Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Dan Devine decided to switch an all pro offensive guard (Gale Gillingham) to the defensive line for the '72 season. The result was season-ending injury early in the year for one of the best offensive linemen in the league.

That switch was really tough ... at least for Gilly and Packer fans.

Ronfitch wrote:Dan Devine decided to switch an all pro offensive guard (Gale Gillingham) to the defensive line for the '72 season. The result was season-ending injury early in the year for one of the best offensive linemen in the league.

That switch was really tough ... at least for Gilly and Packer fans.

As an NFL coach, Dan Devine was a great college coach.

Ronfitch wrote:Dan Devine decided to switch an all pro offensive guard (Gale Gillingham) to the defensive line for the '72 season. The result was season-ending injury early in the year for one of the best offensive linemen in the league.

That switch was really tough ... at least for Gilly and Packer fans.

Defensive tackle Mike McCoy broke a bone in his foot August 21st and was estimated to be out about a month. The Packers had traded Lionel Aldridge, who'd lost his job to Alden Roche at the end of 1971, for safety Jim Hill. That move was necessary by the retirement of Willie Wood, and made sense. Jim DeLisle was also back from 1971, but he would be cut.

Devine immediately picked up Vern Vanoy on waivers from the Giants. Despite being impressed by Vanoy's pass rush, and also having rookie Dave Puriefory on hand, Devine switched Gillingham to tackle on September 12th... in the middle of preparing for the Packers' first regular season game against the Browns. Bizarrely, Devine also announced that Mike McCoy would be moved to offense when he returned! Apparently to back up Malcolm Snider, who'd been acquired from Atlanta (for Dave Hampton) to replace Gillingham at guard.

Gillingham started two games and recorded two tackles, one assist, and no sacks. Vern Vanoy had a sack wiped out by a penalty. By the third week against Dallas, Gillingham was out for the year. McCoy was activated, but didn't play much. Vanoy had 7 tackles and 3 sacks in a win over the Cowboys. After that, McCoy got his job back.

Ironically, McCoy would be moved to offense by Bart Starr shortly before being traded in the Packers 1977 training camp.

conace21 wrote:Lorenzo Alexander came into the league as a 315 lb defensive tackle. He spent his first few years playing there and defensive end, and even spent some time on the offensive line. Then, when Mike Shanahan came aboard, Alexander lost 75 pounds and switched to linebacker. He made the Pro Bowl in 2016 as a 3-4 OLB. The sheer amount of weight he had to lose made that position change particularly inpressive to me.

He was also a special teams LBer, too a few years ago. There was guy who went the other way, Keith Traylor. He gained a lot of weight and went from LB to DT to NT. Played until he was 38

The Steelers' Larry Brown moved from TE to T, playing 14 seasons in Pittsburgh, 7 in each position, IIRC.

ChrisBabcock wrote:I don’t know if it was actually tough for him but I always thought it was interesting that Earl Cooper switched from fullback to TE before his 4th year. He was second in the league in receptions his rookie year so I suppose Walsh thought tight end was a better spot for him in ‘83 with Tyler and Craig being added to the backfield. The “pass catching fullback” position was probably a decade or so away.

Cooper was such a weird player. He was an average college RB for a terrible Rice team. His senior year his rushing statline was 146-536-3.7-5 TDs for a team that went 1-10. Bill Walsh spends the 13th overall pick on Cooper, passing on more established college RBs like Joe Cribbs and Charles White. I never understood why a 'draft value guru' like Walsh would spend such a high pick on a guy who probably could have been drafted in the 3rd or 4th round; I guess Walsh obviously liked Cooper's pass-catching ability.

Through the first part of the 1980 season, I think both Cooper and Paul Hofer were on pace for 100 receptions each, which would have been incredible had it actually happened. A game against the Jets saw Cooper have 13 receptions and Hofer have 10 receptions. But Hofer got hurt and the Niners offense wasn't as effective for the rest of the year. That 1980 season was the only time Cooper led the Niners in rushing, despite not having decent RB in 1981 (Hofer got hurt again) or 1982. I don't know why Walsh had such a short leash with Cooper...you spend a high pick on a RB then you have him dividing up his carries with Bill Ring and Walt Easley?

