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Here’s who should fill the NFL head coaching openings.
The NFL regular season is over and we’re now past the wild card round. As it stands, there are five NFL head coaching vacancies: the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans. Each team needs a new guy that can right their ship for very different reasons.
Let’s go through each team and pick who we think is the perfect match for that team — even if that team isn’t even interviewing our pick.
Cardinals: Jim Caldwell
Here’s the thing with the Cardinals, they have a quarterback problem. Kyler Murray has all the talent you could want in a quarterback in today’s game. He can throw the ball well and he can be mobile. The problem is that he can be pretty erratic, too. Murray needs to take the next step in his career. He needs to go from a guy who has talent to a guy that can lead the Cardinals to prosperity. Caldwell is the guy who can help make that change.
He’s already done it before. Caldwell helped Peyton Manning take the next step after Manning struggled early in his career. Manning has attributed his success to Caldwell on multiple occasions. Caldwell also did the same thing for Joe Flacco and Matthew Stafford. He got these guys under control and rewired their games. Ultimately all three of them are now Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. He’s a quarterback whisperer. The Cardinals need him to whisper to Kyler Murray. As of this article, the Cardinals have not interviewed Caldwell.
Texans: Shane Steichen
The NFL is clearly moving in the direction of the mobile quarterback that sling the ball down field. Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen has plenty of experience with that. He’s spent the last two years with MVP candidate Jalen Hurts. The Eagles finished the season second in the NFL in points for under Steichen and are now Super Bowl favorites.
With the Texans having the second pick in the NFL Draft and more than likely being the first team to draft a quarterback, Alabama’s Bryce Young would be the prefect pick to pair with Steichen. Young, like Hurts, can run all over the place and can throw the ball down field. It makes perfect sense to start your rebuild on the backs of these two guys. Steichen can be the first smart decision the Texans have made in a long while.
Broncos: Sean Payton
Did the Broncos go out there and lay a big egg this season or what? This team has had quite a weird run in the past two years. They were first in the Aaron Rodgers conversation for a while and it seemed like that was really going to happen. It would certainly explain the Nathaniel Hackett hire. Things didn’t work out there so the Broncos sold the farm to Seattle to bring in Russel Wilson. So far that experiment is not working out at all.
The Broncos are desperate. Thats what it’s going to take to bring in former Saints coach Sean Payton. Out of all the potential head coaches out there, Payton is the only one that’s going to require giving up something more than money. To get Payton, the Broncos are going to have to trade some some stuff.
Because this team has put themselves in a position where they need to make things work, they might be the only team that’s willing to make a trade to get Payton. It could wind up being a smart move in the end. Payton is a good coach and has the Super Bowl ring to prove it. Being as though this roster is probably the closest, this might be the place he wants to wind up as well. That is unless the Chargers job opens up.
Colts: Aaron Glenn
Lions fans are going to be upset with me on this one. As a man that covers the team, I know how much their fans want to keep their coordinators around. The problem is that Glenn might be a perfect fit for the Colts.
I talked a little bit about how Kyler Murray is an erratic quarterback at times earlier in this piece. Well, the Colts are the team version of that. This is one erratic franchise that just needs to find the right guy to come in and settle things down and be a leader of men. That guy should not be someone who was on TV last week and has no coaching experience. Sorry Jeff Saturday.
Aaron Glenn is that guy. For the last two years in a row he’s been able to get the absolute most out of the youngest defense in the NFL. The reason is because like Dan Campbell, Glenn is a culture guy all the way. You want a guy that the team can buy into. The Colts haven’t had that guy in a very long time. This team has talent for sure. Imagine what they could be if they were pointed in the right direction and they make the right quarterback selection this offseason. They’re a playoff team for sure.
Panthers: Steve Wilks
This team was left for dead not long ago. The Panthers were 1-4 when they fired Matt Rhule and the talk around town was that the team was getting ready for a fire sale and just about everyone was available. By the end of the season, the Panthers were playing for the division and shot at the playoffs. I fully realize that the NFC South is a pretty bad division, but that doesn’t mean that the Panthers didn’t rally around their coach and try to make it happen.
That’s a big thing that too many franchises dismiss. The coach that can bring it all together and have the team fighting. It’s culture. You can bring in all the young offensive minds and defensive minded head coaches you want, but you can’t bring in culture. They have to build it from the ground up. The Panthers have one of the hardest things to build already. The best thing they could do is surround that with the right pieces and go from there. Wilks deserves to at least have a shot to make it work. Even if it’s only for a year. I believe that Wilks can prove that it’s the right move.
