Quote:I'm not trying to spin anything. 

 

I blame Dave for hiring Gus. It's a major strike against him.  

And when he hired him he had to press him to disclose his offensive philosophy even though he's a defensively minded coach. Did Gus come out at that moment and say "I don't like to carry a FB on the roster?"  Probably not.  But I'm sure the run game philosophy was discussed at length.  A FB is considered "optional" by many good coaches and Caldwell is certainly aware. Eleven teams don't carry a FB last time I checked. Some of them are pretty good offenses. 

 

So whatever Gus said in those interviews, Dave bought it. But Gus hired the guy ultimately made the decision to pass on a FB. Not Dave. 

 

If you want to backpedal and change  your gripe from "no fullback =career killer" to "Dave should have hired a HC with a better offensive philosophy"  that would make a hell of a lot more sense. 

 

But this argument that Dave is at fault for not running with a FB is a very strained argument because it's not his direct decision (and it's also not even considered necessary by a lot of successful running teams.)