Let me start with an observation: "We all tend to paint everything as “all black” or “all white.”

Let me follow with a second observation: "In trying to shore up one coaching or management weakness, in doing so, we sometimes go overboard and wind up with one or more new weaknesses.

The move to hire Buddy was a good thing in that it (a) shook up the status quo and (b) brought new viewpoints and ways of doing things to a Cardinal organization suffering a bit from “tired blood.” The team needed a swagger not present since perhaps Coryell. And it was the first Cardinal team I can remember that was aggressive and physical defensively.

Unfortunately, this came at the cost of (a) wrecking our salary cap budget, (b) creating unit vs. unit disunity on the roster, © neglecting the offense – most notably the O-line, (d) overpromising and (e) underdelivering.

VInce Tobin replaced Buddy “to bring structure, professionalism and maturity” to the squad. Unfortunately, in doing so, he also brought an overly-cautious, conservative, “beige” culture to the team – plus he didn’t win enough.

Dave McGinnis was supposed to add the fire, enthusiasm and unity of a true player’s coach, but his regime seemed to be all about “spirit” and little about all the other things that go into building a franchise. Plus – he didn’t win enough either.

Enter Dennis Green – He was presumably hired because he knew how to run a big-time pro football program and could bring those skills to a franchise not very good at such things as developing players, drafting philosophy or generating Culpepper-to-Moss offensive firepower.

One thing for which I will always be grateful to him was shifting our drafting philosophy away from the Dave McGinnis philosophy of (a) targeting specific players you want and (b) drafting them one round early (to make sure you get them). This resulted in our receiving one-round less value for every player we drafted after round one. Green changed this philosophy to one of (a) developing (and trusting) a Best Available Player board, (b) grabbing the top player left on that board at each pick , © adhering to the principle that there will always be a few player who will drop down to you so that (d) you were always receiving one or more rounds more value for each player you picked.

Unfortunately, Dennis also brought with him the arrogance of the “new sheriff”, an impulsive “my way or highway” style that caused us to lose good players without getting anything back for them, cronyism in the hiring of some assistants, mind-games and inexibly, a lack of discipline on both sides of the ball. Plus – he overpromised and then didn’t win.

In replacing Dennis with Wiz, the smart thing Rod Graves and the Bidwills did was to “not blow up the team” but instead to tweak the program – Bringing in John Lott. Upgrading the coaching staff with good teachers. Straight-arrow, low-key approach to communicating with and handling players. Giving a tad more weight to position-need"and “system-fit” when rating best available players prior to the draft.

So far Wiz’s approach seems to be working. But I think we have to view it from the standpoint of being at the end of a continuom involving good things worth keeping from previous coaches along with bad experiences we need to learn from.

Intersting points JJeff, we have had worst than Deny Green… having said that he still was a very poor coach… you said he changed the drafting philosophy, and I agree, we all remember Dave McGinnis for passing on Terrel Suggs and drafting instead Calvin Pace and Brian Johnson (he did draft Anquan Boldin in the second round)… however even with the change of philosophy, the results were not that great, he had three drafts, his first one was his best by far, Fitz, Dansby, Docket and Antonio Smith (I still think we should give Big Ben some credit, love Fitz, but Ben showed up in the SB)…his second draft was less than stellar, Antrel Rolle has struggled to justify being the eight pick overall… JJ Arrington wasn’t tough enough to be a RB in this league… Eric Green and Darryl Blackstock are no longer with the team and Elton Brown is a back up… his last draft he brought Leinart (still think he is the future), Lutui, Leonard Pope and Gabe Watson… not that impresive… what I remember most about these drafts is that they look very good on draft day, but 2 or 3 years later don’t look that good… as for Wiz, he is working with some talent, but he is more than that, he brought a very solid coaching staff (remember who was the OL coach before Russ Grimm?), he comes from the Bill Cowher school but is smart enough to be flexible adjusting his game planning to the team strenghts, he is a great find and I am sure will be our HC for a long time… one last thing that has not been mentiones, is that we got lucky with Pitsburgh hiring Tomlin, that way Whis has brought some great coaches who worked with him in Pitsburgh…