At any given moment, maybe a third of the NFL’s franchises know what they’re doing. Even that feels charitable.
The league may promote parity, but we consistently see the same good teams standing at the finish line at season’s end anyway. It usually all starts with coaching. When Black Monday comes around — an unofficial “holiday” surrounding coaches losing their jobs — fans rejoice at an opportunity for their mediocre team to clean the slate and start over. And they look ahead to a promising group of coaches, who might be able to pull their franchise out of the also-rans’ muck.
Sometimes, they get lucky. How do you think the Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins feel about their respective home runs, Sean McVay and the always-entertaining Mike McDaniel? What about Kyle Shanahan with the San Francisco 49ers? I’d be positively boasting about how far ahead of the competition my organization’s head coach is every single day.
Sometimes, they’re not so lucky. How do you think the Detroit Lions felt when they hired the bumbling Matt Patricia? I can’t imagine the Cincinnati Bengals love Zac Taylor being a passenger for one of the league’s purported top teams on paper. Finding a good NFL coach is almost as important as finding a good quarterback.
And if you make a mistake with either, they’re equally as challenging to recover from.
In the first installation of this For The Win 2023 series, I’m taking a look at current non-head coaches who are distinguishing themselves as top candidates. After two weeks, here are the folks who are proving they deserve a chance to run their own show.
5
Dan Quinn, Dallas Cowboys
Disclaimer: Chicago Bears fans, do NOT read the below opening sentence. IGNORE IT FOR YOUR OWN TRAUMATIZED GOOD.
Dan Quinn is a classic “culture” coach who would bring immediate respectability to any organization trying to stabilize itself. This is something many bottom-feeding franchises (cough, cough) struggle with every single year — making Quinn appealing by default. You might remember when he achieved this for the Atlanta Falcons, taking them to Super Bowl 51, where they blew a—(vaudeville cane yanks me off stage). Since his time coaching in Atlanta, Quinn has been at the helm of the NFL’s arguably best defense for three years running in Dallas. The Cowboys have a lot of talent with Micah Parsons running wild, but Quinn deserves a lot of credit for pulling the strings. His defense has allowed 10 total points in two games and has already forced seven turnovers.
Quinn almost took a head-coaching job last year but ultimately pulled out of any running to steer the Cowboys’ defensive Death Star again. If Quinn throws his name back into the ring this winter and IF he picks the right offensive coordinator/play-caller, someone won’t hesitate to make him their next head coach in January.
4
Dave Canales, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Setting aside that Canales looks like he should be selling expensive real estate in Orange County while passive-aggressively sniping catty colleagues, he’s a pretty good coach! If there’s anyone who deserves significant praise for the Buccaneers’ early Baker Mayfield Redemption Tour, it’s Canales.
On paper, Mayfield and the Buccaneers have no business humming like this.
Sure, there are a few key lingering starters from that Super Bowl 55 team, like Mike Evans and Tristan Wirfs. But there’s not much else to write home about talent wise. Tampa Bay’s offensive line depth is scarce, Chris Godwin might be a shell of himself, and well, Mayfield is the quarterback! That’s self-explanatory.
Yet, Tampa Bay is enjoying the production of a borderline top-10 offense. Evans is taking on a greater role. Rachaad White is slowly showing he can trusted with more touches in the backfield. And Mayfield himself is playing the best ball of his career. He doesn’t look like a former No. 1 overall pick, but he’s legitimately winning games for the Buccaneers — even as a caretaker quarterback. This offense has the classic hallmarks of quality coaching by staying ahead of the chains, making few self-inflicting mistakes and maximizing its talent at hand.
That falls on Canales’ lap, who was once the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Russell Wilson at his Seattle peak. This is not an inexperienced leader making his first trek around the block. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s cooking something potentially great in western Florida. Everyone in the NFL now is on the lookout for the next “unknown” who turns out to be an offensive mastermind. That could be Canales.
