[jwplayer Huuatmwd-ThvAeFxT]
If you’re wondering why Paul Guenther, despite being a well-respected NFL defensive mind, could never seem to get the Raiders defense to resemble a competitive unit, former Raiders linebacker Will Compton may have an explanation.
Compton played appeared in nine games last season for the Raiders under Guenther, but was not brought back this season. Instead, the Raiders invested in free agents Nick Kwiatkoski and Cory Littleton in free agency to try and upgrade the unit.
Littleton was considered one of the best all-around linebackers in football last season but has struggled to find his footing with the Raiders. Kwiatkoski has been better but has also seemed a bit lost at times to be in the right position. No one has been able to keep the Raiders defense from getting consistently gouged in both the pass and the run.
Following the team’s Week 14 loss to the Colts, a game with significant playoff implications, Guenther was fired. Something many saw as long overdue.
Compton appeared on his podcast ‘Bussing with the Boys‘ this week and noted that Guenther was on the hot seat last season, but some improved play allowed him to keep his job with the hopes that an influx of talent would be the answer. It wasn’t, so Guenther was gone.
First off, Compton notes a lack of accountability on the part of Guenther.
“When I was taking Tahir [Whitehead]’s job, you felt like they were throwing Tahir under the bus a little bit,” said Compton. “And being a player that was in those meetings, during the game, understanding how the headset works and all that stuff, there would be blame pushed around that you just hate seeing because you don’t want to be playing the blame game in the middle of the year. Take responsibility and accountability.
“I am not a coach. But being around football for a very long time what you want to see in a coach is somebody who can coach, who can teach, who can teach game plans and who can help players understand why you’re building a scheme in the first place for game planning. You want to be able to inspire your athletes. You want to be relatable to guys. You want to be optimistic. You want to be somebody to go in and you know is going to have a good attitude because you’re all going to figure it out together. You want a coach that when bad stuff happens that you see take blame. . . [Paul Guenther], in my opinion, he didn’t check a lot of those boxes.”
One thing Guenther needed to be accountable for, according to Compton, was how difficult the game plan was for the players to digest during the week and on game day, which caused many of the communication breakdowns the players had.
“There would be times where the communication would be off-kilter, there’s be a change in the middle of communication throughout the week. There’s a lot of stuff where you didn’t understand why we did things. And entire game plan was open on game day, whether or not you worked on it during the week.”
Compton said it wasn’t unusual to practice 25-30 plays just for third-down alone, when it’s more typical to run half that many third down plays. And even then, it wouldn’t matter because on game day, the whole playbook was open.
“It was like a Madden playbook, which was hard because you’re trying to remember a lot of the communication,” Compton continued. “You want guys to play fast, efficient, and communicate. You want guys to be able to communicate quick, and understand what’s happening and what the offense is doing to them right out of the huddle. You don’t want a lot of the stuff in your head, blah blah blah, you’re thinking, you’re double thinking more like should we have this check, is it that check. There was just a lot going on.”
If the issue with the Raiders’ defense really is less about their talent on the field and more about their heads swimming on game day, we should see some improvement over the final two games of the season.
Rod Marinelli could use the same playbook, but if all he did was simplify things, and Compton is right, the players should be able to play faster with few lapses in coverage and in run fits.
[vertical-gallery id=77159]
[lawrence-newsletter]