Tag: Bill Parcells

Commanders HC Dan Quinn is fired up for Washington-Dallas week

It’s Dallas week. Dan Quinn is fired up.

Dan Quinn remembers well when the Cowboys and Redskins were a big deal.

Quinn was born in 1970 and raised in New Jersey. He has said on more than one occasion that he grew up watching the NFC East.

He recalls the Giants’ Bill Parcells’s two Super Bowl teams, the Cowboys coached by Tom Landry, the Eagles by Buddy Ryan, and the Redskins by Joe Gibbs.

Regarding the Week 12 match-up this week of the Cowboys coming to Washington, Quinn wasn’t shy Wednesday with the media, saying, “For me and for the guys, man, it’s like, Washington-Dallas Week, let’s get down.”

Whether Quinn watched, in particular, the Cowboys at Redskins 1982 championship game, I don’t know. But the fact he referred to this week as “Washington-Dallas Week” reveals in itself that Quinn does have a knowledge of the rivalry and what it was 40 years ago.

The Cowboys won two Super Bowls in the 70s with QB Roger Staubach at quarterback and the “Doomsday defense.”  QB Danny White never had a Doomsday defense when he led the team to three consecutive NFC Championship games before losing all three, the last to the Redskins in 1982.

The Redskins won the NFC East three consecutive seasons (1982-84), and went to four Super Bowls under Gibbs (1981-92) winning three, along the way winning and losing some big games to the Cowboys.

Quinn was asked Wednesday what the game means for the former Cowboys and his message to them.

“I haven’t talked to them much different about that. You probably know from now, I don’t make one [game] too often bigger than another. I just think they’re all really important and we absolutely go after it as hard as we can.”

But of course, Quinn is more than aware that NFL divisional rivals are more intense regular season games.

 

Commanders’ Dan Quinn on why the NFC East is special

Dan Quinn on why the NFC East is special to him.

“It’s probably more nostalgic for me than for them.”

That was Dan Quinn Tuesday, meeting with the media when asked about coaching in the NFC East.

Quinn was born in 1970 in New Jersey and grew up in Jersey, playing his high school football at Morristown High School. So, one can understand why being a head coach in the NFC East and facing the Eagles in Philadelphia in a nationally televised Thursday night game can be “nostalgic” for him.

“It’s closer to home for me, because I grew up watching the NFC East and the battles that took place. So, for me, loving football and growing up and to see these matchups, it’s really cool for me because it does hit closer to home where I grew up. Like I said, falling in love with the game and seeing it all.”

In his first season as Washington’s coach, he must remember as a kid (age 10) that the Eagles won the NFC Championship Game over Dallas before losing to the Raiders in Super Bowl XV.

From 1982-84, it was Joe Gibbs and the Redskins who won the division, went to Super Bowls XVII (beating the Dolphins) and XVIII (losing to the Raiders). When in high school playing football, it was the Giants who won Super Bowl XXI over the Broncos and again the Redskins in Super Bowl XXII, defeating the Broncos.

Now, one of the team advisors is Doug Williams, who quarterbacked Washington to that Super Bowl XXII victory. Perhaps Quinn even remembers such defensive forces that day as Dave Butz, Darryl Grant, Charles Mann, Dexter Manley and Darrell Green.

Head coaches like Dick Vermeil, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells and Tom Landry were men he watched on the sidelines growing up in New Jersey. Now, he is on the sidelines coaching in these great rivalries in the same division.

“To be part of this division, it’s really cool. So, it’s probably more nostalgic for me than for them, but I do know that it’s a really cool division, and the fan bases are awesome.”

Quinn sounded like he would rather be nowhere else in the NFL. “Taking our show on the road to go up and have another division battle, Thursday night in November? Like come on, what are we talking about?”

