With Kyle Shanahan all but signed on as the 49ers' next sacrificial lamb head coach, all six coaching jobs have been filled. Shanahan joins Sean McVay (Rams), Doug Marrone (Jaguars), Sean McDermott (Bills), Anthony Lynn (Chargers) and Vance Joseph (Broncos) as the coaching Class of 2017.
I certainly have made my thoughts known on the state of NFL coaching, and I'm not overly enthused about this group outside of Shanahan and McDermott, who both have the type of track record (multiple years as a coordinator, coaching in different systems with different coaches) that seems to be indicative of success.
But I wanted to get more of a sense of what people inside the game think about the big picture in regards to this latest round of coaching hires, a job pool that didn't entice Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels enough to take a job. So I asked three executives, all from successful franchises, what they thought. It wasn't pretty, and their scorn was universally aimed at one place: the owners.
"They've made a lot of money in business, but it's incredible to me how far out of their depth they really are on this," said one executive. "They have absolutely no idea what they're doing. Look at Jacksonville. They keep Marrone—I mean, he was an assistant head coach on that team the past two years [8–24], was he not?—and say he's by far the best candidate. After speaking to McDaniels, Shanahan and Mike Smith? Are you kidding? He was obviously the best candidate to give that whole group another shot at proving they put together a good team and quarterback. Bulletin: They're not that good, it wasn't Gus's fault. And then, after hiring Marrone, the owner hires Tom Coughlin to oversee everything. Basically he's telling [GM] Dave [Caldwell] what to do? How else is that going? I don't know. I think that most of these places are screwed up."
That was basically the consensus: Owners are morons.
"I think the one thing about these jobs is the only way for true success is if you're philosophically aligned in everything that you do," said another executive. "And that means everything. From how you grade draft prospects to what your philosophy is on surgeries to your free-agent process and your position descriptions. There's a laundry list of things that you have to have the right partner. You can't be trying to mesh two philosophies that are different. It's just very difficult. Somebody's got to be the bull, whether it's the GM or the coach, and they both have to see everything the exact same way."
They have a point. Look at this season's most successful franchises. Bill Belichick has full control of the Patriots. In Dallas, Jason Garrett had been with the Cowboys and knew exactly what he was signing up for. In Kansas City, Andy Reid brought in long-time friend John Dorsey to run personnel. In Atlanta, coach Dan Quinn was given final organizational say and works with GM Thomas Dimitroff on everything. The Steelers have a tried and true organizational philosophy. The Seahawks are Pete Carroll's show, and GM John Schneider was brought in to get Carroll's players. In Green Bay, Ted Thompson is a strong GM, but he had previous experience with Mike McCarthy before hiring him. John Elway runs the show in the Denver, and he won biggest with a coach (Gary Kubiak) he had a lot of history with.
Now let's look at the recently failed regimes, they all have the same theme: all five involved shotgun marriages between coaches and GMs that had no previous working relationships (Les Snead/Jeff Fisher, Rams; Dave Caldwell/Gus Bradley, Jaguars; Doug Whaley/Rex Ryan, Bills; Tom Telesco/Mike McCoy, Chargers; Trent Baalke/Chip Kelly, 49ers).
None of this year's new hires has a past with the dominant power broker in the building. Elway at least has a loose relationship with Joseph through Kubiak, who had Joseph on his Texans staff. Marrone and Caldwell certainly have a history from the past two years, but if Coughlin now calls all the shots, that doesn't count for much.
All the while, both McDaniels and Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia will be in their current jobs for at least another year. Why? No one has a good answer. The 49ers insisted on interviewing GM candidates, which may have turned off McDaniels, who wanted to choose his own GM. McDaniels likely told the Rams and Jaguars the truth—that both their young quarterbacks (Jared Goff and Blake Bortles) were not the answer—while the GMs that traded up (Rams) or overdrafted (Jaguars) to get both were part of the interviews. Gee, I wonder why both teams then went with coaches (McVay and Marrone) who will gladly work with those quarterbacks.
"The only way McDaniels is going to take a head job is it's got to be that way: He has to be working with somebody that he knows," said another executive. "Belichick is a brilliant guy and Brady is awesome, I get all that. But if you were an owner and you hire a guy from that system, wouldn't you want that guy to use that model? Why argue against that model? That model has been successful for 16 years now. It's incredible. Belichick only wins because of Brady? That's the dumbest thing you could ever say. There's a process to how they do things. Why wouldn't you encourage him to utilize that process? I don't understand it."
Between keeping Roger Goodell in his job and failing to fill open jobs within their own franchises efficiently, this is the latest installment of the running series "how owners are ruining the NFL".
http://www.si.com/nfl/2017/01/19/nfl-coaches-josh-mcdaniels-conference-championship-games
