We are down to one remaining NFL team without a head coach, the Cleveland Browns. People are overreacting like they usually do when something happens like this where a team decides to wait patiently before rushing into a hire. Cleveland interviewed many candidates, and some pulled themselves out, others took jobs elsewhere and the remaining are still contenders for the job. People are act like they need to rush out and make a decision when really they can wait to make the right calls. Some teams such as Tennessee Titans, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions all made hires in the past couple of days, let's break them down.
Detroit Lions
Tennessee Titans
Ken Whisenhunt takes the job at Tennessee, a man seen in high regard as he fixed another quarterback with Phillip Rivers. Whisenhunt tries to bring back winning to a Tennessee team that has not been to the playoffs since 2008. He is known around the league as a quarterback whisperer as he revived the careers of Kurt Warner in Arizona and Phillip Rivers in San Diego. Additionally, Whisenhunt worked well with a youthful quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger as he helped lead them to a Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator when Big Ben was only 23 years old.
They hope the Whiz can work his magic with Jake Locker. He looked good when Locker could stay on the field. The latter part of that sentence is why I would draft a quarterback in the mid rounds next year if I am Tennessee. Zach Mettenberger, Logan Thomas, etc would not be a bad fit here with the Titans. I would not doubt Tennessee's playoff chances next year.
Detroit LionsWhen new coaches get brought in, they are different from the last one and oh boy, is this a change of pace with Detroit going from Jim Schwartz to Jim Caldwell. Same first name, totally different attitudes. Caldwell will now be in charge of molding Matthew Stafford into an elite quarterback which will be a challenge when the guy seems to be like a spoiled pre-teen with his attitude towards offseason quarterback coaches. I will be interested to see how his calm demeanor will work with a bunch of players who have this attitude about them about being badasses. Like this is a complete change of pace, and players might react differently than people expect. I cannot really project how Caldwell will do as a coach because there are two seasons with Peyton Manning and one without him. He sucked as a college coach at Wake Forest, but that was 15-20 years ago. Jury is still out, but I do not think this is an inspired coach.
Minnesota Vikings
Mike Zimmer is the new name here, and the media basically had an orgasm upon hearing the news. Zimmer must treat everybody pretty well because everyone was happy he finally got a head coaching job. He seems like a no nonsense guy that is not afraid to break a few eggs. Like Detroit, this is a change of pace from Leslie Frazier. He seems like a good fit for any team honestly, but here's my question for Minnesota, was defense really the problem last year? Their secondary was brutal, but when it all boils down to it, they have barely had an offensive concept more so than a porous defense. Now if the offensive coordinator they bring in can mold Christian Ponder into a game manager like an Alex Smith, and Zimmer works his magic on defense, this team might be okay a couple years down the road. I will save this for another blog post, but if Minnesota was smart, they deal Adrian Peterson this year or next year, dead serious too.
Charlie.