Rupert Patrick wrote:

Ronfitch wrote:Dan Devine decided to switch an all pro offensive guard (Gale Gillingham) to the defensive line for the '72 season. The result was season-ending injury early in the year for one of the best offensive linemen in the league.

That switch was really tough ... at least for Gilly and Packer fans.

As an NFL coach, Dan Devine was a great college coach.

When he became the Packer head coach in 1971, Sport Magazine did a story on Dan Devine. In it, Devine described himself as a "fussbudget." This is as good an explanation for his moves in Green Bay as anything.

After taking the Golden Parachute to Notre Dame after the 1974 season, it took a couple of years for Dan Devine to figure out Joe Montana should be his starting QB.

Bryan wrote:

ChrisBabcock wrote:I don’t know if it was actually tough for him but I always thought it was interesting that Earl Cooper switched from fullback to TE before his 4th year. He was second in the league in receptions his rookie year so I suppose Walsh thought tight end was a better spot for him in ‘83 with Tyler and Craig being added to the backfield. The “pass catching fullback” position was probably a decade or so away.

Cooper was such a weird player. He was an average college RB for a terrible Rice team. His senior year his rushing statline was 146-536-3.7-5 TDs for a team that went 1-10. Bill Walsh spends the 13th overall pick on Cooper, passing on more established college RBs like Joe Cribbs and Charles White. I never understood why a 'draft value guru' like Walsh would spend such a high pick on a guy who probably could have been drafted in the 3rd or 4th round; I guess Walsh obviously liked Cooper's pass-catching ability.

Through the first part of the 1980 season, I think both Cooper and Paul Hofer were on pace for 100 receptions each, which would have been incredible had it actually happened. A game against the Jets saw Cooper have 13 receptions and Hofer have 10 receptions. But Hofer got hurt and the Niners offense wasn't as effective for the rest of the year. That 1980 season was the only time Cooper led the Niners in rushing, despite not having decent RB in 1981 (Hofer got hurt again) or 1982. I don't know why Walsh had such a short leash with Cooper...you spend a high pick on a RB then you have him dividing up his carries with Bill Ring and Walt Easley?

Tony Razzano, 49er scout at the time (and 49er Director of College Scouting from 1981-91) wasn't pleased with Walsh's drafting:

https://www.si.com/vault/1992/03/16/126 ... -the-49ers

Here is an excerpt:

My whole problem emanates from that—Bill profiting from a kid he did not want," Razzano says. "He wanted Steve Dils [a Stanford quarterback in Walsh's first stint as the school's coach, in 1977 and '78], and I'll go to my grave knowing that. Over the years Bill began thinking he was a genius personnel man, but he wasn't even close to being a good one. The success of the 49ers is Joe Montana. We could have been a true dynasty, but Bill made drastic mistakes.

Cooper was one of those, and so was P Jim Miller (in the same draft). Why did a team like the 1980 49ers take a punter in Round 3 when they had practically no talent?

The great Wash Redskins WR Charlie Taylor played in the backfield his first 2 seasons, ran the ball 199 times his rookie year of 1964. I heard he was so fast he outran his blockers and that's why Otto Graham moved his outside.
Tom Landry tried to play Randy White at LB for much of his early career but eventually moved him to the defensive line. I think both of the moves turned out pretty well...

The transition towards specialization was still going on in the 50s so you see players playing on both sides of the ball sometimes in the same game and/or same season - tackles and ends sometimes switched sides or playersd both sides. A fullback may play linebacker. That given, Pete Pihos still jumps out to me because he wasn't a block first offensive end like Ed Sprinkle - he was actually statistically a top receiver and still moved to play DE for a time and then back to being an offensive end to have his highest reception total seasons in his final 3 seasons.