Steve Spagnuolo: The Man with Four Aces Up His Sleeve

[pugsnotdrugs19]

PREFACE: This SI article is from December of 2016, so it's not brand new. But I do think it is very insightful and worth the read for KC fans.

LINK: https://www.si.com/mmqb/2016/12/27/n...ve-coordinator

ARTICLE:

Spoiler!

By JENNY VRENTAS December 27, 2016

Steve Spagnuolo has lived through the abnormal life cycle of the NFL coaching business. He’s been the Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator who was one of the most coveted head-coaching candidates. Then, there was that year in Baltimore when he had the makeshift title of senior defensive assistant.

“I never doubted myself,” he says now. “You ask questions, why? Because usually when you go through things like that, there are all different circumstances. There is not one reason.”

Now, back in the same job he held nine years ago, Spagnuolo has once again unlocked success as the Giants’ defensive coordinator. New York’s $200 million free-agent spending spree on three defensive playmakers—NT Damon Harrison, DE Olivier Vernon and CB Janoris Jenkins—turned heads. But the most important offseason move may have been retaining Spagnuolo on new coach Ben McAdoo’s staff.

The move was largely unheralded at the time. After all, the last two defenses that Spagnuolo coordinated, the 2015 Giants and the 2012 Saints, both ranked last in the league in yards allowed and in the bottom three in in points allowed. But the circumstance that doomed last year’s unit was a glaring lack of talent, so much so that team co-owner John Mara said after last season, “We do not have enough championship-caliber players.” Now, with a defense that ranks third in the league in points allowed, the Giants are on their way to the postseason for the first time since 2011.

Spagnuolo deserves credit because there have been plenty of examples in NFL history when free-agent spending sprees didn’t turn anything around. This year’s Jaguars are one example, and everyone remembers the Eagles’ ill-fated “Dream Team” in 2011. Spagnuolo’s creativity distinguished him with the 2007 Giants’ Super Bowl XLII defense, when he devised the “Four Aces” package featuring four pass rushers. He’s mixed and matched this year, too, blending the old parts with the new pieces better than anyone could have imagined.

In the secondary alone, Jenkins, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and rookie Eli Apple have changed roles throughout the year based on injuries, matchups and performance. He’s done the same at linebacker, where there was no big free-agent signing. Two of the Giants’ best defensive performances of the season, a 10-7 win against Dallas in Week 14 and a 17-6 win against Detroit a week later, came after Jason Pierre-Paul had season-ending groin surgery.

“Really, more than anything, some of the new guys came in with an attitude of team unity and molding things together,” Spagnuolo says. “That doesn’t normally happen when you are new, coming from [other teams]. But we had a little bit of a void there. A year ago Jon Beason got hurt, and we kind of lost leadership. So when we came back this year, somebody was going to surface. And it really has been new guys like Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins, plus [captain] Jonathan Casillas. Damon Harrison, to me, he’s the glue. He’s the leader and the guy that can straighten things out. I think guys respond to him.

“It’s a credit to the players who were here and have embraced new guys who were getting paid some money. That’s important. And it’s a credit to the guys who came in and accepted roles … they didn’t come storming in.”

But it’s also a big credit to Spagnuolo, who has rewarded the team’s faith in him. It’s not always easy to discern good coaching behind the scenes, but a great example has been Landon Collins. The Giants drafted the former Alabama safety at the top of the second round in 2015; questions about his ball skills caused him to slide that far. But Spagnuolo, from Day 1, was adamant about not putting restrictions on his players. “You can always improve,” he said about Collins then. “Sometimes guys have to take it upon themselves to get better at a skill by putting the time in … So, we’ll push that.”

Both Spagnuolo and safeties coach David Merritt started putting in that work with Collins at his rookie minicamp. Collins’ emergence as a Pro Bowler in 2016 has been a driving force behind the Giants’ success. Last year, he dropped what would have been a game-winning interception in what instead became a close loss to the Patriots. This year, he’s been making those kinds of plays—a game-clinching interception in Week 11 against Chicago, for example. After beating the Lions, Collins praised Spagnuolo for “turning us loose” this season, a reference to the versatile ways in which he’s used Collins, including as a blitzer.

