Monday, February 20, 2012

Coaching staff rundown: wide receivers coach Ray Sherman


Briefly considered for the head coaching job here in 2009, Ray Sherman is anticipated to be coming to St. Louis for the 2012 season to take on the Herculean challenge of coaching the team's wide receivers. As we are seeing with most of Jeff Fisher's hires, Sherman has an extensive coaching record to run on, in his case, over 20 years of NFL experience. He started as a running backs, then WRs coach, for Jerry Glanville's Oilers in 1988-89. He's been an offensive coordinator or assistant head coach/offense for four different teams, but never longer than a season. He's coached WRs and RBs for the 49ers, and QBs for the Vikings. We'll focus on his work with WRs, which he's been dedicated to coaching for the last 10 years: 2000-04 with the Packers, 2005-06 with Jeff Fisher and the Titans, and 2007-10 with the Cowboys.

In a line that'll make anybody's resume look good, Sherman coached Jerry Rice for two seasons in the 90s, two of the thirteen years Rice made the Pro Bowl. Rice led the league in receiving yards and TDs in 1993. With John Taylor hurt a lot of '92, the 49ers actually got 600+ receiving yards out of Mike Sherrard. Taylor returned in '93 for 58-940-5 TDs. Jeff Fisher was the 49ers' defensive backs coach those same two years.

Donald Driver blossomed into a Pro Bowl receiver under Sherman in Green Bay. After three seasons in obscurity, Driver burst onto the scene in '02 with 70 catches, over 1,000 yards and 9 TDs. He topped that in '04 with 84 catches, over 1,200 yards and another 9 TDs. Javon Walker's widely remembered as a bust pick for the Packers, but in '03, he led the team in receiving yards and scored 9 TDs, and he had a Pro Bowl season in '04: 89 catches, almost 1,400 yards and 12 TDs. Walker blew out a knee the first week of '05 and ended up washing out to Denver. Bill Schroeder and Antonio Freeman both had over 60 catches and nearly 1,000 yards apiece for the Packers in 2000 before their careers declined. Terry Glenn had 56 catches and over 800 yards there in '02. So Sherman's been able to coach up young prospects into Pro Bowlers, and to get outsized results from unheralded vets.

Working for Jeff Fisher with next to no wide receiving talent? Sherman's already been there, done that, in 2005-06. Those Titans teams threw predominantly to the tight ends. And understandably: the leading receiver both years? DREW BENNETT. Next!

Sherman repeated a lot of his past success in a four-year run at Dallas. Sure, I could have coached Terrell Owens to Pro Bowl seasons in his prime. (For the record: 81-1,355, 15 TDs and a Pro Bowl in '07; 69-1,052 and 10 TDs in '08.) But at the same time, previously-unknown Patrick Crayton turned in four seasons averaging 600 yards a season. After the Cowboys showed Owens the door in '09, Miles Austin came out of nowhere - he had been almost strictly a kick returner - and racked up back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons, 81-1,320 and 11 TDs in '09. Dez Bryant got off to a good start, on the field, his rookie season in '10, 45-561-6 TD.

A lot of the statistics of Sherman-coached receivers are even more impressive, imho, when you see how much those teams also threw to their backs and tight ends. Ahman Green had a ton of catches in Green Bay. Jason Witten, who's probably always going to be Tony Romo's primary receiver, led Dallas in receptions all four year Sherman was there, even the T.O. years.

Dallas did not renew Sherman's contract after 2010. Austin's numbers, though still impressive, dropped off a bit after he signed a big contract. Dallas had given up a king's ransom to get Roy Williams from Detroit only to see him ring up 2-and-a-half years of lower production than he did as a Lion. The real reason, though, was probably that head coach Jason Garrett saw Sherman as a threat who undermined his authority. Sherman was ostensibly one of the candidates Garrett beat out when he got the HC job in Dallas, though many felt Sherman's interview was just a courtesy on his part to allow the Cowboys to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Sherman was a well-liked coach by his players, to the point where they went to him to complain about Garrett's play-calling. The move to let Sherman go was roundly criticized in the press. However, last season, WR coach Jimmy Robinson revived Laurent Robinson's corpse, and Bryant turned into a #1-quality WR. Austin's production plummeted, as he struggled with injuries. Meanwhile, Sherman didn't work anywhere in the NFL in 2011.

None of the political B.S. that got Sherman run out of Dallas exists here in St. Louis, though, where he should be a great fit. Jeff Fisher isn't an inexperienced head coach insecure in his power like Garrett. And unlike Garrett, Fisher's a players' coach who's unlikely to be threatened by position coaches who are also players' coaches. (Seems like that's something you'd want in your staff.) Just as importantly, Ray Sherman has a solid record in getting top performance out of established stars (Brandon Lloyd?), coaching young WRs up into elite players (Justin Blackmon?) and even getting surprising production out of unlikely players (Danario Alexander? Dare I hope?). Whoever Sam Bradford's throwing to in 2012, Ray Sherman should play a big part in assuring that they're noticeable improvements over those he threw to in 2011. A-minus

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