Written By Jordan Rosas
The long suffering Jacksonville Jaguars renewed their commitment to disappointment when they announced plans to interview former Houston Texans head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien for Jacksonville’s HC vacancy. O’Brien did have some success as a coach, leading the Texans to a division title.
However, his disastrous tenure as GM left the franchise in such a miserable rut, the organization now has few rivals for worst franchise in North American Pro Sports. His most notable failures include trading star WR DeAndre Hopkins for a washed up David Johnson, and losing star DE JJ Watt.
His biggest blunder however, has to be Deshaun Watson. Not only did O’Brien drive the young star QB to request a trade, but O’Brien failed to move him, both before and after numerous sexual assault allegations emerged against Watson.
The Jaguars watched all of this go down up close, as the two teams are in the AFC South and play each other twice every year. I’ve always been puzzled by teams that target failed coaches of their division rivals. I hated when the Bills hired former Jets HC Rex Ryan, and I immediately recognized the Jets’ mistake in hiring former Miami HC Adam Gase.
Fortunately for Jacksonville, the Rooney Rule exists. It states that each NFL team must interview at least one person of color before hiring new candidates to fill coaching vacancies. There just so happens to be plenty of qualified, talented coaches of color who would be better candidates than current University of Alabama OC Bill O’Brien.
Here’s my 10 top candidates:
Jim Caldwell
It’s beyond ridiculous that Caldwell isn’t an NFL head coach. Aside from winning 2 Super Bowls as an assistant coach, Caldwell has a terrific resume as a head coach.
After taking over for Tony Dungy, Caldwell coached the Colts to a 14-0 record AS A ROOKIE HC. Under instructions from his GM, he benched his starters for the final 2 games, finishing 14-2 en route to a Super Bowl loss to the Saints. Caldwell became the last rookie HC to reach the Super Bowl. The Colts remained competitive until Peyton Manning missed a year due to a neck injury. After going 2-14 in that 2011 “Suck for Luck” season, Caldwell was fired. In 2014, he became the first black Lions HC in team history. In 4 seasons, his teams were 11-5, 7-9, 9-7, 9-7.
He holds the highest winning percentage of any Lions HC of the last 60 years. The last Lions HC to take the them to the playoffs was also their only non-interim coach since 1972 to be fired with a winning record.
Todd Bowles
Another former HC who got canned by a bad franchise is Todd Bowles. After Rex Ryan was fired, following a 4-12 season, Bowles led the Jets to 10 wins his rookie season, barely missing the playoffs. The following 2 years, the team went 5-11 twice, and after a 4-12 season in his 4th year, the Jets, who had just extended Bowles, fired him. They’ve been a bottom feeder ever since. Bowles however, has been impressive as the DC for the Bucs, with whom he just won a Super Bowl.
Hindsight would seem to suggest his struggles with the Jets were more due to the Jets than to Bowles.
Brian Flores
Normally, I’m a big advocate against hiring candidates who were just fired from HC positions, but I’m making an exception for Flores. The man inherited Adam Gase’s mess in Miami.
After allowing any player who wanted out to walk, the NFL world prepared for the Dolphins to sink to all time lows. Instead, Flores earned the respect of the guys who stayed, and steadily rebuilt the team to playoff contender status. He received a lot of criticism for his handling of the QB room, especially with Deshaun Watson rumors swirling.
If Tua isn’t the answer at QB however, that’s not his fault. The blame for drafting Tua over Justin Herbert rests with the same GM who just fired a winning HC.
Sure, a 1-7 start was a bad look, but going 8-1 the rest of the way deserves respect. Flores was fired after completing a sweep the New England Patriots. Not even the AFC East champion Bills managed such a feat this year. The Dolphins finished 9-8 overall, and 4-2 in the division. Despite his recent firing, I recommend Flores as a top HC option, simply because he did not deserve to be fired in the first place.
Leslie Frazier
Leslie Frazier has quietly put together a phenomenal run as defensive coordinator of the Bills. His defenses, year after year, have been fantastic. His players like him, but there are several factors that detract from an otherwise stellar resume.
First, the Bills have had great defensive units for nearly a decade. True, he cleaned up the mess left by the Ryan bros, but multiple guys Frazier inherited were remnants of Jim Schwartz’s dominant defense, so it’s tough to give Frazier too much credit for something that already existed before he arrived.
Second, his head coach, Sean McDermott, is a defensive minded guy as well. While McDermott has regularly praised his DC, there is room to argue how much credit each man deserves for Buffalo’s defensive success.
Third, the Bills have consistently invested in a defense that currently consists of multiple first round picks. While stud safety partners Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde came to Buffalo as rejects from their former teams, plenty of their teammates joined the roster and simply lived up to their high expectations.
Anthony Lynn
I’ll be the first person to say that I think Anthony Lynn is far better suited to be an offensive coordinator than a head coach. His disastrous in game decisions last year as Chargers HC demonstrated that. However, he has my utmost respect as a brilliant football mind, because of his ability to improve players.
