Lions Hire Gunther Cunningham

by Sean Yuille on Jan 21, 2009 9:01 AM EST in News Comment 13 comments

Despite a report that the Lions were denied access by the Chiefs, Kansas City defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham has been hired to the same position in Detroit.

Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz has announced the hiring of Gunther Cunningham as the Lions’ defensive coordinator. Terms of his contract were not disclosed.

Cunningham is a 40-year coaching veteran on the college and pro levels, including the past 27 seasons in the NFL. As an NFL coach, he has served 10 seasons as a defensive coordinator and two seasons as head coach, and during his time in the NFL he has worked with linebackers and defensive line during 16 of those seasons.

The connection between Jim Schwartz and Cunningham is that the two were on the Titans staff together from 2001-03. Schwartz was Tennessee's defensive coordinator and Cunningham was the Titans' assistant head coach/linebackers coach.

I will have more on this hire later, but in the meantime I will say that it is necessary to look past the statistics with regards to Cunningham's last few years in KC. The Chiefs' defense wasn't very good, but part of that is a lack of talent. I'm not exactly sure how much Cunningham's coaching had to do with the poor defensive statistics, so I will try to find out more from SB Nation's Chiefs bloggers.

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Don't look to last year as an indication of what Gunther can do

He was running a cover 2 scheme…not his style. He’s more of a blitzer.

I think this is a good hire assuming he gets some autonomy regarding the defense he runs.

by Joel Thorman on Jan 21, 2009 9:54 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Game has passed Gunther by.

Sorry Lions fans, don’t get your hopes up Gun can turn around your D. He is not a good evaluator of talent. Releasing Napoleon Harris and Kawika Mitchell are evidence of that. He made himself Linebackers coach and it was the biggest mess on the team. Sure he likes to blitz, but his D only seemed to work when Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith were wreaking havoc. We couldn’t wait to be rid of him. Enjoy!

by ubernerd232 on Jan 21, 2009 10:09 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

+1

I couldn’t have said it better myself. He seems to have difficulty adapting to changes and prefers to use the same schemes (“maybe it’ll work THIS time”). Reminds me of the time my friend got drunk, started calling himself Larry Csonka, and then tried repeatedly to knock over the 3-foot wide support column for a lecture hall. He became quite distraught at his lack of success and screamed progressively louder, but never changed his tactics. Wouldn’t you know it… the support column never cracked.

Schwartz, on the other hand, has my interest. I’ll be watching to see how he does.

Great job, Clark!!!

by chiefstatnut on Jan 21, 2009 12:49 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

So the day after Killer reports that an interview was denied he gets hired?

Way to do your job Killer! Lol

by Schuxu on Jan 21, 2009 10:22 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Ha

Is that the POD nickname for Kowalski?

by Joel Thorman on Jan 21, 2009 10:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Tom "Killer" Kowalski

Like the wrestler I think.

Check out Pride of Detroit, SB Nation's Lions Blog

by Sean Yuille on Jan 21, 2009 11:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Irc He calls himself that way on his blog

by Schuxu on Jan 21, 2009 12:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Not Gunther's D

Gunther is a bad ass and you guys will be happy to have him. The past few years in KC have been polluted by Herm Edwards and Carl Peterson indirection. Carl let the team go to crap trying to prevent a rebuild and Herm and Gun have different philosophies as to running a D. Gun was trying to do things Herm’s way, which obviously wouldn’t even work against a high school team. I for one will miss Gunther’s presence at Arrowhead.

by mguilicutty on Jan 21, 2009 10:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

look at LeBeau and the Steelers...

Lets draw some comparisons between a Dcord that some people are saying has lost touch and past his prime (Gunther) and a Dcord who is consider to be one of, if not the best in the NFL (LeBeau).

When LeBeau was with the Bengals, he did a mediocre job as Dcord and failed as head coach, and since hes been back at Pittsburg, he’s had phenomenal rankings. Gunther in his original stints as Dcord, he was best in the league, became a coach, always finished around .500, then did a decent job for a year or two and then the last year was terrible.

by lions_sucker on Jan 21, 2009 11:09 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

not finished...

Anyways, I’d say he’s a good choice if Lebeau is any indicator.

by lions_sucker on Jan 21, 2009 11:10 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If Schwartz will let Cunningham

do his job and they can get a cast of players under him that can actually PLAY defense, I think it’ll be a vast improvement over Joe Barry for sure and the D’s of the past 8 years without a doubt. The problem is getting the players in. They need to hit FA and the draft really hard. He hasn’t performed well in his latest stint in KC but I think that has to do with management and players more than himself. Hopefully this will be the right choice.

I has a blog

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five." ~Groucho Marx

by Jettero2112 on Jan 21, 2009 12:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

be prepared to be frustrated

Gun gets too wrapped up in schemes/turnovers and takes the basics like tackling, footwork and positioning for granted. be prepared to see a lot of missed tackles and players going for the ball instead of the ball carrier. cunningham is highly overrated as a coach.

by pablou on Jan 21, 2009 1:05 PM EST reply actions 0 recs