If you were hoping for a wild set of coaching grades, this is not the cycle for you. Six teams changed their head coaches -- all before Black Monday, oddly enough -- and five hired replacements quickly despite many of the top candidates remaining in the playoffs at the time.
With Kyle Shanahan finally joining the 49ers, we have grades for each of the six hires below.
Bear in mind the criteria isn't simply "who did this team hire?" There are other components, including the personnel around the coach, his likelihood of success and the range of options a team had for each hire.
Buffalo, for instance, was going to struggle to find an attractive candidate. Bringing in anyone is a big plus for them. That theme kind of exists for the whole class though. This wasn't a really exciting set of jobs or a thrilling set of hires (this is what's called the hard sell).
You can also check out the Roughing the Passer Podcast (subscribe via iTunes here) where Nick Kostos and I riff on the first five hires before the conference championship games.
Los Angeles Chargers
- Coach: Anthony Lynn
- Grade: C+
The most impressive part about the Chargers job is they convinced someone to take the gig. Consider that whoever was put in charge had to deal with part of a coaching staff that would remain in place below him, a GM that was in place above him and a team moving from San Diego after 56 years to become the second franchise in Los Angeles. From that perspective, Lynn, who held a coordinator position for the first time ever after Rex Ryan fired Greg Roman as Bills OC earlier in the year, is exactly the kind of candidate the Chargers would need to hire. There's no way they could've reeled in a top-shelf candidate.
But Lynn could actually end up in a pretty good situation (thereby raising the grade). He has Philip Rivers and an offense under Ken Whisenhunt that should maintain consistency. Melvin Gordon broke out big in 2016 and Keenan Allen should return. The defense could end up being coached by Gus Bradley, which would be a coup for both parties. Bradley once ran Seattle's defense with great success and the Chargers defense is loaded with talent. Joey Bosa is a future superstar and Jason Verrett flashed like an elite corner before going down with an injury. The team should raise Lynn up even though the situation restricted the potential candidates.
Los Angeles Rams
- Coach: Sean McVay
- Grade: B
When the Rams started their search, it seemed certain the plan was to "win the press conference" and try to generate some headlines in Los Angeles by hiring a big-name head coach. If the right guy was grabbed, great, but just pulling the trigger on a big name just to make a splash would be a nightmare. Instead, the Rams went in the other direction, hiring a fairly unknown commodity in Sean McVay but also creating some ripples by bringing in the youngest head coach in NFL history. McVay, who is 30, was born the same year that "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was released.
Oddly enough, there's only one guy on the roster -- High Point, North Carolina's own William Hayes -- who is older than McVay. That's good news in terms of being able to relate to a young roster for McVay.
Also good news: He has had success with a young quarterback, generating two productive seasons out of Kirk Cousins. Say what you want about his play in big spots this season, but Cousins put up huge stats the past two years and is about to get paid.
If the Rams can get McVay to work that magic on Jared Goff, they'll be in good shape. There's offensive talent to work with too, particularly in the form of Todd Gurley. Defensively, under Wade Phillips, the Rams should improve and McVay gets the bonus of being given a guy with decades of experience.
The Rams should be patient here too, because of the timeline for the new stadium. McVay doesn't need to win big early as long as he can manage to put up some points and draw in some crowds.
Buffalo Bills
- Coach: Sean McDermott
- Grade: B
The Bills gig was by far and away the worst job on the market. Rex Ryan was fired after just two years as the head coach, Doug Whaley has some nebulous position of power and there's potential for this team to crater in 2017 if Tyrod Taylor leaves them without a quarterback. It was surprising to see Sean McDermott, a pretty strong coaching candidate, take the leap. It's also possible he knows from his time in Philadelphia that you need to take your shot in this business sometimes. There are only 32 jobs and he got burned when things went south with the Eagles defense in a post-Jim Johnson era.
