By Jeff Moeller, Florida Sports Wire
Ben Johnson was hired by the Bears soon after his team was eliminated in the NFL playoffs.
Aaron Glenn got the long-awaited Jets’ job he coveted Wednesday afternoon.
Mike McCarthy has been linked to the Saints, and Pete Carroll supposedly is headed to Oakland.
Brian Flores also is still out there, and he could solve the Jags’ defensive deficiencies. And what about Jon Gruden or Kliff Kingsbury?
Where does that leave the Jaguars’ head coach search?
And now, the Jags have a GM open with the clumsy firing of Trent Baalke Wednesday.
So, it’s in the hands of owner Shad Khan to hire a head coach and GM.
Khan implied that he didn’t want to dismiss both on “Black Monday,” but the timing of Baalke’s firing is puzzling. Why fire him two weeks after head coach Doug Pederson was let go?
Apparently, the hirings of Johnson and Glenn lit the fuse for Baalke. His drafts have been adequate over his four-year stay – a 25-43 overall record – and he had a terrible pack of free-agent signings for this past season.
Over the past four years, fans stated their constant disdain for Baalke, aside maybe from their 2022 playoff run. Many were aware of his run in San Francisco, where he forced out Jim Harbaugh, and had two disastrous seasons that followed Harbaugh’s ouster.
Khan is faced with hiring a stable and experienced person on both fronts. However, the GM hire will be on the same level as the coach.
My choice would have been Bill Belichick and turn over the keys to him. Khan should have paid North Carolina their $10 million buyout clause and given Belichick anything he wanted. Let Belichick run the show and bring in his personnel people.
Belichick would have gotten his old “band” together and brought them to Jacksonville. Former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel now has the same gig under new Patriots’ boss Mike Vrabel.
According to published sources, Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Liam Coen, Raiders’ and Giants’ defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, and former Jets’ head coach Robert Saleh all have been given second interviews and now loom as frontrunners.
However, Coen reportedly will sign a new deal with the Bucs and has bowed out. If Kahn wants Coen, he will have to throw close to the reported $13 million Johnson got from the Bears.
Bills’ offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who has employed plenty of innovation with the Bills’ offense without any standout receiver, and he, of course, has John Allen, has emerged as a leading candidate.
Brady is in his first year in Buffalo, and he had a prior stop at Carolina in the same role.
Are any of these a sexy pick? No, but they all have merit in their own ways.
It’s obvious that Khan doesn’t want to go the veteran, established coach route. McCarthy has the tag of not being able to win in the postseason, but he would reshuffle the deck to get everything organized again.
Carroll would also bring an organized sense and veteran presence that could lineup everything correctly, and he has won in the postseason.
