A 49ers Fan's View of Greg Roman
This is kinda long. So, if you'd like to move it to a Diary, that's cool with me. Nevertheless, given the possibility of Greg Roman joining the UM staff, I thought I would share some of the perceptions we Niners faithful had of his performance in SF. Please take this for exactly what it is: One fan’s opinion of Roman - - - nothing more and not intended to be a sign of support or doom-and-gloom for the guy.
For context, Greg Roman was one of several offensive coordinators on the 49ers staff from 2011-2014. I’m probably oversimplifying his role, but Roman was basically the running game coordinator between the 20s. Geep Chryst called most of the red zone plays (with Coach Harbaugh), and several other staff contributed to the passing-related playcalling both in the red zone and outside of it. More or less, though, Roman was known as “the guy” on offense, whether fair or unfair to him. Most fans – including myself – found this “offense by committee” approach pretty maddening; and, subsequently, it’s really hard to pinpoint exactly what value Roman brought to the table…but here it goes!
I’ll start with the Pros:
Establishing Ballers: Roman inherited a dumpster fire on offense from Singletary and immediately made superstars out of several players, including Staley, Iupati, Gore, and Davis. These guys were always good but had been very inconsistent. However, under Roman, those guys became the offensive core of the team and were the offense-based foundations for our deep playoff and Super Bowl run (Note: most Niners fans would argue it would really be our defense that led those runs. I also fall in that category, but this post is about Roman).
Rushing: Roman – and Coach Harbaugh – brought in a heavy smash-mouth brand of football that hinged on “out physcalling” the opponent. This worked well because we had such a dominant blocking scheme, and our rushing stats dramatically improved from Singletary to Harbaugh. Singletary averaged roughly 100 yards per game; Roman averaged a low of 128 and a high of 156.
Turnovers: Guh…Probably the most frustrating part of Singletary’s tenure was the inevitable 2-3 turnovers we’d spot the other team per game (at least it felt this way as a fan). Probably the best statistic of Roman’s time in SF is that in year 1 of his employment, SF had the fewest giveaways in the NFL.
Note: You could also argue the passing game improved under Roman (Smith went from disaster to manageable, and Kaep was a stud in years 1 and 2). However, I question how much Roman actually had to do with passing. Most fans believe he “influenced” the passing attack without ever actually managing it.
Now the cons:
Clock Issues: The Niners consistently led the league – or were close to it – in delays of game penalties and “wasted” timeouts. I can’t tell you how many times I screamed at the TV, “hike the f*cking ball” only to see another poorly timed timeout or DOG penalty. Roman absorbed a lot of the heat for this – fair or unfair. Probably the most egregious example of this was the last drive of the Super Bowl.
Conservative Playcalling and Style: Yes, if you look at the Niners record during the Coach Harbaugh era, there’s not much to complain about. It was a pretty dominant stretch, and Roman contributed to that. However, as a fan watching the games, we consistently left points on the field. We didn’t have a killer instinct to blow out opponents when we should have, and – instead – played a sort of “Lloyd ball” equivalent. Also, while I don’t necessarily hate “manball,” the best offenses in the NFL were running lots of spread or spread equivalents. The name of the game was scoring TDs, and we weren’t necessarily doing that. Also, as it relates to the Pistol and other schemes, there was a very inconsistent style of offense. We’d run Pistol one week and abandon it for a few weeks. Like UM, many Niners players openly questioned our offense game planning and the lack of a true identity for the team (especially in the red zone, which – as noted – didn’t necessarily fall under Roman).
Slow Tempo: This is partially related to the clock issues, but one of our big issues was tempo. We were simply not built to come from behind in games, and once we got down on the scoreboard we couldn’t adjust and speed up. This cost us a few games against Seattle, which – yeah – not a fun experience for Niners fans.
There were other issues with the 49ers offense during these years, but it’s hard to know what amount – if any – Roman contributed to them. Some of the issues including the lack of developing a true #1 WR; red-zone efficiency; red-zone playcalling; etc. I intentionally didn’t include them because technically Roman didn’t “own” those area.
Take these musings for what they are worth. They aren’t grounded in science or data per se; instead, like the message board, they are the reflections that we fans had over Roman’s tenure on staff. These are opinions, which you are totally free to disagree with. You certainly won’t hurt my feelings if you think they are wrong.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^
Reduction of turnovers, you say? Sign me the hell up!
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
Do yourself a favor and don't peak at Shea Pattersons turnover numbers then...
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
to our offenses success up until Speights injury was that we had senior wideouts, and QB's who MANAGED THE BALL. This year we had QB's who each coughed up the ball with depressing regularity, as well as other players who decided to score an assist.
