After a week of interviews the vacant head coaching positions started being filled this week. So far:
Arizona Cardinals: Kliff Kingsbury
Cincinnati Bengals: Zac Taylor?
Cleveland Browns: Freddie Kitchens
Denver Broncos: Vic Fangio
Green Bay Packers: Matt Lafleur
Miami Dolphins: Open
New York Jets: Adam Gase
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Bruce Arians
Some coaching hire thoughts:
The Kliff Kingsbury hiring was a little surprising. I've like him since his playing days at Texas Tech but it wasn't like he was tearing it up as a college head coach. His being fired from his alma mater is an example of that. It was even more surprising, and perhaps a little sad, that the Cardinals found it necessary to mention his friendship with Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay in their press release. Also, it's ridiculous that Kingsbury has been getting heat for bolting from the offensive coordinator position at USC that he had just accepted for a head coach position in the NFL. Who wouldn't make that move? Besides, it's USC.
While not the same sort of sad as the Cardinals propping up a friendship with Sean McVay, it's sad to see the little attention given to minority coaching candidates in this hiring cycle. No one outside the respective organizations really knows what goes on in the discussions behind closed doors but Eric Bieniemy, George Edwards, Kris Richards, Brian Flores, and others deserve far more consideration than they appear to have been given. Again, we don't know what's gone on behind those doors but there's been a rush this week to secure coaches.Why? Bieniemy, Richards, and Flores are still involved in Super Bowl chases. Why not wait until they are available for a proper sit down? Five of the eight openings were the result of African-American coaches being fired. Steve Wilks was fired by the Cardinals after a single season. Vance Joseph was fired by the Denver Broncos after two seasons. Hue Jackson was fired by the Browns after about 2.5 seasons. Todd Bowles was fired by the Jets after four years. Marvin Lewis and the Bengals "parted ways" after an eternity together but that's only because team owner Mike Brown despises doing anything that might force him to do something that's unfamiliar or talk to someone that he's never met. Wilks and Joseph got so little time as a head coach that it's a stretch to call it an opportunity. One year? That's barely enough time to learn the names of your kicking battery. The saddest part of all is that it will likely be their only opportunities. Compare that to the opportunities granted Adam Gase. He was fired last week by the Dolphins after three disappointing seasons. He's now the head coach of the Jets. Replacing a black man.
It's being reported that Los Angeles Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor is the choice to replace Lewis. The Bengals aren't making an official announcement out of respect for a Rams team that's still in the playoffs. That's very sweet of them. But everybody already knows. Mike Brown prefers familiar but will accept cheap. Seeing as Taylor is only 35 and only scratching the surface of his coaching career he likely came on the cheap side. And he not only knows Sean McVay he worked for him for two years.
There's one head coach opening left. Perhaps it will be filled by Bieniemy, Flores, or Richard. If there was a rush to hire before this week there's no need to rush now. The Dolphins can take their time and interview every candidate thoroughly. Teams should be able to hire the coach that they want. However misguided that might one day come to be viewed. That isn't the problem. The problem is that it doesn't appear very many teams are showing much interest in giving minority coaches a real shot in the interview process. The Rooney Rule is more of a very thorough handshake than a mechanism for employment. In this hiring cycle, it seemed that most of the coaches that have been hired were only being pursued by the teams that hired them. The Jets interviewed Kingsbury. He seemed to be the only coach with two suitors. So, why the rush? Why not wait and have a nice long sit-down with Bieniemy, Flores, Richard, whoever? James Franklin? David Shaw?
As Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen suggests, the prerequisites for being a head coach in the NFL these days appear to be: young, offensive, and white. Five of the seven new head coaches fill those prerequisites.
The Broncos hired old and defensive. The Buccaneers hired old and offensive.
It was great to see Vic Fangio finally get a shot at running his own team. He's been coaching since the 1970s. He was the first ever defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. He's been one of the best defensive football coaches for decades. He'd been ignored for a team's top job for so long that I was beginning to think that he was one of those coaching grinders that didn't want any part of the non-football nonsense that comes with being the head coach. The Broncos hired a terrific football coach. And he's been coaching football longer than about half of his fellow rookie head coaches have been alive.
Matt LaFleur also knows and worked for McVay.
Bruce Arians is more than twice as old as McVay. Vic Fangio is nearly twice as old as McVay.
To secure their new head coach the Buccaneers had to send a sixth round pick to the Cardinals. They got a seventh round pick in return. And a new head coach.
Arians, Fangio, and Kitchens are the head coaching hires that I like the most.
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