NFL coaching rumors: Teams searching for new leaders

It became clear this week that Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott was one of the Buffalo Bills’ top candidates for the head coach role. On Wednesday, the Bills announced they had hired McDermott as Buffalo’s new head coach.

Following a second interview at the Boca Raton, Fla., home of Bills owner Terry Pegula, they were expected to finalize a five-year deal.

Black Monday, the day after the conclusion of the regular season when NFL coaches who haven’t lived up to expectations find themselves unemployed, has come and gone. With the postseason in full swing, teams are moving forward with interviewing candidates to fill those vacancies.

The Jacksonville Jaguars hired interim head coach Doug Marrone, so right now, the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and San Francisco 49ers are all in the market for new head coaches. While teams have arranged interviews and some talks with candidates have already taken place, there are rules that every team must follow when going through this process.

The Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off the search for a new head coach Wednesday by interviewing Tom Coughlin, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The Jaguars fired head coach Gus Bradley following a Week 15 loss to the Houston Texans. The decision to move on from Bradley capped off a 2-14 start for Jacksonville. The team went 14-48 under Bradley’s leadership.

Eight head coaching jobs and seven general manager positions were available around the NFL after the 2012 season. None of those positions were filled by a minority, raising eyebrows and even drawing an official statement from the league office, calling it “disappointing”.

Rooney believes improving the talent pipeline in the coordinator and position coaching ranks will go a long way towards more diversity in head coaching and front-office positions. He also wants the hiring process to be extended:

There will be eight new faces with pleated pants, a headset and a pocket full of red flags on the NFL sidelines in 2013. It’s exciting to get a new head coach, for fans, owners and the media. It’s more of a mixed bag for players because new head coaches mean inevitable roster changes. All of that will be sorted out in the months ahead. For now, we can only speculate about whether or not eight new faces in new places will live up to the unmeetable expectations we’ve already strapped to their backs.

The last time the league went through such a massive coaching upheaval was 2009. That year 11 new head coaches were hired. Two of them, Rex Ryan and Jim Schwartz, are still working, somehow. Teams went with offensive head coaches this year, as only one of the eight hires was a defensive coordinator. Only one member of the Class of 2013 can boast NFL head coaching experience, Andy Reid. If there’s one thing that never changes in the NFL, it’s groupthink.

Now that the NFL’s final open head coach position has been filled, teams have turned to filling out their staffs before the offseason arrives. Here’s how some SB Nation blogs reacted to their team’s hires.

From Stampede Blue:

“I never thought it was going to come,” Arians told Darren Urban in an interview after he accepted the Cardinals offer. After years and years as an assistant, this one might be the most special for the 60-year-old coach

The Colts rallied around Pagano while he was out, and Arians was able to harness that emotion to create a dangerous, young offense that constructed several late-game comebacks. Luck also set a rookie record for passing yards, finishing the year with a whopping 627 attempts.

Everyone in Chicago wanted Lovie Smith fired. That’s the first thing you need to understand. While national polls proved the country saw Smith as a victim after finishing 10-6, there was hardly any opposition locally to GM Phil Emery’s decision to make a coaching change. Which is mostly to say: if Emery hadn’t fired Lovie Smith, Bears fans from Wauconda to Kankakee would have been ready to give Halas Hall the torches and pitchforks treatment. Smith was a fine coach, sure, often maligned in this city for the wrong reasons after a long and largely successful tenure. But Emery is a smart man and there was justification in what he decided. It was spelled out plainly for all to see over the last few days.

It took a while to get here. Emery drew rave reviews when he spoke to local reporters about how detailed his search would be -- almost to the point of comedy. He would end up interviewing 13 men, eight from offensive backgrounds, for the position. You get the sense that he would have interviewed 13 more if time would have allowed it.

Whatever Bradley said in the locker room at halftime must have been a mighty powerful speech.

With several teams still in the hunt for a new head coach, two names emerged on Sunday as potential candidates for jobs in Philadelphia and San Diego. Brian Billick and Mike McCoy made a splash at notable names who are both in the mix to take the helm at a new franchise.

Billick reportedly interviewed with the Eagles last Monday, but the news didn’t break until Sunday afternoon while he was in the middle of calling the Seahawks-Falcons game at the Georgia Dome. He hasn’t coached since his firing from the Baltimore Ravens in 2007, though his name has been brought up for head coaching positions in recent years.

Kelly is scheduled to have a second interview with the Eagles and has reportedly been reaching out to people in the NFL to learn more about coaching at the next level.

It’s tough to tell at this point whether Kelly is legitimately interested in making a jump to the NFL, or whether he’s just looking for leverage to get a raise at Notre Dame. Both Oregon’s Chip Kelly and Penn State’s Bill O’Brien ended up going back to their respective schools after interviewing with the Eagles. Former Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone also spoke to Philadelphia, but ended up taking the Buffalo Bills job.

