Dial "D" for Division Titles
Defensive-minded head coaches are back on top
Defensive-minded head coaches have the most wins in 6 of 8 divisions and both exceptions led by “offensive-minded” coaches have a strong argument for actually being defensive-minded teams.
Not quite lining up with this headline from one year ago:
As the Seahawks stay the course with Mike Macdonald, patience with Seattle’s defense could pay off for fans in the near future.
These are the 6 teams with DEFENSIVE-MINDED head coaches in first:
AFC East: 8-2 Bills, HC Sean McDermott
AFC North: 7-2 Steelers, HC Mike Tomlin/7-3 Ravens, HC John Harbaugh*
AFC South: 6-4 Texans, HC DeMeco Ryans
A good comp for Macdonald could be Ryans, now in his second year with the Texans. Though Ryans gets praised for quickly turning the team around from 3-14 to playoffs, Houston had some really bad games on defense last season.
*Harbaugh was a special teams coordinator, but if he had any background besides that it was on defense.
NFC East: 7-3 Washington Moons, HC Dan Quinn*
NFC South: 6-4 Falcons, HC Raheem Morris
NFC West: 6-4 Cardinals, HC Jonathan Gannon
*The Moons “trail” the 7-2 Eagles, but like the AFC North it is practically tied.
There’s been this LOUD narrative that teams “must” hire an offensive-minded head coach and even Seaside Joe used that reason for preferring Ben Johnson over Macdonald. The results simply don’t support that claim.
The Other Three
AFC West: 9-0 Chiefs, HC Andy Reid
NFC North: 8-1 Lions, HC Dan Campbell
NFC East: 7-2 Eagles, HC Nick Sirianni
Dan Campbell played tight end and coached tight ends, but he was never an offensive coordinator. He’s the most defensive-minded “offensive” head coach in the entire league! Sirianni’s background is on offense, but DC Vic Fangio has had a big part of Philly’s return to the top.
Reid is an offensive/quarterback genius, but he’s also a magnet for coaching talent including Steve Spagnuolo, who is considered to be the best defensive coordinator over the last few seasons. If Spagnuolo’s tenure with the Rams as a head coach wasn’t so disastrous AND if he was a young offensive coordinator instead of an old defensive coordinator, he would have been poached from the Chiefs four years ago.
Another team in a strong position to make the playoffs is the L.A. Chargers and though Jim Harbaugh is a former quarterback, he’s only really ever been a player and a head coach. Like Campbell, he’s a defensive-minded coach who was an offensive player and the reason Harbaugh has won at every stop is because of defense.
D? A day los Muertos!
Of the 14 teams currently slotted in playoff positions, seven have head coaches with a background as a defensive coordinator, and then there are those gray areas; Spagnuolo is practically a second head coach. But not every defensive hire has been a success story yet, including Macdonald:
The Raiders are 2-7 with Antonio Pierce
The Bears are consistently among the NFL’s worst under Matt Eberflus
The Saints fired Dennis Allen, the Jets fired Robert Saleh, and the Bucs could soon follow suit with Todd Bowles
In addition to Macdonald and Pierce among first-time head coaches, Jerod Mayo is 3-7 with the Patriots.
A good head coach could have any number of backgrounds, but if we’re not going to give defensive-minded coaches credit for potentially winning 6 of 8 divisions, then we can’t do it for offensive-minded coaches either.
O, brother? Where art thou?!
2 wins: Doug Pederson, Brian Daboll, Brian Callahan, Kevin Stefanski
3 wins: Mike McCarthy, Dave Canales, Mike McDaniel
Why do you keep underachieving: Zac Taylor, Shane Steichen, Sean Payton, Kyle Shanahan, McCarthy, Stefanski
Having a defensive background could have little to do with why those 6-8 teams are in first place. The timing of their success could be coincidental, or the impact of a defensive background could be overstated, but it could also be intentional. When McVay, Shanahan, Taylor, Stefanski, McDaniel, and McCarthy all underachieve at the same time, it implies some shift in the tectonic plates of the NFL.
Good news, Seahawks fans…
Seattle gets to take the year off as far as searching for a head coach and the Seahawks know that Mike Macdonald is the safest defensive hire since Brandon Stal…
Let’s just be safe and say since Pete Carroll.
Seaside Joe 2052
The defensive-minded coaches are doing so well that Shane Waldron was fired again. No schadenfreude, here, but I have suspected that others would eventually be as dissatisfied as I was with him. Quicker than I thought, though.
I’d I had to choose, I’d say defense only because DC is a more demanding job than OC. But in the end whether a coach is offense- or defense-oriented is irrelevant to whether he has the capacity to be a successful head coach. The qualities required—leadership, organizational ability etc—have nothing to do with which side of the ball he comes from.