Is Joe Brady Ready To Be an NFL Head Coach?
After just one season as the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, Joe Brady is receiving interest from several teams for their head coaching vacancy.
Brady has interviewed for just about every head coach opening in the NFL, but the biggest question teams will have to ask themselves is whether or not he is ready to be an NFL head coach.
In my personal opinion, I think he needs a little more time. Do I believe he will make a great head coach one day? Yes, but this is not the time for him to move onto the next venture. Like most young coordinators, Brady still has a lot of developing to do not only as a play-caller but as a coach as well. We saw QB Teddy Bridgewater hit a wall midway through the season and was nowhere near the same quarterback that he was early on. If I'm a GM or owner of another NFL team, I look at what the Panthers did this year offensively and I'm not overly impressed.
21st in Total Offense: 349.5 yards per game
18th in Passing Offense: 243.0 yards per game
21st in Rushing Offense: 106.5 yards per game
24th in Scoring Offense: 21.9 points per game
24th in 3rd Down Offense: 38.9%
28th in Red Zone Scoring: 50.8%
The numbers aren't great and they weren't expected to be. The Panthers were in year one of a total rebuild and did not have starting running back Christian McCaffrey for 13 of their 16 games. With that said, the Panthers did have four players reach 1,000 scrimmage yards - RB Mike Davis, WR DJ Moore, WR Curtis Samuel, and WR Robby Anderson. That stat alone shows that Brady knows how to spread the ball and use guys in multiple ways. His offense at LSU in 2019 was record-setting, but it wasn't going to be a smooth jump to the NFL. It never is.
It would be better served for Brady to return to Carolina for at least the 2021 season to build on what he and this Panthers' offense did in 2020 and take that next leap as a play-caller. Teams aren't afraid to hire young head coaches, but if you look at some of the other young coaches that have been hired in the past few years, they've either had head coaching experience at some level or have been in the NFL longer than one year. Joe Brady has never been a head coach and doesn't have the NFL experience that most teams would like for him to have which is why I think it would be a major risk for a team to hire him this offseason.
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