I know that we are still over a week away from this year's Super Bowl, but fast forward to September. If you look around the NFL and don't recognize a number of head coaches roaming the side lines, you probably aren't alone. Eight head coaches were fired following their disappointing 2012 campaign, or a quarter of the teams in the league.
Just as is the case seemingly every year, many fired coaches weren't out of work long before another organization snatched them up. The 2013 coaching scene wasn't any different. Well, with the exception of Rob Ryan, who said, "I'll be out of work for five minutes." after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fired him. It took him much longer before the Rams brought him aboard. For the rest of the coaches who were fired, lets play a simple game of connect the dots, as three of the fired coaches landed offensive coordinators with new teams and one landed another head coaching gig.
The Arizona Cardinals fired Ken Whisenhunt and decided to hire Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. Arians was Pittsburgh's wide receivers coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2007. He experienced a lot of success in his five years as their offensive coordinator and was hired by the Colts in 2012. Arians filled in for head coach Chuck Pagano (who missed a huge portion of the season due to battling cancer) and was instrumental to them going from two wins in 2011 to 11-5 this season. Arians has promised a newer, more disciplined Cardinals team heading forward. I'm sure the first order of business Arians plans on addressing is his depressing quarterback situation--headlined by Kevin Kolb.
Heading in to the 2012 season, a hot-topic debate was whether Denver or San Diego would win the AFC West. San Diego took all doubt away very early on in the season, and ended up finishing 7-9. Chargers general manager A.J. Smith and head coach Norv Turner were let go following the season, and they brought over Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy (and also hired Whisenhunt as their offensive coordinator) to be their next head coach. San Diego has committed itself to winning and this off-season has made it clear they aren't afraid to make changes if things aren't going well. If I were Philip Rivers, I would take notice immediately.
The Cleveland Browns' new owner, Jimmy Haslem III, was won over by Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski in his interview and was hired as the Browns head coach, replacing Pat Shurmur. Upon landing the job, "Chud" went right to work and began lobbying for and eventually landed Chargers head coach, Turner, as his offensive coordinator (they added Arizona's defensive coordinator Ray Horton to the same position). Those three moves have Browns fans fired up for the 2013 season, myself included.
The Philadelphia Eagles were a lot of people's pre-season pick to make Super Bowl XLVII. Simply put, that didn't happen. Philly suffered through a 4-12 season and fired long-time head coach Andy Reid and replaced him with Chip Kelly, the head coach of the University of Oregon Ducks. Kelly has three PAC-12 titles and four BCS appearances in as many seasons and bring with him a one-of-a-kind, highly uptempo offense.
As if that wasn't enough to have to deal with in one off-season, the Eagles had to hire an offensive coordinator--and in a move that surprised a lot of people, and every single Browns fan on the planet, settled on Shurmur. The next big decision the organization is faced with is whether or not to bring back Michael Vick. Vick has a base salary of $15.5M for 2013 and is due a roster bonus of $3M on February 6th if he is still with the team. In theory, Vick is the perfect quarterback for Kelly's offense. However, in practice, it remains to be seen if it will work with Vick's history of injuries. The two met last week and it's being reported that Vick has Kelly's support, but that hasn't been confirmed by Kelly.
Andy Reid, who was hired by the Kansas City Chiefs after they fired Romeo Crennel, is the only fired head coach to land another head coaching job this off-season. It's no secret that Reid loves quarterbacks and has groomed Donovan McNabb, as well as gave Vick another shot after he returned to the league. That has a lot of people wondering whether or not Kansas City will take a hard look at quarterbacks Matt Barkley or Tyler Wilson in this year's draft with the number one overall pick.
Also on the list of teams who fired their head coach after dismal seasons were the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bills fired Chan Gailey and replaced him with Syracuse University head coach Doug Marrone. I don't see how this hire makes a lot of sense (Marrone was 25-25 at Syracuse), but Marrone was New Orleans offensive coordinator from 2006-2008, so he does have some NFL experience. Jacksonville fired Mike Mularkey and hired Seattle's defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. Bradley's first order of business will be to decide the future of quarterback Blaine Gabbert. There's reason to believe that Jacksonville's defense will improve under Bradley. His Seahawks led the league in defense last year, giving up 310 yards per game.
The Chicago Bears took everyone by surprise when they announced that they have fired Lovie Smith. Smith was hired in 2004, but despite fielding some highly talked-about teams, the Bears do not have a playoff win in those nine years and have only made the playoffs three times. I'd argue that when Chicago hired Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman to the same position, he inherited the best of the eight teams who have hired a head coach this off-season.
Trestman, who won two Grey Cups (Canadian Football League's version of the Super Bowl), was an assistant coach in the NFL for over 20 years. Throughout that time, he gained a reputation for being able to work with quarterbacks and help them take their game to the next level. Among the quarterbacks he worked with were Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Rich Gannon and Steve Young. A lot of people really questioned this hire, especially when you consider that despite not having post-season success, Smith has led Chicago to some very good regular season records. I am not among the group of people who think hiring Trestman was a bad move. I think he will help revitalize the career of quarterback Jay Cutler, although there's no doubt he needs to address Chicago's offensive line woes.
One thing is for sure, there will be some head coaches who are looking for a new team to coach after being fired when the 2013 NFL season ends, and let me be the first to say that it's my opinion that Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett will fall under this category.