The offensive line played well all season, which is why they were competitive in so many games. (In stark contrast to recent years.) Sports illustrated reports that PFF graded them out as 9th overall in the league, led by standout performances by both tackles.
The defensive line was also quite good this year, led by Brian Burns, with PFF ranking them 11th overall.
Skattebo is promising but I’m not ready to crown him as the next CMC quite yet. What I’m most optimistic about is getting Malik Nabers back. The wide receiver room was a huge weakness once he went down, although shout out to Wan’Dale Robinson for stepping up nicely.
I’m a big fan of his 2025 draft class with Abdul Carter – not a star yet but could very well become one next year – Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo and Marcus Mbow, who I thought looked quite good when pressed into service after Andrew Thomas went down.
I was also skeptical about Brian Burns last year but damn if he wasn’t a monster this year, so credit for that move as well.
Plus, he’s recovering from that severe ankle injury which he suffered at the end of October. Reports are that he’s recovering well (thankfully!), but it remains to be seen what the schedule will be for his return to the field (he’s hoping for training camp, from what I’ve read), and if he’ll be able to get back to 100%.
I just saw a report that Sean McDermott has been fired in Buffalo.
Wow. That’s surprising, given that he’s had them on a run of success like they haven’t had since the early '90s. But, they haven’t been able to get over the hump.
They’ve had 1 of the top 5 quarterbacks over the past years, and this year they had a guy who rushed for over 1600 yards. Their defense wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible, either. I guess losing to teams like the Falcons and Dolphins, which prevented them from winning the division, might have figured into the decision, but not getting to the Super Bowl is probably the biggest factor.
But who’s the replacement? Maybe they convince Mike Tomlin to reconsider his decision not to coach next year.
In any given season, there are 31 teams that aren’t going to win it all. Some of them even have a combination of a sufficiently good roster and coaching.
But c’est la vie. I would hope the reasoning is that some kind of shakeup might be needed to get over the hump, and McDermott ended up drawing the short straw (sure as hell wasn’t going to be Josh Allen). Sometimes a fresh perspective does work. But if the reasoning was that McDermott wasn’t a ‘finisher’ or whatever, then that’s just stupid.
But it’s always a big gamble to break up a winning combination. It may work or they may end up wandering the coaching wasteland for a few seasons. High risk in the hope of a high reward. Only time will tell if it pays off.
Personally, I thought the roster was more of an issue, so Beane getting a promotion while McDermott gets the axe is odd but GMs seem to be safer than HCs in general.
Nearly a full third of teams will have a new head coach next season and it wasn’t considered a great year for hot coordinator or college candidates, so next season will probably be quite entertaining in both good and bad ways.
If Belichick ever wants back in, this is his shot. Can’t imagine North Carolina will be heartbroken over losing him.
10 HC openings and probably 4 of them will get filled by just fired HCs (Harbaugh, Stefanski, McDanials, and McDermott)
Harbaugh and Stefanski were already picked up by the Giants and Falcons, respectively, so 8 HC openings left.
Baltimore and Buffalo are clearly the best of the remaining openings, each with a franchise QB in place.
I would be shocked if any team gave Belichick a shot, even if he wanted back in. I think the last few years have really damaged his reputation. Even ignoring all the drama he’d bring, who really thinks he’s still a good coach?
His coaching didn’t get him not fired, his general managing did. Obviously if he demands roster control you say “no thank you” but if I’m a team with no real direction flapping in the wind, as many of these head coach-less teams are, I’d imagine it’s due diligence to at least kick the tires. IF he still wants back in.
He’s now 73 and that’s no age to oversee a rebuild, even if he was still at the top of his game.
True, but not entirely without precedence. Pete Carroll couldn’t possibly have thought the Raiders were in any position to win now.
Agreed. But I think a retroactive look at his coaching would keep him from getting hired again. There were still plenty of people who thought he was the greatest coach ever when he left the Pats, but I don’t think there are many left. And like @Great_Antibob says, the few who still think he was great don’t want to build with a 73 year old.
Fair enough. I don’t disagree with any of that. Hence all the “ifs.” Just saying, with 1/4 of the league head coach-less, anyone remotely on the radar who wants into the league, this is as good a shot as there will ever be.
Among fans, possibly.
Among players and coaches and sportswriters? Plenty who would say he is. Sure, he stuck around too long but there’s still a legitimate argument he should be on the short list. On one of the college playoff pre-game shows a couple weeks ago, the panel asked Nick Saban his greatest coaching influences, and he had Belichick up there as one of his two biggest.
That said, he probably should have left the game of his own accord before it passed him by, but he wouldn’t be the first coach or athlete or whatever who thought he had one more good season in him (see Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, or even Tom Brady himself). Possibly still does.
@Great_Antibob, I think we agree. I’m not denying he was a great coach. That streak wasn’t all Brady. (I mean, someone had to come up with all the clever ways to cheat, right? 
)
But I don’t think he is highly regarded as a good coach today. Whatever the reason – the game has passed him by, he’s lost his edge, he doesn’t have the energy to put in the time required, he can’t connect with players today – people recognize his glory days are long past.
Is he better than any of the eight other people who will be hired this season? Probably yes. But I’m guessing the other teams all feel better taking a risk on a young guy that might or might not work out versus a good coach clearly in his decline.
Yeah, I think we agree. Though, I have no idea if he is or is not a good coach today, at least from an Xs and Os viewpoint. Probably is, actually. But he’s certainly not good in all the other ways a HC has to be in today’s league, including player development and dealing with the front office and all that other stuff. It’s why Saban quit. The on field stuff he could handle but he knew he couldn’t handle the NIL era.
I doubt any of the remaining teams will take a flier on him. I would think he’d want to step into a good situation but the teams with a good situation would not want to have him.
The Raiders are the sort of team to make silly calls like this, but I can’t see the Tom Brady led search committee even entertaining the thought.
It is crazy there are still this many openings. Will be almost a full 1/3 of the league to turn over. It’s still 1/4 open even after two hires. None of the remaining HC’s in the playoffs are in any danger at all. Anyone who might be fired, has been by now.
And Zac Taylor stands alone as the only head coach under contract in the AFC North, but the ice has been slowly thinning under him ever since the diminishing returns after the Super Bowl appearance. Even with the Bengals ownership’s general patience (and tight purse strings), he’s gotta be on a short leash at this point.