At least one Tennessee Titans player believes the poor blocking last season had nothing to do with ability and everything to do with stupid coaching.
Ken Whisenhunt took the Arizona Cardinals to a Super Bowl. It really is still surprising that the man wasn’t able to hold on to the Titans job for even two seasons, fired midway through 2015 due in large part to his inability to keep prized quarterback Marcus Mariota protected. Starting guard Chance Warmack finally felt it was time to clarify the issue, and it had nothing to do with talent.
He believes it all came down to who Whisenhunt put in charge of coaching the offensive line in Bob Bostad. Warmack believes his inexperience was evident from the outset and created all sorts of confusion behind the scenes.
"“I had one dude (coach) who played D-III football at linebacker,” Warmack said during a roundtable discussion with Pete Prisco of CBS Sports. “And he’s teaching me how to play offensive line? If there’s nothing wrong with that, you tell me. I play offensive line. I don’t play linebacker. I definitely didn’t play D-III football.“Not knocking D-III schools out there. We’re talking about the highest level of football in the world. And you have a guy who has never put his hand in the dirt teaching me how to block. You don’t think there’s anything wrong with that? I appreciate a coach who is open-minded to questions and comments. They don’t want to hear a question that questions their philosophy. When they are closed-minded, it stunts the growth of the offensive lineman.”"
It’s worth pointing out that Bostad was not entirely inexperienced at the job. He coached offensive line at the University of Wisconsin from 2006 to 2011 and took the same position in Tampa Bay for the 2012 season. Still, none of those stops met with the greatest success and it was clear Warmack and others had little respect for either his knowledge or coaching style.
Bostad has since been fired, replaced with Russ Grimm by new head coach Mike Mularkey. Grimm is a Hall of Fame offensive lineman himself who has coached the position since 1997 in stops at Washington, Pittsburgh, and Arizona. He won three Super Bowls as a player and helped the Steelers win another as coach in 2005.
If there is anybody who can command the respect of Warmack and the rest of those linemen, it’s him. Most importantly, the security of Mariota is more assured.
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