I know people want 'CUTTING EDGE CONTEMPROVENT WHITE LIGHTNIN'! OFFENSES' but I'd be happy to have solid, boring, offenses that scores points, eats clock, maybe sometimes leaves points on the board, and doesn't cough up the ball. Take that with this defense and boy howdy things look pretty bright pretty quickly.
January 3rd, 2018 at 4:33 PM ^
I thought our 2016 offense was fun as hell. They put up the 10th most points per game in the country. It was good enough to win the B1G and maybe more.
January 3rd, 2018 at 11:24 PM ^
Yeah that offense was fun, they did something new and different every week.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
Also, a lot of those pros and cons can be pinned on the HC as well.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^
Regarding the periods, I'm not sure why but the formatting was not cooperating with me. Apologies if they are an eye sore!
Also, yes, totally agree about the role the HC plays in both the pros and the cons. Like I said, it was hard to pinpoint exactly what "value" Roman brought to the table because not only did Coach Harbaugh play a major role in the offense, there were several other coaches who actually owned various aspects of play calling. It was really a village-based approach...
Having said that, fair or unfair, Roman was viewed as "the guy" who was accountable for the performance of the offense. C'est la vie.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
Including correct punctuation.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
Obviously the offensive staff this year was dysfunctional, and a new staff could possibly make things better. But one thing for certain is that the HEAD COACH is the leader of the offense and he sets the tone. Ultimately the responsibility is on him and he knows it. For whatever reason he certainly did appear to have a little less fire in the belly on the sidelines this season. I think he will have some hard self-reflection this off-season and will come at his job with a renewed purpose starting immediately.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
I agree with your assessment. (The most significant development offensively during that era was the development of Kap into a star, and it's hard to know who exactly to credit for that. Those Niners were a defensively dominated team.)
Overall he has the strongest pedigree of any OC Michigan has had in the Harbaugh Era.
January 3rd, 2018 at 6:39 PM ^
"Overall he has the strongest pedigree of any OC Michigan has had in the Harbaugh Era. "
And this would be how many OCs? Let me answer that... one.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
Thanks for some positivity, though I still think he is plagued with the same issues we want to avoid
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^
Hard to say that this is a fan's view of Greg Roman. Especially when you say "it's hard to know what amount - if any - Roman contributed to them" . More a view of the overall 49er offense who happen to have Greg Roman on staff.
But insightful nonetheless, thanks for the info.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:31 PM ^
Totally agree and very fair point. As I mentioned, the offense was an offense by committee. Having said that, you could argue Roman was the chair of that committee, with Coach Harbaugh as the CEO. That's at least how we fans viewed it; so, subsequently, we cheered him or blamed him for our successes and failures, respectively.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Completely agree, and not just the Packers games. I remember the SF-DET game (off the infamous Harbaugh/Schwartz handshake) and remember them trapping the shit out of Detroit that game. Each time a DL would break into the backfield and you'd think a TFL was coming, and then nope - TRAP - and instead 49ers big play.
Googling for it, it looks like it was written about by Grantland at the time too (Link).
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:33 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^
Sounds like a fair assessment to me. Thank you for this post.
Maybe Roman is the RGC and Enos is the PGC. That could work.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
I'd really be curious to see if any of these pros/cons followed him to Buffalo. I don't really know a whole lot about Buffalo's offense in 2015-2016. Any MGoBills fans on the board?
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:47 PM ^
So basically what we have right now but with some pistol wrinkles. I'm trying to get excited...really I am.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:16 PM ^
I think the mistake here would be trusting a Bills fan to know something about football
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
This is probably a more succinct way of summarizing my post on Roman! The offense was definitely "old school," which was frustrating especially when we played Seattle and Russel Wilson. I remember thinking, "why can't we run that offense?!"
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^
Living in Toronto I will occasionally listen to Buffalo sports radio, mostly to hear Bills fan melt downs. He wasn’t well thought of in Buffalo. Granted his HC was a glorified cheerleader with 0 leadership abilities who did it to save his own hide. It’s also tough to judge what to think of his tenure there because they thought he could mold Tyrod Taylor into something he’s not. It’s Buffalo, for most of the past 15 years they’ve been the keystone Browns, I wouldn’t really take anything from his tenure there
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
Well, Nuss probably wouldn't be better.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^
Borges would not be better
January 3rd, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
Even in Borges's worst year (2013), we still had an offense that ranked in the top 50 in Offensive S&P+. This year, we were 86th -- i.e., much worse.
Our offense this year was even worse than our defense in 2010 (in RR's last year, with Greg Robinson as DC), which was ranked 81st.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
Good post thanks for the insight. I know slow, methodical, boring, and vanilla were things tht bothered fans in Buffalo too.
