BillSaysThis
...
2006-07 CoachingGoRound
Previous CoachingGoRounds: 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04
NFL Coaches come and go every year and sometimes I enjoy tracking the changes. Here's what happened after the 2006 season.
| Team | Old Coach | New Coach | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals | Dennis Green | Ken Whisenhunt | I was a little surprised at this firing since Matt Leinart is just getting comfortable with a strong group of receivers and backs but apparently lack of improvement on the defense doomed Green. Whisenhunt, with no previous head coaching experience, moves over from the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator post after also interviewing with Pittsbutgh, Atlanta and Miami. |
| Falcons | Jim Mora Jr. | Bobbie Petrino | Seems like it was Michael Vick or Mora leaving and big money players usually trump on the downside young coaches. Petrino jumps from the University of Louisville (41-9 record in four seasons, beat Wake Forest in last week's Orange Bowl) with only three years experience as an NFL assistant on his resume—will he be another Dennis Erickson/Steve Spurrier and fail or Jimmy Johnson and win two Super Bowls? (Mora moves to the Seahawks as assistant head coach/secondary to Paul Holmgren, whose contract runs until the end of next season and who turns 60 just before the 2008 training camps open.) |
| Dolphins | Nick Saban | Cam Cameron | Saban couldn't stand the NFL heat and is returning to the college ranks at Alabama, where he will face his old school LSU most seasons. Cameron comes in after directing the high-powered San Diego offense, clearly chosen to improve the Fin's 16 PPG in 2006, though Ronnie Brown is no Ladanian Thomlinson, Randy McMichael is no Antonio Gates and neither Joey Harrington nor a potentially recovered Dante Culpepper compare well with Phillip Rivers. Cameron will need to draft well (9th pick in the first round, one forecast has them taking Notre Dame's Brady Quinn), spend wisely on free agents and hope he can prove his reputation for developing QBs and the running game work fast enough to suit quick triggered owner Wayne Huizinga |
| Raiders | Art Shell | Lane Kiffin | One season, the worst in franchise history, and Al Davis's favorite coach's second turn at the tiller is over; at least the Raiders get the Number One pick this April. The situation here is so dire that USC assistant head coach/QB coach Steve Sarkisian, all of 32 years old with not even a year of coordinator experience on his CV, turned down a reputed offer from boss Al Davis! So the Raiders turned to Kiffin, the USC offensive coordinator who was rumored to be coming along with Sarkisian in the same job, another very young (31) first time head coach but has family history as the son of Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. |
| Steelers | Bill Cowher | Mike Tomlin | 15 years and Cowher walks out a sure_fire Hall of Famer. Tomlin, only 34 years old, comes in after only a single season at the coordinator level, serving this past season as Minnesota's defensive coordinator, but is the fourth straight Steeler coach to take the job in his 30s after serving as a defensive assistant with another team--and the first black boss of the franchise for whose owner the league's minority interviewing rule is named. |
| Cowboys | Bill Parcells | Wade Phillips | Four years of Jerry Jones and the recent arrival of Terrell Owens is apparently enough for the Big Tuna, so he's taking his Super Bowl rings and record as the only head coach in NFL history to direct four different teams (Giants, Jets, Patriots and Cowboys) to the playoffs home for good at the regulation retirement age of 65. Charger defensive coordinator and four-time head coaching retread Wade Phillips? Seriously, Wade Phillips? I guess Jerry Jones is trying to get as close as NFL rules will allow to being his own head coach. |
| Chargers | Marty Schottenheimer | Norv Turner | Marty Schottenheimer will return for at least one more season but will have to rebuild the offensive side of his assistant staff as OC Cam Cameron left for Miami, linebackers coach Greg Manusky moved to the 49ers as their new defensive coordinator and tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski was hired as the Cleveland Browns' offensive coordinator. Well that was a bit of a surprise--Schottenheimer was abruptly fired Feb. 12 and because owner Alex Spanos waited so long after the team exited the playoffs early, four solid internal candidates have already left for better jobs elsewhere. Well three, since I don't count Wade Phillips as such a good choice. Continung the strange executive behavior, Norv Turner was named the new SD coach today (2/19, happy Presidents Day) despite having little evidence of his head coaching abilities, or even real leadership since leaving Dallas, where he got two Super Bowl Rings. A puzzler for sure. |