Doug Maronne wouldn't go so far as to say he expected Zach Strief to depart to join Sean Payton out in Denver. But he wouldn't say he was surprised, either.
Being surprised would've meant he didn't think Strief was ready to step into a full offensive line coach role, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
"When I first got back [with the Saints], Zach was ready to be an offensive line coach," Marrone said. "So I don’t see it as a surprise at all. I see someone that’s extremely smart, extreme attention to detail, someone that’s a very good technician, very good schematically, very good in front of the room. ... So I think it’s a great opportunity that presented itself for him, one that he had to take."
Payton was the coach who found Strief as a talented but unheralded player out of Northwestern. He was the coach who hired Strief away from WWL Radio in the offensive line assistant role in 2021. The pairing only made sense to continue, and the Saints had no way to block it as a clear promotion.
Still, it left the Saints and Marrone with a hole to fill on the coaching staff as he heads into Year 2 as the OL coach in Dennis Allen's regime. Fortunately the Saints had another former player entering the coaching field to fill that slot in Jahri Evans, who had joined the team along with Ty Warren as part of the NFL's Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship program for the 2022 season. He worked closely with the interior linemen, and helped oversee a clear Year 3 jump for Cesar Ruiz, who was drafted in the first round of the 2020 season but had gotten off to a bit of a rocky start as he attempted to change positions with offseason programs that were, at best, disjointed due to COVID.
Marrone, who coached Evans in his first sting with the Saints from 2006-'08, joked that he's "failed" his former players because his advice to all of them is: Don't get into coaching. He made the same tongue-in-cheek remark about Strief a year ago, with his point being that coaching is a rewarding but intense and time-consuming job. But he knew Evans was serious about it, and he's thrilled to have the former All-Pro back in the building now.
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"The opportunity presented itself for us and we have him back and I’m excited," Marrone said, "because I think that he’ll be a great asset for our coaching staff, but moreso probably the players."
The Saints have also added Kevin Carberry, 39, in an assistant role to help with the OL group. He and Evans, also 39, can do one thing in particular that Marrone, 59, has a tougher time doing these days. It was something Strief was able to do as well: Relate to the younger generation of players.
"I think that a person that’s had a lot of success, has played and done everything the right way, is a great example for younger players coming into the league of what they need to do," he said "And I think Jahri’s experience there, and the age where he’s a little bit closer to them, where I’m getting a little bit old in the tooth, I think that helps out quite a bit.”
Marrone was a former Saints player in his own right, but it's unlikely his season with New Orleans in 1989 still resonates with today's players. Like Strief, though, Evans won a Super Bowl with New Orleans in 2010 and played for the Saints as recently as 2016. That run included six Pro Bowls and five All-Pro selections. He was inducted into the team Hall of Fame in 2020 and was named a member of the NFL's 2010s All-Decade team.
The next question becomes: How do the coaching responsibilities get split up? A year ago, Strief worked more closely with the younger, still-developing players, while Marrone drilled more with the veterans. That'll be something to watch closely this season, as will the success of that group in front of newly signed quarterback Derek Carr.
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The team has made a $150 million investment at the QB position, so the group tasked with protecting him will be heavily scrutinized. The group will look to incorporate 2022 first-round pick Trevor Penning, who saw limited action in his rookie season as he dealt with multiple foot injuries. He and Cesar Ruiz are expected to be ready during camp -- ideally to start training camp in late July -- as they both work back from Lisfranc injuries suffered late in the year.
That group is made up of a lot of invested top picks, also including RT Ryan Ramczyk (1st round, 2017); LG Andrus Peat (1st round, 2015) and C Erik McCoy (2nd round, 2019). The Saints still have the versatile James Hurst, who spent a majority of last season starting at LT and could opt to draft a young player to bolster the position at No. 29 or 40 this season.
"I think for a lineman, since you don’t play with the football, you have this sense of, 'hey, we’re the protectors.' We have to make sure that no one is getting any free shots on our players, any extra shots on them," Marrone said. "And we know at the end of the day … you’re going to be judged on how you protect the quarterback in the passing game and how much you run the football. And I think everyone understands that going forward.”
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