Top 25 worst NFL coaching hires this century (1 Viewer)

[travdogg]

I think Dave McInnis (Cardinlas 2000-2003) is getting off the hook a little bit. Went 17-40 after taking over a young team that was only a year removed from an appearance in the divisional playoffs (famously beating the Cowboys) and had a bunch of quality talent (Jake Plummer, Thomas Jones, David Boston, Simeon Rice, Aeneas Williams) that by the time he was fired, they were all gone having success elsewhere.

Also was one of the rare cases, where he never even got a DC job afterward, had to settle for being a LB coach under Jeff Fisher.

 

[moleculo]

I feel like they are being WAY too harsh on Josh McDaniels. I mean, he had a .500 season, that alone makes him much better than most of the guys on the list. Also being WAY too nice to Hue Jackson.

In my eyes the 10 worst would be:

1. Cam Cameron
2. Urban Meyer
3. Marty Mornhinweg
4. Hue Jackson
5. Rob Marinelli
6. Steve Spagnuolo
7. Gus Bradley
8. Bobby Petrino
9. Jerod Mayo
10. David Culley

ETA: I'd call Cameron the 3rd worst of all-time. Rod Rust the 2nd worst, and the worst being Bill Peterson, who went 1-18 with the Oilers in the 70s, despite having multiple HOFers on the team. Luckily, they hired Bum Phillips a year later.

McDaniels took over a team that was 8-8 with a promising young pro-bowl QB. His very first move - cut the popular long snapper to bring in his guy from NE. His second move? Put that promising QB on the trade block. When the QB heard about it, he forced a trade. The compensation wasn't terrible: two #1 picks which he turned into *checks notes* Robert Ayers and a #1 in 2010. He then traded a 2010 first-round pick to Seattle for a 2009 second rounder to draft a guy he thought should have been a first rounder - a DB named Alphonso Smith (you have never heard of him). Of course, the pick he traded for Smith ended up being Earl Thomas. And then, the next year he drafted his QB of the Future in the first round- a TE masquarading as QB who had zero accuracy (Tim Tebow).

He let go any coaches who knew WTF they were doing and brought in a bunch of rookies. That 2010 Broncos defense was possibly the worst I have ever seen, dead last in points and scoring.

So, that's all GM stuff though. As a coach - he got busted filming the SF practice before a game, was hated by virtually all the players, and was generally reviled on his way out.

He didn't fare much better in any of his othe stops, asides from riding Belichicks coattails.

 

[joey]

I feel like they are being WAY too harsh on Josh McDaniels. I mean, he had a .500 season, that alone makes him much better than most of the guys on the list. Also being WAY too nice to Hue Jackson.

In my eyes the 10 worst would be:

1. Cam Cameron
2. Urban Meyer
3. Marty Mornhinweg
4. Hue Jackson
5. Rob Marinelli
6. Steve Spagnuolo
7. Gus Bradley
8. Bobby Petrino
9. Jerod Mayo
10. David Culley

ETA: I'd call Cameron the 3rd worst of all-time. Rod Rust the 2nd worst, and the worst being Bill Peterson, who went 1-18 with the Oilers in the 70s, despite having multiple HOFers on the team. Luckily, they hired Bum Phillips a year later.

McDaniels took over a team that was 8-8 with a promising young pro-bowl QB. His very first move - cut the popular long snapper to bring in his guy from NE. His second move? Put that promising QB on the trade block. When the QB heard about it, he forced a trade. The compensation wasn't terrible: two #1 picks which he turned into *checks notes* Robert Ayers and a #1 in 2010. He then traded a 2010 first-round pick to Seattle for a 2009 second rounder to draft a guy he thought should have been a first rounder - a DB named Alphonso Smith (you have never heard of him). Of course, the pick he traded for Smith ended up being Earl Thomas. And then, the next year he drafted his QB of the Future in the first round- a TE masquarading as QB who had zero accuracy (Tim Tebow).

He let go any coaches who knew WTF they were doing and brought in a bunch of rookies. That 2010 Broncos defense was possibly the worst I have ever seen, dead last in points and scoring.

So, that's all GM stuff though. As a coach - he got busted filming the SF practice before a game, was hated by virtually all the players, and was generally reviled on his way out.

He didn't fare much better in any of his othe stops, asides from riding Belichicks coattails.

Fell on his face badly as a HC for both the Broncos and the Raiders.
Top 10 worst in my book.

