The NFL Coaching Carousel
The season only ended a few days ago, and already we’ve got eight teams without head coaches.
- Detroit canned Mariucci early
- Dick Vermeil supposedly retired from Kansas City
- Mike Martz was shown the door by St. Louis
- New Orleans finally wised up and got rid of Jim Haslett
- The Raiders and Norv Turner were a lousy match
- I’m surprised Minnesota let Mike Tice finish his season
- Houston gave Dom Capers plenty of opportunity
- Green Bay should have canned Sherman two years ago
First I think that canning Mariucci was the wrong thing to do. I’ve said for years that Detroit will never win with Matt Millen at the helm, and apparently the NFL world has finally started realizing that as well. I predict interim coach Dick Jauron will remain the head coach of the Lions.
St. Louis has successfully squandered a wealth of talent, progressively getting worse each year since Dick Vermeil’s last retirement. Mike Martz may be a decent offensive coordinator, but he’s a lousy head coach. The real problems in St. Louis, however, start in their front office. Given the talent on the Rams team, however, I think Mariucci is the best man for the job.
Dick Vermeil — like Bill Parcells — will retire and come back every few years. (Well, that’s if you believe this wasn’t a forced retirement.) Not to mention that he still needed something to cry about this year. He’ll be back soon enough, but for now the odds are on KC dealing Herm Edwards away from the Jets, which leaves New York in need of a head coach. The last time a team paid big to get someone else’s coach, that team ended up winnnig a Super Bowl. Keep that in mind.
The last time a team’s head coach was bought away by another team, he was replaced by his assistant head coach and the team began its three-year nose dive. Look for the Jets to have learned the lesson of Bill Callahan. I think the best fit for the Jets might be Mike Sherman. He’s the only cold, outdoor coach on the market… and his win-loss record ain’t so bad either.
That brings us to Green Bay. Sherman should have been fired when Green Bay failed to beat Philadelphia in the playoffs two years ago. And when he was allowed to shift the blame and fire his defensive coordinator, he should have been fired again. Instead, he was allowed to waste the last two years of Brett Favre’s career while potential replacements like Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weiss, Marvin Lewis, and Lovie Smith were snatched up by cold, outdoor football teams. I really don’t see a coach available now who’d be a good fit for the Packers. Maybe Jim Fassel or Brad Childress.
New Orleans has consistenly had a wealth of talent, yet consistently managed to finish each season with a lousy record, and somehow Jim Hasslett has managed to keep his job the whole time. It’s about time Tom Benson wised up and fired him. Mike Martz would be just the guy to go into New Orleans and improve their record… but he’s more likely to end up somewhere else. Steve Mariucci would also be a good fit here, but I don’t think Benson’s mind works that fast so I expect Mariucci to be off the market too soon, and the Saints to be left with another loser coach: Mike Tice.
Thank you Zygi Wilf for not wasting a single day. I suspect Wilf planned to fire Tice the moment he took over ownership of the team, but chose to wait until the season ended for the sake of his players. Tice had to be fired. Anyone would be better than Tice, but with a good core of talent and a new owner I would expect to see a seasoned coach — someone like Dan Reeves.
Norv Turner spent seven years in Washington racking up a 49-59-1 regular season record, and went 1-1 in the playoffs. It’s obvious that Al Davis isn’t going to waste seven years of Raiders talent learning the same lesson — in fact, I’m surprised he wasted two. The word on Oakland is that Davis is interested in Mike Martz — unless he can manage to lure Art Shell back.
I don’t know if I think Dom Capers was the problem in Houston, but he obviously wasn’t the solution either. The Texans have expressed interest in Gary Kubiak, but I’ll bet they would be happy to have any of the other 4 dome coaches who were fired this year.
