Quote:What was Rogers previous job before being promoted to Lions head coach? What was the big lure in hiring him as head coach in the first place?

 

 

Daryl Rogers was the HC with Arizona St.  Prior to that he was the Michigan St. HC.   Kirk Gibson was a highly rated WR with MSU at that time but elected to have a professional baseball career instead.

 

WC Ford Sr.  and GM Russ Thomas seemed set on hiring a College Head Coach that had a track record of passing and high scoring Offenses.  Multiple candidates turned the Lions down.   To the extent that Rogers wasn't hired until my birthday,  February 6.   As it turned out,  Bob Baker was one of the least creative NFL Offensive Coordinators that the league has seen.

 

As for the category of worst NFL GM's,   a solid case can be made that Russ Thomas was even worse than Matt Millen despite Thomas having a noticeably higher winning %.  Thomas undermined the efforts of a number of Lions HC's that might have had much better results if an even average GM was in place.    Thomas protected Mr. Ford's money like it was in the highest security fault at Ft. Knox.    If I had to choose between Millen and Thomas ( if he was still alive ) as GM,  I actually would take Millen,   At least with Millen,  the Lions were willing to spend money under his watch.    Not to mention he was smart enough to draft Calvin Johnson.   Thomas failed so badly as a talent evaluator that Mr. Ford took away that role from him in 1978 when Monte Clark was hired as HC. 

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