Greg Roman chatter

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

It's rivals, so take it with a bag of salt.

https://michigan.rivals.com/news/michigan-football-jedd-fisch-to-ucla-u…

Sources informed TheWolverine.com that Roman was in for the Indiana game and has been in touch with Harbaugh recently, especially when OC Tim Drevno was interviewing for head coaching jobs at San Jose St. and elsewhere. As we first reported Saturday, it wouldn't surprise at all if he joined the staff soon, though Baltimore and other NFL teams are reportedly showing interest in him.

LSA Superstar

January 2nd, 2017 at 5:08 PM ^

Let's review Roman's sabermetric profile right quick.

Roman coached at the following pro and college stops:

CAROLINA (1995-2001):  Offensive Line Assistant

Can't judge too much just because he wasn't in charge of the offensive line and there were surely other factors at play considering the Panthers were a newly minted expansion team.  So let's ignore this stop.

TEXANS (2002-2005):  TE and QB Coach

Coached under Dom Capers.  Team was pretty terrible throughout his entire tenure.  In 2002, David Carr was ghastly, but TE Billy Miller had a highly capable year with nearly 80 targets and 600 yards receiving (Miller was the highest ranked TE in DYAR that season.  Carr's performance in 2003 improved slightly, but Miller's declined and the Texans alternate, something named Jabari Holloway, actually started the majority of games at TE.  2004 was a much better year for both the team and for the units under Roman's control - Carr had his only decent professional year (~61%/7.6 YPA/16 TD 14 INT), when he was actually roughly a replacement-level NFL player.  The team plummeted into utter garbage for 2005, however, and Capers was fired along with his staff.

RAVENS (2006-2007):  Offensive Line Assistant

As above, there's not much we can read into here.  For what little it's worth, BAL's offensive lines weren't terribly good during either 2006 or 2007.  BAL finished ranked 21 in adjusted line yards in 2006, although they were the second best team under FO's adjusted sack rate that year.  2007 wasn't much better, as the Ravens ranked 27th in adjusted line yards and 22nd in adjusted sack rate.  Yikes.  Overall, not a great stop, which might explain...

Holy Spirit High School (2008):  Head Coach

Welp.

Stanford (2009-2010):  TE and Offensive Tackles Coach

Here's where things get interesting.  Obviously Roman doesn't necessarily get complete credit as he was only a positional coach, but Stanford's offensive output between 09 and 10 might surprise you:

2009

S&P+ - 6th rated overall offense, improving from 31st the year prior.  12th rushing offense, 7th passing offense

FEI - 4th rated overall offense, improving from 31st the year prior.  6th in offensive efficiency (pass and rush together)

2010

S&P+ - 3rd rated overall offense, 30th rushing offense, 2nd passing offense

FEI - 1st rated overall offense, 2nd in offensive efficiency

SAN FRANCISCO (2011-2014):  Offensive Coordinator

Intersected with Jim Harbaugh's tenure, obviously.  Performance was good to great throughout:

2011 - 18th overall offense, improving from 24th the year prior. 13th passing offense, 24th rushing offense in DVOA

2012 - 5th overall offense, 6th passing offense, 3rd rushing offense in DVOA

2013 - 8th overall offense, 4th passing offense, 14th rushing offense in DVOA

2014 - 16th overall offense, 21 passing offense, 8th rushing offense in DVOA

BUFFALO (2015-2016):  Offensive Coordinator

Here, from a strictly statistical standpoint, it was baffling to me that he caught the blame for Buffalo's modest success.  2015 was a tremendous improvement and surprise:

2015 - 9th overall offense, improving from 26th the year prior.  12th passing offense, 2nd rushing offense in DVOA

2016 - 8th overall offense, 4th passing offense, 1st rushing offense (keeping in mind he was fired early in the year)

Overall, I think this is a very strong statistical resume.  I wouldn't be upset if Roman joined as a full-time offensive coordinator.  He'd be my second choice of available coaches after Kevin Wilson, with the full understanding that Harbaugh wouldn't probably rank those two the same.

lhglrkwg

January 2nd, 2017 at 2:52 PM ^

Maybe Harbaugh likes him, but the fact that the Bills offense got immediately better after Roman got canned makes me think the 49ers offensive success may have been more Harbaugh than Roman

bamf16

January 2nd, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^

Very good point.

