Previewing the Carousel

[Mr. Scot]

With the season nearing its end, here’s a look at job openings and potential job openings for the 2021 season.

CONFIRMED JOB OPENINGS

Falcons Head Coach (Dan Quinn was fired in October)
Lions Head Coach (Matt Patricia was dumped shortly after Thanksgiving)
Texans Head Coach (Bill O’Brien was the first head coach fired this season)
Falcons GM (Thomas Dimitroff was sacked along with Quinn)
Lions GM (Bob Quinn followed Patricia out the door)
Texans GM (Bill O’Brien was the de facto GM)
Jaguars GM (Dave Caldwell is the most recent executive to be dumped)
Washington GM (they still have yet to hire one)

EXPECTED TO BE FIRED

Adam Gase, Jets (Ian Rapoport called his firing pretty much a foregone conclusion)
Doug Marrone, Jaguars (ditto, and they already fired the GM that hired him)

REPORTEDLY ON THE HOT SEAT

Zac Taylor, Bengals (lots of talk that he’s been a disappointment)
Anthony Lynn, Chargers (seems likely at this point, could be an attractive job if so)
Doug Pederson, Eagles (hard to believe after he led the Eagles to their first Lombardi, but yeah)

FUTURE UNCERTAIN

Vic Fangio, Broncos (general belief is he gets one more year, but possible)
John Elway, Broncos GM (if Fangio goes, the Broncos might just decide to clean house)
Matt Nagy, Bears (has the team in the playoff hunt but still could be in danger)
Ryan Pace, Bears GM (future possibly tied to Nagy)
Dave Gettleman, Giants GM (team’s recent improvement might save his job)
Marty Hurney, Panthers GM (there’s chatter of a GM opening among league insiders)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

So at this point, we have three head coaching jobs available with the expectation that number will increase to at least four – and maybe five or more – at season’s end. There’s talk that the Lions might need to make a big splash hiring to win back their fans (Jim Harbaugh’s name has come up as a possible option). Ditto the Jets, where Bill Cowher’s name has been raised in speculation there by his broadcast partner Boomer Esaiason.

There are already five GM openings but it’s less certain whether or not there will be more. A lot is up in the air. General speculation seems to be that most if not all of the “hot seat” guys will probably stay in place for at least another year, but that’s heavily dependent on how the season ends.

With regard to the Panthers, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano reported that league sources are “watching” the Panthers for a potential GM opening.  The Athletic’s Joe Person seems to think Marty Hurney is being transitioned out (with Player Personnel Director Pat Stewart being a likely successor) but said the process could conceivably take one more year.  For the record, Hurney’s current contract expires in June of 2021.

POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

Names that have been mentioned in various sources as candidates for the next set of job openings

Head Coaching

Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy
Titans OC Arthur Smith
Bills OC Brian Daboll
Bucs OC Byron Leftwich
Seahawks OC Brian Schottenheimer
Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh
Patriots OC Josh McDaniels
49ers DC Robert Saleh
Ravens QB Coach James Urban
Saints Assistant Head Coach Dan Campbell
Panthers OC Joe Brady

General Manager

Patriots Director of Player Personnel Nick Caserio
Vikings Assistant GM George Paton
Seahawks Vice President of Player Personnel Trent Kirchner (Panther connections)
Seahawks Vice President of Football Operations Scott Fitterer
Chiefs Director of Football Operations Mike Borgonzi
Saints Assistant GM for College Scouting Jeff Ireland
Saints Assistant GM for Pro Personnel Terry Fontenot
Patriots Assistant Director of Player Personnel Dave Ziegler
Bills Assistant GM Joe Schoen (Panther connections)
Bills Director of Player Personnel Dan Morgan (Panther connections…duh)
Bills Director of Pro Scouting Malik Boyd
Bills Assistant Director of College Scouting Lake Dawson (interviewed here already but with Richardson)
Steelers Pro Scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt (word is the Steelers want him to succeed Colbert)
Steelers Assistant GM Omar Khan (could part ways with the Steelers if he doesn’t get the GM gig)
Colts Assistant GM Ed Dodds
Tennessee Titans Director of Player Personnel Monti Ossenfort (formerly of the Patriots)
Ravens Senior Personnel Executive Vince Newsome
Ravens Director of College Scouting Joe Hortiz
Bucs Director of Player Personnel John Spytek
Seahawks Personnel Executive Alonzo Highsmith
Patriots Front Office Consultant Eliot Wolf (Ron Wolf’s son)
ESPN Analyst, former Eagles Director of Pro Personnel  Louis Riddick

[Mr. Scot]

And what about Joe Brady?

Of the confirmed/expected head coaching jobs, I'd say the Lions and Jets might look elsewhere if the speculation that they're looking for big names pans out (it does make sense).

Pretty much everybody believes one of those openings is reserved for Eric Bieniemy. There's also pretty heavy buzz about Arthur Smith and Byron Leftwich.

By all accounts, Brady will get interviews this offseason. At this point though, I'm about 50-50 as to whether I think he'll actually get a head coaching gig this season. Gun to my head I'd say no, but stranger things have happened.

One thing of note: The Athletic's Jeff Schultz is campaigning pretty heavily for the team he covers to go after Brady for their head coaching spot.

