Jim Zorn is out in Washington, no big surprise there.
The Bills just fired their entire coaching staff, after kicking Dick Jauron to the curb during the season. The article says the fired interim coach could still be re-hired.
Buffalo is in a strange situation. Their defense is actually very good, but their offense is so consistently bad (they haven’t been above 25th in total offense in any of the last eight years) that they’re only going to have a winning season out of dumb luck. What they really need is a new GM, because the holes they have on offense aren’t going to be patched up with a trade here and a trade there.
What’s strange about the Bills is that the better they do on the field, the less control their fan base will have on them. Everyone knows the ownership situation, everyone knows that they’re the “next franchise to move.” It will really kill the fans if they go–there is no big-time college football around here and this is a football town. But the better they do, the more likely they are to move. Which situation would be more attractive to a new owner in a new city: a consistently mediocre team but well-supported like Buffalo, or a team like Jacksonville which has a decent team and a small fan base? Probably Jacksonville–few people will miss them and they can contend for the playoffs next year if necessary. If the Bills start showing signs of life, though, they’re ripe for an owner with deep pockets.
The upshot of all this is that I doubt the Bills will get a big-name coach like Shanahan or Cowher. Ralph Wilson would be just fine with a couple more 7-9 or 6-10 seasons, with the defense (which he apparently likes watching) remaining strong and the offense remaining mediocre. So I’m thinking that Perry Fewell makes a comeback, or maybe we see another defensive co-ordinator taking the reins.
I think a bunch of coaches may sit this year out and wait for the carnage of next year. I mean, Shanahan is getting paid pretty well by the Broncos to sit on his ass.
Shanahan is all anyone’s talking about in DC. Snyder’s not going to go for another untested coach, and Cowher is too unpleasant to look at.
They have a new GM. They’ve had good special teams and I’m surprised they dismissed him, even if keeping only one guy would be weird. They’re not going to get Shanahan and I doubt Cowher will come, although I’d be happy if he did.
A month ago, I thought there’d be a bunch of job openings. But now? Several teams that started terribly closed strong (Panthers, Browns, Bears), which MAY have saved their coaches’ jobs.
The only definite vacancies are Washington (almost certainly going to Shanahan) and Buffalo, which probably isn’t going to look like an attractive position to high profile coaches. Neither will the Oakland job, which MAY open up soon.
So, figure on Jon Gruden staying in the broadcast and Bill Cowher staying retired until some better spots open up next season.
Gruden was already out of the mix. He signed a contract extension with ESPN a few months ago and said he wanted to remain in the broadcast booth for now. But your point is valid. It looks like Fox is definitely coming back in Carolina and Mangini has at least a chance to stay in Cleveland. I don’t know about Chicago.
I think the Giants fired their defensive coordinator.
The Bears’ brass met today to discuss the future direction of the team. We should have answers there in the upcoming 48 hours.
I’m not sure how to read into the fact that the Bears’ assistants were sent home. Does that mean Lovie is staying but many of them aren’t? Does it mean Lovie is getting fired? Does it mean that Angelo is staying and running the meeting?
Please god, show them all the door. Angelo needs to be the first to go and he needs to take Lovie and all “his guys” along with him. Everyone expects Turner to be canned, and I won’t argue with it, but that’d be nothing but scapegoating and diversion.
What about Tampa’s coach, Raheem Morris? What’s happening with him?
Duke, I’m surprised you think a potential new owner gives even half a second’s thought to what the fans think. I think the obvious choice in your scenario is that Buffalo is more attractive than Jacksonville, because results on the field don’t matter (neither do angry fans when you move), and Buffalo fans might transplant to the new team whereas Jacksonville has no fans to transplant. Consistent support is a very valuable thing, and any support you have before you play a game in your new home is a bonus. Better chance of that in Buffalo than in Jacksonville.
ESPN reports that Cowher is not interested in the Bills job.
I’d put money on Cable getting the ax in Oakland. He said the Raiders would be in the playoffs if not for JaMarcus Russell, which is a shot right at Al Davis. I say he’s gone.
Plus, Davis probably intervened in the Napa county case with Cable punching out one of his staff.
Who is Al Davis going to get if he shows Cable the door? You’d have to be a lunatic if you’re an established coach to want to work for Al Davis, and if you’re not an established coach Oakland is where careers go to start and die almost simultaneously. A rookie nobody head coach isn’t going to have the clout to say no to Al Davis.
Oakland is a mess, and it’s all thanks to the jerkoff upstairs who lost any semblance of football relevance a long time ago but still thinks he’s the biggest football genius that ever was.