A lot of those cons do seem to include Harbaugh though, especially because they are things happening at Michigan to some degree, especially the rate at which we burn timeouts on random offensive plays and can't seem to use tempo as a tool or weapon.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
I've become skeptical of NFL hires given their recent track record at Michigan but the more I hear about Roman the more I like. Harbaugh has proven he can develop QB talent so chemistry with the offensive staff is important in not distracting Harbaugh from what he does best. The running game was disappointing against SC despite improvement over the second half of this year so Roman's strength here could help the offense turn the page. Imagine putting the QB consistently in 2nd/3rd and short as opposed to obvious passing situations where the defense can rush without worrying about other assignments.
The biggest thing I haven't heard anything about is how much he'll contribute to recruiting. On one hand, he has a resume that speaks for itself and he's only 45. On the other, Drevno is a comparable age and has been less than inspiring on the recruiting front.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^
That's a really interesting point that I haven't seen yet and further indictment of the offensive coaching. Maybe I'm in denial, but I find it hard to believe that someone with Harbaugh's track record (Luck, turning around Alex Smith's career, making Kaep a star and his subsequent falloff post-Harbaugh, turning Rudock from a castaway to NFL pick and backup, turning Speight from hot garbage to serviceable QB) would just lose all touch in one season. Key variable seems to be Pep, though that would speak to Harbaugh taking too big of a step back and not realizing that as a mistake which is also a little inesplicable. Probably some combo of youth, Pep, and, hopefully, a non-recurrant miscalculation by Harbaugh.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
From the look of things Roman will not be an upgrade in the recruiting department, maybe even a downgrade. From the sounds of things an ace recruiter will be one of the qualifications for a new RB coach. Enos is supposedly a good recruiter so it should be a net gain over the departing OCs.
January 3rd, 2018 at 4:39 PM ^
"Harbaugh has proven he can develop QB talent so chemistry with the offensive staff is important in not distracting Harbaugh from what he does best."
How has he proven it? How do you know?
I had a long talk with Speight over the summer when he was about to leave to work out with his private qb coach in California and work at his camp. I was asking him something about any differences or potential conflicts between his private coach's ideas or teaching and Harbaugh and his coaches here taught or wanted and he immediately made a point of saying that Harbaugh was not the qb coach, with a definite emphasis on the word "not."
Another notch in his whisperer reputation is Rich Gannon's big year, but in his coaching clinic video Harbaugh made a point of saying he was not Gannon's qb coach, that Shannahan actually coached him and he coached the other the qb's.
Shane played better this year than any of the guys Harbaugh picked over him. Harbaugh thought Shane was behind all 3 of the guys that, let's be honest, stunk up the joint almost all year.
Shane threw half as many TD's against Kansas alone than Michigan threw as a team the entire year! The yards BP threw for in 4 games, Shane threw for 70% of that in 4 quarters!
He second guessed his own evaluations of Peters and Patterson after choosing Peters over Shea out of high school when Shea wanted to come here.
Instead of whispering Peters he basically told him I'm not sure I made the right choice on you, even though it's obvious we can't win the division with either Speight or O'Korn, that they will be mistake machines, I'm putting you behind both of them instead of giving you a year of experience and learning and preparing you for next year because I have no faith in your ability to develop over the course of the year and be a worthy starter.
Instead I'm gonna hope the older guys might pull out an extra game or two somehow until I can get Dylan or someone else ready.
Then Speight says he's out so now he's hedging his bet on Peters and telling him you've got to prove I was right to pick you now. You're fighting for your career now instead of fully concentrating on learning and doing your job as much and as well as possible in this offense, and having as many first team reps as possible to progress as much and as fast as possible and to build as much chemistry, confidence and knowledge with and of your teammates as possible with what would have been your team.
So there was Peters playing scared for his job, scared that he totally blew the biggest choice in his life, where to go to school and play, that he's wasted 2 years and might be done or have to sit out a year and start all over somewhere with a short timeline to learn a new system and team. Afraid to breath, afraid to make a mistake.
How does a young guy that needs his confidence built have any confidence in himself when the coaches demonstrate with actions that they have none in him?
Why wasn't he getting a few series in every game to bring him along and get him acclimated and let him improve and grow rather than only being thrown in under desperation, way too late in the year for him to be ready for the big boys?
That's a theme on offense, Higdon is the only one that ever plays with abandon. Everyone plays scared, afraid to make a mistake instead of just PLAYING!
I know this happened with a guy on offense in practice, not a qb, having 2 great days in a row, but then making one tiny mistake meant he was done getting reps and didn't play in the game.
Another problem is the whole attitude of the coaches that everything is business, no highs or lows, just focus on an even keel, short memories, MSU/OSU are just like any other week, blah blah.
Well kids are emotional, college football is more emotion based than any damn thing! He has guys on his team that after more than a year in the program were entirely perplexed on why the fans cared so much about OSU!
