The Coaching Carousel
By Stuart Tomlin
Congratulations to the New England Patriots, Jacksonville
Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings.
Now that’s out of the way, and there’s a Conference
Championship Game (and a preview) coming up for you this weekend, but this is
going to be looking at the other 28 teams. More specifically, those of us who
changed coaches in the offseason.
Naturally, owing to complete bias, I’m going to start in
Indianapolis. The Chuck Pagano era mercifully ended in Indy on December 31st
following our 22-13 win over the Texans, which got us to the lofty heights of
4-12. That was enough for Jim Irsay to finally fire Pagano, probably two years
after he should have. A disastrous season from start to finish with Andrew Luck
being out for the entire year. Fortunately, he’s most likely back next season, and
it’s looking like Josh McDaniels will be the man taking over. The current
Patriots OC, he can’t officially accept the job until the Patriots season ends –
most likely after the Super Bowl, then. In the meantime, it looks like he’ll be
bringing in DC Matt Eberflus, and potentially OC Jake Peetz, although McDaniels
would likely be calling plays on the offensive side of the ball. Assuming it
goes through, I like this hire. The McDaniels that failed in Denver is long
gone, and the time at the Patriots has shaped him well. He has been excellent at
devising a game plan that allows Brady to make quick throws and move the
chains, something that Andrew Luck’s game still needs work on. McDaniels could end
up being very good for Luck, and with a good Draft and Free Agency – the third
overall pick and $85m in cap space sounds promising - it could be a very quick
turnaround in Indy next season.
Fingers crossed.
It’s not certain that McDaniels IS going to Indy, but it’s
likely now, and the one job that did concern me is if the Titans fired Mularkey
– which exactly happened, somewhat inexplicably after he got them to the
playoffs, and was told that he would be returning for 2018. Regardless, if not
McDaniels (who is probably heading to Indy), then it’s hard to see exactly who
is the fit here. The Titans are likely to interview Rams OC Matt LeFleur, who
has done absolute wonders with Jared Goff this season and could do likewise for
Marcus Mariota. Also in the potential running are Texans DC Mike Vrabel, who
was a finalist for the Indy position, Panthers DC Steve Wilks, and potentially
even Eagles OC Frank Reich, under whom Carson Wentz was having an MVP level
season before his injury. Any one of these four would be a good potential head
coach in Tennessee. Mularkey was fired due to Marcus Mariota’s regression. If I
was a betting man, I’m guessing they may go for an offensive guy as their next
head coach, which would potentially mean Reich or LaFleur.
Meanwhile in the Big Apple, Ben McAdoo was out as Giants Head
Coach before the season was even done. Having ended Eli Manning’s starting
streak for Geno Smith, yes, Geno Smith, as his final act, McAdoo was fired
following a massively disappointing Giants season when many were tipping them
to make the next step after an excellent 2016 season. The injury to Odell Beckham
Jr. and most of the Wide Receiving corps did not help, nor did the regression
of Eli Manning. The Giants, like the Colts, are picking high in 2017, and this
is a potentially attractive job with the Giants lined up to maybe pick Eli
Manning’s successor with the second overall pick – Josh Rosen would be an
excellent choice here. After looking at Patriots defensive co-ordinator Matt
Patricia – we’ll get to him in a second - Vikings offensive co-ordinator Pat Shurmur
looks like the likely man to take over in Gotham. He has long been looked at as
a Quarterback Guru, so this is a win for Eli Manning, Davis Webb and a
potential draft pick, as Shurmur is known for getting the best out of his
Quarterbacks. He prefers a passing attack – which is good news for the
returning Odell Beckham. Overall, a very solid hire by the Giants. Dave
Gettlemen, former Panthers GM, was to replace Jerry Reese, and I think this is
a good move. I honestly think he was chased out of Carolina too quickly.
On the
other side of the New York (New Jersey really) divide, the Jets have handed Todd
Bowles a two-year extension after he exceeded expectations in 2017. When the
expectations were 0-16, that’s not difficult.
Speaking of 0-16, the 2017 Cleveland Browns have NOT
fired Hue Jackson, despite, you know, going 0-16 (and 1-31 over the last two
years.) They have revamped the front office – Sashi Brown was made the fall guy
in Cleveland and shown the door. Gone as well is Ryan Grigson, which on a
personal front is nothing short of hilarious. In a bit Ryan, thanks for nearly
ruining Andrew Luck. John Dorsey is the new GM, and he’s brought in the highly
rated Eliot Wolf from the Packers as assistant GM after he was passed up for
the Packers GM job, which went to the director of player personnel Brian Gutekunst
after Ted Thompson was moved upstairs to the senior advisor to football
operations position. With five picks in the first two rounds, Cleveland could
finally get that franchise quarterback and several other big pieces to finally
turn their franchise around. Or they could continue being the Cleveland Browns.
That’s always an option.
Going back to Matt Patricia, the Patriots defensive
co-co-ordinator looks like he is going to be the man in Detroit after they fired
Jim Caldwell. Caldwell, having gotten the Lions to the playoffs in 2016, couldn’t
repeat the feat in 2017 or get the Lions that playoff win they’ve been looking
for since 1991. Patricia, who has been in New England since 2004, and interviewed
for the Browns job in 2015, will be the man charged with taking that step
forward for Detroit – which will not be an easy job, considering the Vikings
are in the NFC Championship and the Packers will be getting Aaron Rodgers back fully
healthy. It’ll be a tough division for Detroit (and Chicago) next year.
