habit of following the careers of every piddling coach in the NFL. If he had greatness, it is obviously spent and now he is just some guy that needed a job, because I haven't seen any greatness in his handling of our o-line.Maybe he is competent, but why would you completely change a SB champion o-line?Tweak it, yes. Fiddle a little, sure. Everyone has room for improvement.But completely alter the basic scheme that has been working quite well for the last 5+ years? That does not sound great it sounds arrogant, and we had enough of that from the Idiot Cam.

[TwinRivers]

He looked pretty good playing for Miami today , though I'm watching Red Zone so didn't watch his whole game .

I expected this. If you had read my entire post I said "Not really bashing Big Mac. I was his best supporter for rehire but it didn't work out. He is very near the end of his career, looking for a nice contract but didn't get it. He always wanted Miami. He can still play when he wants to." I even went on the Dolphin web site and supported him saying he can be one of the best pass blockers you'll ever see when he's motivated. Dolphin posters are talking about Tannehill not being used to the amount of time he had in the pocket today. Posts like "What was encouraging was that he was never beat 1-on-1. When he locked on a guy, he shut that guy down." and "He was like a Doorman,Chandler Jones was Dominiated!!

 

 Just didn't work out for him here. Coach Harbaugh wants to run the ball better and he's making some tough decisions long term. Monroe is younger and a more versatile tackle. I'm more concerned with getting our key guys healthy. How bout Jacoby, Brown and even the much maligned Doss making plays? Frankly I'm getting excited about our possibilities on offense.

[jazz1988]

As I said before, I don't make a habit of following the careers of every piddling coach in the NFL. If he had greatness, it is obviously spent and now he is just some guy that needed a job, because I haven't seen any greatness in his handling of our o-line.Maybe he is competent, but why would you completely change a SB champion o-line?Tweak it, yes. Fiddle a little, sure. Everyone has room for improvement.But completely alter the basic scheme that has been working quite well for the last 5+ years? That does not sound great it sounds arrogant, and we had enough of that from the Idiot Cam.

 

 I understand where you coming from and you make some good points but The ravens o-line last year was ranked 20th  in the nfl, while our rushing attack was ranked 11th . Im well aware that our o-line and rushing attack was on fire through out the playoffs and super bowl but  2012 stats/rankings still remains and I believe Castillo wanted to help improve those ranking drastically rather than adding some tweaks here and there.

 

overall he knows now what he's was trying to teach his o-linemen hasn't pan out yet so he has two choices either get back to basics or continue to believe eventually his teachings is going to pan out . I believe he's going to get back to basics and allow the o-line do what they do best

[akacrow]

We have the players for the system, McKinnie was the only bad fit.  The players could not pick it up so now the system is being dumbed down.    

[Guest RBates]

If Castillo is a good offensive line coach for young offensive lineman.  Go find a young line and coach them.  

 

We have a stable group of veterans that are coming off a Super Bowl win that are dealing with injuries. If you are not willing to compromise on your  approach to coaching them,  They might respond negatively.

 

We don't need Castillo to reinvent the wheel here.  

 

I for one, wish i would have known it was going to take eight or nine games to grasp this amazing concept.  I could have saved myself a lot of pain and heartache. .   

[The Raven]

If Castillo is a good offensive line coach for young offensive lineman.  Go find a young line and coach them.  

 

We have a stable group of veterans that are coming off a Super Bowl win that are dealing with injuries. If you are not willing to compromise on your  approach to coaching them,  They might respond negatively.

 

We don't need Castillo to reinvent the wheel here.  

 

I for one, wish i would have known it was going to take eight or nine games to grasp this amazing concept.  I could have saved myself a lot of pain and heartache. .   

 

Tell me about it haha. If I knew that their plan was to be gelling around week 8-9, I would have been considerably less upset about it.

[jazz1988]

If Castillo is a good offensive line coach for young offensive lineman.  Go find a young line and coach them.  

 

We have a stable group of veterans that are coming off a Super Bowl win that are dealing with injuries. If you are not willing to compromise on your  approach to coaching them,  They might respond negatively.

 

We don't need Castillo to reinvent the wheel here.  

