2015 coaching carousel

Tony C

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Yeah, Mangini didn't cause Davis to lose 25% of his speed -- that's not on Mangini. I actually think he's a good coach/good hire, despite it all. And agree Chud wld be good, too, as OC. And, oh my god if they hire Kiffin they deserve all the crap they will reap. Just that he is a candidate says such terrible things about the GM and owner.
 

nattysez

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The rumor in SF is that Kiffin turned down the Niners, and then Chud stayed in Indy.  The Niners are now scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of finding an OC who can turn around Kaepernick. 
 
Tony C said:
Yeah, Mangini didn't cause Davis to lose 25% of his speed -- that's not on Mangini. I actually think he's a good coach/good hire, despite it all. 
 
We'll see.  I'm pretty down on Mangini -- it's been a while since he demonstrated being anything more than mediocre.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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So the sum total of the time their new HC, DC, and OC have spent as NFL coordinators is Eric Mangini's stint in 2005 in charge of the Patriots defense and the two years (1999-2000) Christ spent as OC of the Chargers. This should go well.
 

86spike

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eddiew112 said:
Elway really did get the band back together.

Wade is a very good DC and his aggressive system could be a good fit with Denver's personnel. JDR often seemed to balk at blitzing and bringing heavy pressure and I'd really prefer to bring more heat.

Good hire, IMO.

Re-signing Pot Roast to play 3-4 Nose Tackle is vital.
 

86spike

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Morgan's Magic Snowplow said:
So the sum total of the time their new HC, DC, and OC have spent as NFL coordinators is Eric Mangini's stint in 2005 in charge of the Patriots defense and the two years (1999-2000) Christ spent as OC of the Chargers. This should go well.
Guess that's the best you can do when the team owner backstabs his last coach and clearly values being a yes man over coaching skill.

Not a ton of top talent want to work for that type of organization.
 

mwonow

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86spike said:
Guess that's the best you can do when the team owner backstabs his last coach and clearly values being a yes man over coaching skill.

Not a ton of top talent want to work for that type of organization.
 
And yet, it was months not years ago that they were considered elite. Really makes you appreciate what it takes to stay in the top echelon for an extended period of time
 

Super Nomario

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mwonow said:
 
And yet, it was months not years ago that they were considered elite. Really makes you appreciate what it takes to stay in the top echelon for an extended period of time
It takes a great owner. The more I read about dysfunction like this league-wide, the more I realize how much I've taken Robert Kraft for granted.
 

Super Nomario

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Chase Stuart breaks down the offseason coaching hires, specifically with regard to the hiring of minority candidates: http://www.footballperspective.com/a-curious-note-about-coaching-changes-over-the-last-three-years/
 
 
There was something else you may recall from 2013: the lack of minority hires. At the end of the 2012 season, there were 15 job openings for general managers and head coaches; none went to a minority candidate. The hiring process for GMs is much more opaque than it is for head coaches, but there was one main explanation given for the fact that all 8 head coaching hires were white: black coaches are disproportionately defensive coaches, and the league was shifting towards offense when it came to coaching hires because of the reasons stated above.
...
Then, this year happened.  There’s a decent chance you didn’t even notice. Yet again, there were seven new head coaches hired, but the composition was a mirror image of what happened just two years ago.  John Fox3 is now in Chicago, Dan Quinn is in Atlanta, Rex Ryan was fired by the Jets but resurfaced in Buffalo, Todd Bowles is replacing Ryan in New York, Jim Tomsula is the man filling giant shoes in San Francisco, and Jack Del Rio is being given a second chance in Oakland.4  The lone offensive-minded hire: Gary Kubiak in Denver.
...
When the NFL went 7/8 with offensive coaches in 2013, it was easy to say that that was the reason for the so-called whitewashing.  Teams preferred offense over defense, not white over black. And, the Fritz Pollard Alliance and the NFL seemed to buy into this, as both groups noted that perhaps the attention should really be shifted towards who is hired as offensive coordinators: with the NFL obviously now an offensive league, the focus should be on having more black offensive coordinators to lead to more black head coaches.
 
But that idea wouldn’t have worked very well this year. There were not many great offensive coordinator candidates — Gase and Kubiak were perhaps the top choices, with men like Kyle Shanahan, Frank Reich, Josh McDaniels, Hue Jackson, and um, Darrell Bevell as other names floated for possible head coaching jobs. As a result, the story of 2015 was a return to the retread model: Ryan, Kubiak, Fox, and Del Rio were all previously fired, but had also taken teams to the playoffs. Quinn fit the obvious mold: the DC for the team with the number one scoring defense the past three years. Bowles was the unanimous choice as the best assistant coach in the NFL.5  That just leaves Tomsula, who was hired because… he was an in-house promotion that wouldn’t drive management crazy.
Stuart doesn't come down on any of the franchises in particular; he's more just trying to look at what is leading to this.
 
