NFL: Coaching Carousel Begins
The Monday after the end of the regular season in the NFL typically marks the day that coaches on the hot seat learn their fate for the rest of the year and today was no different as the Redskins fire their coach, the Bills inform their staff they are free to pursue other options, and the Raiders are rumored to be on the brink of yet another coaching change.
The Redskins struck first allegedly giving Jim Zorn his walking papers shortly after the team returned home from San Diego Sunday evening. This comes as no shock considering Zorn was stripped of his play calling duties several weeks ago and has been considered a lame duck coach since then. Once Bruce Allen was hired as the team’s new General Manager it was only a matter of time until he fired Zorn so he could bring his guy in to coach the team.
Mike Shanahan is still considered to be the front runner in D. C. and has had discussions with Daniel Snyder about being its next head coach. There is no word as to whether Shanahan is chomping at the bit to coach the ‘Skins or whether he is going to sit back and wait and see what other jobs may become available over the next few days.
In Buffalo the Bills informed its coaching staff that their obligations to the team had been reached and that they were free to pursue other coaching opportunities. Perry Fewell is still considered to be in the running and will get to interview for the head coaching position, but, the prevailing opinion is that Fewell is only being interviewed to satisfy the Rooney Rule which stipulates a team must interview a minority candidate when filling a head coaching job. If they were truly interested in him being the head coach they would have given him a new contract by now.
The Bills had talked to Mike Shanahan a few weeks ago but the feeling is he has little interest in coaching the Bills next year. Reports surfaced over the weekend that the Bills had some clandestine meetings with Bill Cowher last week to discuss the head job. However, it is now being reported that Cowher is leaning towards sitting it out again next season.
Cowher was letting it be known the past couple of weeks that he was interested in getting back into the game next season, but, that was when it looked as though the Panthers and/or the Tampa job were going to come open. The thought is that Cowher wants a job that keeps him close to the Raleigh, North Carolina area where he and is wife currently reside. With the Panthers announcing they intend on bringing both GM Marty Hurney and John Fox back next season and it looking like Raheem Morris is going to get another year in Tampa Cowher’s preferred destinations are no longer an option. Conventional wisdom says that if the Panthers flounder again next season or the Bucs do not show significant improvement then those jobs could come open next winter.
It is now being reported that Marty Schottenheimer is in the mix in Buffalo. He has a past working relationship with new GM Buddy Nix from his days in San Diego. It would not surprise me to see Schottenheimer get the gig in Buffalo with his son Brian coming along as the offensive coordinator with the idea of him being the eventual successor in Buffalo. My guess is Marty would stick around for three or four years, or however long it takes to get things turned around, and then step aside for his son to take over the reins.
Out in Oakland it is being reported that owner Al Davis is leaning towards firing Tom Cable who led the team to a NFL record 8th straight season of at least 11 losses. If Cable is fired this week the Raiders will be featuring their sixth head coach in 9 seasons in 2010.
God only knows who the Raiders have their eye on as the next head coach if Cable is cut loose. Whomever it may be it is hard to believe it will be anyone of any real significance. The Raiders have reached such a level of incompetence as a franchise that no coach worth their salt is going to be willing to come to Oakland as long as Al Davis has any say in football operations.
