Sayonara Jimmy Raye

It had nothing to do with my post, or even Lowell Cohn's similar post a bit later (I kid), but the 49ers have taken the step they had to and fired embattled Offensive Coordinator Jimmy Raye, who truly embraced the word "offensive" with his play-calling. (Zing!) He's been replaced by former QB coach Mike Johnson.

Raye and Singletary will forever be linked. Sorry, Mike.

It says something about Singletary that he actually made this move (debate continues on how much his hand was or wasn't forced), but it mostly speaks to the horrific hire that Raye was, and what that says about Singletary. Those with good memories will remember that true offensive minds like Scott Linehan (now with the Detroit Lions) and Clyde Christensen (Colts) interviewed and turned down the job, because they saw what Singletary wanted. He wanted a smash-mouth offense that bears no resemblance to modern football. They saw the writing on the wall, and said, in essence, thanks but no thanks.

It's not like folks couldn't see this coming:

Mike Singletary and the Niners should have seen it coming. San Francisco was Raye's seventh stop as an offensive coordinator and the sixth time he left an offense in worse shape than he found it. Remarkably, Raye has never stayed as coordinator for more than three seasons and only once even made it that far. ...

The only time Raye improved an offense in his first season with a team was with the Jets in 2004. The only time he left a team with a higher offensive ranking than the one he inherited was with the Chiefs. If Jimmy Raye was an actor, he'd be Ted McGinley. 

Sigh. Seriously? Yes, seriously. If someone wants to Photoshop a picture of Jimmy Raye jumping over a shark while on water skis, I'll gladly post it here.

Tim Kawakami, as he often does, puts it phenomenally in his post:

Maybe [new offensive coordinator Mike] Johnson’s good, maybe he’s not, but how in the world would Singletary know?

He can’t know because he doesn’t know offense at all, in the same way that Mike Nolan didn’t have a clue about offense and only found good OCs by happenstance, amid the wave of bad ones.

So if Johnson’s an immediate success, it tells us that he should’ve been the OC long ago and that Singletary had no idea and screwed up the 49ers for 19 games of Raye.

And if Johnson’s terrible, it tells us that Singletary has no idea, anyway. Which we know.

I’ve been told again and again that Singletary took over this job not realizing 80% of the full responsibilities–the personnel, the staffing, the media, the administration.

Fine. He’s learning on the job. He’s great with the players, he’s a powerful voice. He’s learning the rest.

But Singletary HAD to know that, as a totally defensive guy, the offensive coordinator was by far the most important hire he had to make. Had to know it.

If he didn’t know it, he was and is not competent to be an NFL head coach.

Yet he fired Mike Martz and scared off Scott Linehan and Clyde Christensen during the interviews, and the job fell to Raye because he was the “best” guy who would accept and embrace Singletary’s “smash-mouth” imperative.

So if Johnson can’t get the job done, where will Singletary turn next, if he still has this job? I don’t know. I don’t know who’d take the job and I don’t know if Singletary would have any idea how to avoid hiring Jimmy Raye 2.0.

Seriously, if you are a 49ers fan and the above doesn't send chills down your spine, you are made of stronger stock than I am. I'm glad Raye is gone, but as I said earlier, I'm also pretty sure that he's a symptom of the problem, not the cause.