NFL coaching searches will shape league in 2015

The NFL playoffs are in full swing now that Wild Card weekend is over, but coaching searches are also dominating the headlines. It’s an annual tradition in the NFL with the weaker teams participating way too often. When you keep changing coaches you’re just asking for trouble. Just ask the fans in Cleveland and Oakland.

The best franchises thrive in large part due to stability. Teams like the Patriots, Steelers and Packers are consistently good because they don’t panic when things go badly. Of course they also have top quarterbacks which makes everything easier, but you can’t discount this issue of stability. So these teams are good year in and year out, and when you’re looking at American football betting scenarios with the likes of betfair and other online bookmakers you regularly see these teams as favorites.

When you look at the coaching landscape, there are certainly some interesting scenarios out there with coaching vacancies and the popular candidates. You have the head coaching retreads like Rex Ryan, Doug Marrone and Mike Shanahan, and then you have the hot coordinators like Todd Bowles, Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan. Both scenarios carry risks, but coordinators are particularly hard to project as head coaches as the jobs are so different. One stresses Xs and Os while the other has much more to do with being a leader.

Looking at the assistants, Bowles and Quinn seem to have the leadership skills necessary to be a head coach. With someone like Kyle Shanahan you have to be more skeptical. He seems like a great system guy but there doesn’t seem to be much charisma there.

The question is whether there’s a Jim Harbaugh out there who can move the needle in one season and change the culture overnight. Michigan sure hopes so, but that’s another story. With all of their baggage, guys like Rex Ryan and Mike Shanahan seem to fit that mold. Take a team like Atlanta that already has a quality quarterback with Matt Ryan. Someone like Rex Ryan could be an interesting fit as he would make that weak defense better overnight and change the culture of this team that’s looked at as soft. If he has the right offensive coordinator, you could have the Falcons back in contention quickly, particularly in their weak division.

Then you consider the Oakland basket case. They actually have a young talent at quarterback in Derek Carr, and they have some talent on defense. Someone like Mike Shanahan could stabilize that franchise and develop Carr into a winner, so it’s not surprising that he’s getting some attention there.

Picking winners in the NFL has become very difficult, but you can get an edge if you study the coaching hires. Last year Doug Marrone turned the Bills into a winner and Mike Pettine stabilized the Cleveland situation. Meanwhile Oakland was a mess until they dumped their coach. So pay attention and maybe you can get an edge going into 2015.

  

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