With football season well underway, here’s our review of this year’s roster of new NFL coaches.
Freddie Kitchens, Cleveland Browns
The Browns have a bright future, a young roster and cap moves to be made. They have their franchise quarterback, a breakout running back and a young defense. The only downside to this job? Heightened expectations. The good news for Kitchens is he starts with a clean slate. The head coach and coordinators who started this season for the Browns are gone. Kitchens will surely get some time as head coach.
Bruce Arians, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Arians is a very good coach with a huge personality and is the right choice to whip Tampa Bay and Jameis Winston into shape. The Bucs needed an adult in the room and they’ll finally get one. Hiring a young upstart head coach wasn’t going to fit what the Bucs were looking for. The team went out and made an offer good enough to pull Arians out of the announcers’ booth and back onto the field.
Kliff Kingsbury, Arizona Cardinals
Kingsbury needs a veteran defensive coordinator because his defenses at Texas Tech were terrible. He should also find someone who has a bit of NFL head coaching experience to help him out. The college and professional games are different. We have to mention by law Kingsbury went 35-40 as Texas Tech.
Vic Fangio, Denver Broncos
The Broncos need a QB. Since they aren’t set up for immediate success, that means Fangio is immediately on the chopping block. Elway has been putting his bad roster decision at the feet of his coaches for some time now. He’s already gone through four coaches and Fangio is the fifth during his tenure.
Green Bay Packers, Matt LaFleur
Green Bay turned to a Great Lakes native to replace Mike McCarthy, snagging former Saginaw Valley State quarterback LaFleur after one underwhelming season as the Titans’ offensive coordinator. He didn’t do much for a Tennessee club, who scored fewer points and won fewer total games with him in the fold than it did in 2017.
Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores
Flores spent his entire coaching career in New England, starting in 2004 as a scouting assistant and moving up to the club’s linebackers coach. The former Boston College linebacker has played a key role in elevating talented players in Foxborough, turning unwanted players like Kyle Van Noy and J.C. Jackson into above-average starters and pushing Stephon Gilmore to his All-Pro potential.
New York Jets, Adam Gase
The Dolphins hired Gase in 2016 when “hot young offensive minds” were making splashes in coaching hires. They wanted him to turn Ryan Tannehill into a true franchise quarterback. Three seasons later, he’s now expected to turn Sam Darnold into that QB.
