The NFL news continues to pile up this week as most teams start their offseason while the fortunate four prepare for conference championship weekend. The biggest news has to be the resignation/retirement of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy. This didn't necessarily come as a huge shock as Dungy had intimated before the season that this could very well be his final run; he had even gone so far as to name a successor. The Colts followed through with the promise to name Jim Caldwell, the Colts' quarterbacks coach for the past several years, as the new head coach despite some of the big names available.
The other big news is the filling of arguably the most high-profile coaching job opening in the league. With the Broncos naming former Patriots' offensive coordinator (and recent high school graduate, or so I'm told) Josh McDaniels as their new head coach, the number of coaching vacancies has dropped to three, although there remains the possibility that the Chiefs will let Herm Edwards go. This became an even greater possibility, even a likelihood, with the Chiefs hiring of Scott Pioli as general manager. Pioli is another former Patriot, meaning that the Patriots are having an impact on almost half of the league in one way or another. Whether this is for the best remains to be seen.
Looking at the history of Bill Belichick alum, success has been hard to come by. The most recent Belichick coaches have been mediocre at best. The first to leave the nest, former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, have found significant difficulty in their time as head men. Weis had a great start at Notre Dame four years ago making a BCS bowl in his first season (with star quarterback Brady Quinn leading the Irish), but Notre Dame lost that bowl game in a rout and has been in decline since, even going just 3-9 in 2007 before "bouncing back" to 7-6 last year. Although Weis signed a 10-year contract extension after that first successful season, Irish boosters were still willing to put together the $10 million+ that it would take to buy him out (read: fire him). This hasn't happened... yet.
For Crennel, the success didn't come until his third year as Cleveland Browns head coach. With quarterback issues plaguing the team in its first two years, the Browns rode a great season (resulting in a Pro Bowl) by QB Derek Anderson to a 10-6 record in 2007, yet the brutal AFC prevented the Browns from making the playoffs. This also happened to be a contract year for the third year pro Anderson, meaning the Browns were forced to commit significant money to a one-year wonder in case he carried that 2007 season into a quality career. Signs point to no on that, although Anderson suffered multiple injuries in 2008 and the Browns back-slid with a 6-10 record and Crennel is gone.
The third Belichick disciple to leave was Eric Mangini, who had replaced Crennel as Pats defensive coordinator in 2005. In 2006, Mangini took over the Patriots' division rival New York Jets when the aforementioned Herm Edwards was fired, and Mangini found immediate success making the playoffs in his first season. The following two years were tumultuous, however, as the Jets went 4-12 in 2007 due to quarterback Chad Pennington's season-long battle with shoulder injuries and followed that up with the Year of Favre in 2008. This season the Jets started out extremely well with much fanfare after the trade for the future Hall of Fame quarterback, but as the year dragged on and the weather grew colder and more unpredictable, so did Favre. The Jets offense lost its ability to move the ball consistently and the defense wasn't good enough to make up for it, leading the Jets to finish a disappointing 9-7 and fail to make the playoffs, costing Mangini his job.
Mangini bounced back quickly, landing the Browns job from Crennel, but the fact remains that Bill Belichick's coaching tree, while large in number, has yet to find significant success outside of Massachusetts. Does this mean McDaniels and Mangini will fail, or that Weis and the Irish will not rebound, or that Crennel should be out of football? Of course not. At least I hope not as a Broncos fan. It just means that not all great coaches produce other great coaches, and not all great assistants become quality head coaches (just ask Cam Cameron).
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the blog, please post below or I can be reached at chrisf884@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.
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2 comments:
What's your take on the recent Gruden firing?
I'm surprised that they fired Gruden (and GM Bruce Allen) now. If the Bucs ownership felt he needed to go or that they disagreed with his vision for the direction of the franchise, why didn't they figure that out right after the season? Why wait until now, when everyone else (except possibly the Chiefs) is preparing to finish their coaching and front office hirings? Now they'll be playing catch-up with the interview process and may miss out on the coach they want. Sounds like organizational dysfunction at this point.
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