BY ADAM GREENE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unless something shockingly unexpected happens, our head coaching hiring season has come to an inglorious end with the addition of David Culley to the Houston Texans. We had seven openings, with the Philadelphia Eagles coming in late and hot to the party so that led to some uncertainty this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As should be expected, now that all these jobs are filled, it\u2019s my job to judge each selection as I see fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS \u2013 URBAN MEYER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: Fox Sports analyst<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meyer is the only proven commodity entering the NFL head coaching class this season after a storied and likely Hall of Fame worthy NCAA coaching career. Meyer won two national titles with the Florida Gators in 2005 and 2008 and another with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2014, claiming the first College Football Playoff championship in the process. The fact that the Jaguars were able to get this to happen still frankly surprises me. It\u2019s as much of a no-brainer move, especially for a team based in Florida, as you could get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the fact that Meyer was an all-time elite college coach doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019ll be able to coach in the NFL. Certainly guys have tried and failed before, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier to name two. But Meyer seems to have the disposition for it and as long he stays physically healthy (which could be a problem), he\u2019ll have plenty of leeway and picks to build up his version of the Jaguars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Only three head coaches have won both an NCAA National Championship and a Super Bowl; Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. NEW YORK JETS \u2013 ROBERT SALEH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saleh was on pretty much every team\u2019s short list for good reason. He\u2019s unquestionably been one of the league\u2019s best defensive minds since he took over the 49ers defense in 2017. He built a Super Bowl unit that remained one of the league\u2019s best even in an injury riddled 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also happens to be one of the few defensive minded coaches that brings an offense to the table, specifically the one San Francisco ran under Kyle Shanahan. Mike LaFleur, the Niners\u2019 passing game coordinator, will run the Jets\u2019 new attack with whoever they end up with at quarterback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. ATLANTA FALCONS \u2013 ARTHUR SMITH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n After rejuvenating Ryan Tannehill\u2019s career in Tennessee and building one of the league\u2019s best rushing attacks on top of it, Smith was bound to land a job this offseason. Smith was a guy that earned his stripes the hard way, working pretty much every coaching gig on the offensive side for Tennessee from 2011 on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith\u2019s offense is a lot like the Shanahan offense that Atlanta thrived in back in 2016 on the way to their last Super Bowl appearance. Under Smith\u2019s playcalling and design, running back Derrick Henry led the NFL in rushing twice and Tannehill nearly matched Patrick Mahomes\u2019 passing numbers in Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES \u2013 NICK SIRIANNI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n As predicted, the Eagles hired a guy out of the Andy Reid family tree. Unpredictably, it was Sirianni instead of Eric Bieniemy. Regardless, Sirianni was on the head coaching list for a reason, building prolific attacks with three different quarterbacks in his time in Indy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, he piloted Andrew Luck in his final year in the league to the playoffs. He got the most he could out of Jacoby Brissett in 2019 and once again returned to the postseason as the architect of the Philip Rivers attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Frank Reich prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Sirianni is a natural choice to either revive Carson Wentz\u2019 NFL future or start Jalen Hurts on his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. LOS ANGELES CHARGERS \u2013 BRANDON STALEY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staley turned the Rams defense into the best unit in the league in his single year at the helm in 2020. If there\u2019s a knock on him as a head coach, it\u2019s just that he spent the lone season as a defensive coordinator. But the body of work is pretty stellar nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Saleh in New York, Staley is bringing in a tried and true offensive philosophy with him in offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, fresh from being the quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints. This is Lombardi\u2019s second stint as an OC. He called plays for Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions form 2014-15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Staley\u2019s performance as a DC was fantastic in 2020, it\u2019s a big leap after a single season. The Chargers can\u2019t be faulted for liking their guy and certainly if Staley hadn\u2019t taken a head coaching job this season, it was coming next year. No reason to let him get snapped up by another team if you want him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. DETROIT LIONS \u2013 DAN CAMPBELL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: New Orleans Saints assistant head coach and tight ends coach<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the first five guys on the list, no one really batted an eye. Staley and Sirianni were hot up and comers. Saleh and Smith\u2019s time had come and everybody agreed on that. Meyer is a superstar who could have had any open NFL job he wanted for the last three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan Campbell? I don\u2019t get it. We had elite offensive coordinators still out there when the Lions pulled the trigger on this hire; Bieniemy and Buffalo Bills OC Brian Daboll. Bieniemy was right there with Saleh and Smith. It should have happened for him this round. Daboll is more in the Staley and Sirianni category. He could have been snapped up this year, but definitely will next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Campbell? We know that Bieniemy calls plays, so that\u2019s been debunked as a reason to not hire him. You know there\u2019s this thread out there that maybe Bieniemy doesn\u2019t \u201cinterview well.\u201d But you\u2019re telling me this guy interviewed well<\/a>? The guy with kneecaps stuck in his teeth? This is an offensive mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least with Campbell you know that Sean Payton had to think a lot of him. He\u2019s been a head coach before, albeit an interim with the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, we don\u2019t know all the details. The contract demands. The guys that maybe stepped back when it became clear that Matthew Stafford wanted out. That could all be a factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if I\u2019m straight up choosing between Bieniemy, Daboll and Campbell, are you kidding me? This looks like a potential disaster and the fact that his first hire was Anthony Lynn as offensive coordinator doesn\u2019t give me a lot of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he\u2019s not potentially the worst hire. That award goes to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. HOUSTON TEXANS \u2013 DAVID CULLEY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous job: Baltimore Ravens assistant head coach, wide receivers coach & passing game coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n How in the world do you make this happen if you\u2019re the Texans? Who\u2019s list was Culley on? Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, must have turned Houston down for it to come to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Texans came into this past season as one of the worst run NFL franchises and doubled down in 2021, blowing past historic laughingstocks like the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. With those teams all making shockingly smart moves over the last season or so, the title was Houston\u2019s to lose and they were taking no chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as I can tell, here\u2019s who the Texans interviewed (or showed interest in) for their open head coaching job; former Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator (and Minnesota Vikings head coach) Leslie Frazier, Bieniemy (only after Deshaun Watson\u2019s revolt), their own reserve quarterback Josh McCown, Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Brandon Staley, their own offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady and Arthur Smith. And that\u2019s just who I could find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How you end up with Culley after all that will be a mystery that would make Sherlock Holmes toss his deerstalker hat to the dirt in disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Culley was the passing game coordinator for the worst passing game in the NFL. The Ravens finished the year ranked No. 32 and that\u2019s only because there are just 32 teams. They were three yards a game worse than the New York Jets<\/a>. How does a guy that helped put that together even end up on a head coaching list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s where it gets extra crazy. In a league looking for young and innovative talent, Culley is 65 years old<\/a>. He shouldn\u2019t be an NFL head coach. He should obviously be preparing to run for United States President in 2024. The Texans gave him a five year contract, for God\u2019s sake. At 65, he doesn\u2019t need to be buying value sized shampoo. He doesn\u2019t need a coach\u2019s whistle. He needs a Life Alert bracelet. He\u2019ll need a new hip installed before he can install a game plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is the guy they think will talk Deshaun Watson back into the building<\/a>? Old No. 32?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This simply had to be a job that no one on earth wanted besides Culley. That is the only explanation for him being handed a card key to the building. He was the last man on Earth that wanted it and he\u2019s who the Texans are stuck with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good job Cal McNair. You are the now the new Mike Brown and Jim Haslam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our BetOnline Twitter accoun<\/a>t for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE Unless something shockingly unexpected happens, our head coaching hiring season has come to an inglorious end with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15491,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15489\/revisions\/15491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}