Marinelli

He is an absolutely terrible head coach, though.

… he’s not a great head coach. He’s shown that by his decision making – or lack thereof. With a good roster, I think he’d do alright. As a Def. Coordinator – he’s gold. He’s motivating, positive and the players like him.

As for your comment number 1, I’m not really sure he knew what he was getting into here. This was his only chance to be a head coach because of age alone. There was no way if the job was offered that he wouldn’t have taken it, but I still don’t think that he truly knew it was this bad.

On comment number 3, Joe Barry would have become a coordinator somewhere else in the league if Detroit didn’t hire him. For all intents and purposes, the hiring made perfect sense. Barry knew the exact defense Marinelli runs, they’ve worked together and Marinelli could trust him. That all makes sense. So he gets to sit next to him at Thanksgiving dinner… big deal. The core problem needs to ALWAYS comes back to Millen and the roster rot that he infused into this franchise. No coach can survive without talent. Marinelli may never have been a great head coach, but he could have masked his shortcomings much easier with a good roster.

As for Stanton… I agree.

coach plan and simple.I think hes coached Cliff Avril really good hes gunna be a good player…..

I agree with the D-line I believe it or not I think that is one of the best things we have to look forward to in the future. Everyone says that we need better players their, however I think that once these players like Avril and Fluellen continue to progress they will be the strong point of our team. Even next year they will be a lot better having a year under their belts. Marinelli is a pretty bad head coach, but I would take him as a defensive coordinator any day. Our problem on defense is at the middle linebacker spot we need a hardnosed leader there which we currently dont have. As for the safetys I think once Bullocks and Alexander play side by side and healthy they will be a force back there. Really with a good corner, a middle linebacker and a coach that prepares us better for our opponents sundays the lions defense should be alright as soon as next year depending on the draft. As for Stanton the guy isnt gonna show us anything without a chance I say put him in and see what he can do on Sunday. The players said they love being in the huddle with him. They love to play with this guy. Put him in and determine if we need to take a QB in the 09 draft.

Just to clarify some things, I was in no means trying to tear down Marinelli. I do think he seems to be a pretty decent guy, and I respect that he has not just lost it during some of the interviews I have heard him in.
My point was simply that being a good guy isn’t enough in the NFL, and it shouldn’t be enough to keep him here.
I don’t agree with the problem always going back to Millen.
While I agree he is definitely the largest part (aside from Ford Sr.) of everything wrong with that organization as of right now, Marinelli made the choice to bring in the washed up Tampa players to run his system. And Joe Barry may not have gotten the job because of his relationship with Marinelli, but after last year I find it hard to believe, it (their relationship) wasn’t the only reason he kept it.