Five 1st-year coaches in postseason

Coaching changes paid off in a big way for several NFL teams this season.

From impressive turnarounds for the Jaguars and Giants to big boosts for the Vikings and Dolphins, a record-setting five of the 10 teams that hired new coaches for the 2022 season made the playoffs.

Doug Pederson led the Jags on a worstto-first flip in the AFC South, Brian Daboll helped the Giants go from last place to a wild-card berth, Kevin O’Connell took the Vikings from a losing record to 13 wins and an NFC North title, Mike McDaniel got the Dolphins their first playoff berth since 2016 and Todd Bowles helped the Buccaneers repeat as division champs for the first time.

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 the Broncos firing Nathaniel Hackett last month and the Texans firing Lovie Smith on Sunday night.

The Bears’ Matt Eberflus had the worst record in the NFL, Josh McDaniels turned a 10-win Raiders playoff team into a 6-11 team and the Saints had doubledigit 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 the Buccaneers 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. They 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 and again in 2015-16.

Rematch weekend

All six games on wild-card weekend are rematches from the regular season, including three matchups of division foes, with the Ravens playing the Bengals, the Dolphins visiting the Bills and the 49ers hosting the Seahawks.

Two of those three matchups ended in splits in the regular season, with the Ravens-Bengals and Dolphins-Bills splitting their two games.

The 49ers swept the Seahawks but know how little that matters after losing to the Rams in the NFC title game last season following two regular-seasons wins.

In the Super Bowl era, teams that swept an opponent in the regular season are 14-10 in a playoff rematch, including 13-6 when the game is at home, like it is for the 49ers on Saturday.

In the other rematches, the Chargers are seeking to avenge a Week 3 loss to the Jaguars, the Giants are looking to do the same after losing to the Vikings in Week 16 and the Cowboys are trying to do it after losing in Week 1 to the Bucs.

This is the fifth time since the merger that every game in the opening round of the playoffs is a rematch from the regular season.