As an aside, I'm a little surprised that Belichick doesn't draw more heat for employing largely white assistants; the Patriots haven't had a minority coordinator since Crennel left after 2004, and passed over Pepper Johnson in favor of Patricia for the DC role a few years back. I don't know that his record is any better or worse than anyone else (the Pats currently have four minority assistants - Ivan Fears, Patrick Graham, Brian Flores, and Harold Nash), but the press never seems to miss a chance to get a dig in at him for anything.
 

Super Nomario

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theapportioner

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Super Nomario said:
Chase Stuart breaks down the offseason coaching hires, specifically with regard to the hiring of minority candidates: http://www.footballperspective.com/a-curious-note-about-coaching-changes-over-the-last-three-years/
 
Stuart doesn't come down on any of the franchises in particular; he's more just trying to look at what is leading to this.
 
As an aside, I'm a little surprised that Belichick doesn't draw more heat for employing largely white assistants; the Patriots haven't had a minority coordinator since Crennel left after 2004, and passed over Pepper Johnson in favor of Patricia for the DC role a few years back. I don't know that his record is any better or worse than anyone else (the Pats currently have four minority assistants - Ivan Fears, Patrick Graham, Brian Flores, and Harold Nash), but the press never seems to miss a chance to get a dig in at him for anything.
 
Super Nomario said:
 
According to the NYT, in 2013, 29% of assistant coaches were of minority backgrounds. As for the Patriots, 4/16 -> 25% is around the mean.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/sports/football/jets-hiring-of-todd-bowles-leaves-nfl-far-short-of-goal-on-diversity.html
 
As for the OC and DC positions, since 2004, the Patriots have had 2 (or 3) Offensive Coordinators (McDaniels x2, O'Brien) and 3 Defensive Coordinators (Mangini, Pees, Patricia). Obviously a small sample size.
 
Currently, I don't think the Patriots are particularly notable in either direction, in terms of minority hires. If/when Patricia leaves, Graham and Flores, as the linebackers and safeties coaches, respectively, are two young internal minority candidates for promotion. I doubt Fears would move up if/when McDaniels leaves, since he's been the RB coach since 2002 and I'm guessing things will stay that way for him.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Sox and Rocks said:
There has been some discussion about Gase and whether or not coordinating a Manning offense is a positive or a negative.  I think it's pretty telling that he was one of the "hot" head coaching candidates a month or two ago; he actually interviewed for several head coach openings; and he interviewed for several coordinator jobs once the Broncos made their change and it became clear Gase wasn't getting a head coaching job.  Yet, despite all of those interviews, he was only offered one job, even as a coordinator and that from the same head coach he worked with last year and who is, by all accounts, loyal almost to a fault. 
 
Either Gase needs to learn how to interview or he just isn't up to snuff (or both), yet. 
 
An interesting followup to Gase's interview from the San Jose Mercury News on Monday:
 


There is a clear explanation for the weird and abrupt ending last month to the 49ers’ apparent pursuit of former Denver OC Adam Gase to replace Harbaugh.
When Baalke and Gase spoke for 7+ hours in Colorado a month ago, there were reports that Gase had an agreement in place with the 49ers to be their next head coach.
That didn’t happen–Baalke flew home, talks broke off, and Tomsula was hired very quickly after that.
There have been multiple, persistent reports, mostly from people close to Gase, that Gase was all but offered the 49ers job during that face-to-face with Baalke, except for a few details.
So how did this all blow up?
According to an NFL source, Gase and Baalke did indeed come very close to an agreement for Gase to replace Harbaugh, down to the details of his prospective coaching staff, and Gase understood that his choices for the coordinator spots were approved.
Tomsula’s name was not involved in the discussions with Gase about the defensive coordinator slot, I was told.
Then, the next morning, after Baalke flew back to the Bay Area, things changed: Gase, the source says, was informed that he could only have the job if he made Tomsula his defensive coordinator.
No Tomsula, no offer.
Gase turned that suggestion down flat, and that’s when the 49ers immediately tabbed Tomsula as the head coach to follow Harbaugh.
So when Tomsula tried hard to hire Gase as his offensive coordinator, the answer was no way–and Gase went to Chicago as the offensive coordinator.
What’s the significance of this? Beyond yet another 49ers’ coaching misstep, which, believe me, has been making the coaching rounds, this anecdote tells us that the 49ers were committed to Tomsula but not entirely sure how committed.
Then they got half-committed to Gase, but couldn’t make him the offer unless it was a Gase-Tomsula package deal.
When Gase opted out of that, the 49ers went with the guy they leaned towards all along: Tomsula.
 
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2015/02/15/49ers-notes/