He may have cost his team games, but his squads were at minimum competitive almost every game. This year, as Lions OC, he helped RB D’Andre Swift explode, coached rookies WR Amon-Ra St. Brown and OL Penei Sewell to breakout seasons, and managed to do it with Jared Goff as a QB. Before the Chargers, he was Buffalo’s OC, and the Bills were consistently among the best running teams in the league.
Again, I love him as an OC, not so much as a HC, but as long as candidates are being interviewed, Lynn deserves consideration.
Raheem Morris
Like Leslie Frazier, Raheem Morris, the current Rams DC, inherited a terrific group of players. In his only season, the team remained a defensive force. Unlike Frazier, Morris works under an offensive minded HC, so he’s more clearly tied to the unit’s success and failures. Morris has a long history of success before this season however.
As a defensive quality assistant, he won a Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2003. They had the league’s best defense that year. He left a few years later for a college DC position. In his lone season at Kansas State, he improved their defense in multiple categories. He then returned to the Bucs, and as defensive backs coach, brought the pass defense, which had fallen to 19th, all the way up to 1st. He was promoted to HC, and after a rough 3-13 rookie season, he was 10-6 in his second year, barely missing the playoffs. After a 4-12 season the following year, Morris was fired in 2012.
He held several other positions before landing with the Rams in 2021. Most notably, he was the WR coach of the Falcons when they went to the Super Bowl, and took over as interim coach when HC Dan Quinn was fired. The team was 4-12 that year: 0-5 under Quinn, 4-7 under Morris.
Vance Joseph
Vance Joseph has had a solid coaching career, but like most black NFL coaches, he got a very short leash in his lone shot as HC. As a defensive backs coach, he helped the Texans to 3 straight top-7 defensive rankings. During that stretch, the Texans allowed the 3rd fewest passing yards per game and earned their first two division titles and playoff wins from 2011-12. In 2014, Joesph became DB coach for the Bengals, who had back to back playoff appearances and led the league in INTs during his 2 year tenure.
He then became the Dolphins DC for the 2017 season. Despite having Adam Gase as a HC, the Dolphins broke an 8 year playoff drought, thanks to a strong defense. It was enough to earn Joesph his lone HC gig. In 2 years with the Broncos, the second black HC in team history went 5-11, and then 6-10.
Despite the slight improvement, Joseph was fired. It was the first time the franchise had consecutive losing seasons since 1971-72, but they haven’t been much better since firing Joesph at the end of 2018. Since then, he’s been a successful DC for the Cardinals under offensive HC Kliff Kingsbury, winning a game as co-interim HC while Kingsbury was out with COVID this year.
Byron Leftwich
Now we start getting into the guys who probably aren’t ready to be hired this cycle, but are ready to start getting interviews. The knocks against Leftwich are clear. He never panned out as an NFL QB, and he won his ring as the OC of a stacked Tampa Bay team that included 6 (now 7) time Super Bowl champion QB Tom Brady, future HOF TE Rob Gronkowski, three star WRs, a solid O Line, former COTY HC Bruce Arians, and the aforementioned DC Todd Bowles.
How much credit Leftwich deserves for the team’s success is certainly up for debate. It is worth noting that his offense was successful before Brady and friends came to town. He coached Jameis Winston to a 5000 yard passing season.
Marcus Brady
The current OC for the Colts, we once again run into the issue of sorting out how much credit goes to the OC and how much goes to the offensive minded HC. Brady took over this year for Nick Siriani, who left for the Eagles HC job. In his lone season as OC, Jonathan Taylor exploded.
Brady previously served as the quarterbacks coach, though he wasn’t given much to work with. Again, with HC Frank Reich being a former QB himself, how much credit goes to Brady and how much goes to Reich? Brady was never the QB coach while Wentz was the QB, but as OC, he managed to create a functioning offense despite an inconsistent, perhaps broken QB. I don’t think Brady gets a HC gig this time around, but he’s probably ready to start getting interviews.
Eric Bieniemy
Eric Bieniemy is probably the most polarizing name here. On one hand, he is the wildly successful OC for the Kansas City Chiefs. Under Beiniemy, the Chiefs have fielded some of the greatest offenses the league has ever seen. On the other hand, HC Andy Reid is an offensive guy himself, and Bieniemy comes with baggage. Beiniemy has a decorated history of violent outbursts. If Lynn is best suited as a OC due to talent, Beiniemy is perhaps best suited as an OC because he’s potentially dangerous with HC power. Certainly the NFL isn’t after choir boys, but a man with such a checkered past is probably best suited for a subordinate position, rather than one where he’ll be responsible for establishing the culture of an organization.
So there it is. My top ten minority head coaching candidates. Some, like Caldwell and Bowles, should already be in HC positions. Others, like Lynn and Bieniemy, are probably in coordinator positions for a reason.
Still, if an NFL franchise is seriously considering Bill O’Brien, these 10 men are far better choices. Thanks to the Rooney Rule, hopefully at least one of them gets an interview with the Jaguars. They may be the only ones capable of saving that organization.