 

But an OC doesn't need to have creative sets to be effective.  He needs to find the balance between responding to what a defense is doing and setting up future plays.  He has to know when to pull the plug on a play or set that he thought would work on a dry erase board but is failing miserably.  Michigan started to see some offensive success against FSU when they went to multiple TEs and worked short passes to them to help neutralize the rush.  Sucks it took so lon to get to it.

 

Does Roman come in more as the OL position coach and Drevno focusing more on the coordinating and play calling?

befuggled

January 2nd, 2017 at 8:48 PM ^

Let's see.

  • 26 points against Arizona (plus a defensive TD)
  • 16 points against New England
  • 23 points against the Rams (plus another defensive TD)
  • 45 points against the 49ers

So the only game where they "scored almost at will" was against one of the worst two or three teams in the league.

Bigku22

January 2nd, 2017 at 3:58 PM ^

6 years as an OC his rushing offense was top 3 four times, only once outside the top 10 (11th). The passing numbers are lacking because he has had for the most part Colin Kapernick and Tyrod Taylor at QB. Fans love passing and hate rushing so you get the "Greg Roman sucks" takes from casual and fantasy football fans. 

He's a nice option and a great O line coach, for all the Drevno love our O line is still shit 2 years in (could very well be talent based I get it). 

Not saying going outside the box or Harbaugh tree is a bad idea (hello Don Brown) but I would be absolutely fine with Roman. 

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/RomaGr0.htm

Bigku22

January 2nd, 2017 at 4:10 PM ^

Right. No good coach has ever been fired before. You know who else has been fired in the NFL.... Jim Harbaugh, so Harbaugh is a poor coach?

Also, he was fired by Rex Ryan (who has now also been fired), who had his brother as DC so there was only one possible scapegoat coach to save his own ass. 

Btw, the Bills finished 13th in total offense last year in Roman's full season, this year after they fired him? 16th. 

Mr. Yost

January 2nd, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^

So I don't like the move to replace Fisch. If Drevno leaves, which I hope not because I want to see some chemistry and consistency...Roman would be a great hire.

Roman is a OL/TE coach by trait...very similar to Drevno.

WFBlue

January 2nd, 2017 at 2:55 PM ^

I recall hearing some negtive news about playcalling (Jim's last year at SF) when Harbaugh came to Michigan but I am not knowledgeable enough to know about these things.  

Mr. Yost

January 2nd, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^

I hope it's Jimmie Doughtery or TJ Weist to replace Fisch. Both would be fantastic hires. Both have been at Michigan recently. Both know Harbaugh and the guys on the team.

Great fit...either one.

lol, what's Erik Campbell doing these days? He just left for UConn I believe. He'd likely come back to Ann Arbor to coach the WRs if asked.

growler4

January 2nd, 2017 at 9:57 PM ^

Erik Campbell is on the staff as an assistant coach at UConn.

He was my first thought when thinking about replacing Fisch. He coached a BUNCH of prolific receivers while at Michigan. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more suitable WR coach.

It depends what responsibilities Harbaugh wants to keep and delegate. I don't know if Campbell has any experience coaching quarterbacks or with play calling.or helping to coordinate a passing offense.

BursleyBaitsBus

January 2nd, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^

Roman was a disaster near the end of Harbaughs term with the niners and was a disaster at Buffalo. No thanks.

Bleedmaizeblue

January 2nd, 2017 at 3:09 PM ^

We need to hire the best PURE WR coach in the nation. Whatever his price, up it a little and get him here. I'm sick of dropped passes and we haven't had a real WR coach in a while.