So Your Team Hired A New Coach Part 2

BY ADAM GREENE

We continue our look at the NFL’s coaching changes. If you want to see how I thought the Redskins and Cowboys did, check out Part 1.

HIGHEST RISK/REWARD
JOE JUDGE, NEW YORK GIANTS

The track record for the Bill Belichick coaching tree has not been good. In fact, of all the guys that coached under Belichick, the only one that’s had any real success in the NFL is Bill O’Brien, who you might remember is the architect of one of the greatest playoff choke jobs in all of NFL history. If you can’t recall that, just think real hard. It happened last Saturday.

Everyone else; Nick Saban, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Josh McDaniels, Al Groh, Matt Patricia and Brian Flores all have horrid losing records. You can’t really count Mike Vrabel, who has a wining coaching record, since he never coached under the Super Genius. He just played for him.

Obviously Saban has done pretty well as a college coach, the jury is still out on Flores and McDaniels has earned another shot through his offensive playcalling prowess, but the rest of these guys? Garbage.

So why is there a “reward” for Judge, who’s never even been a coordinator? Other guys have stepped in as head coaches with similar resumes and done alright, namely Andy Reid and John Harbaugh.

And he said something during his press conference that impressed me. And if I was a Giants fan, it would make me feel pretty hopeful.

“What I learned from Coach Belichick is real simple,” Judge said. “Be flexible with your personnel. Don’t try to shove square pegs in a round hole. Figure out what you have. Let them play to their strengths. Don’t sit in a meeting and tell me what you don’t have in a player. Don’t tell me they can’t do a certain thing. Tell me what they can do and we’ll figure out as coaches, because that’s our job, how we can use that.”

Amen. How many players have you seen bog down in a place because they don’t “fit a system” only to see them flourish somewhere else? I dig that. Giants fans, you should too.

Upgrade over previous coach?
It’s too early to tell, but Pat Shurmur was trash. There’s no way he could be worse.

MOST BORING HIRE
MATT RHULE, CAROLINA PANTHERS

If you wanted to draw up the least inspiring and unexciting coaching prospect you could find, he’d look a whole lot like Matt Rhule. Sure, he built decent enough college programs twice, first at Temple from 2013-2016 and then at Baylor form 2017-2019, but so what?

These were not elite schools in elite conferences and they certainly didn’t play significant schedules. When he did get those teams back in the win column and in bowl games, he went 1-2 in Bowl games against legit opponents (1-3 if you count Temple’s loss in the 2016 Military Bowl to Wake Forest after he left and took the Baylor job).

He did a good job as a college coach. He was due an upgrade and if he’d landed somewhere like Mississippi State or Florida State it would have made perfect sense. But the Carolina Panthers?

Did nobody else put in for this job?

Upgrade over previous coach?
No. This job should have never been open in the first place. Ron Rivera is a good coach and the Panthers were stupid to fire him after the pretty terrific job he did keeping this team competitive for the first half of the season. Rhule might turn out to be alright or even good, but you had a good guy and you ran him out of town.

KIRK COUSINS GETS ANOTHER GUY HIRED
KEVEN STEFANSKI, CLEVELAND BROWNS

Speaking of coaching trees, we’ve got a new one we need to look at; guys that made Kirk Cousins look like a halfway decent quarterback. Two guys have, Sean McVay and now Kevin Stefanski, and they both landed head coaching positions.

We really don’t need to undersell Cousins’ part in all this. Obviously, team ownership and the decision makers are paying attention and asking the important questions like, “If this guy can make Kirk Cousins look like he actually belongs on an NFL playing surface, what could he do with a QB with real talent?”

Stefanski helped put together the gameplan that beat the New Orleans Saints in the Wild Card round, but also was the architect of a seven total first down, 147 total yard performance against the San Francisco 49ers the following week. But he’s basically got McVay’s resume at this point. So we’ll see what happens.

Upgrade over previous coach?
Over Freddie Kitchens? That’s not a difficult bar to clear, but the jury is out. Stefanski probably earned the right to be on some head coaching lists, but there are guys still coaching, namely the Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy and 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Selah. But maybe Stefanski still beats those guys out in the end. Of the three guys mentioned in this article, he seems the most deserving of an NFL head coaching job.

Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!