NFL Coaching Carousel

The Game Room
1

Black Monday is tomorrow. Make your predictions, add to the rumors, and report actual firings and hirings.

I’m so sick of hearing about Jim Harbaugh. I think, and really hope, he goes to Michigan. His ego would be a good fit, he will have a statue erected if he can beat MSU and Ohio State, and he’ll be treated like the God he thinks he is.

Ken Whisenhut in Tennessee needs to go. Aside from catching a couple Kurt Warner hot streaks, Whisenhut has been a miserable failure.

I’m hoping for both Ryans to be fired on the same day.

Trestman is gone, and Chicago better not fantasize about hiring Rex Ryan for head coach. Rex would be fine as defensive coordinator. Rob Ryan can just go away.

2

Idzik gets fired and Rex stays!
Sorry Jets fans.

3

It’s finally the year for the Tom Coughlin rumors to come true.

4

Whoever is the coach in Chicago is going to have a tough time with the handicap of an over paid under achiever under center.

5

Don’t they always?

6

Ron Rivera did just good enough at the end of the season to keep his job another year

7

It is? I’m going to be late for work!

8

LOL, I don’t know what I was thinking when I posting that.

9

Maybe you just didn’t want to see jay Cutler start another game this year? :slight_smile:

10

Coughlin needs to go as well as Mike Smith of the Falcons.

11

The latest rumor is that the entire Bears front office, all the way up to Ted Phillips, will be let go tomorrow. We’ll see. There have been a ton of conflicting rumors, one of which has Emery and Cutler staying and Shanahan coming in to coach.

I’m pretty confused honestly. I don’t know what I want. If they take the scorched earth method and dump everyone and trade Cutler it’s going to be a long miserable 2-3 years of rebuilding, and that’s the optimistic timeline.

I certainly am on board with Ted Phillips getting the axe. Trestman seemed delusional thinking he’d be back in the post-game presser, but I think dumping him is a foregone conclusion. Tucker and DeCamillis will go too, a year too late frankly. Emery and Cutler are a little tougher to figure.

In other news, the Jets have apparently engaged Ron Wolf to help conduct their GM/coaching search. Idzik is gone, Rex is less certain but still likely gone. The Falcons have engaged Korn Ferry to consult on a coaching hire to replace Smith too, seems like Dimitroff is probably safe but it’s no sure thing.

Harbaugh to Michigan looks like it’s officially official. Interesting, and probably a good fit on both sides. Will be interesting for the Big Ten.

Lots of Bears fans are clamoring for Rex Ryan. I’m on the fence but certainly curious about the possibility. I think Rex has over-achieved in New York considering how screwed up that organization is but I’m leery about his organizational skills and ability to hire offensive coaches. Also not in love with his talent evaluation skills, if hired he needs to be completely separated from personnel matters.

The rest of the noise seems to be about landing one of the trendy coordinators, Bevell, Quinn, Bowles and Gase but I’m generally not as enthusiastic about assuming a good Xs and Os guy can be a leader. Bowles is my favorite of that group, but he’s pretty raw.

One website floated Bret Bielema as a sleeper candidate which intrigues me. I like the “executive” experience he brings and I always liked his style of football. Certainly would be a very risky hire.

12

I’m still holding out hope my Raiders can finangle Harbaugh, but I think the money at Michigan will just be too much. Failing that, maybe they can get Rex Ryan if he gets axed - the guy is a great coach, just needs to find a better offensive coordinator and players (as Omniscient said, he might well lack good player evaluation skills for offensive guys, depending on how much input he had in that area).

So, here’s my reading on the situations:

  • 49ers: Have already fired Harbaugh. GM is safe.
  • Raiders: Already fired Dennis Allen, could promote Tony Sparano from interim to full time head coach. GM Reggie McKenzie looks to be safe.
  • Bears: Who knows. GM Phil Emery is probably gone, less sure on Trestman. Will be interesting to see what happens with Cutler and his $15M anchor of a contract.
  • Jets: Will almost definitely fire GM John Idzik, less sure on Rex Ryan - saw a report that the owner might well leave it up to the new GM to choose, since he knows Ryan is a good coach, he just needs a better offensive coach/players.
  • Falcons: I bet Mike Smith is gone, and possibly the GM too.