Speaking of Chicago, they moved fast in their head coach
search this year. Having fired John Fox (the Firefox campaign finally getting
their way) after another dreadful season in Chicago, Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator
of the Chiefs, was the man chosen to take over in Chicago. Having managed “Captain
Checkdown” Alex Smith to what was the most impressive season of his career,
despite the dip midway through the season where the Chiefs looked to collapse,
this will be Nagy’s first head coaching job. It’ll be interesting to see what
he does with Mitchell Trubisky, but as mentioned before, it might be a tough
first year with Detroit, Minnesota and Green Bay to contend with.
The most high-profile hiring of this offseason however,
has to be Jon Gruden returning to the Oakland Raiders where he coached from
1998 to 2001, and also to the NFL sideline after almost a decade, having
coached the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win in the 2002 Season, and then worked
for ESPN since 2009. This one feels a little bit surreal, to be honest. After
the Raiders fired Del Rio, another one who got to the playoffs in 2016, they gave
Gruden a 10 year $100m contract (with a no trade clause), a massive gamble
considering the fact Gruden hasn’t coached in nine years. Furthermore, Gruden,
who was allegedly courted by the Colts in 2016, was tipped for a return to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers job, but after that job did not open up as maybe expected –
Dirk Koetter was retained for 2018 – Gruden is instead taking the job at not
only the place where he started his head coaching career, but as mentioned to
me by my Seahawks supporting friend Mia, at the team who he beat with the
Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII. Gruden DOES bring a wealth of coaching
experience, and has a quarterback in place in Derek Carr. I do question his
choice of offensive line coach – Tom Cable, who was fired from the same
position from the Seahawks this season. They might as well put Carr on Injured
Reserve now, to be honest. This is very much a boom or bust hire for the Raiders.
We’ll soon see how this works out. I wouldn’t want to predict one way or the
other. (I probably will in the build-up to next season, to be honest.) But I
know one thing – it will certainly be interesting.
The final head coaching change this season was not a
firing, but a retiring – Bruce Arians retired as Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
Arians started his college coaching career in Virginia Tech as a Graduate
Assistant in 1975, and got his first NFL job in 1989 with the Kansas City
Chiefs as a running backs coach. He had stints with the Colts as a Quarterbacks
Coach, the Browns as an Offensive Co-Ordinator, then moved to the Steelers as
their Wide Receivers coach, winning his first Super Bowl ring, then was
promoted to Offensive Co-Ordinator and won his second Super Bowl ring. Arians
then moved to the Colts in 2012, and was made interim head coach when Chuck
Pagano was being treated for leukaemia, and won 9 games in Pagano’s absence, the
most for an interim head coach in history. With Pagano healthy again, Arians
made the move to the Head Coaching job in Arizona, in 2013, where he would take
the Cardinals to the playoffs in 2014, and to the NFC Championship in 2015.
Arians retired after the final day win over the Seahawks.
It’s hard to say who’ll end up taking the
Cardinals job. Like their last coaching hire when Arians took the job, the
Cardinals are very much taking their time. Candidates have been listed after
Mike Munchak, Pittsburgh offensive line coach and potentially their next
offensive co-ordinator, turned down the chance of a second interview. Philadelphia quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, Patriots
linebackers coach Brian Flores, Carolina defensive co-ordinator Steve Wilks and
potentially even their current defensive co-ordinator, James Bettcher. Of all
of the choices, John DeFilippo would be my choice for this job, however on a
biased front, I kinda want him as the Colts offensive co-ordinator. It’s hard
to say who will end up in Arizona. Could be anyone at this point.
Bill O’Brien
has kept his job in Houston, but the GM is out, not for a firing but for
understandable personal reasons. Rick Smith has left the GM job to take care of
Tiffany, his wife, who is battling breast cancer. We all wish her well in her
fight. Rick will retain the job of Executive Vice President of Football Operations.
Replacing him at General Manager is Brian Gaine, who returns to the Texans where
he was Director of Player Personnel from 2014 to 2016, after a stint in Buffalo
in 2017 as Vice President of Player Personnel.
After
many Twitter campaigns to remove him, Mike Shula has left the Panthers as
offensive co-ordinator. He’s been replaced by Norv Turner, who was last seen
being unsuccessful at the Minnesota Vikings from 2014-16. Time will tell
whether he’s improved since then. He has also had stints as the Head Coach of
the San Diego Chargers and a one-year run as Offensive Co-Ordinator in
Cleveland.
While
there’s still a few positions to be filled, the Coaching Carousel goes on and
on. Some changes last season have been successful, such as Sean McVay with the Los
Angeles Rams, or Sean McDermott with the Buffalo Bills. The introduction of
Doug Marrone and Tom Coughlin has changed the Jacksonville Jaguars from perennial
punching bag to AFC Championship contenders. Kyle Shanahan seems to finally
have the 49ers on track with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Whether
the changes at head coach prove to be successful or not, as said before, time
will tell. But it’ll be interesting to find out.
As
always, Go Colts.
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