 

I for one, wish i would have known it was going to take eight or nine games to grasp this amazing concept.  I could have saved myself a lot of pain and heartache. .   

 

I understand and I agree but what is really getting back to basics for the ravens offensive line? They allowed Joe Flacco to be sacked 38 times last year(ranked  20th overall in the league) and the run game  was ranked 11th in league. The ravens run game hasn't  been ranked in the top five since 2009 but when Juan Castillo was the offensive line coach for the eagles in 2010 the eagles had a  running  game  ranked 5th overall in the nfl and in 2008 there offensive line only allowed 23 sacks.

 

I know what Castillo has been trying to do here has not been working but if he was trying to improve the offensive line to the level of the eagles in 2010 and 2008 i dont blame him; Now he knows so far what he was trying to teach hasn't work so far and to my understanding the ravens offensive line is suppose to get back the scheme they are used to.

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

So what I question Castillo about is, The zone stretch run blocking scheme, is that the only scheme he is good at coaching?

[DMH_in_WA]

You know what this kind of reminds me of?  Years ago watching a show about Tom Landry when he became the first HC of the Dallas Cowboys.  He had these incredible schemes that were years ahead of what anyone was doing.  The problem was, they were complex and relied on near perfect timing and his team didn't have the personnel to pull them off.  He went along for 4 or 5 years losing (with barely 5 wins in a season) trying to get them implemented before he finally broke down, stripped them back to fit his personnel and they started winning. 

No matter how great the system or scheme, if the players can't implement it then it's garbage.

[mgridda]

It takes a while for a new scheme to become committed and everyone believes. I feel like some people aren't on board. They haven't bought into Castillo's system, and they'll get shipped out. But basically, they're going to keep going with this system until we're about a 6 or 7 loss team. 

 

It's not even about the losses. I can already see the schemes changing a bit. Against the Steelers we did a lot more basic power running. I don't believe in ZBS. I really don't. I believe we're a power running, smashmouth football team. I believe in the MBS, man blocking scheme. I think it's especially important to point out that communication is key to a ZBS, so it takes a while for everyone to get on the same page. In a MBS, everyone just calls out a man. In the ZBS, it's much more complex. And what with communication being key, Birk retires, we have a virtual rookie at center and decide to switch the systems up?

 

 

Nah. I hope we win the next 6 games, but I imagine they'll be those "close" and "hard fought" wins where "the running game couldn't get anything going" and we win on a Tucker field goal or through Joe having to pull off some heroics.

 

By that point, week 12-13 or so, we'll can the ZBS, go into a full power blocking, simple system, Pitta will come back, hopefully some other guys who are unhealthy will be 100% by then after missing a game here or there (Osmele, Yanda) and we'll go roaring full steam ahead into the playoffs, to the Superbowl.

[jimjim5]

Completely incorrect. He was OL coach from 1998-2010.

 

Yes... and he was the benefactor of McNabb being there and his ability as a dual threat and flat-out playmaker.

[JEEPercreepermd]

You know what this kind of reminds me of? Years ago watching a show about Tom Landry when he became the first HC of the Dallas Cowboys. He had these incredible schemes that were years ahead of what anyone was doing. The problem was, they were complex and relied on near perfect timing and his team didn't have the personnel to pull them off. He went along for 4 or 5 years losing (with barely 5 wins in a season) trying to get them implemented before he finally broke down, stripped them back to fit his personnel and they started winning.

No matter how great the system or scheme, if the players can't implement it then it's garbage.

kinda reminds me of Brian Billick..lol

[PurpleCityLights]

Castillo was one of the reason Andy got fired.....

[AsianRice]

You know what this kind of reminds me of?  Years ago watching a show about Tom Landry when he became the first HC of the Dallas Cowboys.  He had these incredible schemes that were years ahead of what anyone was doing.  The problem was, they were complex and relied on near perfect timing and his team didn't have the personnel to pull them off.  He went along for 4 or 5 years losing (with barely 5 wins in a season) trying to get them implemented before he finally broke down, stripped them back to fit his personnel and they started winning. 

