Stamps’ new defensive boss Bob Slowik brings NFL pedigree from Jimmy Johnson and Bill Walsh coaching trees

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Bob Slowik, the new Calgary Stampeders defensive coordinator, has been influenced by some of the best in the football biz. Try Jimmy Johnson and Bill Walsh.

Both legends — and their coaching trees — have provided Slowik with plenty of pigskin knowledge during what’s been a lengthy career as a defensive wizard for the Super Bowl XXVII champion in the professional ranks.

“Fantastic backgrounds for me,” said Slowik, whose eye-popping coaching resumé — including as a defensive assistant for the Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboys — reads back to the late 1970s.

“I’m just hoping what I can bring will help us get better than we were last year and help this organization and this team win football games.”
The Stampeders sure hope so, too, in trying to right the ship after the 2024 CFL campaign that saw them finish with a 5-12-1 record.

Slowik benefitted from the Stampeders’ coaching shake-up following the debacle that saw them miss the playoffs for the first time in two decades.
The 71-year-old was bumped up in the organization after spending the last four seasons as — first — defensive assistant for a year and — then — linebackers coach since 2022.

Before that, he was the defensive coordinator for the Montreal Alouettes for a pair of campaigns, marking his arrival in the three-down ranks.

SLOWIK OVER THE YEARS

Slowik’s resumé is impressive, indeed.

After two years as the starting cornerback for the NCAA’s Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens, the Pittsburgh native became a graduate assistant at his alma mater to start his coaching career.

From there, he found his footing at higher-profile NCAA Div. 1 schools as a defensive coach, before moving onto the NFL for a prominent 22-year career. The pro highlights included gigs as defensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears, the Cleveland Browns, the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos:

• 1979-82 – Florida (NCAA) – Defensive backs coaching assistant
• 1984-89 – Rutgers (NCAA) – Secondary coach
• 1990-91 – East Carolina University (NCAA) – Outside linebackers coach
• 1992 – Dallas Cowboys (NFL) – Defensive assistant
• 1993-98 – Chicago Bears (NFL) – Defensive coordinator
• 1999 – Cleveland Browns (NFL) – Defensive coordinator
• 2000-01 – Green Bay Packers (NFL) – Defensive backs coach
• 2002-03 – Green Bay Packers (NFL) – Assistant head coach/Defensive backs coach
• 2004 – Green Bay Packers (NFL) – Defensive coordinator
• 2005-06 – Denver Broncos (NFL) – Defensive backs coach
• 2007-08 – Denver Broncos (NFL) – Defensive coordinator
• 2010-11 – Washington Redskins (NFL) – Defensive backs coach
• 2012-13 – Washington Redskins (NFL) – Linebackers coach
• 2019-20 – Montreal Alouettes (CFL) – Defensive coordinator
• 2021 – Calgary Stampeders (CFL) – Defensive assistant
• 2022-24 – Calgary Stampeders (CFL) – Linebackers coach
• 2025 – Calgary Stampeders (CFL) – Defensive coordinator

Slowik’s first seven years in the NFL came under Johnson with the Cowboys and Dave Wannstedt, a Johnson protégé, with the Bears.

“What people called shell coverage or quarter coverage, that started first with the Cowboys and Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt and the (downfield coverage) scheme that they ran,” Slowik said. “Believe it or not, that particular scheme is still the most popular scheme in the game of football, whether it be NCAA or NFL and for that matter in some regard to even the CFL, and I’m talking more to coverage aspect of it.

“I think you always have a little bit of mix of that — that’s a bread-and-butter concept of almost anybody’s coverage scheme. It doesn’t mean you’re going to do it snap after snap. But there’s the concepts and the principles of it that still apply, even though you make subtle little changes to it along the way.”

Slowik’s longest run came with the Bears as DC for six seasons, during which — under Wannstedt — they enjoyed two 9-7 seasons and a wild-card playoff win over Minnesota Vikings in 1994.

“The Bears were just coming out of the Buddy Ryan era when I joined them,” Slowik said. “So damn-sure defensive minded — that’s what they were known for.

“And even when I went to Green Bay, they were coming off of many great years of defensive football, and they had (sack-master) Reggie White at the time and a lot of really great football players on defence.

“When I went to the Broncos, it was awesome. It was (head coach) Mike Shanahan and the new zone scheme. And then after that, I stayed with Mike Shanahan, and we went from Denver to Washington.”

It was Packers GM/head coach Mike Sherman and Shanahan from whom Slowik learned the principles of Walsh’s coaching wizardry.

“Forget the Xs and Os with Bill Walsh,” Slowik said. “His coaching tree is as much about organization — how to run a program. It’s probably something he doesn’t get enough credit for.

“You can go back to Bill Walsh with the Niners and follow him all the way now to this day and age in the NFL with (current Niners coach) Kyle Shanahan, (Packers head coach) Matt LaFleur and (Los Angeles Rams head coach) Sean McVay. They’re all from that same tree.”

Slowik’s own son, Bobby, was the current offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans through last year and has now joined the Miami Dolphins.

