Cliff wrote:
I think it's more than the publicity that makes it a bad situation for him. For starters there are only 32 potential employers (31 for him now) and a *highly* competitive job market full of quality candidates who haven't screwed anybody over. Plus he didn't just back out on the Colts - he burned them. They already hired 3 of his assistant coaches who are under contract and will be staying with the team. Meaning whatever coach they bring in will have to be okay with that situation (probably not top tier).
If he's successful in NE then people will have a short memory about this. If he's a middling head coach or does a poor job again - he was terrible with the Broncos - then he might not even find an OC position.
Yeah, I didn't really consider the other coaches that came to coach with him until I heard Dungy's quote last night. That's a pretty rotten deal for them. And it definitely makes it much worse. It puts the new head coach into a tougher position too, since they aren't "his" guys.
On the other hand, I think the Colts will be better off without McDaniels. He clearly wasn't in it 100%. Plus, wasn't there a lot of crap that went down in Denver as he was leaving there too? I seem to recall something about it, but don't care to look it up.
He's pretty highly regarded as an offensive genius. I suspect he'll get an offer for OC regardless of how he fairs as HC. He may just not be HC material. There are plenty of examples of OC/DCs that fail at HC. It's really such a different job. The trend lately seems to be hiring coordinators to be head coaches solely on the success of their current teams. I hope there is more to it, but honestly sometimes that seems to be the only criteria based on how it turns out sometimes.