This NFL Team Is The Best Spot For A New Head Coach

This NFL Team Is The Best Spot For A New Head Coach | Sports Takes & News | TooAthletic.com

After the Black Monday firing, the NFL now has six teams looking for new head coaches as the frenzy to find the next best leader begins in earnest. As with any group of franchises that are hiring, each one offers their own challenges, with reasons for candidates to be interested and reasons to keep looking. Knowing that, let’s take a look at which NFL teams offers potential head coaches the best chance for success.

During the 2020 season, three teams, Falcons, Lions, and Texans fired their head coaches, and were joined at the end of the season by the Jaguars, Chargers and Jets. Each team is in a different stage of their development as potential title contenders, with each offering their own set of circumstances to cope with for the next head coach. Which job would you want? Because for me, the choices can be broken down into three pairs of two teams.

Let’s start with the team that is already on the clock at this year’s NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who will have the first chance to select a player. They have an owner who wants to win, but they also have an owner who wants to make money and may be willing to play home games in London in order to do so. The Jaguars history is not exactly one of a championship organization, having won only one divisional title since 2000, and having made only three postseasons appearances in that time. For this job to have any appeal, the incoming head coach will need to know that the college quarterback that he wants the most is entering the NFL in this year’s draft, because the current quarterbacks on the roster just won’t cut it. Otherwise this job has less appeal to me than almost any of the ones available.

We move onto the team with the second pick in this year’s draft, the New York Jets, who haven’t had a history of winning for more than the last half century. The first red flag about this job comes with not knowing if Woody or Christopher Johnson will be in control of the team. It has been the younger brother, Christopher, who took over for Woody while he was away, and it was he who hired the now fired Adam Gase after just two seasons as the Jets head coach. The team’s general manager Joe Douglas has indicated the decision on if current starting quarterback, Sam Darnold, will remain with the organization will involve the next head coach. This opens the possibility that the second overall pick in this year’s draft may be for sale, and the team may be able to rebuild quickly around Darnold, or the head coach will be able to draft the QB he wants to build around. While intriguing, the uncertainty surrounding ownership and their lack of winning might make the Jets job a second choice for the best head coaching prospects, thus leaving the team to choose from second tier coaches looking for advancement.

Now we look at the only two NFC teams looking for a head coach, the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions. Each has an aging quarterback that doesn’t seem to be improving, and each team having major roster decisions needing to be made this offseason. While Atlanta might be able to rebuild with Matt Ryan, to do so quickly may require trading star wide receiver Julio Jones, which means the team will be closer to rebuilding than being in contention, thus turning the franchise into a rebuilding project.

As for the Lions, their history of success is on par or even worse than the New York Jets, and their ownership hasn’t seemed all that interested in winning for generations. Like the Falcons, they also have an older quarterback who may still be a franchise player, but not one a team rebuilding would want around as part of that process. Which might result in a trade of Matthew Stafford, and force the Lions into a huge rebuild. All in all, the Lions failed by hiring a former Bill Belichick assistant, so I don’t know what kind of coach they will hire this time, but I don’t expect it to be a big-name coach, and it wouldn’t be my first or even second choice if I had other options.

That leaves us with the last two available head coaching jobs, the Houston Texans and the Los Angeles Chargers, either of which would be interesting to me for different reasons. First, in Houston, where it has been established that DeShaun Watson can produce from the quarterback position, even when surrounded with very little support on offense. If I was interviewing for the job, however, I would need to make sure that trading J.J. Watt was a viable option for the team since, despite his brilliance in meaningless games, it is clear this franchise can’t get over the hump with him on the roster, and it’s time to move him for some younger, cheaper assets. I think their tough schedule to start the 2020 season put them on a downward spiral that former head coach Bill O’Brien couldn’t pull them out of, and with the team already down on their coach for the trading of star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, this past season was doomed from the start. With some fresh blood, a new voice, and some roster adjustments, landing the Texans job would be a great spot for almost any head coach even with the emergence of the Titans in the division.

We end with what I think is the best head coaching job available this offseason, the Los Angeles Chargers. They have their franchise quarterback in place by the name of Justin Herbert, and just need someone who can see in him what former head coach Anthony Lynn clearly didn’t at first, his talent. True, the Chargers are in the same division as the Kansas City Chiefs, so finding a strong defensive coordinator will be important for any incoming head coach, but Herbert proved he can go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes, and their current defense was able to give Mahomes a hard time in 2020, meaning a good head coach could make LA a contender very quickly. As a believer in Justin Herbert, putting together a winning team with the Chargers should be the fastest among the six available teams. Nevertheless, being hired as the head coach of the Chargers would be the head coaching job I would want if I had a chance to pick where I was going in 2021.

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