Is it? My only issue is that you clip Kelly a week before the season is out to "get a jump" on the search, interview a few guys (a third of which were under your roof already) and then grab a guy that no one was clamoring for. If Pederson is the guy, fine, but why not wait until the play-offs are done and interview EVERYONE you possibly can?
Diddy was on 1210 this morning and said as much-a lot of the interview process is not necessarily to hire a guy but to pick his brain and get ideas/concepts that you may not be considering. Told an anecdote about a team a few years ago that interviewed a guy they simply had no intention of hiring-he wasn't on their radar, they just wanted to talk to him. They brought him in to get a different view point because they had the time and their mentality was, "why NOT interview as many people as possible.". The guy came in, killed his interview, blew them away and convinced them to hire him, even though he was not really ever in their scope. That team was Pittsburgh and the hire was Mike Tomlin.
The point is, jettisoning Chip early says that you are targeting a hot commodity-my guess is they wanted Gase. But after he walks and you don't really talk to anyone else, you look like a smacked-### with no plan. Then Chip gets hired and you double down by looking totally desperate and grabbing Pederson. Why? At that point, what do have to lose? Interview EVERYONE. You don't face the potential of someone sniping Pederson and maybe you uncover someone that really blows you away-Matt Patricia for example. Who knows.
It just looks bad, IMO.
How do we know we didn't get a jump start on the search? What's the criteria for this? Hiring someone? After we got rid of Chip Im sure we were the first team inquiring about other HC's and we had the first interview with any candidate and any team when we interviewed Gase. Gase got full control in Miami. IMHO, it's pretty easy to see why is wasn't the HC here....Oh, and wouldn't it have been awesome to read and listen to how stupid Howie and Lurie were for hiring the first guy they hired? Making the same mistakes by giving another guy full control? Or hiring the next genius?
That's a cool story from Diddy. Im sure many teams interview guys for this same reason. How many strike gold like what happened in Diddy's story?
If you have the guy you want you only look stupid and lost to people who have no clue, which is 99.9% of us. Why are all the HC'ing jobs filled without EVERYONE being interviewed?
How many of these same people criticizing this hire had Chip as a genius and us winning 10-12 games or playing in a SB? Funny how we flock to their every word and they are just as wrong as everyone else. Im usually not a Jaworski fan but he has been the ONLY person I have heard who said the smartest thing--"You wont know what Pederson is until 2-3 years"....Its really that simple
Again, what head start were they trying to get if Pederson was their guy-(which I don't believe)? Literally no one was planning on interviewing him. All signs, IMO, point to a swing and a miss on Gase, followed by some very poor, reactionary decisions.
If they jumped out early, interviewed Gase and signed him up I think most people would be okay with it. There would be a feeling that they had a clear plan, targeted the guy they wanted and made quick, smart decisions to lock him up. This is the complete opposite of that. As soon as Gase is out they should be interviewing a ton of people. The very reason for jumping out early is no longer viable option. At that point, take your time and be sure you are making the right decision. Why would you not interview Jackson? McDermott? Patricia? McDaniels? There's a host of other guys out there that are more qualified than Pederson. We didn't talk to any of them. Gase was hired by Miami without interviewing a ton of people because he was the consensus top pick in this year's coach search-evidence of why we clipped Kelly a week early.
Again, I'm not saying that Pederson won't be good, because he may be and you're right-no one really knows. I thought the Jaws interview was pathetic. I love Jaws, but that was the worst example of a sell job I've ever heard. Telling the Philly fan base to "calm down" and give it 2-3 years? Really Jaws? What an absurd statement-this is obviously reality, but telling the fans to just be positive about this selection would not go over well in most places, least of all Philly.. FWIW, he said during that interview that they'd internally identified twenty names of potential guys they were interested in. Twenty. They interviewed six, two of which were Shurmer and Duce.
You're starting your first sentence saying you don't believe it and than follow-up with something that reads like you do believe he was their guy the entire time. IF you truly don't believe he was their guy the entire time, than what they did was interview more HC candidates than everyone else, took their time and got the best candidate in their eyes.
I disagree completely with the second paragraph. For starters, as Ive mentioned before Gase got full control. We simply couldn't compete with that. If we didn't offer him full control Im sure he would want to see what else is out there. I'm also sure they probably had a damn good idea what he wanted, from his agent, probably within hours of Chip being gone, if not beforehand. Gase was hired by Miami because he said "I want XX, Y & Z" and they said "Done". Secondly, Chip was the consensus top choice a few years back. Im cool with not making the same mistake twice.
Jackson also got full control in Cleveland, and we tried to schedule and interview with him. McDermott, McDaniels and Patricia COMBINED for 1 interview I believe. Patricia (Im not 100% sure on this) was scheduled for one but said he'd only take it if they were eliminated.
Jaws statement is only absurd in this city. No gray in this place. No one has to be positive, or negative. How about we just wait and see if he's as awful as Andy was when he was first hired?
I also see our "intelligent" fan base was back at it again this past weekend. A week ago every single person here knows it's Andy that calls the plays and runs the entire KC offense. After we lock in on Pederson we now replace Andy with him. I love this place.