Mike Johnson OC

Wow this poll is pretty even.

Originally posted by eastie:

Originally posted by nw9erfan:
To answer the question, yes, allow Mike Johnson to call the plays....and here are the reasons why....

First, he would do it quicker and crisper and allow Alex to read the defense and make adjustments at the line.

Second, he would undoubtedly be more innovative (and this is so badly needed as many of you have stated).

Third, he would also be more likely to try to exploit weaknesses in the defense (for example, a rookie CB or a slow LB or a light DLman)...

Fourth, because he has worked with Alex so much (groomed him basically), he more than anyone else is going to have an idea of what Alex is capable of in every situation and therefore put Alex in the best position possible to be successful.

Fifth, he would allow (and hopefully encourage) Alex to change the play at the line as he saw fit, thereby giving Alex more responsibility and more respect from the team.

Sixth, he would utilize the team's weapons better.....for example, Brian Westbrook, who we didn't even see on Sunday.

There are probably a few more but I will leave that to the capable minds of the Zoners...

Excellent post!!!

As Elvis would say.....Uh, thank ya, thank ya very much...

Originally posted by susweel:
He cant do any worse. So yes

Sadly this!

IMO the offensive players need to learn how to execute plays successfully 1st before any OC will look competent. So many opportunies last Sunday were missed by the players with the playcalls that were called. Too many f*ck ups.

Originally posted by djfullshred:
IMO the offensive players need to learn how to execute plays successfully 1st before any OC will look competent. So many opportunies last Sunday were missed by the players with the playcalls that were called. Too many f*ck ups.

This.

But Raye needs to stop fumbling over himself in critical situations or when we are behind.

does Johnson have any experience calling plays?

Originally posted by rapid4:
Answer is very simple:

1. Give Raye and Johnson a sheet of paper with all the plays numbered 1-100. All Raye has to do is give Johnson one number;

2. Cut off Raye's mike after 5 seconds so if he hasn't called the play, Johnson will do it.

Raye calls the plays from memory. So assigning a # would be tantamount to him looking the play up...where presumably the name of the play is.

Basically, Jimmy Raye needs to get over his dementia and learn the exact names of his f**king plays. I like the 5 second idea though.

What makes you think anything would be diffferent from a play-calling standpoint? MJ is in all the meetings with OC and HC, so if he has any ideas he should be offering them already. The more I think about it, every one of our coaches on the offensive side of the ball are underqualified for their respective positions. The one guy we had, Mike Martz, was efffectively fired for not mtaching up with the identity that Sing wants to create. The one proven offensive mind we had.

Im really not trying to be a hater, but Sing looks way underprepared for the upcoming season. The way he calls out Nate Davis, and Alex Smith, and the O-line, and Crabtree, you would think he would run out of options soon for shifting the blame of the inept offfense.

Hopefully the wakeup call Seattle gave us works on the coaches as well. Although I dont think you should expect much diffferent out of them. Its not like they will magically learn how to run an offense overnight.


The whole reason I became a Niner fan in the 80s was because of the precision and fluidity of the Walsh WC offense. And now Singletary wants to turn us into the Bears. F that. As the originators of the WCO, we need to return to our roots and regain the identity we created as 5-time SB Champs. If Sing is incapable or unwilling to compromise his offensive philosophy for the good of the team, then its time for him to pack his bags.

Originally posted by djfullshred:
IMO the offensive players need to learn how to execute plays successfully 1st before any OC will look competent. So many opportunies last Sunday were missed by the players with the playcalls that were called. Too many f*ck ups.

I have been one of thsoe on the side of the fence thinking/saying that Smith can't get the job done. But after reading all this stuff about the play calling...Raye takes too long, he doesn't speak clearly, he doesn't use the actual play names...I really have to question how much blame to put on Smith (and the rest of the team). I said it elsewhere...remember that commercial (Pepsi Max I think) where the Dallas OC yawned when calling in a play, and how it got relayed to the sideline then to Romo, then the offense in the huddle, and well...you know what happened. Now I thought that commercial was pretty funny, especially since I really do not like the Cowboys. But the way all of this is described, that scenario is happening to our offense virtually every play, and it's due to Raye.