3
Shane Waldron, Seattle Seahawks
As you’ll see on this list throughout the year, I’m a big fan of coaches recognizing what their players do well and tailoring their playbooks around that. This is a lost art for many Football Guys who seemingly enjoy fitting square pegs into round holes. It is not lost on Waldron, a McVay coaching tree member and the architect behind Geno Smith playing like a franchise quarterback over the last two years.
Everyone always said Smith just needed to get away from the New York Jets to play up to his potential. He just needed to find a smart coach who let him rip the ball downfield. He just needed a chance to show he could play at this level. We are seeing that from Smith under Waldron, as he plays like an All-Star point guard for D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Waldron has been given a complete cupboard to work with in Seattle and never wastes any of his tools. Metcalf and Lockett are consistently baked into the offense with scripted plays. In the backfield, Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet are proving to be a potent 1-2 punch. And a comparatively young offensive line led by Charles Cross is already playing like a cohesive brick wall. As long as the Seahawks’ offense doesn’t fall off a cliff through the rest of the year, many coaching-needy teams will prepare their Rolodex to have Waldron’s number. I don’t blame them.
2
Eric Bieniemy, Washington Commanders
Let’s have some fun with numbers.
In five years as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Bieniemy made Kansas City look like a powerhouse. Patrick Mahomes and co. never had an offense outside of the top 10 in DVOA efficiency. With Bieniemy in Washington now, the Chiefs are No. 12 overall in offensive efficiency. And that feels extremely generous to a unit that struggled to score 20 points against middling Lions and Jaguars defenses.
On the flip side, the Commanders are showing they might have something in Sam Howell. Brian Robinson Jr. looks like a capable feature back. And Washington’s pass catchers are thriving with Terry McLaurin as the spearhead. The Commanders are, wait for it… No. 11 in offensive efficiency. I’m not sure if that sustains itself throughout the entire season, but it is an eye-opening comparison to monitor. Plus, correct me if I’m wrong, but the arguably best quarterback ever (Mahomes), the arguably best offensive coach ever (Andy Reid) and the arguably best tight end ever (Travis Kelce) are not employed by the Commanders at this present moment, right?
OK, cool. Just checking.
All this to say: Bienemy went to the Commanders in a lateral move to prove a fallacious criticism incorrect. He went there to show that Kansas City’s explosive offense wasn’t all Mahomes-Reid-Kelce during his half-decade as their coordinator. His assertion, at least thus far, appears to be correct.
If he still can’t get a head coaching gig after this, the NFL is really gonna have to overhaul its hiring practices from the top down.
1
Ben Johnson, Detroit Lions
Look, the Lions are actually good, and they’re probably the favorites to win the NFC North for the first time in more than 30 years. Sorry to blow your mind. So, I know they’re not used to this, but usually, bad teams want to poach coaches from good teams. It’s not illogical or unheard of, but it’s something that hasn’t happened to the Lions for a long time.
And this winter, everyone’s going to want a piece of Ben Johnson — the next potential McVay-, McDaniel-, Shanahan-level innovator. (Gird your loins, Lions fans. This is your new reality — replacing quality coordinators every couple of years or so.)
Johnson is the ingenious offensive brain to Dan Campbell’s culture-shifting brawn. He is the person who gave Jared Goff a second act as a field-tilting franchise quarterback. He is the person who helped turn Amon-Ra St. Brown into the NFL’s premier slot receiver. He is the person who uses the league’s best offensive line to create a diverse and multifaceted running game no front seven could possibly have an answer for. The results bear themselves out.
After fielding a top-4 offense in 2022, the Lions have a top-3 offense in 2023. They, quite literally, picked up where they left off and are probably even better. The Lions are so good offensively that I don’t even think a Lions’ Godfather-like offer for Johnson would convince him to stay at this point. He will have his pick of the litter (pun intended) of head coaching opportunities. Fledgling franchises are going to roll out a red carpet for him. Shoot, if Johnson gets really lucky, there’s a realistic chance he will be the guy who gets to mold the gifted Caleb Williams like a ball of clay. Williams would be silly to pass up on the opportunity.
Heavens help the NFL if Williams enters the league with Johnson as his head coach and play-caller.