SLOWIK’S MOVE TO THE CFL

A year after Sherman moved north to the CFL to coach the Alouettes, the long-time NFL boss asked Slowik to join him.

“That was my first experience in the CFL not really knowing the CFL at all,” said Slowik, who eventually slotted in with the Als under the team’s next sideline boss, Khari Jones. “I literally knew nothing of the CFL. I had made the playbook myself, didn’t have the staff, wasn’t familiar with the staff at that time … so it was quite difficult.

“And then, of course, once jumping into training camp and the pieces start moving, with everybody being able to move before the ball is snapped — of course, the NFL was a much more stationary game on the offence — it’s hard for your eyes to get adjusted to all that movement. And so that took a long time.”

Under Jones and Slowik, the Als went 10-8 to finish second in the CFL’s East Division before losing out in the East semi-final.

“One of the biggest things is you’re not familiar with the playcallers on offence,” continued Slowik. “So when you’re not familiar with playcallers on offence, it’s much more difficult to develop a plan, because you’re just somewhat throwing darts. It was, ‘Let me try this — let me try that.’ So it was just simply do one or do a couple things as good as we can and then go from there.”

Now, six years later, he’s the man with the plan in Calgary.

“This is quite a bit different than that first experience, and I finally have five years under my belt, trying to learn the game,” added Slowik. “I’m still learning the game, but it’s much, much, much easier now that I’m familiar with the league, familiar with the coaches and familiar with players. That makes it way different.

“And our coaching staff, with the defensive assistants (line coach John Bowman, linebackers coach Marcus Klund and backs coach Barron Miles, that Dave Dickenson has hired, I think is fantastic. It’s a really good defensive staff. These guys are passionate, excited, ready to go …“So I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

SLOWIK WITH THE STAMPS

After three seasons under Brent Monson with the Stamps, including the last two which amounted to just 11 victories, the defence was targeted for an overhaul.

And coordinator Monson became one of the casualties.

The fallout was bumping up Slowik into that chair from the linebackers coach position.

“It wasn’t an all-of-a-sudden things didn’t just go out the window with him,” said Slowik, of Monson. “Who knows what it was that started this with a domino effect? But we can get better at every single thing we do on defence.”

Indeed, it was ugly for the Stamps on that side of the ball in 2024.

The secondary got exploited far too often, while up front the Red and White didn’t get enough pressure on opposition quarterbacks.

Worse still, the run defence was especially porous.

Monson wasn’t the only key cog to lose his job.

The Stamps also cut ties with long-time players on the defensive line, including former all-star nose-tackle Mike Rose — last year’s defensive captain — pass-rusher James Vaughters.

To boot, they distanced themselves from 2023 all-star cornerback Demerio Houston, after he was charged with domestic violence.

And also not returning defensively are linebacker Micah Awe — the CFL’s leading tackler and a league all-star in 2023 — and secondary stalwarts Kobe Williams, Branden Dozier and Tre Roberson, a CFL all-star in 2019.

Plus they traded former all-star linebacker Cam Judge in a massive swap of talents with the Toronto Argonauts.

Yes, it’s a whole new ballgame, with Slowik as the guy tasked to put it all together and make it work.

“I can’t say that it always works, but I do think sometimes a fresh voice or fresh voices — in this case with the staff that we have — maybe will make a difference,” Slowik said. “You also need some new blood as far as the roster goes. That can’t remain the same, either.”

Incoming is edge-rusher Folarin Orimolade, the prized return of the Judge trade and an original Stamps signee who was on the rise when he left in free agency for the Argos after the 2022 season.

All-star ball-hawk Damien Webb also brought his wares to Calgary, as did fellow defensive back Derrick Moncrief. Partners in crime is their promise, with Moncrief actually creeping up to play the coveted strong-side linebacker’s spot.

And NFL veteran Marquel Lee takes on the gig of being the man in middle as a solid middle linebacker.

“We’ll see how things go,” Slowik said. “I know we’re going to start from the ground up. That’s what I can tell you. We’re starting with fundamentals and staying with fundamentals and not trying to get too far ahead of the game.

“If you just look at one year, which would be last year, and in particular the run game, can we do better against the run?
“So we’ll start with that — and that starts with fundamentals.”

To be continued Saturday in the season-opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at McMahon Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, CHQR 770 AM/107.3 FM the Edge, TSN) and onward through the 18-game regular-season schedule.

“It doesn’t matter what I think our identity is, because in the end, our identity is going to be that once the roster is filled and once our players step across the line and start playing, they create the identity,” Slowik said.

“So hopefully, those players — whoever they are that are the ones that we finally make up our defensive roster — are going to be guys that are passionate, know how to take on blocks, get off blocks, know how to tackle, know how to cover, know how to do basic fundamental football … things that you need to do to win. So I have no proclamation as to what our particular identity is, because that’s yet to be formed until we start playing.

“I’m gonna pull a Marv Levy on you and say, ‘That you take a new position, that you make no proclamations.’ So I’m not making any proclamation. I’m just going see if we can get better than we were last year and help this organization and this team win football games.

“You’re getting my best effort and the staff’s best effort.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com
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