The NFL teaching cycle is now in full swing. There was an expectation that we’d want to attend quite a bit longer for lots of the positions to iron themselves out, however the timeline was expedited with the Lions’ beautiful loss to the Commanders within the NFC Divisional Playoffs. With two of the most well liked teaching commodities on that Detroit staff now free to interview and be employed, groups with out a coach higher have a plan lined up shortly, lest they discover themselves on the skin trying in.
Grading coaches generally is a tough pursuit. Oftentimes instances the pinnacle teaching place is about executing on a imaginative and prescient holistically fairly than being a monolith on the high. Dan Quinn was hardly essentially the most thrilling rent of the 2024 cycle, however immediately, he grew to become the perfect teaching rent within the NFL once you take a look at the offensive turnaround underneath Kliff Kingsbury and Jayden Daniels.
Nonetheless, there are methods of studying tea leaves when coaches get employed — and we’re grading each new coach within the NFL.
Chicago Bears: Ben Johnson
It’s been a protracted, very long time because the Bears employed somebody who was really coveted for NFL jobs and never simply employed as a result of somebody wanted to fill the function. Recognized for splashy strikes lately, Chicago pulled off its greatest coup by hiring Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to remain within the NFC North and compete in opposition to his prior staff.
There’s little doubt Johnson is a home-run rent. His scheming skill and artistic offensive sport planning took the Lions to new heights and remodeled Jared Goff into among the finest quarterbacks within the NFL. Johnson concurrently confirmed ridiculous expertise in devising a run sport, typified by the one-two punch of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery this season.
With that heaping assist of reward, it’s additionally value questioning if it is a nice match. Johnson is supremely artistic, however the majority of his work occurs pre-snap. He’s not somebody who thrives when his gamers go off script or begin creating for themselves. That makes this match with Caleb Williams and DJ Moore a bit of awkward, each of whom are much less robotic and extra inventors — with Williams’ penchant for improvising after the snap, whereas Moore has by no means been a route technician, as a substitute discovering methods to get open on the high of his route.
Don’t get it twisted: That is nonetheless an excellent rent, and Johnson wouldn’t take the job with out confidence he could make all this work. It’s simply value pausing for a beat to consider how this all matches collectively.
Grade: B+
New England Patriots: Mike Vrabel
The Patriots had been the kings of selecting the apparent this 12 months. In actual fact, the rapidity through which they moved on from Jerod Mayo, shortly knocked out their Rooney Rule interviews, and instantly employed Vrabel appears to point this was the plan all alongside.
Buying and selling one ex-player for one more, it’s clear New England has a kind. There are lots of alternative ways to take a look at Vrabel main the Pats, however the prevailing feeling is that that is each stable and unremarkable.
Vrabel is an old-school soccer man with old-school tendencies. He’s going to need to run the ball and beat groups with protection. There gained’t be any methods, it’ll hardly ever be fairly, and it’ll in all probability work — to a level. On the very least New England will see extra wins, purely as a result of this staff was already on the upswing underneath Mayo, and Vrabel ought to be capable to put collectively a stable workers.
Who this won’t be good for is Drake Maye. Giving a rookie QB two coaches in two years isn’t nice, however Vrabel will naturally deemphasize any focus there was on the passing sport and give attention to the run. If that ends in a wholesale overhaul to the offensive line it’s a very good factor, however with Maye’s progress over his rookie season it additionally feels a bit of like shopping for a sports activities automotive and refusing to shift it out of third.
Finally Vrabel is an efficient rent with a ceiling. He’ll win soccer video games. He may even get the Pats again to the playoffs. He isn’t a coach who can lead a staff to a Tremendous Bowl. We simply haven’t seen the creativity or scheming required to win a chess sport in opposition to the opposite high minds within the NFL.
Grade: C+
New York Jets: Aaron Glenn
The New York Jets drafted Aaron Glenn as a cornerback out of Texas A&M within the first spherical of the 1994 NFL Draft.
Over thirty years later, Glenn is the following head coach of the group.
Glenn is a improbable rent for the staff, and there may be an argument that he’s the extra intriguing choice of the 2 Lions coordinators, the opposite being Ben Johnson. From being a participant for over a decade within the NFL to his expertise within the entrance workplace, as a scout, and later as a coach, Glenn is well-prepared to take over as a head coach. He has executed nearly all the things you are able to do to organize for that second.
It is usually value mentioning the job he did with the Detroit protection this season, a unit that was decimated by accidents in any respect ranges of the sector. Accidents lastly caught up with them within the NFC Divisional Spherical Sport, however that unit was taking part in at a excessive degree even with the variety of gamers they started the 12 months with as starters watching injured from the sideline.
This can be a large rent for the Jets.
Grade: A-
Jacksonville Jaguars: Liam Coen
It took lengthy sufficient for the franchise to half methods with GM Trent Baalke, however it ended up permitting the staff to get among the finest coaches this cycle.
Coen has been one of many NFL’s most intriguing offensive minds, and he confirmed this previous season in Tampa Bay that his strategy works. Constructing on the Buccaneers’ prior success, Coen helped make Baker Mayfield a 4,000 yard passer and lead the staff to a second-straight playoff berth.
Broadly thought of to have been Tampa Bay’s head coach in ready, a dramatic 48 hours noticed Coen finally conform to the Jags’ job — and the largest benefactor shall be Trevor Lawrence. Lastly Lawrence can have the liberty to function in a contemporary NFL passing offense, and the sky is the restrict for this staff now.
For all of the deserved hype Ben Johnson acquired in Detroit, Liam Coen is just not far behind.
Grade: A
Las Vegas Raiders: Pete Carroll
The Raiders shake issues up by making Seahawks and USC legend Pete Carroll the oldest head coach hiring in NFL historical past.
That is … tremendous? Look, the thought right here is that Carroll will regular the ship for a couple of seasons and a minimum of get the Raiders again to a degree of equilibrium. There’s little doubt Carroll is gifted, however his greatest affect shall be on the workers he places collectively. Carroll has among the finest eyes for expertise within the league on the subject of coordinators and place coaches, and that alone shall be a boon for the Raiders.
As for Carroll on the sideline himself? It’s a minimum of higher than Josh McDaniels or Antonio Pierce. This transfer may be very a lot about how will succeed Carroll extra so than it’s about him reworking the staff proper now.
Grade: B
Dallas Cowboys: Brian Schottenheimer
After years of hypothesis, Schottenheimer lastly will get his probability to be a head coach. After serving because the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator since 2023, Schotty now has the chance to run the present.
Hiring Schottenheimer to be the pinnacle coach of the Cowboys is wild. It’s a major letdown for anybody who thought Dallas would be capable to appeal to an thrilling coach — and in truth, the place ought to be above somebody like this. If something, it’s an indication of how far the Cowboys have fallen.
Schottenheimer’s profession is as scattershot because it will get. In his 14 years of being an offensive coordinator he’s led groups to Prime 16 offenses 4 instances and languished under twentieth within the league seven instances. That is hardly the resume of different offensive coaches this cycle like Ben Johnson or Liam Coen, however this needs to be the expectation for the Cowboys now.
The staff is in a deep wage cap gap. Anybody taking the job would want to simply accept that Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb have to be the focal factors of the offense. Selling from inside might have been their solely choice.
The issue in this hiring is that it’s powerful to see Schottenheimer being any higher than Mike McCarthy. In actual fact, it’s in all probability going to be worse.
Grade: D
We’ll replace this story as extra groups rent coaches.