 

[mike11162]

How is Joe Philbin not on this list? Just from letting bully gate happen alone. And Stephen Ross let him hang around 3+ seasons. If you look up the definition of mediocrity, you see Philbin’s face plastered there. I grew up a Dolphins fan since the early 70s and he and Ross made me hate the team.

 

[rockaction]

How is Joe Philbin not on this list? Just from letting bully gate happen alone. And Stephen Ross let him hang around 3+ seasons. If you look up the definition of mediocrity, you see Philbin’s face plastered there. I grew up a Dolphins fan since the early 70s and he and Ross made me hate the team.

Didn't the OL from Stanford (Jonathan Martin, I think) recant his story well after the careers were done? Or did I dream that? No, he did. I do not know Martin's motivation behind recanting nor his motivation for introducing the story (he says his mother was to blame), but I can only say that we'll never really know. All we have is video of Incognito ripshit drunk in a bar looking completely threatening.

But yeah, Martin has recanted his story and blames his Mom. I really hope that he is doing well and continues to do well. Hazing is awful when it happens, and . . . well, forget the soapbox. I hate hazing.

eta* Aw jeez, I just read part of the ESPN article I'm about to link and I'm not convinced he wasn't bullied badly. He's so worried about looking weak and stuff. Hooo boy. What a sad, sad story for that man.

Jonathan Martin wants you to forget the only thing you remember about him

A target of bullying in the 2013 Miami Dolphins locker room, he is now making his way in business and finance.

www.espn.com

 

[rockaction]

Urban is the clear 1.01 but Hackett and Gase were extraordinairly bad and the classic easy to identify mistake of hiring the OC who was coaching a Hall of Fame QB. We both know Rodgers and Manning were the ones actually in charge of the Green Bay and Denver offenses. These guys made millions off of riding those QBs coattails. They didn't develop them, they just showed up and got the benefit of elite MVP QB play.

You could pin it on the GM except for one problem. We know the GM with Gase didn't hire him (the owner did and then hired the GM later) and we don't know that Joe D ever wanted Aaron Rodgers or if he was just keeping his job after drafting Zach Wilson. He got compensated. That's for sure. Then he got ****canned.

So it might—hear me out here . . . it might a nepo baby billionaire owner who was ambassador to England and left his "don't care" brother in charge; an owner who just plunked down a cool 250 million investment in a Premier League Club, which is money that will not be going into building the Jets organization nor will it be anything but forked over by the fans of the Jets, who have sort of football-suffered enough (like ball gag bad) with this joker at the helm. Complete *** clown.

 

[Ilov80s]

Urban is the clear 1.01 but Hackett and Gase were extraordinairly bad and the classic easy to identify mistake of hiring the OC who was coaching a Hall of Fame QB. We both know Rodgers and Manning were the ones actually in charge of the Green Bay and Denver offenses. These guys made millions off of riding those QBs coattails. They didn't develop them, they just showed up and got the benefit of elite MVP QB play.

You could pin it on the GM except for one problem. We know the GM with Gase didn't hire him (the owner did and then hired the GM later) and we don't know that Joe D ever wanted Aaron Rodgers or if he was just keeping his job after drafting Zach Wilson. He got compensated. That's for sure. Then he got ****canned.

So it might—hear me out here . . . it might a nepo baby billionaire owner who was ambassador to England and left his "don't care" brother in charge; an owner who just plunked down a cool 250 million investment in a Premier League Club, which is money that will not be going into building the Jets organization nor will it be anything but forked over by the fans of the Jets, who have sort of football-suffered enough (like ball gag bad) with this joker at the helm. Complete *** clown.

Yeah ownership is so important. I saw that with the Lions. It's no surprise that once William Clay Ford and Martha Ford (Firestone) no longer were running the team and were replaced by their daughter Sheila that the ship turned around.

 

[rockaction]

Urban is the clear 1.01 but Hackett and Gase were extraordinairly bad and the classic easy to identify mistake of hiring the OC who was coaching a Hall of Fame QB. We both know Rodgers and Manning were the ones actually in charge of the Green Bay and Denver offenses. These guys made millions off of riding those QBs coattails. They didn't develop them, they just showed up and got the benefit of elite MVP QB play.

