We Predict the Last Four Head Coaching Hires

To kind of finish out the show.

I mean, there's so many people, so many fans out there who don't have a rooting interest because they just certainly don't care.

But like, there's more teams that are actively trying to hire a head coach than there are remaining, uh, in the NFL, which is crazy.

The Bills, the Browns, the Cardinals, and the Raiders.

Um, I want to touch on them really quickly and, and take a little victory lap here.

Um, Mike McCarthy blew my, Bloom, so the two things that I care the most about during the coaching search is my initial list, is everybody who interviewed for the job on the list?

I missed one person this year, and that was Philip goddamn Rivers, OK?

Pissed me off because I thought about it.

I thought about it and I thought about it and I thought about it, and then I was like, no, this just isn't gonna happen, OK?

That pissed me off.

And then the other thing that I care about are the final projections, OK?

And I, I was on .

I said Stefansky to Atlanta day one.

I felt good about that one.

I feel like we felt good about Minor to the Ravens, Harbaugh to the Giants.

I mean, those were like started off good, not like this was impossible to predict.

Then McCarthy comes and blows it all to hell.

Um, That would surprise me.

Who did you have for the Steelers?

Chris Shula, yeah, um, and there was a fight on Twitter with that involved Kevin Demoff and Chris.

I, I did see that.

If anybody's interested, you can, uh, you can go see a good old fashioned game of roshambo on Twitter about Chris Shula's interview with the Steelers, uh, show Kevin Dem.

I, I think it's at K Demoff.

Uh, yeah, yeah, I would say go check that out.

Good for Kevin.

Went to bat for, for Chris, yeah.

Let's just say this quickly because I think it is valuable.

Like there was a report out of Pittsburgh that Shula bombed his interview and Demoff said, and I agree with this, why aren't we talking about the fact that like he legitimately lost the NFC title game like the night before and then he's like, you know, just plopped in front of a, a, a group of people and has to have like the biggest moment of his life to get this job.

I mean, it's, it's hard, you know, but I will say this.

Um, that has a lot of domino effects because Albert, if Chris Shula stays in LA, Raheem Morris doesn't go to LA, and I think that there's some, you know, there's some dominoes to San Francisco, then exactly.

I think that there's some, there's definitely some, uh, some dominoes to fall there that'll be interesting, but The, the victory lap that culminated, uh, I, I think is about to culminate, I should say, as we're taping this.

I think Jim Schwartz is getting the Browns job.

I've thought that Jim Schwartz was getting the Browns job all along, but about like 3 quarters of the way in, I got a bunch of calls that said, you're an idiot.

It's gonna be one of these young offensive guys.

You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.

And I said, I just don't think they're gonna be able to convince one of these kids with their whole lives ahead of them.

They're gonna have their pick of the litter next year to take this job.

And it's going to come down to Jim Schwartz, and I think I'm right.

And I, I think it's going there.

Yeah, I, I've sort of felt that way.

I, I think Nate Shieldhouse is in the running, all of that, but he has to be out of his mind to take that job, especially if Mike LaFleur's in position to get a head coaching job or a good look, and you bump up to be the OC and McVeigh, like, then you're the king of the whole castle, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think this is an interesting one, And I don't hate that, I wouldn't hate the Schwartz hire, like, I, I, again, I think we went over this, right?

Like, but the Jim Schwartz wasn't bad, wasn't like objectively bad in Detroit.

It ended poorly, but, like, he took over a dumpster fire and got them to the playoffs in his 3rd year.

Um.

Again, like, I think there was a little bit too much of the Jeff Fisher, Boys Town in Tennessee type of thing to there, like, you know, Jeff Fisher at one point had, you know, like, Pac-Man Jones and Albert Haynsworth and all those guys on the same team .

It was sort of um The same thing, they had the one draft class where they took Miellaho, Titus Young, and Nick Fairley in the 1st 3 rounds, and I think I, did I tell you that story earlier this week where, like, somebody called me after that draft.

Yes, yes, yes, yes , yes, I've never seen this before, like 3, the 1st 3 picks are all off of our board for character reasons, um, so I, but, but, but I think, I think Jim, like, you know, you talk to the players, um, and like you see the performance of the players.