Schultz covers the Falcons.

[LinvilleGorge]

If the rumors that we would have drafted Herbert if he was available are accurate and Brady was a big part of that evaluation process, I'd at least have Brady in for an interview if I'm the Chargers and I fire Lynn.

[ForJimmy]

Brady has been ok this season. Offense started off hot, but has kind of fizzled. Don’t know if it was coaches figuring it out or what, but to me that falls on the OC to a degree. It wouldn’t be the end if the world if he leaves or stays IMO. I just want Luke to stay on this staff. I think he has been huge for Chinn and his development.

[Anybodyhome]

Keeping an eye on the Bills this season, I gotta say I'm impressed with OC Brian Daboll.

[BrianS]

3 minutes ago, Anybodyhome said:

Keeping an eye on the Bills this season, I gotta say I'm impressed with OC Brian Daboll.

This has been a real shock to me.  Josh Allen looks like a )(@# NFL QB this year.  Like, a good NFL QB.

[bababoey]

Who would want the Falcons job?  They have no cap room and older star QB & WR you can't cut because of there cap.  So if you wanted to run a different system you have to make the players that are there now work for your system because you can't afford bring in anyone else.

[OldhamA]

The Broncos are up for sale - so I figure all of their staffing movements are delayed until that's sorted.

[Ricky Spanish]

So one thing about Bieniemy that I wasn't aware of were some incidents involving his time as both a player and coach in Colorado:

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/1/6/18169793/bengals-coach-search-chiefs-eric-bieniemy-vance-joseph-broncos

Word on the street was that Bieniemy was complicit and encouraged some less than ideal behavior out there. This will undoubtedly come to the attention of whatever fanbase hires him, much like the allegations against Patricia when he was hired. 

This could also be a contributing factor in why Bieniemy has not become a head coach yet. Potential baggage. 

[OldhamA]

35 minutes ago, ForJimmy said:

Brady has been ok this season. Offense started off hot, but has kind of fizzled. Don’t know if it was coaches figuring it out or what, but to me that falls on the OC to a degree. It wouldn’t be the end if the world if he leaves or stays IMO. I just want Luke to stay on this staff. I think he has been huge for Chinn and his development.

I think he's been good, but not sensational this year.

Who knows what these owners / GMs look for in their candidates, but to me he's not been doing it at a high level for long enough for me to hand over the keys to my franchise to him. 

Also I'd like to have a nice thing for a little while longer, thanks. Rhett Lashlee has done pretty well at Miami this year and he's getting touted around for job openings - you just feel like saying 'fug off'. I've had to watch terrible offences for both my teams for years - just let me enjoy competency for a little while, please. 

If Brady gets a HC job over Bieniemy then the NFL is inherently racist. 

[Panthercougar68]

10 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

So one thing about Bieniemy that I wasn't aware of were some incidents involving his time as both a player and coach in Colorado:

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/1/6/18169793/bengals-coach-search-chiefs-eric-bieniemy-vance-joseph-broncos

Word on the street was that Bieniemy was complicit and encouraged some less than ideal behavior out there. This will undoubtedly come to the attention of whatever fanbase hires him, much like the allegations against Patricia when he was younger. 

This could also be a contributing factor in why Bieniemy has not become a head coach yet. Potential baggage. 

Ben Allbright had a breakdown on his podcast over the past issues involving Bieniemy and talks about how it's more than likely the reasons 1) Reid is pushing for him 2) and why he hasn't been hired.

He had a lot of inside info into the Colorado issues.

[BPF]

At this point a new GM will be more of a boost for this team than any staff changes, even Mike Shula was able to look like he didnt eat crayons when the Offense was stacked. Competent GM for more than a few seasons would be the change this team desperately needs. Imagine not complaining about cap space and looking at dead money every year, as well as looking forward to a whole draft rather than the first round. 

[t96]

I would consider Colbert to be potentially an available GM candidate. There's a reason he only signed a 1 year deal with them last offseason... Don't think it's very likely, but I do think it's definitely a realistic possibility that Tepper lures him here.

[Khyber53]

Honestly, I don't think Brady is ready for it. He has limited time in the pro level and his body of work here is, well, underwhelming considering the resume` he brought in with him. He needs some more seasoning. I do NOT think we need him to leave, I think we need him to stay and he needs to be here, too.

Right now, his play calling is getting more and more conservative. I think that is more a matter of our record than anything else and might point to a stage in his development where he is in the "play to not lose" mode. Some coaches get into that and never leave (both of our prior two head coaches fell into that trap and never climbed back out before they were shown the door). In this case, I think it is a guy going from HC of a national champion to being the OC of a team in rebuild mode. It's understandable but he needs wins to get that confidence, experience and to develop the aggressiveness he had at the lower levels of the game.

And time management... right now Brady is beginning to look a lot like Shula (and I don't mean Shula the Greater here) in the slow decision-making and relaying of plays to the QB. Wow, it looks bad. 

I think these are all temporary problems, though, and he's in the right place to work them out. He won't be here for many years, but it sure would be nice to let him get all of these ironed out and him be out there with a resume` that had a different, bigger championship on it.

And don't get me started on our DC. One aggressive game and we shut out our opponent. The rest look like they were being coached by a little old lady who didn't want anyone getting their clothes dirty.