With an offense that hasn’t scored 20 points since November, the Giants will have to count on their defense to go deep into the playoffs. The D, however, has tripped up on its own a few times. In last week’s 24-19 loss in Philadelphia, with Jenkins sidelined by a back injury and Harrison missing some plays with a knee injury, the Giants struggled to contain rookie QB Carson Wentz, who used his legs to evade sacks and scramble for a few first downs. Spagnuolo, though, has seemed to know what tone to hit with his players at critical points in the season. After Pierre-Paul’s injury, he empowered rookie Romeo Okwara to seize a bigger role. After the Giants’ second win over the Cowboys, he emphasized that he did not want that to be their best game—and they followed up with the suffocating win over Detroit.

Perhaps Spagnuolo’s steadiness is best confirmed by the “up and down” career path, as he calls it, that he’s followed over the past few years. He spent three seasons as the Rams’ head coach, compiling a 10-38 record. He was fired following the 2011 season, and then got one year in New Orleans to try to turn the Saints defense around. When he was fired from that coordinator job, he worked his way back up, starting with the senior defensive assistant job in Baltimore, and then another year there as assistant head coach/secondary coach.

“You learn that you’ve gotta keep faith,” Spagnuolo says. “I am a strong man of God, and I relied on that a lot in the down times. My wife was very helpful. And I never lost confidence. I always felt, you just keep doing what you are doing in this profession, and you work your way back up. But I don’t really feel like I have gotten anywhere yet.”

He adds: “The years when you are way up top and they give you all that credit, all that credit is not valid because it takes more than one person. The same thing when you are down. It is not always one person’s fault. There are a lot of reasons for having good stats and bad … and I am not a stat guy. It has always been about players developing. In New Orleans, I didn’t get a chance. You are going to need more than eight months to develop guys, we didn’t [get that], and that’s OK. Now that we have had the chance to do that here, I think it is working out pretty good.”

Spagnuolo says he still gets a text after every game, congratulating him on the job he’s done. The sender is Tom Coughlin, the former Giants coach who hired Spagnuolo in 2007 and hired him again in 2015. Spagnuolo says he is “still hurt” that the performance of the defense contributed to Coughlin’s ouster after 12 seasons on New York’s sideline. “I hurt that it hurt Tom,” he Spagnuolo says. “Because look, I love the guy, and I am loyal to him, and I believe in him, and I was hoping we could do better than we did. But who knows what is in store for him in the future. I am hoping some opportunities come his way.”

Spagnuolo is hoping the same for himself. This season has been redeeming. His defense is back among the NFL’s best. And he hopes the NFL life cycle gives him another shot at being a head coach. “Absolutely. I am hoping that happens,” he says. “We’ll see.”

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I always apply this test: How would you feel if the Raiders or Broncos hired Steve Spanuolo as their DC?

I'd laugh forever if Oakland hired him and would be uncertain if it were the Broncos.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I always apply this test: How would you feel if the Raiders or Broncos hired Steve Spanuolo as their DC?

I would as the Chiefs offense would rape...

[chiefzilla1501]

He was installing a new year 1 defense. A lot of players have a hard time adjusting to change as it is. Especially a popular one like Gregg Williams with a very obvious style.

Now imagine doing that with your very popular head coach suspended and the GM too. Your entire OTAs are run by a 3rd-string HC (Aaron Kromer) who coaches for 6 games. You're a DC trying to prove yourself after a failed HC run... halfway through the year, the LBs coach also trying to prove himself in a interim HC role jumps in and knows he's going to be associated with failure if he doesn't fix the defense.

I'd say he gets a pass for that season.

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

Contrast with this from the Saints:

But one unnamed player is laying plenty of blame at the feet of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who watched his unit surrender 7,042 yards (breaking the 1981 Baltimore Colts' record for season-long ineptitude by 249 yards).

According to the anonymous defender, Spagnuolo's personality was as problematic as his work on the whiteboard.

"He does have that good-guy persona, but he is a control freak and treats people like crap," is how the player described his boss to The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune's Larry Holder. "No patience and zero personality. Has a way of pissing players and our defensive coaches off with how he says and does things. (I) think it's even harder after having (former defensive coordinator) Gregg (Williams), who guys enjoyed."


The unit appears to have a solid pedigree with former Pro Bowlers Roman Harper, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma and rising talents such as Curtis Lofton (who supports Spagnuolo), Cam Jordan and Malcolm Jenkins.

"It was his first year putting it in, and everything we went through, yeah, I'm a firm believer in the system," Lofton said. "I think it's a complicated system, but at the same time it has an answer for everything an offense does. We will be successful in the future. ... Yes, there is some thinking that goes into it before the play and during the play, but once you've got a grasp to it, I really think this is a great system."

Lofton's disgruntled compatriot clearly disagrees.

