When it comes to offensive coordinators, NFL teams are running out of names, and running out of ideas. And some teams may be running out of time.
I can't recall another year when the Senior Bowl practices have started and a quarter of the league still does not have its offensive coordinator in place. And many teams haven't yet even interviewed the guy they are going to hire.
The head coaching searches dragged out this year, at least in part due to the success certain top candidates were having in the postseason, and that certainly contributed to this stagnation on the coordinator market, but it's hardly the only culprit. The Raiders are giving strong consideration to making Bill Musgrave their offensive coordinator -- hardly a dynamic, progressive, inspiring hire. The Browns are mulling over guys like Charlie Weis and Matt Cavanaugh (who recently failed fairly ingloriously in the college ranks), who most assumed would not be getting NFL paychecks anytime soon, if ever. The 49ers are giving serious consideration to Lane Kiffin(!) who had a spectacular flameout in the Bay Area with Oakland and brings plenty of baggage with him. And the Jets on Tuesday night announced they're bringing aboard Chan Gailey, hardly a dynamic, progressive, inspiring potential hire. The Rams and Bears still need an offensive coordinator, too.
Hell, the Falcons were so scared off by the lack of elite candidates and the possibility of losing out on one they convinced Kyle Shanahan, who was highly coveted, to agree to become their coordinator a good two weeks before they could even offer the head coaching job to Dan Quinn, who will be coaching Seattle's defense in the Super Bowl. And kudos to them for pulling it off, because as bad as this picture looks right now, two weeks from now it'll be even worse. There just aren't enough guys out there.
Seems to me like the endless churn in the NFL, having 6-8 regime changes every year, has outpaced the ability to adequately staff these coaching rosters. Some other factors are at play as well. With offense booming in the NFL and chicks digging the long ball, and owners liking the scoring hike and the ratings hike that have come with it, the trend for the better part of this decade was hiring offensive-minded head coaches and quarterback gurus. So, that began to deplete the ranks of the up-and-coming young guys.
Teams also are willing to block young position coaches under contract from taking coordinator jobs. It has become increasingly commonplace, and that has led to this plight as well. We’ve seen far fewer college coaches jumping to the pros in recent years, also, which usually brings new talent with them that they bring over, who then rise up the ranks as potential coordinators and head coaches. And with the kind of money being thrown around in the (allegedly) amateur game, there isn’t any reason anymore for a rising college head coach to give it a whirl as an NFL coordinator anymore to prove his worth as an eventual pro head coach. That doesn’t exist or happen anymore.
So in a copycat league with the trend being all-offense for so long, and with some teams being proprietary with their young assistants, we're left with a year of retreads making the rounds. (It also explains why all of the head coaching hires, all except for Denver, in fact -- where John Elway was always going to try to hire his longtime friend Gary Kubiak -- were on the defensive side of the ball. If we can’t come up with enough worthy offensive coordinator candidates then forget about it as offensive-minded head coaches).
And with so many clubs making coordinator changes this year, and some teams, like Denver, blowing up their staffs weeks into the offseason, we've got a glut of openings, only a few standout names who multiple teams are vying to hire on their offensive staffs (e.g. Adam Gase, Marc Trestman -- before the latter snapped up the Ravens' opening) and a bunch of teams talking to guys who I frankly didn't think would be interviewing for these jobs again.
If you can pry Alex Van Pelt out of Green Bay, you should do it. Rob Chudzinski will end up with something, and he's a worthy candidate as well.
But expect plenty of fan bases to be up in arms about who ends up in charge of their quarterbacks and offense for the 2015 season. There just aren't enough bona fides out there to fill this void, and skeptics will abound as some of these staffs are assembled and some coaches are recycled who you probably thought you'd seen the last of.