You could pin it on the GM except for one problem. We know the GM with Gase didn't hire him (the owner did and then hired the GM later) and we don't know that Joe D ever wanted Aaron Rodgers or if he was just keeping his job after drafting Zach Wilson. He got compensated. That's for sure. Then he got ****canned.

So it might—hear me out here . . . it might a nepo baby billionaire owner who was ambassador to England and left his "don't care" brother in charge; an owner who just plunked down a cool 250 million investment in a Premier League Club, which is money that will not be going into building the Jets organization nor will it be anything but forked over by the fans of the Jets, who have sort of football-suffered enough (like ball gag bad) with this joker at the helm. Complete *** clown.

Yeah ownership is so important. I saw that with the Lions. It's no surprise that once William Clay Ford and Martha Ford (Firestone) no longer were running the team and were replaced by their daughter Sheila that the ship turned around.

I heard about the guys she brought in to run the football operations, and I was immediately excited for you all. I think I said it in your thread a few times. BL posts a lot so I got overwhelmed by the fawning, but I'm pretty sure I'm in there early like, "Good for y'all. This will turn around."

That's not really by way of patting myself on the back; it's more to illustrate that I completely know how important ownership is and knew it not from football, but from the Red Sox and Tom Yawkey and then other owners before John Henry and company gave them stability, capital for the payroll, and most importantly a structure and a big league innovative way to look at things. It was huge. They won a title in a few short years. I think it might have been four or something like that. Four. Took over in 2001 and won in 2004. Oh my.

Jets have hope if p(doom) (I'm going to keep writing that today) strikes Woody and leaves the rest of us intact.

 

[Ilov80s]

Urban is the clear 1.01 but Hackett and Gase were extraordinairly bad and the classic easy to identify mistake of hiring the OC who was coaching a Hall of Fame QB. We both know Rodgers and Manning were the ones actually in charge of the Green Bay and Denver offenses. These guys made millions off of riding those QBs coattails. They didn't develop them, they just showed up and got the benefit of elite MVP QB play.

You could pin it on the GM except for one problem. We know the GM with Gase didn't hire him (the owner did and then hired the GM later) and we don't know that Joe D ever wanted Aaron Rodgers or if he was just keeping his job after drafting Zach Wilson. He got compensated. That's for sure. Then he got ****canned.

So it might—hear me out here . . . it might a nepo baby billionaire owner who was ambassador to England and left his "don't care" brother in charge; an owner who just plunked down a cool 250 million investment in a Premier League Club, which is money that will not be going into building the Jets organization nor will it be anything but forked over by the fans of the Jets, who have sort of football-suffered enough (like ball gag bad) with this joker at the helm. Complete *** clown.

Yeah ownership is so important. I saw that with the Lions. It's no surprise that once William Clay Ford and Martha Ford (Firestone) no longer were running the team and were replaced by their daughter Sheila that the ship turned around.

I heard about the guys she brought it and I was immediately excited for you all. I think I said it in your thread a few times. BL posts a lot so I got overwhelmed by the fawning, but I'm pretty sure I'm in there early like, "Good for y'all. This will turn around."

That's not really by way of patting myself on the back; it's more to illustrate that I completely know how important ownership is and knew it not from football, but from the Red Sox and Tom Yawkey and then other owners before John Henry and company gave them stability, capital for the payroll, and most importantly a structure and a big league innovative way to look at things. It was huge. They won a title in a few short years. I think it might have been four or something like that. Four. Took over in 2001 and won in 2004. Oh my.

Jets have hope if p(doom) (I'm going to keep writing that today) strikes Woody and leaves the rest of us intact.

Yeah things can change fast and often when you don't expect it. I had no expectations that Sheila Ford Hamp was going to be anything but another nepo who will continue with the loser status quo and rake in the easy football dollars. I mean she was supposedly involved with her mom when they hired Patricia and Quinn. So how could I possibly have faith after that debacle? But she pretty quickly proved to be different. She was the first person in pro sports to cancel a practice to protest BLM. She saw it was something that was important to the players in her organization and she gave them the latitude to speak about what was important to them. She quickly created a culture that was caring and respectful, treating people in the organization as adults, giving them room to be themselves. She repaired fractured relationships with former players like Calvin Johnson. She has been a loud voice in the NFL owners meetings advocating for the city and team. She got rid of the cloack of secrecy and disdain that Quinn/Patricia had the for the media and fans, instead embracing a very open and honest way of doing business. She is hands on but doesn't meddle. They said she knows the names of everyone in the organization from the 90th guy on the roster to the locker room attendants and she talks with them all. She sits in with every department from football to operations so she understands what is going on and not so she can boss them around. She doesn't do interviews to promote herself or make herself the story. I hope your Jets find themselves their own leader someday soon.

