History Shows That Mike Mularkey is Not the Answer for the Atlanta Falcons

by Andrew Browne

Originally touted as an offensive genius at the beginning of this decade, Mike Mularkey has rightfully lost that moniker and is approaching "bust" status as a coach.

By examining his track record one thing becomes clear. If past events predict future results, the Atlanta Falcons are in trouble offensively.

Mike Mularkey first became offensive coordinator in 2001 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was promoted from tights ends coach and replaced Kevin Gilbride and had his best statistical year as a coach. The Pittsburgh Steelers were ranked 3rd offensively in his first year as offensive coordinator and made the playoffs.

They were ranked 18th the previous year.

The following year, 2002, the Steelers were still excellent offensively, but slipped a bit to 5th. In 2003, the Steelers entered a free fall offensively and dropped all the way to 22nd, missing the playoffs. Mularkey began to be characterized as a coach that used predictable formations and was way too quick to abandon the run. He became reliant on the gimmick or trick play as opposed to sound play calling.

Mularkey still had a great deal of buzz and was touted as one of the up and coming new coaches in spite of the Pittsburgh offensive rankings and not making the playoffs in 2003.

He used that buzz to land the head coaching job in Buffalo, with the Bills. He replaced the fired Gregg Williams, after Williams posted back-to-back 5-11 seasons. His first year as coach in 2004, the Bills after an 0-4 start, reeled off six straight wins and finished just out of the playoffs at 9-7 after getting beat by Mularkey’s former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers back ups in week 17.

The offense for the year ended up ranked 25th up from the previous years ranking of 30th. The offensive coordinator the year before Mularkey got there?

Kevin Gilbride.

So, in the two instances in his career where Mularkey raised an offense's ranking statistically, it was done in his first year as coach and he was replacing Gilbride both times.

In 2005, the Bills dropped offensively from 25th to 28th and his handling and development of JP Losman as the quarterback to replace Drew Bledsoe is laughable at best.

Ask any Bills fan about how they feel about the job Mularkey did with Losman, and you will get an answer that will most likely force you to ask small children to leave the room to spare them the obscenity laced tirade.

Mularkey waffled back and forth and sat Losman in favor of journeyman Kelly Holcomb. Citing differences with the direction of the Bills after team President and General Manager, Tom Donahoe was fired, Mularkey quit the Bills before the start of 2006 season.

In 2006, Mularkey landed in Miami as offensive coordinator and the Dolphins promptly dropped from 14th to 20th in offensive rankings. Mularkey did not have the luxury of replacing Kevin Gilbride to inflate his first year numbers. He was then demoted to tight ends coach in 2007 before being fired at the end of the season.

For the 2008 season, Mularkey has been tapped as the offensive coordinator in Atlanta. Entering a team in disarray for the third time in a row, a team in Atlanta that has not enjoyed back to back winning seasons in its history, Mike Mularkey does not bode well for Falcons fans to reverse that trend. His first example of success, in Pittsburgh, can be attributed in large part to the stability of the organization, stability of the coaching staff, and the offensive coordinator he replaced as opposed to his measure of ability to game plan successfully.

In Buffalo, his pattern of success is very similar, a brief one year rise followed by a precipitous fall after replacing Kevin Gilbride.

His time in Miami can be only characterized as a disaster at best. One of the marks of an effective coach is the ability to say yes to the question, “Did you leave the situation in better shape than when you found it?” In each case of his head coaching or offensive coordinator stops Mike Mularkey cannot say "yes" to that question.

Simply put, Mularkey is not the answer for the Falcons.

He has not demonstrated an ability to develop rookie quarterbacks and he has never developed the team around him to be better consistently for more than one season. He has never improved a team offensively from year one to year two. So, Atlanta fans may find themselves doing better this year offensively, and after the debacle of Bobby Petrino it is hard to imagine them worse, only to begin to regress again in 2009. That is, if he doesn’t follow the pattern of his last stop in Miami where the offense got instantly worse. Who was his starting quarterback in Miami?