McDermott's biggest asset is his defensive acumen, obviously. But what's really intriguing about him is the time he spent with two successful head coaches in Andy Reid and Ron Rivera. You can point out the flaws with either guy's in-game management, but both Reid and Rivera cultivated a program in their respective cities. McDermott appears to have the ear of the Pegula family and that means he could outlast Whaley if the Bills don't succeed this season. The Panthers finished in the top 10 in takeaways in each of the past four seasons under McDermott and twice fashioned a top-10 defense in points and yards over that span. This was a better hire than it looked like Buffalo was capable of making.
Denver Broncos
- Coach: Vance Joseph
- Grade: B-
This is by far the most difficult coaching hire to grade. The Broncos have a weird situation, having canned John Fox after a successful run, hiring Gary Kubiak, winning a Super Bowl and then watching him retire for health reasons. John Elway is a demanding boss and he expects a strong performance from his coaches. That much is obvious, and it's positive news for the franchise. Elway has also earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making coaching and personnel decisions. Couple that with the fact Joseph was his other top choice when he hired Kubiak and it's hard not to see this as a win for the Broncos.
They aggressively pursued Joseph when his name started popping up in other circles. And they gave him some talent at coordinator -- Mike McCoy returns from the Chargers as Denver's offensive coordinator, a role he excelled in before leaving to take his own head coaching gig. With Wade Phillips gone, the Broncos promoted Joe Woods, keeping continuity and making his players happy.
The only concern here is never seeing Joseph as a head coach. Elway has leaned on veterans to manage his rosters previously but that won't be the case now, with Joseph operating his own team for the first time. If you're into pointing out the ranking of someone's defense, Joseph's Dolphins were 29th in yards and 18th in points.
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Coach: Doug Marrone
- Grade: D+
This felt like the offseason for the Jaguars to get it right. Go out and secure an established coach who can take a talented roster and get more out of it than the previous regime. Perhaps Doug Marrone qualifies -- he does have the only nine-win season for the Bills since Mike Mularkey pulled it off in 2004 -- as someone with experience, but it sure feels like settling the way things shook out. Gus Bradley was canned with two weeks left in the regular season and Marrone worked some sort of quarterback voodoo on Blake Bortles, making him look like a decent quarterback. That likely won him the job.
Or, at least, an opportunity to impress Tom Coughlin, who was hired as the new "football czar" (his actual title is vice president of football operations). And Coughlin is kind of where the dysfunction sets in a little bit. Are we really supposed to believe he's not planning some sort of Barry Alvarez-type coup where he replaces Marrone late in the season and coaches the Jaguars' final four games? It's just impossible for me to get behind a coaching decision that ultimately doesn't feel like it's unifying the front office and the coaching staff, but rather drawing a dividing line that revolves around everyone's feelings about Bortles.
San Francisco 49ers
- Coach: Kyle Shanahan
- Grade: B+
This hire became a lot more interesting and scrutinized after Shanahan caught flak for not running the football late in the Falcons' 34-28 Super Bowl LI loss to the Patriots on Sunday night. Shanahan mostly called a very good game, and he hung 21 points on a Bill Belichick defense (that prepared for two weeks), with all of the points coming in the middle two quarters. The 49ers being the last team standing after every other opening was quickly filled turned out to be a good thing, as they were able to interview Shanahan multiple times during the process and make sure everything was in place to land the talented offensive coordinator following the Super Bowl. Despite the late struggles in the Super Bowl, Shanahan looks like a quality hire.
Shanahan did a great job building out an offense in Atlanta and has multiple stops with success (Houston, Washington, Cleveland) to varying degrees. This is a job requiring a high level of patience.
The biggest issue here might be the GM pick: The 49ers hired John Lynch, who has zero front office experience, and he'll be paired with Shanahan, who has no head coaching experience. Coordinating and coaching are different animals, but based on what you hear about Shanahan, he'll be a quality head coach, capable of delegating and managing the staff and roster. Keep an eye on his dad, Mike Shanahan, who made his name as the 49ers offensive coordinator before leading Denver to multiple Super Bowls -- it's possible he could fit into a role with this front office.
The 49ers have an uphill climb with their roster, but credit to Jed York for being patient and landing a guy who helped engineer the top-scoring offense in the league.