 

[rockaction]

I hope your Jets find themselves their own leader someday soon.

More likely we have Woody's kid Brick running the show.

My nephew sings their theme song like they're an animated buddy comedy.

"Brick and Wood
Brick and Woodeeeeeee
Woody and Brick"

 

[Bri]

I think we're forgetting a group or the author is.
I can remember Ray Handley just "OMG what did you do" destroying a good team. Those Giants went to two Superbowls and then suddenly like 4-5 wins.
I remember some Cowboys teams falling absolutely flat too. Redskins I think also.

We had a thing where the next year we'd all predict a Superbowl MVP flop and championship teams were expected to be picked over in free agency. If they didn't, we had high expectations that were totally reasonable from the prior success.

There were definitely some coaches that we all were shocked how bad the team was

 

[Mister CIA]

Did Gruden, Electric Boogaloo, collect all of his $100 million?

 

[Ilov80s]

Interesting spin on this. Who is the current NFL coach most likely to make a future version of this list?

 

[Chaka]

Did Gruden, Electric Boogaloo, collect all of his $100 million?

Even if he did it doesn't make him a bad hire. He was straight up character assassinated by Dan ####### Snyder and the league office.

He's an ####### for sure but he got a raw deal regardless.

 

[Ilov80s]

Did Gruden, Electric Boogaloo, collect all of his $100 million?

Even if he did it doesn't make him a bad hire. He was straight up character assassinated by Dan ####### Snyder and the league office.

He's an ####### for sure but he got a raw deal regardless.

Yeah I wouldn't call him a bad hire either. Perhaps the process of how they hired him and the deal they made with him was bad but he was a long established winning coach, with a SB who was still young. That's not a bad hire, things just didn't work out.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Interesting spin on this. Who is the current NFL coach most likely to make a future version of this list?

Who do see in the eligible pool for this?

 

[Ilov80s]

Interesting spin on this. Who is the current NFL coach most likely to make a future version of this list?

Who do see in the eligible pool for this?

I looked and I didn’t see a name screaming out. Lots of the HC on the hot seat right now at least took their teams to the playoffs at some point. Honestly, Schottenheimer stands out. Now he’s 0-0 as a HC so that’s being harsh but he’s had a very odd pathway to be a HC. He’s led some good offenses but also been fired a lot for leading some very poor offenses. The times when it looked like he was a strong HC candidate, he never got the job or pulled his name from the running. His promotion for OC to HC in Dallas this year was a big surprise and he wasn’t a hot name. It just smells funny to me.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Interesting spin on this. Who is the current NFL coach most likely to make a future version of this list?

Who do see in the eligible pool for this?

I looked and I didn’t see a name screaming out. Lots of the HC on the hot seat right now at least took their teams to the playoffs at some point. Honestly, Schottenheimer stands out. Now he’s 0-0 as a HC so that’s being harsh but he’s had a very odd pathway to be a HC. He’s led some good offenses but also been fired a lot for leading some very poor offenses. The times when it looked like he was a strong HC candidate, he never got the job or pulled his name from the running. His promotion for OC to HC in Dallas this year was a big surprise and he wasn’t a hot name. It just smells funny to me.

Being on the hot seat doesn't mean the coach was a bad hire.

For instance, Cleveland's HC has won two COY awards. But he always seems to be on the hot seat lists. I don't think he was a bad hire.

To me, to make this list (25 worst of the century), a coach has to be an abject failure of the highest (lowest?) level. That's different from being on the hot seat (there are a bunch of them every year).

I agree with your choice of Schottenheimer as probably a bad hire, but he just strikes me as a benign failure. I hope I'm wrong and he does well.

The new hire that intrigues me for this list is the new Jax HC - didn't he pull some shady stuff when he left TB? There may be some potential there for shenanigans.

 

[Mister CIA]

Did Gruden, Electric Boogaloo, collect all of his $100 million?

Even if he did it doesn't make him a bad hire. He was straight up character assassinated by Dan ####### Snyder and the league office.

He's an ####### for sure but he got a raw deal regardless.

