Evil Ash
Henchman Supreme
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/7233575
Green brings plenty of hope for Cardinals
By Vic Carucci
National Editor, NFL.com
(April 5, 2004) -- You can feel the energy.
Dennis Green is just sitting at a hotel breakfast table. He isn't shouting instructions at football players in that signature raspy voice of his. He isn't buzzing around a practice field or walking up and down a sideline with a headset on. He is merely sitting and talking.
But the longer you listen to Green and look into his eyes, the more you sense that he might very well be exactly what a perpetually struggling NFL franchise needs to get a whole lot better.
And it begins with that energy and a sense of optimism that is almost contagious.
I mean, we're talking about the Arizona Cardinals, who have had five consecutive losing seasons and made only one playoff trip since relocating from St. Louis in 1988. The last time the Cardinals reached the postseason was in 1998.
Yet, Green is a pretty convincing salesman. What he's selling is the fact he is the new coach of the Cardinals, and with him comes strong credentials of success as an NFL head coach, sterling football pedigree and a knack for making struggling clubs better.
"I like turning around programs," Green says. "That's my thing, to take programs that people aren't real convinced about and to show what they can be."
In 1992, he took over the Minnesota Vikings. In 10 seasons, he led them to a 97-62 record and eight trips to the playoffs.
In the two seasons before Green took over the Vikings, they were 6-10 and 8-8. But he did not view his task as a "rebuilding project," just as he does not view the chore of improving the Cardinals as a "rebuilding project."
"We're a turnaround program," Green says. "I've never used the term rebuilding, ever. We're not rebuilding a program. We're turning a program around. We're turning around the fortunes of a program that's only had one winning season in 12 years.
"I think we have a chance to do that."
Especially in an ultra-balanced league that, year after year, has seen teams make dramatic improvements. Green has focused plenty of attention on the most recent example, the Carolina Panthers.
"What Carolina was able to do in turning a program around is (proof) that everybody can do it fast," he says.
But the biggest reason for Green's optimism clearly is based on what he sees when he looks in the mirror every day. Green is supremely confident in his coaching skills. He never changed that opinion in the two seasons he spent out of coaching after resigning from the Vikings with one game left in the 2001 season. The team was 5-10, the worst record of his Minnesota tenure.
Working as an analyst for ESPN, Green continued to keep close tabs on the league, knowing he eventually would return. He studied every team, including the Cardinals, and developed his own opinions about the particular talent and strategic needs of clubs toiling at the bottom of the NFL.
"The big thing is you've got to believe you know how to coach in the National Football League, and there is no reason that any team should not have its bite of the apple," Green says.
He proudly talks about the "coaching tree" established by Bill Walsh, architect of the San Francisco 49ers dynasty of the 1980s and Pro Football Hall of Famer who has had as profound an impact on NFL coaching as anyone in the history of the game. Green is even prouder to point out that he is one of only four "original sons" of Walsh -- assistant coaches who worked directly for Walsh -- as opposed to "grandsons," who worked for former Walsh assistants who became NFL head coaches (i.e. Andy Reid, Jon Gruden). Green was on Walsh's staff with the 49ers, as well as at Stanford University.
"I've told the team that I didn't just drop in here," Green says. "I cut my teeth, earned my bones under Bill Walsh. I'm going to try to do things the way I've done in the past, the way Bill Walsh did."
It is a way that has been mostly unfamiliar to the Cardinals, because, as Green points out, from 1992 to 2003, the Arizona staff has had no head or assistant coaches with previous direct or indirect connections with Walsh.
It is a way that "players learn to love," a way Green believes will make a difference in his quest to turn the Cardinals around.
"I think that we have talent, I really do," he says. "Defensively, we have a long way to go. We are very young, but we're fast."
Offensively, Green is comfortable with Josh McCown, the Cards' third-round pick in 2002, as his quarterback. He likes his intelligence and instincts. He likes his size (6-foot-4 and 225 pounds) and his athleticism. He especially likes the fact he comes from a family of quarterbacks, with two brothers who also play the position.
McCown fits the profile of the kind of quarterback that Green prefers -- intelligent, hard working, not a superstar, but capable of doing things right most of the time and delivering success. Green has won with quarterbacks like that in Minnesota, namely Rich Gannon and Brad Johnson. He has nothing against blue-chip talent, but has seen too many examples of success from players who have proven their worth on the field to doubt his chances of having similar results from McCown.
"The Rich Gannons of the world, the Jake Delhommes of the world, the Marc Bulgers, the Tom Bradys … Kurt Warner," Green says. "Those guys all had one thing: They were real hard-headed about their ability to play. They don't care what anybody else thinks about them. They think they're good."
In general, that is the attitude Green is looking to instill in the Cardinals. He has some top-level players, such as Pro Bowl receiver Anquan Boldin and running back Marcel Shipp. He has some players he believes can perform much better than they have, such as offensive guard Leonard Davis and tight end Freddie Jones.
"I think we're going to have to dig out of this with what we've got," Green says. "We'll add some through the draft. But for the most part, it's going to be the players you see on the field are going to be the ones that help us in the future."
Somehow with Green in charge, there is reason to believe the Cardinals' future might very well be brighter.