Joey Harrington, the same quarterback as in Atlanta.

Perhaps Mularkey will learn from his past mistakes and get something out of Joey Harrington and not develop Matt Ryan like he did JP Losman, because right now things are looking eerily similar to his past situations and that does not bode well long-term for Falcons fans.

Look...I hated the decision to hire Mularkey, and I'm still of the opinion that he won't help this team. However, our team is so screwed up at the moment, that I'm having a hard time seeing how he could make us any worse. I agree that his development of Matt Ryan must be scrutinized continuously, and I'm not sold that he'll be able to replicate the offense he had in Pitt, simply because we don't have Jerome Bettis...but he's here now, so I'll support him, and the other coaches the best I can...but after what we've been through as a franchise for as long as I can remember, I have to say that we're probably not going to be very happy with this guy... 8DRTV75

Nice work from a no name Yankee hack who is about 3 months late to the dance.
As Falcon fans we have already covered the Mularkey hire back in February when he was hired.
We formed our opinions about it back then.
Then along comes this little fuck face POS out from under a rock telling us what to think about the hire as if we are to stupid or ignorant to know who the guy is or his coaching history was before he got here.
In short, Andrew Browne can fuck off!

I think you should go HERE and tell him just that in the comments section. I know I'd get a chuckle out of it. :D

I know I'll probably get flamed for this but in hindsight we might be looking back at this offseason as one of the worst in Falcons history...

I hope I'm wrong but that's what my gut is telling me right now...

Myself, I`m looking back at the entire 2007 season as the worst in Falcon history and by the time it was over in January.
The franchise had been set back to near expansion team status.

From that point foward I think, Mr. Blank did a reasonably good job in assembling a new FO staff and from there a new coaching staff from what there was available.

BTW, any concerns about Mularkey harming the development of Matt Ryan?
Rest assured, Bill Musgraves will be the man responsible for his development.

I was not a fan of the HC, the OC and the DC hires. Mularkey in particular has shown to be a trick play pony that is simply not a good OC. Hopefully that changes..

First off, that's an assumption. We don't know who's going to have a more active hand, Musgrave or Mularkey, in the development of Matt Ryan. Secondly, neither one of them are brilliant choices for that particular job. Musgrave has been kicked around the league for years, and the places that he's been haven't really shown remarkable QB development while he was there. Besides being a QB coach in Oakland, Philly, Carolina, Washington, and Atlanta, he's been an OC in the league twice now, once for 4 games in Carolina where he resigned in disgrace, and then in JAX, where he was fired after 1 season. The only reason he was hired in ATL was because of his relationship in helping Matt Schaub at UVA. One of the biggest reasons he's still here is because of new HC, Mike Smith's familiarity with him, from his 1 year stint in JAX. So, I'm not sure if either Mularkey or Musgrave are exceptionally qualified for their roles here in ATL. Again, I'm trying to remain positive, and simply wait and see what happens. It could be that they rise up to the challenges here...it could be they do what they typically do...fall flat on their face. 8DRTV75

I think that a lot of people forget that this team, just don't competes. Or it finds a way to shut down. Now it really stunk up the place last year. The 2nd half of the previous two seasons it gave up. Now we can blame the coaches, but it is the players that have to execute. If Mularky, and Musgrave are worth their salt as far as x and o's are concerned, then it is up to the team to execute and finish the drill. We cannot put a weight on those intangibles. It is also something that has been sticking in my craw for years as a falcon fan.

More times than not, when a team "quits"...it's a reflection upon their leadership. Not just their leaders on the field, but their leaders off of it...the coaches. Last season was a bit more understandable than the season before, simply because our coaches quit on us before the season was over. Of course, our new HC saw fit to hire one of those quitting bastards again, and even gave that POS a promotion. Not sure if that sends the right message to this team or not.

