Record 5 1st-year coaches lead teams into postseason
Coaching changes paid off in a big way for several NFL teams this season.
From impressive turnarounds for Jacksonville and the New York Giants to big boosts for Minnesota and Miami, a record-setting five of the 10 teams that hired new coaches for the 2022 season made the playoffs.
Doug Pederson led the Jaguars on a worst-to-first flip in the AFC South, Brian Daboll helped the Giants go from last place to a wildcard berth, Kevin O’Connell took Minnesota from a losing record to 13 wins and an NFC North title, Mike McDaniel got Miami to its first playoff berth since 2016 and Todd Bowles helped Tampa Bay repeat as division champs for the first time in franchise history.
That broke the previous record of four coaches getting to the postseason in their first season with a team, which was set in 1997 when Jim Fassel (Giants), Pete Carroll (Patriots), Bobby Ross (Lions) and Steve Mariucci (49ers) did it.
There were a record-tying 10 coaching changes last offseason and not all of the newcomers had success, with Denver firing Nathaniel Hackett last month and Houston firing Lovie Smith on Sunday night.
Chicago’s Matt Eberflus finished with the worst record in the NFL, Josh McDaniels turned a 10-win playoff team in Las Vegas into a 6-11 team and the Saints had double-digit losses for the first time since 2005 in their first year under Dennis Allen.
The most impressive
turnaround came in Jacksonville, where Pederson helped the Jaguars become the first team since the 2008 Dolphins to win their division the season after posting the league’s worst record.
Daboll’s work helped the Giants go from 4-13 to 9-7-1 despite a flawed roster hurt by a staggering $54.8 million in dead money on the salary cap to get to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Bowles struggled a bit more as Tampa Bay won just eight games to become the fourth division winner in NFL history with a losing record. Two of the previous three — the 2010 Seahawks (7-9) and 2014 Panthers (7-8-10) — won a playoff game, while Washington (7-9) lost to the Bucs in the 2020 playoffs.
The Texans are looking for a new coach again after rare, back-to-back seasons of one-year coaching tenures. Houston fired David Culley after the 2021 season and Smith this season.
The only other team since the merger to do that was the 49ers, who had three coaches in a row last a year or less from 1976-78 in Monte Clark, Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley, and did it again in 2015-16 with Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly.