NFL Coaching Carousel

[Flash3]

Mangini is reportedly going to be interviewing for the HC position in Cleveland.

Jason Garret is going to be interviewing in Detroit. (but, I thought he was re-signed last season to a 3 year deal, basically labeled the HC in waiting?)

[Basketball Jesus]

Mike Martz needs to find himself in Dallas ASAP.

[The Explorer]

The Bears GM spoke highly of Marinelli, could be the next DC

[MadCityBucky]

http://blogs.nfl.com/2008/12/30/broncos-fire-long-time-coach-shanahan/

Shanahan fired

[Pharmcat]

about time, shanahan was soo overrated and this move happened bout 3 years too late

[Flash3]

Surprise over the Shanahan firing, but it was a long time coming.

[Pharmcat]

Surprise over the Shanahan firing, but it was a long time coming.

it really was, the performace in post elway era is like .500...the D BLOWS, horrible FA signings, bout time is all i can say

[Flash3]

Yeah, but why not keep him in place and get the right pieces for the D, which IMO was the main reason they couldn't do anything when it mattered; unless he's a coach/gm all at the same time, then this firing makes sense.

It will be interesting to see where he goes, or if he takes a year off and then comes back next season.


FWIW, Cohwer is going to be talking to the NYJ about their coaching vacancy, after saying.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3799959

[studcrackers]

podmena traffica testall Jesus"]Mike Martz needs to find himself in Dallas ASAP.[/quote]

anything to get garrett out of dallas and somewhat who wants to employ some actual creativity in the offense (you know, like in garrett's 1st year, not this predictable POS offense that consists of draw plays and dump offs to the rb's and te's)

[Icness]

My Mike Shanahan experience:

I interviewed for a position with the Broncos heading into the 2008 draft season (Asst. Dir. of Scouting) right after Shanahan made his power play and got Ted Sundquist ousted. I was contacted via recommendation from a scouting director from another team and had never met Shanahan before.

They fly me first class to Denver and hook me up with a limo ride out to their complex, the fanciest facility I've ever seen. I met with a couple of other folks, doing the cheesy interview stuff. I'm scheduled to meet with Shanahan at 1PM for a 2-hour interview session. Just before I enter his palatial office (it's essentially a studio apartment), a guy tells me the following:
"Never ever call him Mike. He's Mr. Shanahan. You might be okay calling him Coach but never Mike. Never be the person to break eye contact with him. If you have eye contact, he's taking it as a battle of wills. Wait for him to look away or point something out, don;t just break it off and look down or anything like that."

I'm already fairly intimidated being there because I'm not particularly qualified and I know they've already interviewed someone else who really wants the job and is an old crony of Shanahan's. So now I'm freaking out a little, putting myself in damage control mode and hoping to impress him enough to get a consulting gig or a positive recommendation elsewhere.

After the pleasantries, he asks me about my football background. I told him about my senior history thesis on the USFL and my studies under Peter King. He looks at me with a penetrating glare and deadpans, "Really." No emotion, no change of facial expression. He repeats it. "Really". I'm not the best at picking up on whether people are kidding or not or on the subtleties of nonverbal communication, but I have absolutely no idea how to react to this. I can't tell if he's impressed, if he thinks I'm a freaking loser, or if he's rethinking his lunch choice.

We moved over to a conference room where they had their draft board all laid out. He was amazingly prepared and his knowledge of the minutae of the guys towards the bottom of the board puts Mel Kiper Jr. to shame. He knew the HS coaches of UDFA-caliber running backs, knew their majors and GPAs, knew the offensive system, knew their special teams ability, etc. We had some real good in-depth discussion on several players and our general philosophies of player selection (he's a guy who very strongly believes he can coach up athletically gifted guys that have not always thrived in college, I'm the diametric opposite in philosophy of drafting). As we were wrapping up he was once again a blank slate, shows no emotion in his face at all other than a nervous smile that pretty much never leaves his face. He promised that he himself would call me, and he did just that the very next morning, letting me know exactly what he thought. True to his word, he gave me very good access to his draft team at the Combine and the Broncos scouting dept. still promptly returns my calls and emails and gives me the straight dope. I hope that continues, because I got a tremendous amount of insider info and insight on guys I'm not that familiar with from them.

He can hold eye contact for 20 minutes without changing his facial expression. I'm not even sure he blinked more than a handful of times. Intimidating as hell, one of those guys who knows he's the smartest guy in the room.

[Icness]

Garrett was in Detroit today, Jerry Gray will be there this week. Leslie Frazier will get an interview once the Vikings are done and he should be considered a front-runner--he has ties with Mayhew.

Brian Billick has already thrown his hat into the Detroit ring but I've heard they aren't real keen on a retread.

Cowher will end up coaching the Jets. I'd bet an expensive dinner on it.

Cleveland is efforting Marty Schottenheimer to fill the role that Parcells has in Miami. No word on Marty's intentions other than it's extremely unlikely he coaches again. They are also chasing Pioli with the intent of luring McDaniels with him. I have no idea how that is going either, sorry.

[Fatty]

^ Its the beady eyes...