And I think you can see why.

They want to keep him there, um, and why he might make sense as a head coach.

Uh, the rest of this is interesting, and, and there was, uh, listen, I, I, I don't think the Browns are coming out of this coaching search, uh, looking polished and clean.

I'm just gonna say that, and I can, I, I think too, I, I hate the phrase two things can be true, but I think two things can be true.

Jim Schwartz can end up being the best option for this team, but the process.

Could absolutely stink, and I think that the process in this case has, you know, kind of stunk for the Browns, right?

Like this is not, they, they did not bring their A game to this one.

This one was a little bit disappointing.

Um, the rest of these teams, Albert, a lot of people are pulling out of the Bills search, uh, very quickly with indications that perhaps, Buffalo has their eye on someone in particular.

I mean, we all heard Dable initially in that flood, uh, uh, right after the Sean McDermott hiring.

I still wonder if it's a Davis Webb and Dable package in some way, shape or form.

What do you think about Buffalo right now in this moment?

Um, yeah, I think that they're sort of wide open.

Uh, the, the twist to them is Like, I think they, I, I know they would like to talk to Clint Kubiak, and the problem is because the rules being what they are, they can't interview him until after the Super Bowl because the, the window this week, and Connor, you know this, but I, our audience might not.

The window this week is for 2 interviews, not 1st interviews, and they missed the first window to interview Clint Kubiak because they were still in the playoffs, you know, so I think.

The opportunity to, to, to sit down with Clint Kubiak, I think they want that.

But is the timing gonna work out?

Do the does, do the Raiders go down the line with him?

If it's not Davis Webb in Vegas, I think it would probably be Clint, um, one of those two.

so, and I, I do wonder if that leaves you to circle back to, again, your past, and that's guys like Dave Ball and Davis Webb and Joe Brady.

And so, um, Josh is gonna have a voice in this.

Um, I'll be interested to see, you know, where he's at, because I, I think, um, do you think that's a good idea, by the way?

Or do you think that's like scaring people away?

I mean, like, I, I, I don't think it'd be a great idea with all players.

Yeah, I think with Josh it's fine, you know what I mean?

Like I do think like having his voice in the room, like he can be a resource, you know, and, um, I think you do want somebody who he's comfortable, comfortable working with, you know, like I think that's like a big thing.

I mean, these are.

It's kind of a unique scenario because he's such a great player and he still hasn't played in the Super Bowl, and he's turning 30 this this offseason, you know.

And even in like an era where quarterbacks play until they're 40, uh, like, we don't know, based on the amount of like damage his body is taken.

Again, like he might, I, I, I think he wants to play till he's 40, but, you know, I do think you have to treat this as a critical window if you're the Bills, and, you know, you want your quarterback in a good place.

And so, um, You know, I, I've heard these stories in the past, you know, how the Chiefs will check in with Mahomes on things and, um, you know, when I, I remember when, and, and, like, that was something I remember Ryan Pouls took to Chicago with him when he got to Chicago.

I mean, it sounds crazy now, but he took Justin Fields into the, like, this is his first offseason there, he took Justin Fields into the war room .

And basically showed him the board and explained to him why he wasn't taking a receiver in the first round.

That's cool.

I would do that.

Stuff like that, like, I think involving your quarterback and that sort of thing, you know what I mean?

I think it's like , I don't know, like, I think it's, I don't think there's any downside to it.

Do you?

No, it's weird because he, he is a player, but like, I, I, I guess I just kind of like.

Maybe it seems a little goofy, but it's not like the other players don't know this player is more important than everybody else.

Yes, now if you're trying to act as if he's not like this guy's the same, like that's fantasy land.

It's just not what the reality is.

But, but if you're Josh now, you have to balance that, right?

Like because what you're doing, and now do you get viewed as management, right?

Correct.

And, uh, you know, and.

You can't have another game in a big spot like you did in the playoffs, and then everyone's like, well, you know, like Dion Dawkins is like, I'm blocking my ass off.

Why does this guy get to sit in the head coaching meetings?

And I, you know, whatever it is, I do think it can get messy.

