Coaching Carousel

What do Sean Payton, Rod Miranelli, Mike McCarthy, Brad Childress, Eric Mangini & Scott Linehan have in common?

In the past week, they've all been hired to become NFL head coaches.

What else?

As of a week ago, they all had zero head coaching experience in the NFL.

Dear Saints, Rams, Lions, Vikings, Jets & Packers. Congratulations, you've all made the right moves. Sincerely, a loyal NFL fan.

A little less than a month ago there were 9 head coaching vacancies. Mike Martz, Steve Mariucci, Mike Tice, Jim Haslett, Mike Sherman, Dom Capers, Norv Turner & Mike Mularkey were all out of jobs.

The 6 teams I mentioned before plus a few others were now all in the market for new coaches. If you went to any major website and looked at the list of candidates to fill their coaching vacancies, it read:

Mike Martz, Steve Mariucci, Mike Tice, Jim Haslett, Mike Sherman, Dom Capers, Norv Turner, & Mike Mularkey.

What?

9 teams fire coaches this season only to interview the 8 other coaches that had just been fired? What did you think, no big deal, they failed elsewhere, they'll be great for our rebuilding program! That same thinking has been going on in the NFL for the last 5 or so years now. 75% of the time, when a head coach gets hired, you can immediately say "wow I remember when he sucked in _____."

But thankfully for everyone in the league, it looks like teams are starting to break away from that. Of the 7 coaches hired so far this year (counting Herm Edwards in KC), 1 was a head coach last year, 1 was a QB coach, 1 was a defensive line coach, 1 was a defensive co-ordinator and 3 were offensive co-ordinators.

And all the teams that made those hirings are all the better for it.

In order for new good coaches to come along, they have to start somewhere. Bill Belicheck wasn't born with NFL experience. He served his time under Parcells for 20 years. Andy Reid was under Mike Holmgren. Tom Coughlin was under Bill Parcells. Romeo Crennel was under Bill Belicheck. Tony Dungy & Herm Edwards were under Dick Vermeil & Marty Schottenheimer. But then one day an NFL team came along and took a chance on all of them, and they became head coaches. And they became really good head coaches.

I'm not saying all 6 of the guys hired in the last week are going to go on to be great in the next 10 years. You have to play the percentages. One will absolutely do a horrible job. 2 more will be on the lesser side of mediocre. 2 more will be on the right side of average. And odds are one of these 6 guys will be a top of the line NFL coach within the next 5 years or so.

My money would be on either Eric Mangini or Brad Childress. In fact, I'll go against the numbers and say that these two are both going to have very good NFL head coaching careers. Very good. Linehan, Miranelli, McCarthy & Payton all have the tools to be successful as well.

These are 6 great candidates with no experience who are just what 6 struggling franchises needed to kickstart their turn-around. Now we get to watch that happen.

Hopefully the Raiders, Texans & Bills, the 3 teams with head coaching vacancies, are taking notes. Because if they were smart, they'd be going after another hotshot young coordinator who has the tools to be the next Bill Belicheck.