Yeah I wouldn't call him a bad hire either. Perhaps the process of how they hired him and the deal they made with him was bad but he was a long established winning coach, with a SB who was still young. That's not a bad hire, things just didn't work out.

I couldn't remember the details, other than the contract was enormous... at the time.

 

[Ilov80s]

Interesting spin on this. Who is the current NFL coach most likely to make a future version of this list?

Who do see in the eligible pool for this?

I looked and I didn’t see a name screaming out. Lots of the HC on the hot seat right now at least took their teams to the playoffs at some point. Honestly, Schottenheimer stands out. Now he’s 0-0 as a HC so that’s being harsh but he’s had a very odd pathway to be a HC. He’s led some good offenses but also been fired a lot for leading some very poor offenses. The times when it looked like he was a strong HC candidate, he never got the job or pulled his name from the running. His promotion for OC to HC in Dallas this year was a big surprise and he wasn’t a hot name. It just smells funny to me.

Being on the hot seat doesn't mean the coach was a bad hire.

For instance, Cleveland's HC has won two COY awards. But he always seems to be on the hot seat lists. I don't think he was a bad hire.

To me, to make this list (25 worst of the century), a coach has to be an abject failure of the highest (lowest?) level. That's different from being on the hot seat (there are a bunch of them every year).

I 100% agree which is why this was tough to find a nomination. The coaches most likely to be fired this year have had success and were good hires who just couldn't keep it together. Like with Cleveland's coach, I put thta more on the owner/GM's handling of the QB position. The Dolphins look they are about to implode but he did take the team to the playoffs twice and orchestrated some impressive offensive seasons.

I agree with your choice of Schottenheimer as probably a bad hire, but he just strikes me as a benign failure. I hope I'm wrong and he does well.

Maybe the nepo angle is shading my opinion but his path to being a HC is an odd one. It really seemed like he never wanted to be a HC and was happy as an OC. Was he pushing for the Dallas job or did Jerry want this? Also I look at this offense and the running attack is among the worst in the league. Before his injury, Dak was having his worst season. Interceptions were up, completion % was down. His arm didn't look the same. Then he tore his hamstring. The OL isn't what it used to be. Dak doesn't rush any more. He's going to be 32, has had a lot of wear and tear. Things could fall apart fast for Dallas IMO.

The new hire that intrigues me for this list is the new Jax HC - didn't he pull some shady stuff when he left TB? There may be some potential there for shenanigans.

It's the Jags so it's a safe bet to predict disaster. I don't know much about him though.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

It's the Jags so it's a safe bet to predict disaster.

And that's kind of we're really saying here, right? I mean, look at that list of franchises instead of the individual coaches. Some have stabilized in recent years, but many keep doing the same stuff over and over again. And they hire these coaches who may or may not be qualified, but some of those coaches may have done a bit better in more supportive environments.

 

[pinkstapler]

The new hire that intrigues me for this list is the new Jax HC - didn't he pull some shady stuff when he left TB? There may be some potential there for shenanigans.

IMO, it was really overblown by TB fans salty he was leaving. Long story short, he initially said he wasn't going to leave for Jax. Then he changed his mind and did. Not substatiated, but widely accepted rumor was he didn't want to accept the job unless they got rid of Baalke. They said there was no intention to fire Baalke, so Coen was out. Then I think they realized NO ONE wanted to come coach the team with Baalke, so they did fire him.

All that withstanding; people have a right to change their minds. HC jobs are few and far between and the windows a coordinator gets for taking one close quickly. If TB did poorly this year, it could have moved Coen from the top of the potential hire list, to right off it. It's why people said Ben Johnson should stop dragging his feet on taking one. It was a tough decision for him, and ultimately, he did what he thought was right for him and his career. And this changing of his mind happened in 24 hours. Wasn't like he left TB standing at the alter and dragged them along for a month or two. In a perfect world, he never would have publicly announced he had withdrawn from consideration of the Jags job. But at the same time, if he didn't, maybe they wouldn't have fired Baalke when they did and he wouldn't have gotten a much better situation to walk into. Play the game or the game plays you.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

19. Jim Zorn, Washington
-He would be a lot higher on my list, did incredible damage and showed complete ineptness, not even knowing when it was time to turn in his resignation before finally being fired
As i recall, they relieved him of any ability to call plays and at that point it seemed over. His IQ level diminished by the second, I thought Snyder was going to take over as head coach