Being a head coach in the National Football League is a great job to have, but it’s not an easy one. And, as this offseason has shown, the position doesn’t come with much job security. Eight of the 32 NFL teams will have new head coaches when the 2009 season begins, and the Oakland Raiders will become the ninth team on that list soon. I’ve looked at all the coaching changes and found some interesting story lines that I wanted to share in this column, along with some displeasure with a certain gray-bearded gunslinger.
The New York Jets named Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator Rex Ryan their new head coach yesterday. That’s a good hire for the Jets, as Ryan constructed one of the NFL’s best defenses in Baltimore and should help to improve a mediocre Jets defense. Ryan replaces another former defensive coordinator in Eric Mangini, who is now the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. I think defensive minds make for some of the best head coaches, but frankly, the Jets’ defense wasn’t the cause of their demise last season. Brett Favre was.
Favre is expected to be a Hall of Fame quarterback, but he simply should not have come out of retirement to play for the Jets. In doing so, I believe Favre made not one, but two head coaches lose their jobs. The Jets fired Mangini after this season when the Jets failed to make the playoffs after an 8-3 start. That was an undeserved firing because Mangini wasn’t the one who threw only two touchdowns and nine interceptions in the Jets’ season-ending 1-4 run. Favre also may have cost Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski his job, because Jagodzinski was fired after interviewing for the Jets’ head coaching vacancy that Favre caused. The irony of the story is that Jagodzinski was a tight ends coach and offensive coordinator for the Packers during Favre’s career in Green Bay. Not cool, Brett. Not cool.
Including the Jets’ hiring of Ryan and the Browns’ signing of Mangini, six of the eight teams to have made coaching changes thus far have gone with defensive-minded coaches. The Seattle Seahawks promoted a former head coach and defensive coordinator, Jim Mora, to replace the newly retired Mike Holmgren. Similarly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appointed defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to take over after head coach Jon Gruden was fired, although Morris never actually coached a game in that position. He was chosen to replace Monte Kiffin at that helm in December after serving as defensive backs coach but was moved up the ranks in perhaps the quickest stint as “coach-in-waiting” of all time.
The Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams hired defensive coordinators Jim Schwartz from the Tennessee Titans and Steve Spagnuolo of the New York Giants, respectively, to fill their head coaching vacancies. Only the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts went with offensive-minded coaches. The Broncos tabbed former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to take over after Mike Shanahan was surprisingly fired, and the Colts promoted assistant head coach Jim Caldwell to replace the newly retired Tony Dungy.
The only team not to make its move yet is the Raiders, after owner Al Davis fired Lane Kiffin for what seemed to be philosophical differences. And by that, I mean Al Davis is an egomaniacal nut job, and Kiffin has already moved on to greener pastures at the University of Tennessee. The two candidates for the head coaching job are Tom Cable, the Raiders’ former offensive line coach who was promoted to interim coach after Kiffin’s firing, and current Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. Personally, I feel like Cable didn’t do anything to lose the job, but the Raiders need to shake things up at every level if they want to win. I think the Raiders should hire Gilbride, who has had success in helping a young quarterback — Eli Manning — win a Super Bowl. With two young offensive weapons in quarterback JaMarcus Russell and running back Darren McFadden, maybe Gilbride can at least get the Raiders back to respectability next year.
Only two of the teams that have chosen new coaches — the Browns and Seahawks — hired candidates with previous NFL head coaching experience, and the Raiders don’t appear to be looking for any former head coaches to fill their vacancy. Needless to say, there will be a lot of fresh faces donning the master headsets on the sideline during the next season, which should be an interesting one.
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