Darren Rizzi spoke with Dan Campbell after being named Saints interim coach

Darren Rizzi spoke with Dan Campbell after being named Saints interim coach. He had a front-row seat when Campbell was the Dolphins’ interim coach:

Did you know Darren Rizzi coached with Dan Campbell? Both men were on staff with the Miami Dolphins way back in 2015. Before he rose to  prominence as the Detroit Lions’ biggest personality, Campbell was raising eyebrows by running Oklahoma drills to set the tone in his first practice as the Dolphins’ interim coach.

After getting a laugh at that — of course the kneecap-biter ran physical one-on-one Oklahoma drills — Rizzi confirmed that he had spoken with Campbell after being named Saints interim coach. That’s an experience he felt he could draw from.

“I did speak with him, had a nice, long conversation with him,” Rizzi began, speaking Wednesday. “Dan’s a close friend. Dan’s quite frankly, if not the biggest reason I’m here, certainly one of them. One of the first things he said to me the other morning was, ‘Rizz, when we did this we did it together. Remember we did A, B, and C, we did X, Y, and Z.’ And I thought those were great things we did.”

Campbell wasn’t the only resource he pulled from. Rizzi also spoke with Todd Bowles (another former coworker with interim coach experience, now a head coach like Campbell), and Chris Tabor, another special teams coach who led the Carolina Panthers last year as their interim head coach. He said he also sought advice from legendary coach Bill Parcells, Sean Payton’s famous mentor.

“Dan, all those guys had some great advice, I certainly took it in,” Rizzi added.

We’ll see if it made a difference. Rizzi said in clear terms that the Saints are not throwing in the towel on this season. They have a tense rivalry game to win this weekend with an Atlanta Falcons team that’s already beaten them once this season, and then the back half of their schedule laid out through January. He’ll have every opportunity to put those lessons learned from Campbell, Bowles, Tabor and Parcellls to good use.

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How Brian Daboll compares to other Giants coaches after 42 games

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll’s record after 42 games isn’t much different than that of many of the team’s best coaches.

The New York Giants have begun the 2024 NFL season by losing six of their first eight games, which has become the norm in East Rutherford in recent years.

The Giants have started seven of their last eight seasons 2-6 (or worse) after eight games. The only exception was 2022 when they got off to a 6-1 start en route to a 9-8 season and a playoff berth.

Head coach Brian Daboll, since taking over the reins as head coach in 2022, is 17-24-1 in the regular season and 1-1 in the postseason.

There have been numerous conversations and articles suggesting that Daboll should be on the hot seat. But looking back a the history of the Giants, his record isn’t much different than that of his predecessors.

Daboll is the 10th man to coach 42 or more games for the Giants in their century-long existence and the seventh since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

Here’s where Daboll stands against those other six Giant head coaches after 42 games:

  1. Jim Fassel (23-18-1)
  2. Tom Coughlin and Dan Reeves (23-19)
  3. Bill Parcells (19-22-1)
  4. Alex Webster (19-23)
  5. Brian Daboll (17-24-1)
  6. Ray Perkins (15-27)

So, Daboll is just two games worse than the great Hall of Famer Bill Parcells and ahead of Perkins, who is largely credited with helping to modernize the Giants under general manager George Young after decades of ineptitude.

Still want to fire Daboll? Or do you want to be a little more patient now that you know where he stands in team history?

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Cowboys carrying on a Parcells tradition with their roster churn

The Cowboys are busy churning their roster, creating better competition and greater discomfort. | From @ReidDHanson

Just days after signing defensive end Carl Lawson to a one-year deal, the Cowboys have already moved on, releasing the veteran pass rusher and eyeing other options on the free agent market. To some, this lack of commitment could be seen as fickle behavior and a poor character trait of the franchise. To others, it’s a sign of their refusal to settle and commitment to improve.

Former Cowboys coach and NFL Hall of Famer Bill Parcells was certainly proponent of the process. He believed churning the bottom of the roster was a continuous process. Teams who were dedicated to improving should always have an eye on upgrades.