Green brings plenty of hope for Cardinals
By Vic Carucci
National Editor, NFL.com
(April 5, 2004) -- You can feel the energy.
Dennis Green is just sitting at a hotel breakfast table. He isn't shouting instructions at football players in that signature raspy voice of his. He isn't buzzing around a practice field or walking up and down a sideline with a headset on. He is merely sitting and talking.
But the longer you listen to Green and look into his eyes, the more you sense that he might very well be exactly what a perpetually struggling NFL franchise needs to get a whole lot better.
And it begins with that energy and a sense of optimism that is almost contagious.
I mean, we're talking about the Arizona Cardinals, who have had five consecutive losing seasons and made only one playoff trip since relocating from St. Louis in 1988. The last time the Cardinals reached the postseason was in 1998.
Yet, Green is a pretty convincing salesman. What he's selling is the fact he is the new coach of the Cardinals, and with him comes strong credentials of success as an NFL head coach, sterling football pedigree and a knack for making struggling clubs better.
"I like turning around programs," Green says. "That's my thing, to take programs that people aren't real convinced about and to show what they can be."
In 1992, he took over the Minnesota Vikings. In 10 seasons, he led them to a 97-62 record and eight trips to the playoffs.
In the two seasons before Green took over the Vikings, they were 6-10 and 8-8. But he did not view his task as a "rebuilding project," just as he does not view the chore of improving the Cardinals as a "rebuilding project."
"We're a turnaround program," Green says. "I've never used the term rebuilding, ever. We're not rebuilding a program. We're turning a program around. We're turning around the fortunes of a program that's only had one winning season in 12 years.
"I think we have a chance to do that."
Especially in an ultra-balanced league that, year after year, has seen teams make dramatic improvements. Green has focused plenty of attention on the most recent example, the Carolina Panthers.
"What Carolina was able to do in turning a program around is (proof) that everybody can do it fast," he says.
But the biggest reason for Green's optimism clearly is based on what he sees when he looks in the mirror every day. Green is supremely confident in his coaching skills. He never changed that opinion in the two seasons he spent out of coaching after resigning from the Vikings with one game left in the 2001 season. The team was 5-10, the worst record of his Minnesota tenure.
Working as an analyst for ESPN, Green continued to keep close tabs on the league, knowing he eventually would return. He studied every team, including the Cardinals, and developed his own opinions about the particular talent and strategic needs of clubs toiling at the bottom of the NFL.
"The big thing is you've got to believe you know how to coach in the National Football League, and there is no reason that any team should not have its bite of the apple," Green says.
He proudly talks about the "coaching tree" established by Bill Walsh, architect of the San Francisco 49ers dynasty of the 1980s and Pro Football Hall of Famer who has had as profound an impact on NFL coaching as anyone in the history of the game. Green is even prouder to point out that he is one of only four "original sons" of Walsh -- assistant coaches who worked directly for Walsh -- as opposed to "grandsons," who worked for former Walsh assistants who became NFL head coaches (i.e. Andy Reid, Jon Gruden). Green was on Walsh's staff with the 49ers, as well as at Stanford University.
"I've told the team that I didn't just drop in here," Green says. "I cut my teeth, earned my bones under Bill Walsh. I'm going to try to do things the way I've done in the past, the way Bill Walsh did."
It is a way that has been mostly unfamiliar to the Cardinals, because, as Green points out, from 1992 to 2003, the Arizona staff has had no head or assistant coaches with previous direct or indirect connections with Walsh.
It is a way that "players learn to love," a way Green believes will make a difference in his quest to turn the Cardinals around.
"I think that we have talent, I really do," he says. "Defensively, we have a long way to go. We are very young, but we're fast."
Offensively, Green is comfortable with Josh McCown, the Cards' third-round pick in 2002, as his quarterback. He likes his intelligence and instincts. He likes his size (6-foot-4 and 225 pounds) and his athleticism. He especially likes the fact he comes from a family of quarterbacks, with two brothers who also play the position.
McCown fits the profile of the kind of quarterback that Green prefers -- intelligent, hard working, not a superstar, but capable of doing things right most of the time and delivering success. Green has won with quarterbacks like that in Minnesota, namely Rich Gannon and Brad Johnson. He has nothing against blue-chip talent, but has seen too many examples of success from players who have proven their worth on the field to doubt his chances of having similar results from McCown.
"The Rich Gannons of the world, the Jake Delhommes of the world, the Marc Bulgers, the Tom Bradys … Kurt Warner," Green says. "Those guys all had one thing: They were real hard-headed about their ability to play. They don't care what anybody else thinks about them. They think they're good."
In general, that is the attitude Green is looking to instill in the Cardinals. He has some top-level players, such as Pro Bowl receiver Anquan Boldin and running back Marcel Shipp. He has some players he believes can perform much better than they have, such as offensive guard Leonard Davis and tight end Freddie Jones.
"I think we're going to have to dig out of this with what we've got," Green says. "We'll add some through the draft. But for the most part, it's going to be the players you see on the field are going to be the ones that help us in the future."
Somehow with Green in charge, there is reason to believe the Cardinals' future might very well be brighter.
