The NFL has suddenly become the National Forgiveness League
The past week has seen multiple coaches thought to be on their way out of town keep their jobs. Is this new wave of forgiveness a good thing for the NFL?
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9 min read
All of a sudden, the NFL has become the league of forgiveness.
Second and third chances are the norm. Men who went to work fearing for their jobs are leaving the parking lot sporting hefty new contract extensions. Months -- and in some cases, years -- of ill-will or negativity are quickly being forgotten. Owners seem to be looking for reasons to try to fix their broken buildings or put Band-Aids on their franchises and promote from within despite years of despair.
Seems to me the NFL has become a kindler, gentler place. Which I guess I understand. And I'm all for that. I just can't help but wonder how many of these teams that have made unusual moves this week -- or that have them planned in the near future -- will end up regretting them by this time next year. And I can't help but wonder if some of these super-glue solutions end up merely exacerbating the expense incurred when some of these very same owners end up making even more sweeping changes a year or two from now.
In the past week, we've seen the Chargers keep a coach (Mike McCoy) after significant internal deliberation about attempting to hire a splashy replacement. The hapless Browns and Dolphins make significant promotions from within, with Jimmy Haslam anointing his general counsel (Sashi Brown) as a new football czar on Sunday and the Dolphins announcing the ascension of their college director (Chris Grier) to GM on Monday. Later that day, the Giants nudged a potential Hall of Fame coach (Tom Coughlin) out the door but kept an under-fire general manager (Jerry Reese) to help lead the coaching search for his replacement after going to length to point out the inadequacies of their roster during a press conference in which Reese's awkward comments only heightened the spotlight he is under.
The Colts, whose fractured building was in large part due to the words and deeds of owner Jim Irsay, shocked the football world by rewarding coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson with hefty new contracts when both thought they might be gone, then throwing a Kumbaya press conference at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday (at times I wondered if Irsay and his coach and personnel guru were all holding hands under the table). And the Saints, after being unable to find a trade partner willing to give up primo compensation for Sean Payton after another poor season, finally held their press conference Wednesday afternoon in which the coach, as emotional and open as I've seen him in quite some time, gushed about staying, with the inevitable contract extension for him coming in the not-too-distant future.
But wait, we're not done!
The Titans, as decaying a franchise as you will find with a roster in tatters, are sending out signals that their new coach and GM might already be on the payroll (the prospect of picking in the top two yet again in 2017 might seem oddly compelling to them). The Bills are on the verge of giving their embattled general manager Doug Whaley an extension after another tumultuous season in which the front office and coaching ranks were splintered. When will it end?
Don't get me wrong: I'm all for continuity and can appreciate the push to improve from within and trying to keep some of the guys together. Though I certainly wonder at what expense, as some of the more qualified general-manager candidates aren't getting much of a sniff with that market so stagnant and constricted by faux-GM jobs in title alone, and I will bet my laptop that many of these very same owners will be sitting before a bevy of cameras a year from now announcing the departure of some of these very same employees. The early trend to this NFL offseason has clearly been "less is more" when it comes to change, and while I applaud that concept in theory, I have to scratch my head some as applied in practice. Not all of these situations are the same, not even close, and I think keeping McCoy, Pagano and Payton were something close to no-brainers. It would be very difficult for any of those franchises to upgrade, and all are capable of helping get things turned around. But let's not pretend that McCoy and Pagano didn't both just cut a considerable portion of their coaching staffs, and there were plenty of candid words exchanged between Payton and top football chief Mickey Loomis as well about the Saints' slew of bad contracts and ongoing salary cap woes before Payton finally emerged to meet the media Wednesday.
Will the Colts be able to sweep aside all of the issues of the past few years, sort out the many differences and find a separation of state between coaching and GM roles that works over the length of these new contracts? Will Jimmy Haslam's latest attempt at a quirky front-office structure actually lead the Browns out of perpetual misery, despite two of his most-trusted assistants, Brown and Alec Scheiner, being more empowered than ever? Rex Ryan and Whaley can say all they want about how harmonious everything is in Buffalo now -- people throughout that building know the truth -- but the reality is this is the second straight year Whaley's performance was under close review and without major strides next year I would expect the Pegulas to be ready to start over completely if necessary.
