Tennessee Titans add Dick LeBeau to staff
By Robby Sabo
Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt turns to an old friend to run his defense.
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Dick LeBeau is now 77 years old and has been active in the National Football League for 56 straight seasons. 14 of those seasons came as a player for the Detroit Lions playing alongside the great Dick “Night Train” Lane. He had 62 career interceptions which still ranks seventh all-time.
The other 42 of LeBeau’s seasons has come as a defensive genius.
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Since 1973 when he broke into coaching with the Philadelphia Eagles as a special teams coach, LeBeau has slowly but surely perfected his craft of defensive architecture. Everywhere he’s went, he’s enjoyed success.
In the 1980’s he invented the “Zone Blitz” as defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals, helping them to two Super Bowl appearances. He continued his aggressive 3-4 mastery with guys like Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd in the 90’s with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After a brief and miserable head coaching stint with the Bengals at the turn of the century, he once again returned to his bread and butter: defensive genius for the Steelers.
It was a fantastic move for both parties.
LeBeau helped both Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin to Super Bowl Championships in 2005 and 2008. Because of his dominating defenses, many have considered him the genius behind Pittsburgh’s success the last 25 years.
LeBeau resigned as defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh following a regular season that was less than stellar. His defense finished 18th overall in total yards allowed. The rumors were hot of a Bruce Arians-LeBeau reunion in Arizona, but it didn’t come to fruition.
Today though, it was revealed that another coaching teammate of LeBeau, Ken Whisenhunt, has been hot for his services according to the Tennessean.
Whisenhunt will enter his second season as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans in 2015, and when he does he’ll have LeBeau as the architect of the defense.
The question remains, what exactly will the 77-year old’s role be?
Ray Horton is the current defensive coordinator with Tennessee. While it is assumed that LeBeau will be the head man of the defense, Horton will also stay on in the same role.
Perhaps Whisenhunt is creating a special, new and intriguing tag for LeBeau (kind of the way we’ve seen the owner-consultant relationship business boom in the past few years), or perhaps he’ll just be named a defensive consultant as well (like Tom Moore does currently for the Cardinals).
Either way, I’d take LeBeau in a heartbeat. Anybody who’s watched this man coach knows how brilliant his schemes are.
You cannot argue with five Super Bowl appearances and two Championships as a defensive boss.
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