49ers hire Dana Bible as senior advisor

The Eagles hired Bible to run his version of the short passing offense long identified with Bill Walsh and with the misleading ``West Coast'' moniker. As Bible pointed out, Walsh developed many of his own ideas while working for Brown and the Bengals as an offensive position coach from 1968 through 1975. Bible, then a fan and schoolboy star in Cincy, watched that offense evolve.

Later, during Bible's two years on the Bengals' staff, Brown himself explained what was going on.

``It was fascinating to learn the whys and wheres of this offense from Mr. Brown,'' Bible said. ``Basically, it came from an expansion team trying desperately to make first downs. The Bengals didn't have a great quarterback with a strong arm then. They didn't have a great offensive line, so they couldn't just run over people.''

The Bengals survived with the short passing attack. Ken Anderson and then Boomer Esiason eventually made that attack more potent. Walsh moved on to San Francisco and, with fellows named Joe Montana and then Steve Young, raised the whole thing to an art form.

Walsh's system, in all of its variations, has become the dominant style of offensive football in the NFL. Mike Holmgren coaches a form of it in Green Bay, Mike Shanahan a different style in Denver. When Rhodes, a Walsh apostle, came to Philadelphia, he hired Jon Gruden to run a Walsh-style offense. When Gruden left to become coach of the Oakland Raiders last winter, the Eagles quickly tapped Bible, the offensive coordinator at Stanford.

``I learned a long time ago that you don't always see the next move coming,'' Bible said. ``So I can't say it was a surprise exactly. It was a key time for recruiting at Stanford, so I was focused on that task. I got a phone call asking if I was interested, and here I am.''

Bible finds himself in a unique situation. Gruden was respected enough to move on to a head coaching position, yet the Eagles seem more than ready for a change. They have a young quarterback in Bobby Hoying. Ricky Watters is gone. The offensive line will again be markedly different.

With Hoying going into his first full season as a starter, and with a rookie left tackle and a new coordinator, the Eagles' offense will require time to develop and grow. Even if things go very well, those elements will take a couple of seasons to come together. At the same time, Rhodes is in the fourth year of his contract, working under the watchful eye of Tom Modrak, the team's new director of football operations.

Bible's upbeat approach may help speed things along. The coach places a huge emphasis on simplifying the offense for his quarterback.

``By the time Bobby reaches his back foot, he should know where to go with the ball,'' Bible said, standing up and mimicking the quarterback's three-step drop. ``It's look here, yes or no, look there, yes or no, and then boom.

``You have to remember the quarterback has about three seconds to get back there and make a decision. Three seconds, with people running all around him. My job is to make the decision as easy as possible. At the same time, you have to make sure the other 10 players are where they should be so the play looks as much like that as possible.''

Originally posted by Eli_23:

Jesus Christ

Originally posted by Joecool:

The only purpose I can see for this is so Kelly has an extra set of eyes and ears around the facility so that he's not aloof to things happening around him when he's too busy.