I have heard nothing but great things about Chris Grier, and he has a great reputation and is a worthy GM candidate. He merits the job, although the reality there is that Mike Tannenbaum is calling the shots and Stephen Ross has yet to display any acumen in picking a coach or cultivating a winning culture, which many trump any advances Grier can make. Reese's testy exchanges with the media at the tail end of what was supposed to be a celebration of Coughlin's accomplishment with the Giants was a glimpse into the pressure cooker that 2016 will be for him.
And the Titans, should they actually go ahead and do the most uninspiring thing possible -- make interim head coach Mike Mularkey the full-time head coach and promote college scouting director Blake Beddingfield to GM -- well, they would trump everything. This was a team, like the Dolphins, that didn't even let its last coach make it to midpoint of the season, only to conduct a quasi-search for replacements? Trust me, the league office is watching this thing closely, and with the Adams family seeking little help from the NFL or its coterie of preferred consultants, and with the future of ownership very much in doubt, going from within will lead to only more scrutiny. Keeping Mularkey, after already retaining interim president Steve Underwood (who is a vital steward trying to sort out the inter-familial squabbles that have stunted a potential sale to this point) would be read as one thing and one thing only by the rest of the league. It would be the loudest indication yet, regardless of whatever is said there, about the family streamlining the team for sale, keeping costs down and in essence punting on the 2016 season. They would be fooling no one.
But, given the flurry of recent events, even that move wouldn't be entirely out of step with the direction the league has taken. Seems more than ever owners are content to let many of the same people who made a mess try to clean it up. Who knew Ross of all people was so ahead of his time when, back in 2011 after another suspect season, he ended up rewarding Tony Sparano with a contract extension after failing to get Jim Harbaugh to take that very job a few days prior with Sparano still under contract? Of course, Sparano was inevitably gone a few months later, and Ross is still looking for an adequate replacement. Hmm.
Who wants Chip?
Things can turn quickly in a coaching market, but this week has not been kind to Chip Kelly. He was cast aside early by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and was free to interview as soon as Sunday night, and for him to get virtually no traction during a time in which many other coaches still participating in the playoffs are precluded from interviewing could be damning. As reported over the weekend, the options for Kelly were always going to be limited and the interest in him was lukewarm. It's playing out even worse than that. He's been trying to work his way into an interview with the 49ers, and with the Sean Payton dalliance seemingly over maybe he still can, but no one has been courting him, and even those coaches and execs who champion him are worrying if this is it for him.
For all his ties to Marcus Mariota, the Titans showed no thrust, and his vision of an organizational structure does not mesh with them. Should this search play out without him getting a sniff from Tennessee, that does not bode well. The Dolphins may still get desperate enough to give him a whirl, but even they displayed no sense that he had to be a priority guy lined up to a quick interview. Would the Bucs, after getting turned down by Kelly at the last minute four years ago, want Kelly now that they're in the market for a coach again? That looks unlikely -- Kelly doesn't fit their model, and this is shaping up as Dirk Koetter's job to lose and if he somehow doesn't get the head coach gig in Tampa the Bucs at the very least will still want him as the OC. Insomuch as the 49ers are even an opportunity for him, it might be his only one. Lurie's pointed comments last week had a chilling effect on what may have already been a barren market despite Kelly's 26 wins in three seasons.
"Jeffrey killed him," as one exec closely monitoring the ongoing searches put it. "These other owners won't touch him now. Chip's got nothing. It's like when (Greg) Schiano got tossed out of Tampa. This is going to follow him for a while. I think he's going to have to go back to college."
We'll see if indeed it gets that dire for Kelly. But with more top candidates hitting the open market come Sunday, it's fair to wonder if his best opportunity has already passed.
More notes
I could see the Browns ending up going with a young defensive coach in a model that tries to approximate the Steelers' hiring of Mike Tomlin. An engaging presence who relates well to players and can sell a vision. We'll see ... Another early trend -- the supposed exodus of Paraag Marathe in San Francisco notwithstanding -- is seeing more non-traditional leaders atop football operations for teams. I've always thought the idea someone had to play the game at a high level or be a "football man" to run that department was overrated, and the pendulum may be swinging back their way. Howie Roseman is back atop the Eagles, the Titans are basically having football operations run by Vin Marino now and Mike Tannenbaum rose to top of the Dolphins a year ago. Brown's rise to the top of the Browns football staff is the most outside the norm of all. Guys who have more of a contract/numbers/legal bent are some of the big winners of the first week of this offseason ... Should be quite the bidding war forming between the Dolphins and Eagles for Adam Gase. He's the top dog in both places. Roseman and Tannenbaum won't give up easy. Not a bad spot to be in.
