There are still five head coaching openings in the NFL, maybe down to four if the Chargers and Jim Harbaugh come to an agreement – but Grant, for one, wonders how some searches ar so quick and others drag on, even with certain NFL rules hindering the process.
“Owners and GMs, every team is different on who has the say, but if you're a struggling team, you're kind of looking at guys for a while, even if your coach is still there until you pull the plug,” NFL analyst Marc Ross told G&D Wednesday. “You kind of have a list of guys that you're looking at, and once the season is over and you fire your coach, then it intensifies and that group shrinks to a more serious group. A lot of times, a lot of these interviews or names that you see out there, they're not serious candidates, they’re just kind of pick the brains of people in certain places, but you get the guys you really like and then whittle it down bring those guys in again to talk with more people involved and get a little bit deeper about coaching staffs and scouting philosophies, so it’s really a process.”
And sometimes you get what happened in Tennessee, where the Titans identified their guy, who was fully available, and once they were sure, they fulfilled all the NFL requirements and made the hire.
Every team hopes they hire the right guy, but also, every coach hopes he gets it right too, as Danny noted a few names spoiled by one or two bad gigs and now seemingly completely off the radar – and sometimes, as in the case of the Texans, a guy like DeMeco Ryans comes in and crushes it, erasing a legacy like the one in Houston where four different guys went 11-38-1 between 2020-22.
So, now, how should candidates view ‘bad jobs,’ with Danny using Carolina as an example?
“Every coaching search and every coaching job is different; everyone wants the right template, but everything is different with the history of the franchise,” Ross said. “There are bad organizations and bad ownership groups and bad situations that look the same, but you mentioned the Texans, the whole thing changes when you get CJ Stroud. Those other guys, whether they were or were not the right guy, didn’t have a generational talent there, but that's just the nature of it. So certain jobs may look better from the outside in, and certain jobs may look terrible, but then you get a guy like that and it changes everything and it's a great job.”
And how does Ross feel about the offense vs. defense conundrum?
“The NFL is a copycat league, and it's true that there's not a lot of innovative thinking or outside thinking the way the NFL does certain things – this is the way, and let's do it, and it doesn't even necessarily have to pan out,” Ross said. “Look at the final four teams left – the best coaches I’ve been around have a presence. I worked with Andy Reid for years, and he is a leader of men, and so is (John) Harbaugh, who was on Andy’s staff. And so is Dan Campbell, and Kyle Shanahan, he's supposed to be the genius there, but there's something he's got there as a great leader that is bringing that team together. The Xs and Os, there’s only so much of a difference with certain coaches, but it's the persona to me with the great coaches that I've been around that really separates them. Brian Callahan, well, he coached Joe Burrow, he's the next young innovative guy, let him be the next Sean McVay - there's only one Sean McVay, but for better or for worse, ownership doesn't really dig in deep to see the difference despite the lengthy interview process.”
That said, sometimes it all comes together like the 2012 Redskins staff with Kyle Shanahan, McVay, Matt LaFleur, and Mike McDaniel on the offensive side with Raheem Morris and Bobby Slowik on defense – four of the premier offensive minds in the NFL and two hot 2024 candidates all on one staff.
Ryans is from the Shanahan tree and Zac Taylor worked under McVay and Campbell, so yeah, sometimes the fruit is there.
“Yeah that’s one, where all those guys were on the same staff, whatever happened there where someone didn't identify like seven dudes were gonna be really good head coaches in a few years, how didn’t they keep one of them?” Ross laughed. “But, you know, it's all about timing and place. Each one of those hires had told us a good story, and they all got some pretty good quarterbacks that they're matched up with, and for the most part, they have been successful. Only one has won it all, but ownership looks at that and says, ‘yep, they've been successful and we want one too.’”