Despite ending the season on a sour note, Kelly is 28-11 in three seasons as the head man at Notre Dame, and coming off an undefeated regular season, so it’s easy to see why an NFL team would be interested.

Black Monday saw seven NFL coaches fired after poor seasons, and in the Bears case, a 10-6 season. The playoffs are about to head into the divisional round where the conference championship matchups will be set, but for five of those seven teams, the main focus is to find a new head coach.

Here’s a list of who has interviewed who:

Jackson was hired as the Raiders; offensive coordinator in 2010 and led Oakland to the 10th best total offense, a huge jump from 31st the year before. They were ninth in the NFL when he was the head coach in 2011 and this season, after firing Jackson, Oakland dropped to 18th.

In addition to Jackson, Shurmur appears to be a candidate. He was fired by the Browns after the season, opening the position that Chudzinski filled.

According to the report, the two sides will continue discussions when Kelly returns from a trip out of the country. Kelly and the Fighting Irish finished their season on Monday with a 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. While he has been a head coach for four different college teams, Kelly does not have any previous NFL coaching experience.

Interviews and interest are one thing, but there is also the possibility that Kelly and his representatives are discussing with NFL teams to create leverage for contract renegotiation with Notre Dame. Coming off a 12-1 season, Kelly could be in line for a raise, and interest from NFL teams is a good way to convince Notre Dame to rework his current deal.

Every year at the end of the NFL season, coaching positions open and accomplished men are whisked out the door, while more accomplished men and sparkling young coordinators are speculated to fill the vacancies.

This has led to the idea that Cowher is ready to walk away from the game for good, something he dispelled Tuesday when talking to Neil Best of Newsday, according to NFL.com.

The NFL’s coaching carousel continues to spin, and a new name has been circulating in rumors over the weekend -- Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman.

While most NFL fans are familiar with many of the rumored names involved in this year’s coaching carousel, not much is commonly known about Trestman, which begs the question: who is Marc Trestman?

Trestman spent 1989 as the Browns offensive coordinator. He was an assistant coach in the NFL from 1985 to 2004 but has been head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League since 2008. Trestman has also been rumored to be a candidate for the Chicago Bears’ opening.

While Arians and Trestman will interview, there is also speculation that Alabama coach Nick Saban or former NFL coach Jon Gruden could also be candidates. After pursuing other college coaches, some are speculating the Browns could make a run at Saban, with one source even citing Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s ability to recruit.

Holmgren has extensive head coaching experience with the Packers and Seahawks, leading Green Bay and Seattle from 1992-98 and 1999-2008, respectively. He has a 174-122 career record and led the Packers to victory in Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 26, 1996.

According to La Canfora, UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr. could also be in the mix, but it is uncertain how much interest he may garner.

According to a tweet from Mark Dalton of the Cardinals’ media relations team, Arizona is expected to speak with Gruden about the position this week. The exact date of the interview is yet to be released.

The Cardinals fired former head coach Ken Whisenhunt on Dec. 31.

La Canfora tweeted earlier he believed Kelly would be staying at Oregon based on what his sources were telling him. Some of the more powerful people at Oregon didn’t understate Kelly’s importance to the university, telling Rob Moseley Kelly’s return would be “the greatest comeback in the history of Oregon.“

Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jay Gruden is drawing interest from Arizona and Philadelphia for their vacant head coaching positions, according to Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports:

In 2011, Gruden was named offensive coordinator in Cincinnati. The Bengals made a surprising playoff run due in large part to Gruden’s offense, and he received interview offers from Jacksonville, St. Louis, and Indianapolis before signing an extension to stay with Cincinnati. The 2012 Bengals again made the playoffs, and Gruden is apparently again in contention for a number of head coach openings.

Marrone spent four years as head coach of Syracuse. When he assumed command of his alma mater in 2009, the Orange had not recorded a winning season in eight years, and had not been to a bowl in five seasons. Marrone quickly turned the program around, going 8-5 with a Pinstripe Bowl win in his second season. After a disappointing 5-7 season in 2011, Marrone’s Orange recorded another 8-5 record last season, again capped with a Pinstripe Bowl win. In his four seasons with Syracuse, Marrone went an even 25-25 and 11-17 in Big East play.

There is also speculation that Heckert turned down his interview due to salary cap issues that the Jets are facing, however that is possibly a cover up to avoid the embarrassment of Heckert canceling.

One positive for the Jets about Heckert canceling is that he is not even considered to be the team’s top candidate for the job. The Jets do have other candidates who they have interviewed or will in the near future, but Heckert was the only known candidate who had experience as a general manager.