NFL’s second-chance coaches get shot at career reset
When Bruce Arians passed the reins to new Bucs coach Todd Bowles last week, he left with some parting advice: “Just be yourself, because that’s plenty good enough.”
The results that Bowles had the last time he ran an NFL team were hardly good enough. Bowles guided the New York Jets to the playoffs in his first season in 2015 but followed that with three straight last-place finishes and left town with a 24-40 record.
Of course, when he coached the Jets, Bowles didn’t have Tom Brady as his quarterback. Now he has inherited a ready-made contender from his mentor.
What a difference this second time around promises to be.
Bowles is one of four new coaches in the NFL this season getting a second crack at the top job, joining Doug Pederson (Jacksonville Jaguars), Dennis Allen (New Orleans Saints) and Josh McDaniels (Las Vegas Raiders) with that distinction while Lovie Smith (Houston Texans) is beginning his third such stint.
Surely, talent is essential. But that’s not the end-all. As NFL teams begin offseason workout programs this month, with new coaches getting a jump-start on the calendar, will be interesting to gauge how much the second-chance coaches have learned from experience.
“I’ve seen a lot more,” Allen, who floundered with an 8-28 mark as Raiders coach from 2012-14, said during the recent NFL owners meetings. “I’ve done a lot more. I’m way more experienced than I was the first time I did this. Things don’t really surprise me as much as they would have going through it the first time. I go into the office with the mindset I know there’s a couple problems I’m going to have to deal with. … I don’t think I was quite ready for that the first time.”
Like Bowles, Allen established himself as a top defensive coordinator to position himself for another shot. Similarly, he’s charged to fill the shoes of a highly successful predecessor who carried enormous presence, following Sean Payton. It’s no wonder that, in line with Arians’ advice to Bowles, he believes it is important to establish his own identity.
Just working closely with Payton for several years hammered that home.
Then again, for so many years Payton had a top quarterback running his offense in Drew Brees. Allen, with Jameis Winston at quarterback, will benefit with the continuity provided by offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael returning for a 17th season.
Of course, none of the scenarios are identical. McDaniels, who has the longest span of this group since his last head coaching job (fired by Denver in 2010 after less than two seasons and an 11-17 mark), inherits Derek Carr and a playoff team bolstered by big-time acquisitions Davante Adams and Chandler Jones. Pederson, with a Super Bowl victory on his resume, follows the Urban Meyer fiasco with Trevor Lawrence and the rebuilding Jaguars holding the No. 1 pick overall for the second year in a row. And Smith, who once took Chicago to a Super Bowl, is trying to steady the equilibrium of a team that was thrown off even before the Deshaun Watson saga unfolded last year.
Yet there is clearly a common denominator. Bowles alluded to it in maintaining that the biggest lesson learned from his first time in charge involved “wearing all of the hats” in addressing the myriad layers of the job.
“Put the right hat on at the right time,” he said.
Sounds like a man who has been there before.
McVay buoyed by Donald’s return
It’s one thing to try to repeat as Super Bowl champion. No team has been able to do so since the New England Patriots in the 2004 season.
It would have been quite another challenge for the Los Angeles Rams had their defensive centerpiece, defensive tackle Aaron Donald, decided to retire after contemplating such a decision following Super Bowl 56.
“I don’t even know how to articulate how relieved I am,” coach Sean McVay said during the NFL meetings recently. “Basically, maybe I would’ve done the TV stuff if Aaron Donald retired.”
There is still another shoe to drop: The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year is due a raise. Donald, 30, has three years remaining on a six-year, $135 million extension signed in 2018 that averages $22.5 million per year. Given the funny money that has been flowing around the NFL and the Rams’ recent signing of quarterback Matthew Stafford to a four-year, $160 million extension, Donald is underpaid, according to market conditions.
Said McVay, “It’s really important to get this contract figured out for him because he’s deserved it and he’s earned it.”
Donald is one of just four Rams players (with wide receiver Cooper Kupp, tight end Tyler Higbee and offensive lineman Rob Havenstein) still with the team since McVay arrived in 2017. And just four members of McVay’s coaching staff have been with him for the five years. That says something about the big-picture mission of trying to repeat as champs.
“The change is inevitable and you can’t allow complacency to set in, but you also have to understand this is a challenging league,” McVay said. “You’ve got to be agile and adapt to every single day.”
Given so many aggressive moves over the years to land talent, the Rams have shown some serious agility.