NFL needs much wider job searches
The firings have already begun. As sure as there will be more coaches following Bill O’Brien out the door over the next few months, most NFL owners and general managers are going to botch the hirings of their replacements.
They cannot help themselves. In recent years, talented Black and brown coaches such as Eric Bieniemy, Robert Saleh, Keith Armstrong, George Edwards, David Culley, Pep Hamilton – need I continue? – have been either overlooked or outright snubbed for head coaching jobs. Meanwhile, one job after another has gone to white retreads who had done nothing to justify their second chances or first-timers whose main selling point was being within six degrees of Bill Belichick.
The results have been, to put it nice
ly, underwhelming.
The New York Jets are 0-4 after last year’s 7-9 finish, making Adam Gase’s 23-25 record in Miami look positively Lombardian.
The Detroit Lions are even worse under Matt Patricia than their current 1-3 record indicates, gagging up a fourthquarter lead on their way to a loss 10 times in his two-plus seasons. Yet Patricia is trying to pin the blame for his 1025-1 record on the mess he inherited from Jim Caldwell, who was fired after – checks notes – consecutive 9-7 seasons.
The New York Giants could have had Bieniemy, who, as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator, has been instrumental in Patrick Mahomes’ development and the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl title in 50 years. Instead, the Giants hired Joe Judge, the New England Patriots’ special teams coordinator.
The Giants are 0-4. Mahomes and Kansas City are 4-0, and a good bet for another trip to the Super Bowl.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Because Belichick, Andy Reid and Pete Carroll have been wildly successful in their second go-rounds, owners and GMs are focused on finding someone just like them. And if not that, then someone who learned from them.
Implicit bias and the NFL’s “good ol’ boy network,” which limits upward mobility for Black assistants, only compounds the problem. Owners and GMs gravitate toward candidates who look
like them, often citing that nebulous
“comfort” factor.
But while owners and GMs trip over themselves in search of a slightly different version of the same knockoff, they are bypassing coaches who could actually help their teams get where everyone
is trying to go.
If you look at the past few years, in fact, the first-time coaches who’ve been the most successful are those who aren’t cast from the traditional mold.
Sean McVay was a 30-year-old wunderkid when the Los Angeles Rams hired him in 2017. Two years later, he took the Rams to the Super Bowl.
Mike Vrabel had been a defensive coordinator for all of one year, and a linebackers coach for just three years before that, when the Tennessee Titans made him their head coach in 2018. Last year, the Titans were playing for the AFC championship.
Matt LaFleur had spent two years as an offensive coordinator, first for the Rams and then with the Titans, but was still flying somewhat under the radar when the Packers hired him in 2019. Now Aaron Rodgers is rejuvenated and the Green Bay Packers have the NFL’s most prolific offense.
After missing – badly – with Freddie Kitchens, the Cleveland Browns hired Kevin Stefanski, who’d spent 14 years working his way up the Minnesota Vikings coaching ladder. It’s still early, but Stefanski seems as if he might finally be the one to bring stability to the Browns, if not success.
And, yet, no doubt when January rolls around, some teams will chase after O’Brien, kick the tires on Gase or try and raid Belichick’s coaching staff. Because they’re certain this time will be different.
But odds are, it won’t be.
NFL owners and GMs can be bold, confronting their own biases and giving Black coaches the same benefit of the doubt routinely afforded to white coaches.
Or they can stick to the same, tired formula, only to realize in a year or two that the results are the same.
There’s a word for that, you know. It’s called insanity. And it guarantees ineptitude.