There are 32 teams in the NFL and about 33% have new coaches! Head coaches tend to be tough guys to figure out\u2014part disciplinarian, part guru, part psychologist and part military general\u2014successful coaches can be contradictory enigmas. Although last season was all about the quarterback shift as rookie and vet signal callers changed the fates of various teams, this season is about massive shake ups is in the coaching ranks. Of course, it\u2019s almost a clich\u00e9 to say that an owner can\u2019t fire an entire team so they simply fire the coach, creating a scapegoat. That being said, in this two-part blog I\u2019ll take a look at each of the new coaches. First, I\u2019ll start with the five who have the best shot at getting their team into the playoffs in their first at the helm season.<\/p>\n
Jim Caldwell and the Indianapolis Colts (<\/strong>Playoffs: Definitely<\/em><\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n Caldwell may have his first job as a head coach in the NFL, but he\u2019s had plenty of experience as the head coach of Wake Forest and as a coordinator and assistant head coach for the Colts. With seven years under Tony Dungy, the Colts\u2019 former head coach, and in the Indianapolis organization, he\u2019s no stranger to the system, players or administration. All of that weighs heavily in his favor as does the fact that Peyton Manning is his quarterback. If the Colts didn\u2019t make the playoffs under Caldwell, it would be one of the biggest stories of the season and cause major shockwaves amongst the Colts\u2019 faithful. Caldwell still has work to do and success is never guaranteed in the NFL. If anything, he\u2019ll need to distance himself from Dungy, assert his own vision and feel free to be himself and not just a Dungy clone. Caldwell has more pressure than any other new coach to make the playoffs and go deep into the post-season.<\/p>\n Rex Ryan of the New York Jets<\/strong> (Playoffs: Likely<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Ryan starts his rookie season as a head coach by inheriting a good team with a lot of potential, but he also gets a club that is without last year\u2019s starting quarterback Brett Favre. Does Ryan do what a few teams did successfully last season and start rookie QB Mark Sanchez? Or does he go with Kellen Clemens who enters his fourth year as a pro. In 2007, Clemens played in 10 games for the Jets, tossing 5 TDs and 10 INTs. In those 10 contests, he connected on 52.0% of his throws. Other possibilities at QB include Brett Ratliff and Erik Ainge. On defense, Ryan will go with an aggressive posture. He\u2019s going to attack quarterbacks and try to create scoring opportunities with his defense. The Jets just missed the post-season last year. But don\u2019t forget, last season they did not have to deal with a Brady-driven Pats team. With Brady back in uniform, Ryan\u2019s job becomes tougher.<\/p>\n Eric Mangini of the Cleveland Browns<\/strong> (Playoffs: Likely<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n I had a hard time with the Browns hiring of Mangini after he was unable to get the job done in New York. Additionally, I found it strange that Cleveland fired one Bill Belicheck prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Romeo Crennel, to hire another. The Browns are a team that certainly has talent. But they have wasted that talent due to a lack of discipline both on and off the field. Mangini is a micromanager who offers this team fine organizational skills and intensity. He should find Cleveland a more comfortable fit than he did New York. Additionally helpful is the fact that he now has two years of NFL head coaching experience under his belt and that he is no longer in the division of his mentor. He\u2019s a smart guy and should be able to use some of those hard knock lessons her learned with the Jets to benefit his new team.<\/p>\n Josh McDaniels and the Denver Broncos <\/strong>(Playoffs: Possibl<\/em><\/strong>y)<\/p>\n It will be a strange view of the Bronco\u2019s sideline minus the polished, intense, always-pressed look of former head coach Mike Shanahan. Instead you\u2019re going to see the rugged, youthful countenance of former New England Patriot offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. McDaniels should do well in terms of working with his new team and getting them to generate points. However, he comes to a Denver team that is deficient when it comes to defense. New defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, formerly of the 49ers, is expected to institute a 3- 4 scheme. There\u2019s definitely going to be an adjustment period on \u201cD.\u201d\u00a0 Also, you can\u2019t discount the fact that McDaniels sports a much different personality than Shanahan. Shanahan, who was the headman at Denver for 14 years, was controlling and autocratic. The entire organization will need to adjust to McDaniels way of doing things as a head coach. McDaniels must also adjust to his way of doing things as this is his initial attempt at being at the helm of a NFL team.<\/p>\n Jim Mora and the Seattle Seahawks<\/strong> (Playoffs: A BIG maybe<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Okay, I know that you must be shaking your head on this one. But the fact is the Seahawks are in a relatively weak division, which is helpful, and Mora has a decent team. True\u2014he\u2019ll have to contend with Arizona and that won\u2019t be easy but it also won\u2019t be impossible. Mora is the former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Although his tenure started off well, Mora did not have a very successful run as the headman of the Falcons from 2004- 2006. Chalk that up to experience that he can utilize in his new job. Along with having taken some tough knocks, another thing in his favor is the experience he\u2019s had as an assistant head coach with the Seahawks from 2007- 2008. Some wonder if the team is in need of rebuilding or if last year\u2019s disappointing season was a result of innumerable injuries that took down wideouts and the Seattle quarterback. I\u2019m thinking last season was all about injury and am leaning towards Mora\u2019s energy, focus and enthusiasm helping to propel this hungry team into the post-season.<\/p>\n In Part II, I\u2019ll take a look at six other coaches who will find it tougher to make a run at the Super Bowl in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are 32 teams in the NFL and about 33% have new coaches! Head coaches tend to be tough guys to figure out\u2014part disciplinarian, part guru, part psychologist and part military general\u2014successful coaches can be contradictory enigmas. Although last season was all about the quarterback shift as rookie and vet signal callers changed the fates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[360,570,126,356,417],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-denver-broncos","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-new-york-jets","tag-seattle-seahawks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3272,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/3272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}