Before the sparty fluke game,Harbaugh's first sparty game as coach of course, during the week I asked some players if Harbaugh had told them anything about how sparty had broken his arm and how that led to Bo's worst year ever and what happened in the Holiday Bowl with BYU holding on every play and almost losing to Michigan's worst team ever anyway, after playing nobody all year and getting a bullshit national championship out of the deal, and did he want revenge for that or show any extra passion to beat them or anything.....
NO! They had never heard a word about any of that, that they just went through their routine and it was treated like any other game.
How in the fuck can you play that way against teams that want to literally kill you and literally try to!? Fucking MSU was beating us up with cheap, late and dirty plays all game, even one of their coaches criminally yanking O'Korn down from behind on the sideline in a move that could've easily broken his neck, and nobody did fucking anything back, EVER, all fucking game! Harbaugh didn't even mention it!!!! They just took it and didn't seem to care or notice...
It took the worst O performance ever, and 5 turnovers, and sparty playing at least 20 times harder than us, showing enthusiasm unknown to Harbaugh's Michigan against sparty under in 3 games put together, by a zillion miles!
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
Roman was in charge of running the ball between the 20s, at which point he handed the baton to another guy who carried it along with Harbaugh. Then there were other people who handled passing plays along with Jim. At the end of the day, I get the picture nobody can really tell you exactly what Roman did with the 49ers. I'm not sure I like this organizational flowchart. I sure as hell didn't enjoy it last season when the multiple coaches responsible for cooking up a cohesive offense never seemed to mesh. What say you folks? Would you rather see a traditional OC like virtually every other program in the country has, or are you still sold on this pass game/run game stuff provided we plug the right people into those roles?
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^
Well, considering the fact that Harbaugh has never had a single OC run an offense for him, I think you can give up on that hope. It's going to be an offense headed by Harbaugh with as many play-calling pieces as he sees fit. But yes, we'd probably all prefer something different from last season. And with Harbaugh, the 'different' appears to the parts calling the plays.
Deal with it. You have to because its not up to us!
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
have some combination of run game coordinator, passing game coordinator and co-OCs.
As fans, we don't know the division of responsibilities that the 49ers had or that Michigan had. We only know the titles for sure. We're guessing at the other stuff. Harbaugh knows exactly what Roman did for him in the past and how well they work together. There was a lot of speculation that he was Harbaugh's first choice for OC when he came to AA, but Buffalo made Roman the highest paid OC in the NFL. That wasn't to call running plays between the 20s.
Harbaugh getting his first choice should be a good thing if it happens. It's also good that Roman has a lot of experience coaching tackles and TEs.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
High quality stuff on a topic that can easily be a feelingsball mess. Good, helpful post.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^
We're not the hiring manager. Technically, how he did in San Franicsco is pretty meaningless as far as we're concerned. All it does is shape your prejudice on whether you'd 'like' or 'dislike' the hire (if it was indeed made).
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:20 PM ^
Well, if you want to take that tack, fine: This whole website is a complete waste of time, focused on meaningless results from games that have no effect on the lives of anyone here. We should all feel bad for even viewing, much less commenting here. Indeed, mindspace spent forming opinions on sports is itself such a waste that we are bad people for even taking the energy. Your comment is merely more foolishness to heap on the pile.
But for those of us who occasionally use this site as a passtime, for whom fandom is something of a hobby, who read and produce speculation, it's nice to see some information that we're not aware of. Some of us are dissatisfied with empty platitudes and ignorant opinions, and prefer to hold opinions that are better informed.
January 3rd, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
before he is even hired on the basis of what some dude on a message board says about his perspective on what happened years ago in another league? Sounds legit to me. Clearly that will make us all more qualified than Jim Harbaugh to evaluate him.
I never said the post couldn't be of interest to some people and clearly it is judging by its reception, but it is not 'helpful' in any meaningful sense. What utility do you or we gain from "Now we know what some fans in San Francisco thought about this guy who may possibly get hired to coach for us." It doesn't affect his potential hiring and if he was hired, it shouldn't affect your opinion because you should judge coaches on what they do for Michigan not what they did in another league.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:15 PM ^
Thank you and much appreciated!
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
Michigan is a college team. Remember when Don Brown was interviewed in November and some reporter told him his defense wouldn't work at the NFL level? Don Browns response was "well I don't coach in the NFL, I coach in college".
College and pros are different. You're not lining up against 11 elite defensive players week in and out. Get athletes in space and make a play. When even Saban who is probably one of the most stubborn coaches starts adding spread concepts and running qb options its time for Harbaugh to do the same. Get in a high level OC and intergrate some of these concepts. Be a great college team rather then just banging your head against the wall trying to do the same NFL stuff over and over with players who aren't quite up to that level yet.