The optics of a Helfrich hire would be… interesting. Duck fans would laugh but Helfrich’s failings as a HC don’t mean he is a bad OC. In fact he was the OC for a Heisman winner which is a pretty damn good selling point to recruits
The optics are what they are, and they aren’t great. I’m not dismissing optics; they matter. But they aren’t the primary consideration, IMO.
However, Helfrich was Chip Kelly’s OC and coached Marriotta to a Heisman. His tenure with the Bears wasn’t successful, but he also didn’t draft Mitch Trubisky. The Bears tried to do some interesting things on offense–they just had serious personnel issues at the QB spot.
Obviously this isn’t the clear home run that Monken would have been. But that doesn’t seem to be a realistic option. I’d probably personally prefer Lashlee as well. But if it was between Moore and Helfrich, I vastly prefer Helfrich.
One thing we haven’t discussed here is that Lake may be limited in who he can get by the fact he is new head coach. Dennis brought this up to me the other day and I think it has a lot of merit.
Coaching hires are often about personal connections and it is even more true with unproven head coaches, most likely. And coaches are, by and large, conservative and not entirely logical. So while Lake might be willing to consider anybody and may have made runs at guys like Yurcich and Monken, they may not have been willing to make those moves because Jimmy is a new HC. Just something to think about…