He's the type of guy that's capable of handling it.

I agree.

Um, I, I just think it, you know, there's always.

That situation where I think it's like, I think it's gotta be like, again, I think it's gotta be a case by case thing, but I think when it's somebody who's got the personality that Josh Allen does, I think that that's I think it's manageable and I don't think other players are gonna hold it against him because I do think he's one of these guys that's capable of toggling from best player in the league to the regular guy with a, you know, a case of Coors Light in the back of his golf cart.

Um, the, we have now, so we have the Bills, uh, we talked a little bit about the Browns, Cardinals, and Raid.

So to me, if I'm looking at it, like , let's kind of draw the tree out.

I think you could take the Bills and the Raiders, OK?

And you could say some combination of Kubiak, Davis Webb, Bills, like the Bills and the Raiders are up here, right?

Um, kind of, kind of and day ball is kind of floating around in there, like that's sort of that side of the Venn diagram.

The Browns, I think, are in Jim Schwartz's world unless they really, you know, pull out all the stops for Shielhaas and they end up getting that deal done.

Then you have the Cardinals over here and the Cardinals are interesting to me because I still look at them as like maybe LaFleur, maybe Vance Joseph, maybe someone in that range like that, yeah, so that's, that's kind of the playground that I see them playing in.

Do you, do you, are you and I on lock in lockstep on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think so where you have.

You have um Schwartz, Shielhaas, Monken, who's the older coordinator, um, if you wanted to stay on offense there.

Again, like how I think Schwartz has gotta fit fit into the picture somehow, right?

Like I think that's, that's it, like Schwartz has gotta fit in that picture somehow.

Um.

You know, then you've got in Buffalo, I would say.

I think Buffalo is more wide open than anyone right now, which makes sense because they're behind everybody, and they also have the power.

People will wait for that job, right, right.

So I still, I still wonder if they've got a swing in them.

I, I just can't get that out of my head like either .

I know I'm, I'm there.

Is there some rabbit you're gonna pull out of your hat now, you know, um, that no one knows about yet?

Um, I think it's possible, you know, um, but I mean there are some conventional, I say think safe hires like I think.

Hiring like Webb would be, or hiring Day Ball would be a safe hire.

Hiring Webb with Day Ball as a coordinator would be a little bit more of a gamble.

Um, Arizona is interesting.

LaFleur is there today.

Weaver was there yesterday.

Um, there is buzz around LaFleur.

I don't think any decision has been made yet.

Um, But I think like, You know, I wonder if that owner.

Look, I, I've thought Vance Joseph for a while that that he would be there.

I, I do wonder if that owner is worried about how he can sell it to the fan base and maybe goes offense instead because of that, you know, because they just got done with Jonathan Gannon, which I, I think is like, I think Michael Fleur is a really good coach, but I think that like that sort of decision making based on what fans think is generally not great.

Yeah, I love when like owners are like, oh, man, I'm gonna really like, you know, it's almost like it is your moment of self-awareness.

What was the old, the old line for coaches, if you start, if you start thinking like a fan, you're gonna end up sitting with them or something like that.

I think Cardinals fans wish, uh, that was the case, uh, with their owner because this is like, this is one of those moments, and I always say this, there is no bigger reveal, and I'm, and, and this is maybe gonna hurt some fan base's feelings, but like there's no bigger reveal than the head coaching search because the head coaching search is, is the bowl game, is the, is the national championship for the owner.

The owner's inner circle and the general manager.

How do you not eff up one of the biggest hires of, uh, uh, of the whole thing?

And that's why I give the Bears a ton of credit.

You know, Ryan Poles and the ownership there, they swept up that whole house and got everything in order for Ben Johnson and they locked him in and they were a force this season, and they're going to be a force.

Uh, moving forward.

The Giants had a lot going on and they cleaned their house up to get Jim Harbaugh.

And then you're looking at the Browns and the Cardinals here, like, uh, you know, and they're just like flat tire on the side of the road, just like, will someone please come and coach this team?

And I'm sorry, but that's just, you, you, you, what's the phrase, wherever you go, there you are.

And that's what, that's what the head coaching search kind of reveals to everybody.