Crankin things up

The Super Bowl is over and now it is time to follow the combine and see what happens with the draft. It is also time to start cranking things up over here in Sweden. This year I have decided to start Theory Sessions on Thursday nights. We alternate O then D every other Thursday night and have started to implent the playbooks slowly.  So far the attendance has been good and I feel like we are headed the right direction. Only time will tell.
TRYING TO FIND THE BEST WAY:
One of the questions I have been fighting with for a long time is this; Why do we (in Sweden) always bring over an American QB? I have ask that question to myself and many of my closest coaching friends here in Sweden and the most common answer is: "to win". It is true that there is no better player (usually) on the field for an offense than a QB from the States. I have been fortunate to have had some outstanding ones play for me and they were excellent on the field. Some had their own "hot" system built in to the system. Nothing like standing on the side-line and seeing cover 0 and thinking we should protect it and then watching the QB look over, hand signal a Wr and then throw the quick pass for the TD. Then the QB comes to the side-line and I ask him why he didn't protect himself, and he says "I knew I could get it off before the unblocked guy was going to get me, and I knew the guy covering Jocke couldn't cover him." You can get that kind of play from a good American QB. You can get a guy that has such a quick release that he can throw "uncovered" if the Corner is off the WR 7 yards and playing cover 3!! An American QB is well worth the money. But here is where I am thinking, why can't we develop a Swedish guy that can play just as effective? A guy that can read the defense and run the system and make the plays. We have 12 months a year to develop a guy like that. We don't have any rules regarding when or how long you can practice, there is no Players Union that dictates the amount of time a guy can practice. And the truth is that all those great American QB's that have been here have been developed through time. I like the challenge of developing that postion. We are going to do that at Arlanda. This season we will go with a Swedish QB and we will plan on having him be effective enough to run the system we want to run and make good decisions. It feels good to make that decision and it will be a challenge, but I feel like the end result will be a positive one. The most important message it may send is down through our junior programs. The young QB's coming up through our club will see that there is an expected future for them at the QB position and they will have the opportunity to play Senior football and play QB...now I guess I better go watch another QB coaching DVD....
TO IMPORT OR NOT TO IMPORT:
Making the decision not to have an American QB leads to the next question: Do we bring a player over for 2010? I am not at all opposed to having an import player. I am an import myself...just happen to be married to a wonderful Swedish lady, so I live here year round. In Sweden we are allowed to have two North American players and they cannot be on the field at the same time (not sure how we handle that in warm-up...humor). With that being said, can one guy make that much of a difference? I am not convinced he can IF you have done a good job coaching up the guys you have and schematically have put them in a position to be successful. Also, in Sweden we are playing in a "Super-Series" Leauge with 6 teams. There is always the rumors of somebody dropping out before the season starts, hopefully that won't happen this year. Of those six teams 4 will play for the championship. The season starts in May we will play everybody one time and one team twice before the break in July. That leaves you with 4 games and the play-offs after a break that goes from the last game in June being played on the 19th and the next game being played August 7th. That is a long time to pay somebody to hang around. There is no football during that time except for the National Teams. The guys on the team usually take their vacations around that time so there is no practice. It seems smarter to bring somebody over at the end of July and have them ready for the second half of the season and the play-offs. That is something we will most likely look into as we progress here in the pre-season.
THE PERFECT IMPORT PLAYER:
I hope to find a guy that we can bring over after the break that is an "Athlete". A guy that can play both O and D plus return kicks and punts. A guy that you can put anywhere on the field and let him go make plays. I think that seems like the best investment for us. If you bring in the right kind of player at the right time, he can make a huge impact. Plus it is a better financial deal for the club. You can offer a little higher salary and save money on the "usual" cost of the player that is here for six months....Time to check my Europlayers account......
RANDOM THOUGHTS OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS:
The Saints are good. They played a great game and won it. The play of the game might have been when the Saints MLB, Vilma, made a great play on a seam route that Peyton Manning threw. He saved a TD on that  play!!
The onside kicking working at the start of the second half and the Saints taking it down and scoring a TD secured the "genius" tag on Saints coach Sean Payton.
Peyton Manning's legacy is not damaged in my opinion. He is still, most likely, the best to ever play the game.
Drew Brees is creating his legacy. It will be exciting to see if the Saints can repeat...
We have had snow on the ground since around the first week of December....doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon...I just hope the field is clear for our FUNdamentals camp we are doing next weekend.
Until next post...thanks for reading, Mom!!! You to Dad!!