As far as the Redskins go, same same. Dan Snyder needs to shut up and count his money or they’re never going anywhere.
Leach to the Raiders 
I’d say you could leave the smilie off that comment. Vegas probably has the odds off the board for that bet. It’s predestined.
Davis and Leach deserve each other.
Not a head coach, but the Giants have reportedly fired their D coordinator.
Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell resigned (likely saw the writing on the wall) a couple of weeks ago. At the post-game press conference on Sunday, coach Jim Mora dropped the phrase, “I hope if I get an opportunity to continue coaching…”
Looks like he’s staying.
The interesting thing about the whole Cable Decks Assistant Coach story is that the assistant coach, Randy Hanson, is apparently an Al Davis guy. It sounds like he was on the staff to keep tabs on people for Davis and Cable didn’t want him there. That doesn’t make it okay for Cable to slug him or anything, but I think that’s why there was an incident. And if Davis had a guy like that on his staff and rehired him after the allegations against Cable were dismissed, it tells you Davis isn’t really a big fan of Tom Cable anyway.
Al Davis isn’t a fan of having to have a head coach in the first place. It’s like play-calling is Davis’s precious.
Well, the news I was fearing is now official. Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo will both return for the 2010 season. Massive changes are happening amongst the coaching staff with the OC Ron Turner fired along with almost all of the offensive position coaches. Lovie Smith will no longer be the DC and a new man from outside the organization will be hired. No news on any changes amongst the personnel department, which is probably the area in most desperate need of changes, but Angelo said they are evaluating that as always. Basically he didn’t answer the question, but hopefully the new blood brought in on the coaching staff and some offseason re-evaluation can improve the scouting and player development.
So what are the silver linings?
Lovie will be coaching with his back against the wall and Angelo will be as well. There’s no room for playing it safe and that’s been a big issue with this staff thus far, so taking some risks with personnel and scheme could work out. Lovie will no longer be able to coddle his players and might have to re-evaluate his touchy-feely management style.
Lovie will be neutered in many ways. The defense will be turned over to a new DC who’ll have many of his own ideas and will have his own choices for players. Lovie obviously will have veto power but one can assume that a new coach will bring changes within the Tampa 2 structure. So, hopefully this circumstance will have the better traits of everyone involved surfacing and the bad ones filtered out. At the very least the coaching changes will quiet the Lovie echo chamber that Halas Hall had become.
The Bears will have to build an offensive coaching staff that takes Jay Cutler and his skills as the key priority. No more trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Hopefully the scheme and the youth on the team will all develop under one comprehensive concept that is built to primarily exploit Cutler’s strengths and minimize his flaws.
They kept the WR coach and RB coach. Interesting since the running game was so poor this season and the WRs while young and developing nicely made a lot of route running mistakes and seemed to block very poorly. The way Aromashodu was buried on the roster doesn’t speak that highly of Darryl Drake and Jim Spencer oversaw the mess that was the Cedric Benson situation and Matt Forte’s decline, not to mention coaching a very shallow group of guys. Were both guys kept because they are the ones who didn’t argue against some bad personnel decisions for on high?
Most of the defensive coaches were kept which is strange. Obviously that could make it tougher to land a new DC and it makes me wonder what the motivation was there. In the grand scheme of things the defense was a bigger issue than the offense, and there’s little doubt that the defensive coaches are all “Lovie Guys”. There will be a lot of new players and leaders gone on the field next year, so the defensive staff will have a tall task.
Hopefully things will become more clear in the weeks to come. This probably means that any pipe dream of getting Heimerdinger is gone, but maybe he’ll keep his job in Tennessee and still be available for the taking when Lovie flops next year.
Perry Fewell, the fired interim HC for the Bills, has been rumored as an option as the DC. Supposedly there’s interest and Lovie and Fewell have a history together, Fewell was with him in St. Louis and spent a season in Chicago in 2004 I think. I liked what Fewell did with an undersized and undermanned defense in Buffalo especially versus the pass and that’d be great to see in Chicago. But, I dislike the idea of another Lovie guy coming to town who’ll just toe the company line. I don’t know enough about Fewell’s schemes and personality to know if he’d bring positive changes to the defense or if he’d just be more of the same.
Unfortunately I have a feeling that this will all come down to the OC hire, and we’ll need to morph into a offensive team that disguises a weak defense. Our coaches and players just don’t have the chops be be elite, but if the offense is steady and puts them into good situations they can make plays like in 2006.