NFL's Hot New Trend - The Coaching Succession Plan

The NFL is such a copycat league it is amazing we haven't gotten to a discussion of cloning yet. The hot trend as this season came to end seems to be, the coaching succession plan.

When Jason Garrett the offensive coordinator in Dallas began seriously considering offers to coach in Baltimore and Atlanta. Jerry Jones decided that he didn't want to lose the man he saw as the future coach of the Cowboys. He gave Garrett 3 million a year, nearly equal to the salary of head coach Wade Phillips. While it isn't official since Wade Phillips hasn't even mentioned leaving. It is pretty widely accepted that part of Garretts return to the Cowboys is the fact he will be the next coach.

As the NFL world sat around waiting for Tony Dungy to return with a decision about coaching next season. Jim Caldwell sat around waiting to see if the announcement that he would take over for Dungy, would come into effect three days after it was made. When Dungy held the conference to announce his stay or go decision,. It turned out it will be at least another year before Caldwell takes over, possibly even more. Dungy is staying and has said he will go through the same process at the end of next season. Just as he has for the last several seasons.

You can now add Jim Mora and Seahawks to the list. They announced recently that when Homlgren, who also took a few weeks to make a stay or go decision at the end of this season, retires at the end of the 2008 season. Jim Mora will take over the head coaching duties. In a small bit of irony, Mora had recently withdrew his name from the, still vacant, Redskins head coaching job.

That particular position is still vacant despite the pretty much accepted succession plan that was in place for Greg Williams when Joe Gibbs retired. Thing is, it was pretty much accepted by everyone but 'Skins owner Daniel Snyder. Williams not only isn't the head coach, someone else has his old job at defensive coordinator, and he is gone. So take heed Jason Garrett, these other two teams have held conferences and made announcements about their plans. If Wade Phillips loses that job, it'll be because the team is losing and you're a part of that. I don't see Jerry Jones as a guy turning from one losing coach to the other to solve his problems.

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Is Holmgrens return better than Dungy's?

Mike Holmgren announced today that he will return as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He also made it very clear that this will be his final year. I have to wonder what that means for Shaun Alexander. Holmgren had said even before announcing his return that during the offseason Seattle’s running game would require “a major offseason fix”.

Holmgrens announcement followed a similar one made by Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts. Dungy held a press conference Monday afternoon announcing he has decided to stay on and coach the team. Dungy mentioned the fact he takes a week at the end of each season to decide if he will return. He was surprised by the attention it drew this year. He also made no statements regarding next year other than the fact he plans to take the same week for decision making a year from now.

Both men explained the facts of their respective future plans. They told the truth and should have done nothing different. There is however a key difference in the two scenarios. The real difference lies in next years plans. Seattle finds itself in a win won for the Gipper scenario. Holmgren has , intentionally or not, created a Ra Ra scenario that players can rally around. Dungy and the Colts will face questions from around mid season on regarding whether or not the coach will remain and how each win and loss in the week will affect the outcome of Dungy’s possible decision.

Don’t misunderstand me, both teams are lucky to have these two men back. I just think the facts are what they are and happen to favor Seattle. Thankfully for Indianapolis talent still seems to favor them.


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