At least the front office at Denver waited for Cutler to be reasonably developed before firing his coach as to not stunt his development..

[PhilipNelsonFan]

That Shanahan story is awesome and not totally unexpected. But then, what happened to where his teams underachieved these past few years? Surely he didn't lose his touch.

And is McDaniels cut out in any way to be a HC? How does he interact with his players?

[Pharmcat]

Yeah, but why not keep him in place and get the right pieces for the D, which IMO was the main reason they couldn't do anything when it mattered; unless he's a coach/gm all at the same time, then this firing makes sense.

It will be interesting to see where he goes, or if he takes a year off and then comes back next season.


FWIW, Cohwer is going to be talking to the NYJ about their coaching vacancy, after saying.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3799959

he runs the personnel and is the coach...he fired like 4 D coaches, but every1 knows the players just arent there....you can only fire so many D coaches before realizing the HC has to go

[tomgugliottamvp]

My Mike Shanahan experience:

I interviewed for a position with the Broncos heading into the 2008 draft season (Asst. Dir. of Scouting) right after Shanahan made his power play and got Ted Sundquist ousted. I was contacted via recommendation from a scouting director from another team and had never met Shanahan before.

They fly me first class to Denver and hook me up with a limo ride out to their complex, the fanciest facility I've ever seen. I met with a couple of other folks, doing the cheesy interview stuff. I'm scheduled to meet with Shanahan at 1PM for a 2-hour interview session. Just before I enter his palatial office (it's essentially a studio apartment), a guy tells me the following:
"Never ever call him Mike. He's Mr. Shanahan. You might be okay calling him Coach but never Mike. Never be the person to break eye contact with him. If you have eye contact, he's taking it as a battle of wills. Wait for him to look away or point something out, don;t just break it off and look down or anything like that."

I'm already fairly intimidated being there because I'm not particularly qualified and I know they've already interviewed someone else who really wants the job and is an old crony of Shanahan's. So now I'm freaking out a little, putting myself in damage control mode and hoping to impress him enough to get a consulting gig or a positive recommendation elsewhere.

After the pleasantries, he asks me about my football background. I told him about my senior history thesis on the USFL and my studies under Peter King. He looks at me with a penetrating glare and deadpans, "Really." No emotion, no change of facial expression. He repeats it. "Really". I'm not the best at picking up on whether people are kidding or not or on the subtleties of nonverbal communication, but I have absolutely no idea how to react to this. I can't tell if he's impressed, if he thinks I'm a freaking loser, or if he's rethinking his lunch choice.

We moved over to a conference room where they had their draft board all laid out. He was amazingly prepared and his knowledge of the minutae of the guys towards the bottom of the board puts Mel Kiper Jr. to shame. He knew the HS coaches of UDFA-caliber running backs, knew their majors and GPAs, knew the offensive system, knew their special teams ability, etc. We had some real good in-depth discussion on several players and our general philosophies of player selection (he's a guy who very strongly believes he can coach up athletically gifted guys that have not always thrived in college, I'm the diametric opposite in philosophy of drafting). As we were wrapping up he was once again a blank slate, shows no emotion in his face at all other than a nervous smile that pretty much never leaves his face. He promised that he himself would call me, and he did just that the very next morning, letting me know exactly what he thought. True to his word, he gave me very good access to his draft team at the Combine and the Broncos scouting dept. still promptly returns my calls and emails and gives me the straight dope. I hope that continues, because I got a tremendous amount of insider info and insight on guys I'm not that familiar with from them.

He can hold eye contact for 20 minutes without changing his facial expression. I'm not even sure he blinked more than a handful of times. Intimidating as hell, one of those guys who knows he's the smartest guy in the room.

Hey man, cool story. How did you get that far up the ladder? Mind giving me a bit of background info on yourself? I'm already in college and planning on entering the sports management field so I'm really curious as to how you got to the point where you got to meet Shanahan and all that.

[Flash3]

Great story, Icness.

How did you take your passion to the next level?

[A.J.]

Surprised about the Shanahan firing I thought he was going to stay there for one more year.

[Geddy]

Thanks for the story Iceness. Shanahan does have that stare right through you look to him especially when things aren't going right.

Looks like the Bills are going to hang on to Jauron as their coach. I thought he would be out but it seems the players are really high on him so I guess that's why they held on to him.

I wonder if either of Shanahan or Martz will end up in Dallas. I sure as hell hope Jones changes his mind and gets rid of Wade and Garrett.

[HCYanks]

I think this was a mistake by the Broncos. I know the last few seasons haven't gone great, but honestly, what are the odds the Broncos find anyone better on the coaching market? What Denver really needed was a competent defensive coordinator that could generally handle that side of the ball. I thought what the Broncos did on offense is admirable, considering the insane injury problems with the running backs.

The irony is that Shanhammer's modified WCO scheme is so entrenched into the Denver offense that the new HC will have little choice but to keep running it. I guess one solution is to look for a a west coast offense disciple to keep handling offensive duties as a coordinator and look for a defensive-minded coach to fix the problems there.

[Celtics_Champs]

Wow, Shanny. There wasn't even a rumbling about him being fired.