Roster churn has both a physical and mental impact on the team. Of course, there was the physical removal and addition, but in some ways, everyone was essentially put on notice by just knowing they could be replaced with an outside entity at any time. Parcells, like many coaches, thrived with the psychology of the sport. He constantly downplayed it and even played dumb to the media about it, but he was a master motivator and appeared to only be comfortable when others are uncomfortable.

Early in 2024 it became extremely clear the Cowboys were not loaded with the will or resources needed to upgrade the roster. Choosing to roll the whole thing back another year, the front office asked the team to improve from within. For months there was very little competition and very little churn. Things felt comfortable on the roster.

But now, just days before the season opener against Cleveland, Dallas is churning and making things very uncomfortable for more than a few Cowboys players trying to make the 53-man roster.

Dallas running backs, for instance, aren’t just competing amongst themselves but also against RBs all over the league.

Cowboys defensive tackles don’t just need to be the best options on the team, but the best options available in the NFL.

Additions need to hit the ground running in Dallas or replacements will be found. And this time of year, when 32 teams are aggressively trying to cut rosters down to 53, replacement options are everywhere.

Roster churn is a good thing, in more ways than one. Now that the dollar figures have fallen off a cliff, the Cowboys are finally embracing the idea of adding competition and pressure to their roster. With any luck it will yield a few useful pieces as the Cowboys try to plug holes and address deficiencies.

Hey, it’s Bill Parcells approved.

Dan Campbell doesn’t miss ‘two-a-days’ in training camp

Lions head coach Dan Campbell doesn’t miss ‘two-a-days’ in training camp and talked about what it was like when he played for Bill Parcells

Back when Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell played in the NFL, training camp was a lot different. A tight end for the Giants, Cowboys and Lions from 1999 through 2008, Campbell played in an era when two-a-days were the industry standard for summer practices.

The NFL and NFLPA agreed to do away with two-a-days back in 2011, ending the grueling toll it took on players, both in body and mind. Most modern NFL players don’t have any idea of what those days were like, with two full-contact practices stretching up to eight hours over the course of the same day.

Campbell can laugh about it now, and the Lions coach did just that prior to Tuesday morning’s practice.

“Listen, the days of the two-a-days – at some point in this camp, I’m going to put up the old two-a-day schedule so our players can see it and the two scripts for the practices,” Campbell said with a smile. “But there again, they don’t know what that is either. They don’t know the reality of it, they know what we’re in right now and so, everything is relative.”

Campbell laid out the typical practice schedule under head coach Bill Parcells, who has been a big influence on Campbell.

“Going full pads twice a day, the first practice is three hours, and the second one you go back way down and go two and a half hours. If you’re with Coach Parcells, you’re really lucky, he’ll take the pants off in the afternoon. You’re still in shoulder pads and it’s still two and a half hours but, ‘Pants are off guys,’ and that was like, what a treat! You just slip the shorts on with the shoulder pads and here we go, man. Nine-on-seven. But that was life, right?”

Campbell doesn’t miss those days, nor does he want the NFL to soften its stance on keeping things like 2-a-days a thing of the past.

“I think we are better for it, man. The body – you know this game has changed so much and the athletes are so much different, and I just think that they’re geared so much higher now than it was back then. Everything felt like a marathon and the game was so much more in a box and downhill, run game, power, two back, heavy personnel – there was just so much more of that, and then once the spread offenses came in, the athletes changed, and so I think this is a good thing where we are at.”

Reggie Bush’s 61-yard TD is the Saints Play of the Day

Here’s your New Orleans Saints Play of the Day: Reggie Bush’s 61-yard game-breaking touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys back in 2006.

We’ve got 61 days left until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 regular season, which makes Reggie Bush’s 61-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys our Saints Play of the Day.

