NFL Coaches - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bad coaching seems to be running rampant in the NFL this year. Some of them have been bad for years. Herman Edwards of Kansas City comes immediately to mind, of course, and Jack DelRio is most certainly another, despite winning some games with some terrific personnel in Jacksonville.

Some are just recently bad. Lovie Smith of “da Bears” would seem to qualify this year and the Cowboys Wade Phillips would almost certainly be another. Oh yeah, I think you can throw San Diego’s Norv Turner in there too. Anybody who’d hire Ted Cottrell as his defensive coordinator wears blinders.

All this comes to mind as I tonight witnessed te Green Bay Packers get totally annihilated by the sometimes equally inept New Orleans Saints. Any defense that surrenders over 50 points in a game is just not doing the job, I’m sorry to say. I don’t care how good Drew Brees may be.

The Vikings absolute man-handling of the Jaguars was ridiculous. Atlanta’s destruction of the Panthers was almost beyond belief. How can you let Michael Turner score four touchdowns? Didn’t the first three give you a clue?

The Cowboys destroyed the 49ers too, which, maybe you could say was predictable but why let Owens catch all those long balls? Was anybody watching the game unfold, or was Singletary busy watching the behavior of his tight end?

In order to see just how bad the coaching problem is in the NFL, if anything could be worse than the referee-ing, I’ve gone down the list of teams and their respective coaches(courtesy of SportsFrog.com) and classified them as either good, bad, or ugly as follows:

The Good

1.Arizona Cardinals – Ken Wisenhunt – took a chronically bad team and made it good, had the courage to start Kurt Warner over Matt Leinart.

2.Atlanta Falcons – Mike Smith – maybe a great coach, judging by the great shape of every aspect of the Falcons game, running, passing and defense

3.Baltimore Ravens – John Harbaugh – he’s given that great defense a reason to believe, he recognized some good things in QB Joe Flacco and nursed him and his team to victories.

4.Indianapolis Colts – Tony Dungy – if all the titles don’t sway you, what about his handling of this team after all those injuries?

5.Miami Dolphins – Tony Sparano – great job this year marred only by his single coverage all game long on none other than Randy Moss on Sunday. Geez.

6.New England Patriots – Bill Belichick – maybe the best coach of them all – unless you totally surprise him, as Miami’s “wildcat” did earlier this year

7.New Orleans Saints – Sean Payton – injuries hurt him this season but his team is hanging in there, and his defense appears to be getting better.

8.New York Giants – Tom Coughlin – his better treatment of his players had to be forced on him but you apparently can teach an old dog some new tricks.

9.Pittsburgh Steelers – Mike Tomlin – seems to have retained all the good things about the Steelers, except maybe for the absence of a big jaw.

10.Seattle Seahawks – Mike Holmgren – top three or four – injuries decimated receivers this year.

11.Tennessee Titans – Jeff Fisher – his teams have always been ready to play; this year he had the smarts to make Kerry Collins his starter and let Vince Young watch.

12.Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Jon Gruden – remarkable consistency and great Chucky face.

13.Washington Redskins – Jim Zorn – despite looking foolish in the season’s first game vs. the Giants, he and the Skins have come on strong.

The Bad:

1.Chicago Bears – Lovie Smith – stayed too long with Rex and has seemingly no head for offense at all, not to mention defending the pass.

2.Green Bay Packers – Mike McCarthy –mishandled Favre situation, signed Rodgers for six years and team can’t stop the run OR the pass as evidenced by last night’s Saints debacle.

3.Houston Texans – Gary Kubiak – does this team EVER get better?

4.Philadelphia Eagles – Andy Reid – yeah, I know, blah-blah-blah re coaching record, but what has he done lately? When will his team get some real receivers and running backs? And then there’s the McNabb-Kolb thing, time to go home for a while.

5.St Louis Rams – Jim Haslett – this team seems to have quit, ‘nuff said.

6.San Diego Chargers – Norv Turner – good team-underperforms in all areas.


The UGLY:

1.Jacksonville Jaguars – Jack Del Rio – I still recall the “ax incident” and good personnel that plays either badly or inconsistently.

2.Kansas City Chiefs – Herman Edwards – good motivator, terrible bench coach, terrible time management, as coach, makes a great cornerback.

3. Oakland Raiders – Tom Cable - anybody who’d coach for Al Davis has to be listed in this category despite impressive recent win over Shanahan’s Broncos.

4.Cleveland Browns – Romeo Crennel – has totally botched the QB situation, and now a quick hook on Brady Quinn.

5.Dallas Cowboys – Wade Phillips –his team displays no toughness in bad times; even in good times can play with no heart.

6.Minnesota Vikings – Brad Childress – excellent personnel plays very inconsistently on a consistent basis, terrible offense when the run is stopped, terrible bench decisions.

Jury Still Out:

1. Buffalo Bills – Dick Jauron – inconsistent teams but injuries too, QB Trent Edwards may someday turn the corner.
2. Carolina Panthers – John Fox – not convinced that this team is as good as its personnel, plays inconsistently very often.
3. Cincinnati Bengals – Marvin Lewis – hard to like but cursed with head cases and injuries.
4. Denver Broncos – Mike Shanahan – yeah, I know, what a surprise, but his teams are always very strange and play that way, witness last loss to Raiduhs..
5. Detroit Lions – Rod Marinelli – winless but horrible personnel and losing culture will be hard to overcome.
6. New York Jets – Eric Mangini – over-thinks situations, bad bench coach despite good team, we’ll see if he can advance in playoffs.
7. San Francisco 49ers – Mike Singletary – not enough time in job, could be great with right staff.

For those teams listed as bad or ugly, ask yourself if you couldn’t imagine that team being a lot better with a different coaching staff. Happy Thanksgiving!