Cooter: It's As Much Stafford's Offense 'As It Is Mine'
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Jim Bob Cooter won't specify what makes his offensive philosophy different from anyone else's. But he wants to "get everybody more involved" and "score a lot of points," which tend to be pretty popular approaches.
"I do have some overall philosophies," Cooter said in his first meeting with media since taking over as Lions offensive coordinator this week. "I don't really want to get into the specifics. The Chiefs don't know exactly what we're thinking out here."
Realistically, there's not much the Lions can change about their approach with such a quick turnaround. They fired three from their offensive staff Monday, then immediately jumped on a plane to London for their game against the Chiefs on Sunday.
Head coach Jim Caldwell has preached all week that there wouldn't be major changes from one week to the next. Cooter has been part of former offensive coordinator Joe Lombarid's system, after all, and is a first-time play-caller himself.
"I think you tweak a few things here and there," Cooter said. "I don't think you ask the guys to do a whole lot different; I don't think that's fair to them. Got a lot of reps doing certain things, so try to tweak a thing here, tweak a thing there, maybe get rid of one thing and add one more thing, and hopefully go out and play well."
The transition for Cooter will be eased somewhat by his existing relationship with quarterback Matthew Stafford.
"It makes it smoother because I'm with him in the meeting room every day anyway," Cooter said. "He (Stafford) has done a good job of telling me plays he likes or plays he doesn't like or maybe we should run this route at this depth instead of that depth. It's his offense as much as it is mine, maybe more, so if he likes something, I've learned early in my career that if a quarterback really likes a play he tends to make it work."
After Lombardi made a highly-publicized move to the press box during the game against Minnesota (instead of calling plays from the sideline), Cooter will go the opposite route. He will remain on the field for his play-calling duties because he likes being near the team.
"I like communicating with the players," he said. "I feel like I see the field well enough down there, and we're gonna have guys in the box that are gonna help me with that. And I think there's a lot of importance to being able to communicate with players on the sideline."
According to Cooter, those players hold equal importance in terms of the playbook.
"One of our thoughts is try to get everybody more involved," he said when asked if the plan was to get wide receiver Calvin Johnson more involved. "Hopefully we're completing the ball to a bunch of good players and handing the ball to a bunch of good players. Everybody gets a lot of touches."