Some sad news to share today.
Alex Gibbs, widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches to have ever mentored the position, passed away this morning at his home in Phoenix after complications from a recent stroke.
Adam Schefter was among the first to share the news.
Gibbs spent a few seasons as a head high school coach before he stepped up to coaching at the college level with stints.
A little known fact about Gibbs - while most of his career has been spent working with the offensive line, he actually started off at the college level working with the defensive backs at Duke, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
In 1975, after six seasons working with the defensive backfield as the previously mentioned schools, Gibbs accepted the offensive coordinator / offensive line job at Ohio State and in 1979 he took the offensive play caller role at Auburn. He would go on to coach the offensive line at Georgia for a few seasons in the mid-80's before he moved to the NFL, where he would spent the rest of his career and solidify his legacy as one of the best offensive line coaches ever.
His first NFL coaching job was with the Broncos from 1984-87 and he'd go on to work with the offensive lines for the Chargers, Colts, Chiefs, Falcons, and Texans.
He's probably best known for his time coaching the offensive line for the Broncos from 1995-2003, where they ran zone schemes to near perfection.
Gibbs last coached in 2010 as the assistant head coach / offensive line coach on Pete Carroll's first staff in Seattle, but unexpectedly resigned about a week before the season. Later, he spent the 2013 season as an offensive line consultant for the Bronco.
While there are a lot of good memories being shared of coach Gibbs today on social media, this one shared by Chris B. Brown is probably my favorite:
"We block safeties, not corners. Corners are just as shitty of tacklers in our league as they are in yours."
Please join us in praying for the family of coach Gibbs. Few coaches have shaped the game we see today like he has.
Also Gibbs can be credited with many great coaching nuggets, but maybe none greater than "We block safeties, Not corners. corners are just as shitty of tacklers in our league as they are in yours."
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 12, 2021