By Marvin Moore October 31, 2023
Don’t look now, but the Las Vegas Raiders have finally pulled the plug on the Josh McDaniels era. I agree with Pro Football Talk Editor-in-Chief Mike Florio that McDaniels should have never been hired. But not because the Raiders were too impatient to wait 3-4 years for McDaniels to implement the Patriot Way. The former New England offensive coordinator is simply a terrible head coach.
The hypocrisy of Florio is stunning. Black NFL head coaches are fired after winning seasons or very short tenures. McDaniels flopped in his first gig calling the shots for the Denver Broncos. And he got a second chance! Instead of making excuses for a two-time loser, Florio should have talked about all the qualified black coaches like Eric Bieniemy, who never get one chance.
There is no such thing as the Patriot Way. New England was blessed to have an offense led by Tom Brady and a defensive guru as the head coach. McDaniels, like so many coordinators these days, was in the right place at the right time. The NFL is full of offensive and defensive coordinators masquerading as head coaches, and that’s one of the reasons that 18 of 32 franchises have .500 records or worse.
There was a time when the men walking the sidelines on Sundays were legitimate field generals. Old-school head coaches like Tom Landry, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, and Marty Schottenheimer were leaders of men with resumes that commanded respect. Nowadays, if you are the coordinator for a team with a stacked roster, you are automatically a frontrunner for a head coaching job. That’s stupid and ridiculous.
The Philadelphia Eagles boasted one of the league’s most talented rosters last year. Philly featured a slew of playmakers on both sides of the balls, including Jalen Hurts, Miles Sanders, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, Javon Hargrave, Brandon Graham, and Jordan Davis, to name just a few. Although the Eagles lost in the Super Bowl, offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon were winners. They landed prestigious NFL gigs despite no head coaching experience at any level. Go figure.
The list of great coordinators who were awful head coaches is extensive. McDaniels. Buddy Ryan. Dennis Allen. Wade Phillips. Vic Fangio. Jay Gruden. Romeo Crennel. Matt Nagy. Hue Jackson. Joe Philbin. Bud Carson. You get my point. But no matter how many red-hot coordinators fail in the top job, the NFL’s “Good Ole Boy System” of favoritism and preferential treatment based on personal connections is here to stay.
It’s a system that offers multiple opportunities to white head coaches who are fired from one job only to land another job. The New Orleans Saints hired Dennis Allen last year despite his disastrous 8-28 stint leading the Oakland Raiders. Carolina tapped Frank Reich to be its head coach in January, less than three months after the Indianapolis Colts fired him. The duo has a combined 5-10 record this season. Ouch!
Jim Caldwell won two division titles in three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts but was fired. He finished in second place in three of four seasons with the Detroit Lions – a team known for losing – but was fired. He has a career record of 62-50, which is better than nearly half of the league’s current head
coaches. The NFL has a double standard for non-white head coaches. It’s more than shameful. It’s downright racist.
Unfortunately, Caldwell’s firing with a winning record was not an anomaly. Tampa Bay fired Tony Dungy despite five consecutive winning seasons. Blessed with a rare second chance for a minority head coach, Dungy posted seven straight winning campaigns with the Colts. He won the Super Bowl while tallying an impressive 85-27 card.
Brian Flores was dismissed as the Miami Dolphins head coach despite back-to-back winning seasons. But Flores, Caldwell, and Dungy were lucky to come to other black head coaches. Three of the last five coaches to get fired after one season were black. Yep, David Culley, Steve Wilks, and Hue Jackson were all given their pink slips after a lone season. Perhaps Florio will understand why his insane complaint that McDaniels shouldn’t have been hired if the Raiders were not going to guarantee him 3-4 seasons fell on deaf ears.
The NFL has analytics for almost everything except coaching. Brady was the reason the Patriots’ offense was lethal. McDaniels was just in the right place at the right time. But nothing will change in a league that is ruled by old, wealthy white men. Like Elvis sang back in the 1970s, “that’s just the way it is.”