"To give up what we gave up can't be all talent. Look at where his units (have) been ranked before. I think one top 10?" said the player, who offered that Spagnuolo should be fired.

"Players have no say in anything," he added. "It was (a) complete opposite from before where it was a simple D that players had lot of control and say. We couldn't suggest (expletive). ... Nothing ever changed. It was his way only.


"Don't even get me started on lack (of) ability to adjust during games. Bad, bad, bad."

Spagnuolo has been on a bad run since famously devising the defensive game plan the 2007 New York Giants cited as instrumental in their upset of the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

But Spagnuolo hasn't experienced a playoff victory since and joined the Saints in 2012 after presiding over a three-year head-coaching tenure in St. Louis when the Rams went 10-38. After his departure from the Rams, he also was accused of heavy-handedness.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

The problem is you just summarized the past 10 years of Spags' career as an NFL DC.

Other than in 2016 when he was the DC of the $200 million free agent spending spree built Giants defense, he hasn't done jack shit in 10 years.

Indian Chief pretty much summed it up. For now, they're excuses for failure in what might be a bad hire. But those are some really shitty situations so they may very well be legit reasons, not excuses, for failure.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Indian Chief pretty much summed it up. For now, they're excuses for failure in what might be a bad hire. But those are some really shitty situations so they may very well be legit reasons, not excuses, for failure.

Well he has on Chiefs Red now, so his past is mute, cause you know Chief Fan.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

Well he has on Chiefs Red now, so his past is mute, cause you know Chief Fan.

There are enough people frustrated by the Bob era that they'll be jumping down his throat if he isn't top 10. So I think he will be held plenty accountable. Which is fair.

Nobody is saying the past doesn't matter. A lot of people, myself included, are lukewarm about this move. But if the past is going to be presented, it needs to be presented correctly with the right context. He was a shitty head coach. As a coordinator, half of his bad years involved really really shitty situations that had nothing to do with him. You can't talk about 2012 and 2017 shortcomings and ignore huge events like bountygate and the mcadoo drama.

[BleedingRed]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

I wouldn’t be sure because he’s had such a wide variety of results. Same as I feel right now.

Has he tho

[fan4ever]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

There are enough people frustrated by the Bob era that they'll be jumping down his throat if he isn't top 10. So I think he will be held plenty accountable. Which is fair.

Held accountable by who? Andy? It will take 3 sub performing years for Andy to fire his Eagle buddy.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by fan4ever

Held accountable by who? Andy? It will take 3 sub performing years for Andy to fire his Eagle buddy.

The fans. I'm just responding to the idea that fans have homer glasses on about this guy.

[Chargem]

Well, not that I want a revolving door of DCs but surely it's easier to fire a guy if he is terrible after 1-2 seasons than the Bob situation where by he started out with a couple of pretty strong seasons (if only due to talent) and then went down hill and you're always thinking "maybe he can turn this around".

[CoMoChief]

Should have known Reid is too much of a coward to do what's best for the Chiefs/players, but instead chooses a safe yes man who he's worked with before. A safe but stupid move.

[Dr. Yu Weed Tard]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

There are enough people frustrated by the Bob era that they'll be jumping down his throat if he isn't top 10. So I think he will be held plenty accountable. Which is fair.

Nobody is saying the past doesn't matter. A lot of people, myself included, are lukewarm about this move. But if the past is going to be presented, it needs to be presented correctly with the right context. He was a shitty head coach. As a coordinator, half of his bad years involved really really shitty situations that had nothing to do with him. You can't talk about 2012 and 2017 shortcomings and ignore huge events like bountygate and the mcadoo drama.

NONE OF THIS MATTERS IF WE DON'T UPGRADE THE DEFENSIVE TALENT.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by Haglund's_Spirit

NONE OF THIS MATTERS IF WE DON'T UPGRADE THE DEFENSIVE TALENT.

I know, right? If only there was a draft, and maybe a period where you could sign free agents and maybe cut some of your own dead weight...but I guess we're just ****ed.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

I wouldn’t be sure because he’s had such a wide variety of results. Same as I feel right now.

Indeed. This sort of logic would lead to hiring people you think may be bad to play against if the Raiders or Denver were to have him....simple but probably not the best metric to narrow the field...

[bowener]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

And 3 top 10 defenses in his entire career

The Chiefs don't need a top 10 defense. If the offense stays as dangerous, and there is no reason it won't, the Chiefs only need a 15-25 ranked defense to kick the shit out of people.