This was a game-breaker. The Saints were already up 21-10 early in the third quarter, having made the trip to old Texas Stadium (where the Cowboys played from 1971 to 2008, until they moved into Jerry Jones’ shiny new AT&T Stadium). But Sean Payton was determined to keep pouring it on his mentor Bill Parcells. Each team hit the field with an 8-4 record and Payton intended on leaving no doubt about which was the better squad.

So he dialed up a screen play for Bush, the rookie Heisman Trophy winner who had excited all of Louisiana. Drew Brees looked left and looped a pass to Bush in the flat. With several blockers in front of him it was all too easy for Bush to  cut through the Cowboys defense and extend New Orleans’ lead.

It’s a classic game now (watch the broadcast sometime if you can find it; John Madden and Al Michaels were great in prime time), but for many NFL fans this was the moment when the Saints truly arrived and proved they were more than a feel-good story in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Cowboys were favored by a touchdown and the over/under was set at 48 points, but the Saints wound up winning it 42-17, stunning the league in the process. Brees threw five touchdown passes and was only sacked once, while Bush totaled 162 scrimmage yards off of just a dozen touches. How’s that for a “welcome to the NFL” moment?

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Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer gets stamp of approval from HoF coach Bill Parcells

From @ToddBrock24f7: The HoF coach spent 4 promising seasons with Zimmer as his DC in Dallas; Parcells says Zimmer will bring a familiar style back to the Boys.

Bill Parcells retired from coaching in 2006. But the Hall of Famer’s opinion still carries a great deal of weight around the league, and the two-time Super Bowl champ and two-time Coach of the Year has given his blessing to the Cowboys’ (re)hire of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.

Zimmer was in his tenth year on staff in Dallas and already had a Super Bowl ring when Parcells came out of his second retirement to take over the foundering team. The two appeared that they might be diametrically opposed to one another, with Zimmer a long fan of the 4-3 defense and Parcells having traditionally run a 3-4 scheme.

But Parcells not only kept Zimmer in place as Cowboys defensive coordinator, he allowed Zimmer to keep running his 4-3. The Dallas defense, led by Greg Ellis, La’Roi Glover, Dexter Coakley, Dat Nguyen, Roy Williams, and Darren Woodson (in his final season), finished as the top unit in the league. The Cowboys, after three straight 5-11 seasons, went 10-6 and earned a playoff slot.

Parcells, it turns out, had seen something he liked early on in Zimmer.

“He’s a coach’s son, and I always liked that because they lived it at the dinner table when they were young,” Parcells said per ESPN’s Todd Archer. “[Bill] Belichick was the same way. That’s the kind of guys they were. But I got to like Mike and we’ve become good friends.”

The two friends still talk frequently.

“He’s a football guy,” Parcells says of Zimmer. “He likes the game. He’s committed to doing a good job. He’s not lazy at all. That’s good.”

Sensing Zimmer’s ability to adapt, Parcells began to show some 3-4 tendencies in his second season at the helm. By the 2005 season and with another draft class hand-picked as part of the master plan, the Cowboys had fully implemented the 3-4 for the first time in franchise history. Under Zimmer, who had no previous experience with 3-4 personnel, the group finished in the top 10 defensively. The team went 9-7.

Another 9-7 record and another wild-card berth followed in 2006. That squad, thought to be early Super Bowl contenders, saw their championship hopes dashed when new quarterback Tony Romo bobbled the hold on a potential game-winning field goal in Seattle.

Parcells retired (a third and final time) at season’s end; Zimmer moved on to a defensive coordinator’s role in Atlanta. He’s since done that same job in Cincinnati, too, and then spent eight years as head coach in Minnesota.

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But now that he’s back in Dallas for a second stint as DC, Parcells expects today’s Cowboys players to get the same old Zimm’, although he warns that guys expecting to have their egos propped up with sugar-coated platitudes are in for a culture shock.

“He’s himself,” Parcells explained. “That’s what he does. That’s what people that get along with players are. They don’t say you have to get along, but players respect people who are straightforward, to the point, and trying to help them get better. He’s the best with them. And the ones that don’t like the truth are probably going to have a problem.”