Here's what I'm looking at when I see our current FO and coaching staff:

We have a rookie GM who was brought in to replace McKay, because he's a better overall evaluator of talent. That's fine...however, one of the main functions of the position of GM is negotiate contracts, and if rumors are true, our boy, deferred to the aforementioned replaced GM, Rich McKay, to negotiate the contract of our most important draft pick in 7 seasons... n7rryb

We also have a rookie HC, who was a great schemer of defenses in JAX, but has never been The Man, anywhere. He was a back of the bus kinda guy for his entire career, and now all of a sudden, he's at the front of the bus for a team that has basically become the laughinstock of the NFL. Not that this job doesn't already come with certain inherent pressures, this guy has to navigate around big ol' landmines like the Vick situation, and the small, unforgetable detail that we haven't had back to back winning seasons, EVER...So welcome aboard there Smitty.

Next we have an OC who's only truly had 1 brilliant year in this league, 8 years ago, and who has since failed as an OC, HC, OC, & TE's coach. But hey, let's hire him to come in and revamp our non-existant offense.

Now, our DC...he takes the prize. Not only did he bail on this team, shortly after Petrino left, when he was just our lowly LB's coach. Now he's back, hired by his good friend Smitty, to come in and instill discipline on our inconsistant D. Folks, to say that Brian VanGorder is a steaming pile of monkey excrement, would be putting it mildly. He quit on us to go back to college, and he did so in a very public manner, uttering something along the lines that he had found himself to be more of a college coach, and that's where he was happiest. He did that on Dec 19. Than a month later, he's back in the NFL, returning to the Falcons, this time as our DC. Guess he realized he was actually in the NFL...

But hey...despite all of this, I'm steadily convincing myself to believe that we might be able to get it right, THIS time. That maybe the idea of hiring guys actually qualified and deserving to be here, is an overrated concept, and what we should've been doing was hiring the most ridiculous choices we could find...and then the Karmic forces would take pity on us...or maybe it's a mathematical solution...something like 2 negatives become a positive...so maybe if we hire a bunch of negative fucknuggets, we'll get a positive result.

Eh...I'm a Falcons' fan...have been one for over 2 decades...I'll sit back and watch anything when it comes to my team. Whether we win, lose, or lose badly, one thing is for sure...we're going to be a gigantic media circus event in the process of it all...that's a guarantee. b667ur

That is not a rumor, I heard the words from McKays mouth that he negotiated and closed the deal.
Lets not kid ourselves, McKay was only released or relieved of GM duty in reguards to talent evaluation and assembling a coaching staff, the on the field stuff.
However, he is still President of Football Operations and is very high on the food chain in the overall structure of the Org and in 2nd in command, being only behind and answering to Mr Blank.

Ton, if all Smitty had to worry about was the landmines of the Vick situation or the Falcons never having had back to back winning seasons?
He would have it made.
Those things were chiseled is stone before his phone rang to interview for the job.
There is nothing he could say or do about either (at least for a while) so, I `m sure he has more important things to worry about.
Like coaching the players he has and starting a one season win streak.

OK, he has never been the headman.
Neither had Mora when they hired him and neither had Tony Dungy or Bill Bellicheck when that got their 1st HC gigs.
BTW, that is one of the plus`s about the Mularkey hire, he has had HC experance and the Falcons feel they could use an assistant with that background in in the ranks to help Smitty in the transistion.

I guess, this needs re-setting again.
When coach Pig quit, all the Falcon assistant and position coaches where told "feel free to seek employment elsewhere, because a house cleaning is a coming and no one is secure in their return.''
Sure, bust him for opening his piehole and uttering stupid shit when he left but Smitty did not hold that againts him and let it go, knowing he is a damn good defensive coach and I will trust the words of Keith Brooking when he called BVG the day Smitty was hired and asked him point blank if he would consider a return.
That tells me BVG has the trust and confidence from the man many consider the leader and voice of the defence.

