The right coach might also be able to name his own GM -- I'm not convinced that Khan is committed to Caldwell. Not sure if McD has that kind of pull, or if that's the sort of perk reserved for guys like Payton (if he's available) or Gruden with a track record of head coaching success.
Caldwell's non Blake Bottles work has been pretty exceptional hasn't it? If he gets fired there will be no better example of how nothing matters for an NFL GM other than getting the quarterback position right.
Yes is totally being wronged by SF. Probably also should have sat out a season than work for that train wreck of a front office.
Potentially complicating things is that McDaniels and Caldwell were college teammates and have known each other forever. That is also true of Tom Telesco in San Diego - they are all part of the bizarre John Carroll University pipeline to the NFL. I have no idea what kind of relationship McDaniels has with these guys now.
Has it? I guess he found some good later round players but his first round record is pretty abysmal. Joeckel was a bust. They were very unlucky with Fowler and his ACL, but he wasn't very impressive in his first year back. Then you have Bortles, who has never displayed NFL-level accuracy and whose mechanics totally fell apart this year. Ramsey looks pretty good from what little Jags football I've seen (thankfully) but the jury still seems out.
He's getting his full contract. I don't feel sorry for him. He'll land on his feet.
Agree, but the fact that he is still going to be paid by both the Eagles (1 year) and Niners (3 years, I think) should take some of the sting out of it.
Blake Bottles is a wonderful auto correct. He bottles the pick 6's and sells them in scores.
He'll make a good OC when McD Jets to the Jags.
Here's a Schefter recap of the report
I agree with this as well. As you and others have said, the roster he was given is pretty much straight garbage. The one thing that ownership seems to be falling back on is his inability to hire a decent DC and his unwillingness to fire the current one. However, I think it's a pretty weak excuse everything else considered. I would have liked to give him another year - maybe two - with Gamble as a package deal GM to handpick players that actually fit his offensive scheme and not the terrible skill players that Baalke accumulated in his time.
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet 46m46 minutes ago
Couldn't agree more.
Answer:it's the 49ers.
Mike Silver intimated that it wasnt the Yorks in this situation, though i do agree overall. Most of the leaks over the last couple of years seemed to originate from Baalke to people like Dilfer. With a clean house, it will be interesting to see if they continue to the same degree.
Let's not forget - they basically had a done deal with Adam Gase last year and then Baalke insisted Gase keep on Tomsula as DC.
I think you're selling Kraft short, but also "having the common sense to get out of the way" shouldn't be taken for granted. Marty Schottenheimer went 47-33 and got fired AFTER A 14-2 SEASON. His successor, Norv, had some success, then he got fired for Mike McCoy, who has been terrible. The franchise is on a downward trend for a decade. They used to be a joke (remember Ryan Leaf, followed by Archie forcing Eli's way out of town), got decent for a few years, and now they are a joke again.
While I get that GMs want to bring in their own guy, it's a no lose situation coming in with a coach already there. If it works out, you don't have to do anything; if it doesn't work out you have free reign to hire someone else. It's like getting a free year or two of employment. If you come in and hire a guy right away and it doesn't work out you put yourself in more of a bind
I think that can be true in certain cases, but in this case you've got a head coach that a) runs a very specific system that might turn off potential GM candidates and b) clashed with his front office in his previous stop leading to the GM being stripped of powers. Bob Quinn sticking with Jim Caldwell is one thing; Chip is something else.
Not to derail the thread and I'm fairly confident he was past his prime (there was an absolutely embarrassing pre-game speech he gave before that playoff game). But the Marty Schottenheimer firing in SD made zero sense to me at the time. Yes, that was a gut punch of a loss to NE but that team was stacked and I'm not sure Marty wasn't at least partly responsible for their success. Yeah, his KC teams were ordinary. But between that and him getting canned after a single season in WA (after winning something like the last 8 games in a row), and all that heartbreak in Cleveland, there's probably a case to be made that Marty Schottenheimer had the shittiest luck in NFL coaching history.
Black Monday has become Black Sunday.
McCarthy (GB) depending on the next two games. There were rumors during their early season swoon and considering all their recent playoff failures, his seat is at least warm.
No changes are coming in Cleveland (link below), so I think you've covered it.
That's true but mostly because GM duties also include things like what season ticket packages should include. There are lots of teams where the HC has roster control - but usually that is successful only if they've earned that right. Even BB had to wait a few years before securing full control. Hiring a coach and handing him the reins is a much dicier proposition. Of the jobsd available Denver would be the team where you could most easily do this without worrying (since the defense is set and they're basically looking for a QB). It is also the team, since they have Elway, where the coach that is hired will have zero shot at such control. Jacksonville is the other job where there is enough roster stability that you could feel somewhat comfortable with packaging roster control with the job offer (less to screw up). Everywhere else - there's more than enough to worry about just transitioning into the new job without having to organize a draft room and analyzing free agents on top of it. In some cases the job (which seems to have almost killed Kubiak, for example) is particularly daunting. In San Diego the new guy is going to have to handle a franchise move on top of things. That's why Payton is likely to end up with that job - if you put a first time head coach (or even someone like McDaniels) in that situation it's like a death sentence.
