NFL Coaching Carousel and the Playoffs
It’s the silly season in the NFL as teams didn’t wait for Black Monday to start firing coaches (the Rams, Bills and Jaguars didn’t even wait for the season to end). The Chargers and 49ers pulled the trigger before the last gameday of the season ended and the biggest surprise so far was Gary Kubiak announcing his retirement at 55 because of health issues, best of luck to him and his family (something tells me his good friend John Elway will keep him around the Broncos family in some capacity). That’s six openings with more that could follow. I bring this up because I’m working on a mock draft and who replaces these guys can have a huge effect on the draft so I’m going to make a few predictions for the sake of doing this mock draft.
The Bills keep interim coach Anthony Lynn, he’s the anti-Rex Ryan. Lynn could build a solid staff seeing as he has been a coach in the league for quite some time and has plenty of connections. The Broncos wait a week to interview Dolphins defensive coordinator Vance Joseph (the Dolphins will be out of the playoffs next week, no way they beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh with Matt Moore at QB) and they hire him to replace Kubiak. The Jaguars GM David Caldwell has a relationship with Josh McDaniels (they played college football together) and I think he convinces McDaniels that he can fix Blake Bortles and the rest of the roster is pretty damn good. The 49ers need a complete overhaul after finally booting GM Trent Baalke and letting Chip Kelly go, enter Mike Shanahan as the football czar and Kyle Shanahan as the head coach. San Diego GM Tom Telesco was also a college teammate of David Caldwell and Josh McDaniels but Phillip Rivers is closer to the end of his career than the beginning and Telesco is likely on a shorter leash than Caldwell. The Chargers don’t have a natural move here so I think they take a shot on a lesser known quantity, Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin, a good coach that could make the most of Phillip Rivers (he’s been coaching Carson Palmer so he’s used to aging pocket passers). Now for the quick domino effect, the LA Rams make a trade with the New Orleans Saints for head coach Sean Payton who they hope can bring the best out of Jared Goff. That leaves the Saints looking for a new head guy and they grab their former assistant Doug Marrone (the interim fill-in for Gus Bradley in Jacksonville, former head coach in Buffalo and at Syracuse). Marrone is a known quantity to the Saints, he knows Drew Brees and he won’t demand as much money or power as Sean Payton or some other coaches. That’s seven openings and there are still a few that look safe but might open up. The Bears could can John Fox but he gets another year, same with Todd Bowles with the Jets. Marvin Lewis says he’s coming back to Cincinnati but the owner hasn’t proclaimed that just yet. Jim Irsay might wake up on the wrong side of the bed and clean house in Indianapolis meaning GM Ryan Grigson and HC Chuck Pagano are gone but I think he waits a year and then clears the deck to go after Jim Harbaugh. The Lions might give Jim Caldwell the boot even after making the playoffs because they team collapsed down the stretch and lost the division to the Packers. If they do move on, either current coordinator, Jim Bob Cooter (offensive) or Teryl Austin (defensive) could get the nod, they team seems on the right path. The last possible move could be a mutual parting of the Houston Texans and head coach Bill O’Brien. O’Brien might be smart to get out of Houston before Brock Osweiler does any more damage to his coach’s reputation (reportedly O’Brien was not in favor of giving Osweiler a huge free agent deal last summer). If Houston loses to a severely wounded Raiders team this week O’Brien may be on the market and he becomes a top candidate for every open job. I’m certainly going to be wrong about some of these, okay a lot of these, okay probably all of these but maybe I get one or two right. Perhaps Nick Caserio leaves the Patriots to become the 49ers GM, takes McDaniels with him as head coach and they trade for QB Jimmy Garoppolo, that would make things interesting for sure. The NFC playoffs look pretty tough with the Cowboys having a great year, the Falcons looking very strong and the Giants and Packers possibly playing the best football of any teams right now. The Seahawks could beat anyone at any time too. The Lions aren’t playing great but that still leaves 5 out of 6 teams with a legitimate shot to move forward. The AFC playoffs don’t exactly look like murder’s row. The Patriots are clearly the top dog with the Chiefs as the two seed and Pittsburgh at number three. The Texans, Raiders and Dolphins are all being led by back up QBs or guys that should be back up QBs. Brock Osweiler may have to step back into his starting role if Tom Savage isn’t cleared in the concussion protocol. The Raiders already lost Derek Carr and now Matt McGloin has a pinched nerve, good luck Connor Cook you may be making your first career start in the playoffs (don’t worry too much though it might be against Brock Osweiler). Career back up Matt Moore is leading the Dolphins at this point, don’t worry Dolphin fans you should have Ryan Tannehill ready to go next year, of course you may be without your defensive coordinator Vance Joseph by then. The best news for the Patriots is that they have a bye week and then will face either the Texans or Raiders unless the Dolphins upset the Steelers, then they would get the Dolphins. That’s called a win-win for the Pats. The possible QBs the Patriots might face in their first playoff game this year are Brock Osweiler, Tom Savage, Matt McGloin, Connor Cook or Matt Moore…wow the AFC was crap this year.
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