I'm not saying I'm now a Smith lover by any stretch, here. But I really feel like I have to give him and the rest of the offense a little more slack. With this going on, how is any QB supposed to function? I mean, it makes me wonder if Sing doesn't owe Nate Davis an apology for the crap he said about his work ethic. You have a guy with a learning disability working to learn the play book, which isn't as easy for him as it is for others. So he finally gets comfortable with the plays, and in his headset instead of hearing something which he now knows, he hears 66 stretch far haaauuuurrrr and has less than 15 seconds to relate that to the offense, get to the line, read the defense, and then call protections for a play that doesn't even really exist. Yeah...of course he messed up on some protection calls and play calls. Who wouldn't?

With this going on, how can we judge any of our offensive players accurately?

edit: I voted yes BTW.

[ Edited by mrgneissguy on Sep 16, 2010 at 11:15:40 ]

Originally posted by djfullshred:
IMO the offensive players need to learn how to execute plays successfully 1st before any OC will look competent. So many opportunies last Sunday were missed by the players with the playcalls that were called. Too many f*ck ups.

Good point, but those missed opportunities are always going to happen. Mediocre teams, good teams, or great teams. The coaches need to give the players the best chance to succeed and this seems like an easy problem to resolve. Getting the play ASAP gives Alex and the offense enough time to not only setup and be ready, but also adjust, shift, etc. according to what they see the defense doing. If anything it gives them some extra time to digest the play and remember any nuances that may be related to a certain play also.

Bottom line is, we need someone who can call plays on the fly, but within the game plan and we need to eliminate as many variables (memory, middle man, enunciating 3 times, etc.). Jimmy Raye game planning and Johnson executing the plan seems like a great option.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
What makes you think anything would be diffferent from a play-calling standpoint? MJ is in all the meetings with OC and HC, so if he has any ideas he should be offering them already. The more I think about it, every one of our coaches on the offensive side of the ball are underqualified for their respective positions. The one guy we had, Mike Martz, was efffectively fired for not mtaching up with the identity that Sing wants to create. The one proven offensive mind we had.

Im really not trying to be a hater, but Sing looks way underprepared for the upcoming season. The way he calls out Nate Davis, and Alex Smith, and the O-line, and Crabtree, you would think he would run out of options soon for shifting the blame of the inept offfense.

Hopefully the wakeup call Seattle gave us works on the coaches as well. Although I dont think you should expect much diffferent out of them. Its not like they will magically learn how to run an offense overnight.


The whole reason I became a Niner fan in the 80s was because of the precision and fluidity of the Walsh WC offense. And now Singletary wants to turn us into the Bears. F that. As the originators of the WCO, we need to return to our roots and regain the identity we created as 5-time SB Champs. If Sing is incapable or unwilling to compromise his offensive philosophy for the good of the team, then its time for him to pack his bags.

Good points all, maniac... As a fan of the team since 1970, it is embarrassing to see the team run in such an unprofessional and disorganized manner. The Niners of the 80s used to outsmart their opponents on a weekly basis. I doubt anyone in the Zone can give a recent example of the Niner's coaching staff outsmarting an opponent.

The really sad part of this is that for the first time in many years, the team actually has the talent to compete with the better teams in the league. I feel that talent is being wasted with the incompetence, inability to adjust, and lack of creativity demonstrated by this current coaching staff.

I'm not sure if I can remember the team being so unprepared to play a game as they were in Seattle last week. That was not so much of a case of the Seahawks beating the Niners as the Niners beating themselves. Just pathetic. They looked like the Raiders out there.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
What makes you think anything would be diffferent from a play-calling standpoint? MJ is in all the meetings with OC and HC, so if he has any ideas he should be offering them already.

You're not paying attention. A big part of the whole story that shed light on the Raye issues for all of us is that Johnson has been shut out of meetings with Raye and Jason Michael. Johnson was pissed about it so, to try and bring things together, Sing made him the guy on the sidelines relaying the plays into the QB. Until then it was Jason Michael relaying the plays and it only became Johnson after he got pissed about being shut out of the meetings and his ideas shunned.

That's if you believe the Yahoo story. Which pretty much everyone does.

