Calling the new NFL coaches all questionable hires is an understatement. We have our Boomers, the retread coaches, and our Millennials, the ones who are greener than green. Whatever happened to the traditionally successful hire?
Once upon a time, NFL teams promoted star coordinators to be head coaches. These men were offensive or defensive savants, so the team hiring them to be head coach knew that at least one unit of their football team would be exceptional. So what on Earth is happening in 2020?
Our new NFL coaches are either retreads that were out to pasture or so green that we dare not eat that banana. It’s Boomers versus Millennials in the purest football sense. The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys hired Boomers. The New York Giants and Carolina Panthers hired Millennials. Cleveland can’t make up its mind, which is so Boomer they don’t even know it.
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the new NFL coaches in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Dan Salem:
Maybe this is the year that a college coach truly succeeds in the NFL. We’ve had some bright spots, but very few success stories. Maybe this is the year that a practically retired coach goes all the way with his new team. There’s a first time for everything. Or maybe this is the year that a team like the Browns foregoes a head coach entirely, because no one they hire works out anyways.
Having zero experience didn’t work. Having too much experience didn’t work. Do you like any of these new NFL coaches? Will any of them actually be successful in year one? Washington and New York will have sophomore quarterbacks. Who knows who will play in Carolina. At least Dallas has the scaffolding of a good team in place.
Call me crazy, but this is the most uninspired group of new coaches in a very long time.
Todd Salem:
There is an obvious, required caveat to this conversation. None of us have any idea who is actually going to be a good head coach. Sometimes the “stupid” hires work out. John Harbaugh went straight from special teams coordinator to head coach in 2008 and has a Super Bowl ring. Maybe that’s Joe Judge.
Sean McVay was 30 years old when he got hired as Los Angeles’ head coach. He won AP Coach of the Year and made the Super Bowl within two seasons. Maybe that’s…also Joe Judge.
We’ve seen college hotshots shoot up the national radar and move into the NFL in a split. We’ve seen guys become coordinators for one year before being bumped up again. The latter seems to be working for Mike Vrabel.
All of those scenarios have also failed in other instances. Likewise, hiring a retread veteran coach sometimes works out and sometimes fails. There is no set blueprint for success, which makes every head coaching hire interesting.
That said, boy, these hires look questionable! I actually like Ron Rivera, but overall, these decisions seem either uninspired as you said, or somehow too inspired. I understand the desire to strike gold with the person on the sidelines. In this sport, they can make the difference between a failure and a playoff team. But there is something to be said for hitting a solid double, rather than striking out, if I may mix my metaphors.
The New York Giants are figuratively swinging for the fences. They must really know something or have seen something in Judge to make this pluck out of nowhere. Sure, Bill Belichick gave him a recommendation, but Belichick disciples have failed time and again. In fact, the Belichick tree is one of the most consistent head coaching paths to follow; it just usually works out poorly.
Judge must give a great interview too. That’s something that seems to have failed Eric Bieniemy, one of the coaching candidates who follows the “classic” development path of working their way up through organizations, being an offensive or defensive coordinator for multiple years, and then finally getting their shot.
Boomers versus Millennials is a funny way to put it. So where’s the hiring love for Bieniemy and the rest of Gen X? (Matt Rhule is technically also Gen X, but he comes from college. He’s a young buck in the pro coaching game regardless of his birth certificate.) Sean McDermott isn’t winning any COTY awards, but he seems like a very solid coach. Same goes for Mike Zimmer, Doug Pederson and Frank Reich.
Maybe you’d say I’m cherry-picking coaches who followed the standard development path, but there are a lot of coaches who have. It’s why the path became standard. The new hires could work out for all of these franchises, but they sure seem like overly risky decisions for something so important.