And if Zimmer brings back even a little bit of that fiery “Tuna” attitude, most fans probably won’t mind at all.

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Veteran executive Mike Tannenbaum explains Isiah Pacheco’s slide to the 7th round

Veteran executive Mike Tannenbaum explains #Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco’s slide to the seventh round of the 2022 draft.

The decisions made in the offseason regarding the lead-up to the NFL Draft are critical for every franchise as they seek to get younger and better at specific positions. Making these problematic decisions falls on the general managers and front office personnel keen on picking up the best available talent on the board.

Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently talked with former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum to get his thoughts on the Kansas City Chiefs NFL Draft seventh-round selection steal of running back Isiah Pacheco in 2022. Tannenbaum spoke on behalf of The 33rd Team during a special media availability, providing insight into a general manager’s mindset during the late draft rounds.

“He said they did a ten-year study on draft picks that hit and miss, and it was very interesting,” Tannenbaum explained. “He’s like if we just went with our grades literally that were like from this time of year like you watch the games period, end of story.

“Everyone’s gonna get some right, people get them right and wrong, but they’re more accurate when you don’t have the Senior Bowl, the (NFL Scouting) Combine the interviews and all the other things that we put a lot of time effort and money in.”

The Chiefs selected Isiah Pacheco without much fanfare in 2022 and watched as he immediately made an impact through training camp to become the starting running back eventually. He led the team in rushing this season, becoming one of the most essential parts of the offense.

“It’s kind of interesting because when you look at Brock (Purdy), a four-year starter at Iowa State, he was a good player, but it’s not going to test well, obviously,” said Tannenbaum. “(Isiah) Pacheco, [went] a little bit different under the radar at Rutgers, but when you put on the film, they’re really playing the same way they played in college.

“Coach (Bill) Parcells always had an expression like in the late rounds, you want to draft an attribute, and that attribute can be production. And certainly, like in [the] previous case, like you’re drafting experience, so not all late-round picks are gonna work out as we all know, but like that, to me, like Purdy, a really good example of the Casserly lesson of just go by the film and ignore everything else.”

Purdy was selected to his first Pro Bowl this season, while Pacheco continues to prove that general manager Brett Veach knows precisely what Kansas City needs moving forward.

Bill Parcells has lent nearly $4M to ex-Giants in financial trouble

Hall of Fame head coach Bill Barcells has reportedly loaned nearly $4 million to former New York Giants players in “financial crisis.”

Former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells is remembered for his straightforward, no-nonsense, gruff demeanor but according to a new report, he apparently has a sentimental, generous side to him.

Over the years, the Hall of Fame coach has reportedly loaned nearly $4 million to some of his ex-players who have undergone financial strife.

Long-time NFL reporter Gary Myers recently outlined in his book about the 1986 Giants that Parcells has become the patriarch of sorts for many Giant alumni and has helped around 20 players who came to him seeking financial help.

“People are going to find out how Bill Parcells has made this transition from a guy who had love-hate relationships with his players to the patriarch of that ’86 team, now that Wellington Mara has been gone for a while and Bill has had his 82nd birthday recently,” Myers said in a radio interview on WFAN, via the New York Post.

“It’s just incredibly generous what he’s done with these guys. Bill has loaned out $4 million to 20 players that played for him, who came to him in this financial crisis. Bill knows when they come to him it’s a last resort.

“I said to him, ‘Bill, you know, $4 million, you don’t expect anybody to pay you back. Why are you doing that?’ And he said, ‘These guys have sacrificed so much for me with their bodies and their commitment.'”

Parcells was always known as a players’ coach even though he was quick to criticize them when they didn’t comply. The defensive players all loved him and he hasn’t forgotten what they have done for him.

Good for Parcells. Good for the Giants.

As they say, ‘Once a Giant, always a Giant.’

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