Originally posted by nw9erfan:

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
What makes you think anything would be diffferent from a play-calling standpoint? MJ is in all the meetings with OC and HC, so if he has any ideas he should be offering them already. The more I think about it, every one of our coaches on the offensive side of the ball are underqualified for their respective positions. The one guy we had, Mike Martz, was efffectively fired for not mtaching up with the identity that Sing wants to create. The one proven offensive mind we had.

Im really not trying to be a hater, but Sing looks way underprepared for the upcoming season. The way he calls out Nate Davis, and Alex Smith, and the O-line, and Crabtree, you would think he would run out of options soon for shifting the blame of the inept offfense.

Hopefully the wakeup call Seattle gave us works on the coaches as well. Although I dont think you should expect much diffferent out of them. Its not like they will magically learn how to run an offense overnight.


The whole reason I became a Niner fan in the 80s was because of the precision and fluidity of the Walsh WC offense. And now Singletary wants to turn us into the Bears. F that. As the originators of the WCO, we need to return to our roots and regain the identity we created as 5-time SB Champs. If Sing is incapable or unwilling to compromise his offensive philosophy for the good of the team, then its time for him to pack his bags.

Good points all, maniac... As a fan of the team since 1970, it is embarrassing to see the team run in such an unprofessional and disorganized manner. The Niners of the 80s used to outsmart their opponents on a weekly basis. I doubt anyone in the Zone can give a recent example of the Niner's coaching staff outsmarting an opponent.

The really sad part of this is that for the first time in many years, the team actually has the talent to compete with the better teams in the league. I feel that talent is being wasted with the incompetence, inability to adjust, and lack of creativity demonstrated by this current coaching staff.

I'm not sure if I can remember the team being so unprepared to play a game as they were in Seattle last week. That was not so much of a case of the Seahawks beating the Niners as the Niners beating themselves. Just pathetic. They looked like the Raiders out there.

the raiders wouldve creamed us if seattle could do that to us. i think its ridiculous that a professional coach who doesnt know x's and o's and stays out of those matters cant even manage a game and do the maintainance when something is obviously wrong. what are sings game day responsibilities? he cant even clock manage and thats probably the only major responsibility he would have since he doesnt call plays. then you have raye up there calling plays that dont exist and getting them in late, to a translator... by the time alex gets even half of it its time to run the play without making protection calls or adjusting to the defense. this organization is a joke right now. we have playmakers up and down this roster and a good coach would make this team a major contender but we have a bunch of talent wasters in charge. sing was scared to get a good OC because he didnt want him to leave and he probably didnt know any other candidates since he was never a real coach himself. if we get guys nobody wants what do you expect our offense to look like? an offense nobody wants!!! we need a coach who knows X's and O's, mainly offense. i would love to see Gruden come in here next year or someone of his calibur who knows how to run a winning team. Singletary is on a very short leash and i hope york has the balls to make the right decisions at the end of the year if we see more of the same this year.

Well considering Johnson was hired before Raye I personally think Singletary's intention was for Johnson to eventually take over as OC anyhow.

I think Raye was brought in as the guy to install the system Singletary wants to run as Johnson was being groomed to take over.

So my belief is Singletary would rather wait till the offseason to make that move but I think he'll go to Johnson mid season if it's obvious that Raye isn't working out.

As much criticism as Singletary gets and mostly rightly so he's not completely stubborn and will make changes if he feels he needs to.

Week 1 finally exposed the real Elephant in the room, which is lack of preparation and organization by the coaches, specifically the HC and OC.

Doesn't Raye have about 2 plays categorized by down and distance? Seriously, the instant it's 2nd and 6, he should immediately be going straight to the tab on his book that says 2nd and 5 or longer. There should be only a number of plays here to choose from.

If he can't remember the names of the plays then that points straight to lack of organization on his part. Being unorganized in this field of work is a disaster. That leads me to believe he doesn't prepare himself well enough which leads to not being able to prepare the team well enough.

And who's the person who can't seem to evaluate these inefficiencies? Yes, our Head Coach. That leads me to believe that he isn't qualified and is better suited as a liaison between the players and the head coach, which is an assistant head coach.

[ Edited by Joecool on Sep 16, 2010 at 12:32:31 ]