Teams that should fire their coaches, but won’t:

  • Titans: Never should’ve hired Whisenhunt in the first place, and he did nothing to change that, but they won’t fire him after one year. Might buy himself a couple years if they draft someone like Jameis Winston
  • Redskins: Harder to say since the whole organization from the owner to RG3 is such a wreck, but I don’t really think Jay Gruden is cut out to be an NFL head coach. Has been told he’ll get another year, likely without RG3
  • Saints: Should (will?) definitely fire Rob Ryan. Could even argue that they would be justified in getting rid of Sean Payton, given that he was unable to even go .500 and win his division.
  • Giants: Already have said that Coughlin can basically stay until he wants to retire
  • Jaguars: I know it’s hard to turn around, but Gus Bradley probably should’ve done more by now. Probably gets another year though.

Thing is, there aren’t many good options at head coach floating around… Harbaugh, Rex Ryan, and that’s about it IMO. A lot of the names I’ve seen bandied about (Josh McDaniels, Jack Del Rio, Adam Gase) aren’t impressive. Todd Bowles is an interesting name, but I can’t help but wonder how many teams will only be interviewing him for Rooney Rule reasons.

13

So far, we’ve got the 49ers and Harbaugh ‘parting ways’ and the Jets firing Idzik and Rex Ryan.

Falcons likely to fire Smith, they’ve announced a press conference later today.

14

Trestman and Emery are both gone in Chicago. I’ve also read that Ted Phillips may be moving into a non-football role.

Mike Smith is, indeed, gone in Atlanta.

15

Yup, all good in my view. I have some worries about the timing, it will probably take a couple weeks to hire a GM and that has to happen before we can begin the coaching search. There’s a real risk that we’ll miss out on the cream of the crop for HC candidates to the teams that have GMs in place. Let’s hope the Bears job is worth waiting for if you’re a HC candidate. Falcons, Bears, Jets, Niners…all really desirable jobs for different reasons.

The bigger news is the Bears have engaged Ernie Accorsi to consult on the GM and Coaching hires. That is incredibly good news. Considering that Ted Phillips is moving away from the football side, Accorsi will fill that void. I think ideally they convince Accorsi to stay as football czar along side Phillips, but I doubt that’s going to happen. I think Ernie is happily retired. Still, we have the right football guy involved in this hiring process.

16

I don’t think there’s any ‘cream of the crop’ candidates except for maybe Rex Ryan, and even then, he’d need a good OC to go with him. All the other names I’m seeing bandied about are either terrible choices or coordinators on playoff teams that won’t be available for awhile.

17

They got some good advice from a solid football guy last time and blithely ignored it.

Having Accorsi’s opinion is one thing; acting on it is another. Maybe Accorsi will be granted more deference than Marinelli was - after all, they’re paying him for his advice. But it’s by no means a sure thing.

18

Emery was the one who ignored it, Emery is now gone. Although I’m annoyed by the whole “Emery caused Marinelli to leave narrative” that’s going around right now. Arians wanted to hire his own staff, so Marinelli would’ve been gone anyway.

19

I don’t think anyone on the outside can really say if there is or isn’t. We don’t know if Bevell, Quinn or Gase will be “great interviews” in this bye week window. There’s been stories of little known coordinators and coaches in the past who really popped during their interviews like Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. You can’t rule out one of these guys locking down an offer before the Bears even get underway.

The point is, the public perception of the “cream of the crop” doesn’t really matter. There’s so few transformative coaches out there, missing out on a chance to talk to any of them would be risky.

20

You’re right, but I don’t know why you think Arians wouldn’t have considered Marinelli. Arians had no history with Bowles before hiring him in Arizona. Now, if the story is that Emery was forcing Marinelli on the new HC, then that’s a problem, but I haven’t heard that.