BT, I don't have a problem with Smitty because he's a rookie, but rather because he's a rookie HC in a VERY bad situation. Dungy took over in Tampa behind Sam Wyche, who had already began the process of turning Tampa into a winner. He got them to the doorstep of becoming a playoff team...Dungy, along with McKay and Ruskell, took them the rest of the way. Mora came in behind Dan Reeves, and Mora had the benefit of working with the single most explosive player in the game, at that time, Michael Vick. Mora finished a couple games above .500 here in ATL, and it's arguable on whether or not we would've been better off with him last season instead of Petrino. Bellicheat was fired after his first HC stint. If he hadn't inherited a playoff team in New England, it's arguable that he'd still be an assistant...

As for Mularkey...his previous HC experience isn't something to brag about. He went 14-18, and his offense was ranked 28th in the league his final season. His schemes were predictable, and his reliance on gimmick plays are going to get our new franchise QB killed.

As for BVG...you can "reset" all of that crap you want to...the fact is, he quit on this team. When it came time to fight, fuck, or hit the fence, that gutless bastard hit the fence and ran. Now he comes back, and because Brooking reached out to him, that's supposed to make it alright? Bullshit. There is no making it right...what they will do will try and reload with as many young, fresh faces that will become loyal to him, so they can eventually phase out the older guys that he turned his yellow back on... 8DRTV75

Ton, you were around for the entire hiring process.
Chower said, No, I`m retired.
Overtures to Pete Carroll got them no where.
Parcells used Blank to sweeten his Maimi deal.
Jim Cawldwell is waitin for Dungy to retire.
Jason Garrett is waitin for the Phillip firing.
The list of top shelf guys who would come to Atlanta and commit to stay did not exist.
So, they (Dimitroff mainly) were rendered to the 2 top qualified assistants and picked one.
That happened to be Smitty.
It`s not like they passed over a list of HOF`er to get to what thay have, Buddy Ryan`s boy is about it.

As for BVG and Mularkey, I done talking about them.
Lets just see how they prepair and execute on gamedays.

Sure BT, I understand that we were scraping the bottom the barrel, but here's my question to you...Just exactly who could we have lured to ATL if we were less of a laughing stock? If our organization wasn't "Cursed" so to speak. If we didn't have a meddling owner with a need to constantly keep touching and tinkering with his new toys? Who could we have gotten to be our HC if we weren't in such shit sad shape? We've got no Oline, no secondary, and no proven playmakers. Add to it the fact that we have no respect from the other 31 teams in the league, and suddenly we're the current Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL. Smith and Ryan weren't the top 2 assistants...they were the best 2 left that would consider coming to ATL. Jason Garrett, Josh McDaniels, & Jim Caldwell all turned us down. All stayed put with their current teams, because they realized being 2nd or 3rd bannana where they were, was much better than being the "Man" in ATL. Schottenheimer, a future HOF coaching inductee passed on us. Parcells used us. Bill Cowher didn't even listen to a sale's pitch from us. You already mentioned Pete Carroll, and how he turned us down, which is interesting considering he and the USC program are currently under fire for possible infractions concerning Reggie Bush...Carroll actually chose to stay in college, despite having a much better NFL record than Mularkey, and more experience than Smitty.

Stop trying to convince everyone that we simply went with our 2nd choice. We missed out on our first 7 or 8 choices.

Maybe Smith will turn out as the right move for us...then again, maybe he'll just be another bad move in a long historical list of them for us...All I know is that I've been underwhelmed by our offseason decision making this year, and yet, here I am...still a fan of this team. 8DRTV75

Yeah, I should have said...remaining qualifed assistants, that would have the job.
Ton, what I ment. Not what I exactly said..it was late. nr6

THis thread can cause a severe case of depression. 8955

Ya...the homer side of me wants to believe in this offseason's changes but the realist side of me thinks otherwise.

I hope I'm wrong but in a few years we may realize that Parcells knows how to rebuild a franchise and Blank/McKay/TD don't know shit about it. That's what my gut is telling me...

I believe that also.

