Thank goodness we don’t have a long list to rank this year. In a minute, we’ll be breaking down the best and worst hires of the 2022–23 coaching cycle, but let’s take one moment to reflect on a few aspects of the cycle this year that I found overwhelmingly encouraging.
• Teams took their time: This year, two clubs, the Colts and the Cardinals, waited until after the Super Bowl to pry away head coaching candidates and got two of the best in the cycle. The illusion that a team has to make a rash decision to get the “best” candidates was always hogwash, and reflective of a herd mentality among professionals who should know better. I reached out to one person highly plugged into the coaching search world a few weeks back to make sure I wasn’t off base. It didn’t just feel like this year took forever; it actually did.
• Teams broadened their scope: I heard from one coaching representative that a team reached out cold because it didn’t know a coach and thought it should learn more. That’s great. In the midst of this chaos, there were people hoping to learn. Seeing some overlooked coaching lifers such as Don Martindale (59) and Lou Anarumo (56) went deep into the process with various teams was, to me, a signal of owners trying to break free of the Let’s Hire Popular Guy X formula.