No matter how great the system or scheme, if the players can't implement it then it's garbage.

lol..I like this line and I wish Harbs tells that straight up to Castillo....

[AsianRice]

Castillo was one of the reason Andy got fired.....

Well, they shouldn't had promoted him to DC in the first place cuz he had no experiences at it and really sucks at it....

[arnie_uk]

Castillo was one of the reason Andy got fired.....

we lucky for us he was a d coordinator last year then

[redravenfan]

I just saw this article on Russell street report http://russellstreetreport.com/tale-of-the-tape-ravens-struggle-to-execute-zone-blocking-scheme/

I don't know how accurate or legit there reporting is but they claim we are sticking with zbs and in another month or so it should click ....

If we are tanking the season over an experiment how come season ticket holders weren't notified so they could save there money my parents for example . I hope this is wrong and we are not going to continue to cram a square peg in a round hole and tank the whole season .

[redravenfan]

I just saw this article on Russell street report http://russellstreetreport.com/tale-of-the-tape-ravens-struggle-to-execute-zone-blocking-scheme/

I don't know how accurate or legit there reporting is but they claim we are sticking with zbs and in another month or so it should click ....

If we are tanking the season over an experiment how come season ticket holders weren't notified so they could save there money my parents for example . I hope this is wrong and we are not going to continue to cram a square peg in a round hole and tank the whole season .

I don't think we are "tanking the season" I think they tried something thinking it would improve the offense as a whole and it failed. I could be wrong but I think that site is a fan based site . I can atest that the parts of the steelers game I was able to watch we were using man to man . but I missed half the game . I don't think any professional athlete would throw a whole season away remember running backs, o line and Joe have performance bonus's I doubt we see much if any of that the rest of the season.

[Jokerraven]

I just saw this article on Russell street report http://russellstreetreport.com/tale-of-the-tape-ravens-struggle-to-execute-zone-blocking-scheme/

I think Russell Street is a fan based site but I could be wrong. The misconception is that zbs is new to the ravens it isn't . we have used zone stretch blocking before . that's one aspect of it . The other inside zone blocking is where the struggle has been . No nfl team is going to tank a season they have millions of dollars in performance bonus that they lose if they don't perform. They tried something it didn't work . we did go back to man to man the steelers game at least the part I saw I watched from work . the ravens owner is not going to knowingly let anyone throw a season away for any reason.

[runamuk]

They aren't going to continue with something that isn't working despite what the article says. You have losing seasons you lose fans in the seats . Harbaugh is smart enough to know if he continues with this nonsense that doesn't work and we lose more games because of it he will not have a job . Biscotti doesn't want empty seats .The steelers game we used allot of man to man .

[The Raven]

I just saw this article on Russell street report http://russellstreetreport.com/tale-of-the-tape-ravens-struggle-to-execute-zone-blocking-scheme/

I don't know how accurate or legit there reporting is but they claim we are sticking with zbs and in another month or so it should click ....

If we are tanking the season over an experiment how come season ticket holders weren't notified so they could save there money my parents for example . I hope this is wrong and we are not going to continue to cram a square peg in a round hole and tank the whole season .

 

I already replied to this post in more detail in the other thread, but to reiterate for the others: Just about nothing in this article is accurate in any form or fashion. This writer is clueless!

 

The more I read it, the bigger my headache gets. There is so much misinformation in here it ain't even funny. 

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

Its pretty clear McKinnie was the scapegoat in all this now, as he sprung a 100+ yard rusher for Miami last night. This really points back at Harbs player decision making. A healthy LT even as a bench player backup yet we get another bag of balls for him. Kudos to the other posters in this forum who sniffed this out and didn't inhale the purple smoke up your exterior orifice

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

To be more specific, it shows that Harbs would rather can a player than admit a mistake in letting Castillo his guy mess up our scheme, and that was a slap in Mollers face, so now you have not only players against you, but coaches as well. To make it worse, if you speak up about it, Harbs gets you gone. Pollard, Boldin, McKinnie, Etc. Sure looks like NOT TEAM FIRST, but my way or highway. Thus ultimately making Harbaugh out to be a hypocrit, and hiw much has he now lost of the locker room?