Screw Parcells..he`s over-rated.
WTF has he done lately?
True, he left Dallas better off than when he arrived there but they still have not won a playoff game in 15 years.
Can somebody tell me when was the last time a Parcells led team actually did anything?

It's true...he may be overrated to some extent...but in his entire career, he's coached multiple SB winning teams with the Giants, and another SB runner-up in New England. He's helped to rebuild 4 different franchises into playoff caliber teams at the time of his departure. He's left EVERY team that he's worked for in a better situation than it was when he arrived.

Not sure how much more he has to do to prove that himself to you....I agree that he's overrated in the sense that he isn't worth the grief that we Falcons' fans have exalted upon him, for doing what he did to us...but in terms of his accomplishments, he's far from overrated.

Can you tell me the last time a team that Dimitroff was responsible for building did anything? I'm not talking being low man on the totem pole in New England responsible either...but rather, responsible as in The Man. How about McKay? How about Blank?

You want to be sore about the hubbub over Parcells, than fine...but don't try and twist this into something weird. Parcells may not have been the right choice for us, or he may have been the right choice that was smart enough to know a really bad situation when he saw it. Either way, he's far from greenhorn or some hack...
;)

Me sore? :huh:
Hell no, just throwing it out there that we might actually be better off by not having hired the jackazz? tyheb

I absolutely disagree with this article, particularly the quoted part above.

I remember Mularkey at Pittsburgh, and numbers don't tell the whole story. He was hamstrung with 2nd and 3rd rate talent at QB, and he still had a powerful offense. IMHO, that's the ONLY real measure you can put on his ability as an OC. We didn't hire him to be a HC (though I wanted to back in 2003). And in Miami, he didn't have a chance with the crap talent they have. One could argue he'll be in the same boat here, but he has good receiver and QB talent here and some young talent on o-line.

Also, as HC he was not necessarily responsible for Losman's development. I'm not saying he couldn't have handled it better, but I don't assume just because Losman was the QB and Mularkey the HC that Losman's issues are all his fault, either.

The problem I have with what you're saying is that Mularkey isn't touted for what he did with the Steelers' passing game. It was his power running game that earned him noteriety. And in that respect he may have had a 2nd rate passing QB, but he had a 1st rate rushing one. Kordell Stewart combined with future HOF RB, Jerome Bettis were the reason that he had such a stellar rushing attack. The Steelers also had one of the best OLines in all of football. Stewart's ability to pull the ball down and run made him dangerous. The fact that Steelers had a HOF WR in Ward, combined with Stewart's ability to make plays outside of the pocket, is what made their passing game so dangerous. When Stewart went down hurt, and was replaced by Maddox, they became a more stationary offense, and that was reflected in their poor offensive stats the following 2 years before Mularkey jettisoned himself to Buffalo.

In Buffalo, Mularkey inherited a solid rushing tandem in McGahee and Henry, and a HOF passing QB in Bledsoe. Incidentally, Mularkey's schemes resulted in Bledsoe having the worst year he's ever had in the league as a fulltime starter, outside of his rookie season. Mularkey enjoyed some success that season in Buffalo, but in his following season, his offense quickly fell into ruins.

I agree that he didn't have a whole lot to work with in Miami, and Odin only knows what he'll have truly be working with here in ATL, since we have so many unknowns in play.

Point is, he had 1 shining season in Pittsburgh, with a solid QB who had exceptional ability to run the ball, to go along with a HOF RB and WR, and the best Oline in the game. It's hard for me to praise him for his rushing offense when he was working with a stacked deck in his favor. That'd be like praising Knapp for the job he did in ATL working with Vick and company. I'm not sold Mularkey is right for us. I'm not sold that he'll do anything for our offense other than get guys killed. We'll see...what I am sold of is he's not shown a real penchant to work with stationary QBs, which is what we have a roster full of here...and if he continues to rely on gimmick plays here in ATL, our offense is going to suck, and we'll be drafting high again next April. 8DRTV75