Done...But Why?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011Done...But Why?
So the Jacksonville Jaguars fired coach Jack Del Rio today. A move that had seemingly been coming for some time now. Del Rio hasn't had a winning season since 2007 and has only reached the playoffs twice in his eight and a half year stint with the Jags.

I don't think anyone was in any way surprised by the move (yours truly included) but let's have a look at the stats shall we.

Named head coach for the start of the 2003 season Del Rio, a career journeyman linebacker who had his best years statistically towards the end of his career with the Vikings, worked his way to a respectable if not stellar 68-71 regular season record with two playoff seasons in which he went 1-2 with no Superbowl appearances.

Del Rio was widely regarded as being a tough minded, defense first kind of coach. Probably a good thing considering his best quarterbacks in that tenure were Byron Leftwich and David Garrard. Also he looked damn good in a suit.

Now I'm not here to make an argument for or against Mr. Del Rio as a coach. Although truth be told I think the Jags could have done a lot worse. But his firing gets me to thinking about the multitude of coaches in the NFL who have been let go over the years. Either during the season or in the off season. Coaching an NFL team is hard work. Not many succeed. It takes a lot of hard work, a good deal of great players, and some good old fashioned luck.

Lets look at some of the older franchises in the league shall we ?

How about the New York Jets ? They won Superbowl three. They have been to two or three AFC title games and have played in 25 playoff games since 1966. (winning 12) Granted in that time the franchise has a loosing record 357-418-8 but I'm just getting started.

In that time the New York Jets Have had exactly 2, count them 2 , winning head coaches. 'SLANGING' Sammy Baugh went 14-14 but other than that you have only two men since 1960. Bill Parcels, arguably one of the top five coaches in the history of the NFL. (I actually have him at 7 but that's another blog) and the current "RYAN" incarnation. The former went 29-19 with a playoff appearance and the later is 25-15 with a 4-2 record in the playoffs. Neither one even made it to the big show.

Hell even the great WEEB EUBANK, the only coach in Jets history to actually win a Superbowl, or even go, only sported a sub five hundred 71-77-6 record over ten seasons. Seem too easy an argument ? Considering the Jets franchise has a loosing record ? OK how about the Denver Broncos ?

The Broncos have been around since before the merger and have enjoyed some success through the years. Since 1966 they have been to 6 super bowls, winning 2 . Won multiple division titles and enjoyed two long stretches of winning during the DAN REEVES and MIKE SHANNAHAN eras. Between those two coaches the Broncos had 17 winning seasons out of 26 with five 8-8 seasons mixed in.

And yet , again since 1966 , The 8 non-interim coaches were split down the middle. Kind of. 4 coaches with winning records, 3 with loosing records, and perennial nice guy WADE PHILLIPS went 16-16. With his only playoff appearance resulting in a loss.

Lot of good players for the Broncos over the years. More than one hall of famer there. You might say that the players made the coaches in this example and maybe you are right.

The point I'm trying to make is that all bad coaches might not have sucked. Yes WADE PHILLIPS was the coach in between REEVES and SHANNAHAN, but before REEVES chimed in a guy names REED MILLER took the Broncos to a Superbowl, compiled a 40-22 regular season record, was named coach of the year in 77, and was promptly canned after the 1980 season for having his first and only NON winning season. 12-2,10-6,10-6,8-8,........GONE! Boy , don't mess up in Denver !

Does it seem like I'm not supporting my own argument ? OK, how about Dave Wannstedt in Miami ? 41-23 before he started the 2004 season, then 1-8......GONE! Kind of a knee jerk reaction for an organization that couldn't win a Superbowl with DAN freaking MARINO !

Or what about Art Shell's first stint with the Raiders? 44-33 with three playoff appearances ? Damn I hate winning.

The late 80's BUDDY RYAN Eagles ? Three out of five 10 win seasons with a 31-17 record in the last three years alone ? In favor of RICHIE KOTITE ? .................................OK maybe that's a bad example. But here is a good one , on the flip side of the story.

SAM WYCHE.....ya you heard me. 61-66 all time with the Bengals. Five of his eight seasons with the Bengals were 8 wins or less, and one was nine. Yet after the first four years of the Wyche regime totaled a sub par 29-34 record with only one wining season the Brown family decides to stick with him and ....boom 12-4 with a Superbowl appearance. A Superbowl appearance which....by the way, they would have won if Joe Montana hadn't remembered that he had Jerry Rice AND John Taylor in the 4Th quarter.

And if you are STILL not convinced that some NFL coaches just need a little more time .....then I would like you to consider the Pittsburgh Steelers. Consider BILL COWER.

He takes over the team in 1992 and proceeds to have 6 consecutive winning seasons, compiling a 64-32 record that included one Superbowl appearance. He lost that game, but who didn't loose to the Cowboys in the mid 90's ? WHO I ASK YOU ? Those Bills fans in the back know what I mean.

Anyway after the 1997 season the BILL COWER Steelers went 7-9,6-10, and 9-7 without so much as making the playoffs. Most coaches would have been fired twice in that time frame but the Steeler ownership realized that the best quarterback they had was Kordell Stewart and that Bill Cower, despite the last three seasons, knew what he was doing.

In 2001 and 2002 the Bill Cower Steelers rebounded to post a 13-3 and then a 10-5-1 season.

**********************AUTHOR'S NOTE*******************************************
THE FACT THAT THERE WAS A TIE GAME IN 2002 MAKES EVERY MINUTE OF RESEARCH WORTH IT
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They still didn't win a Superbowl, or even go, but they were back right ? Great decision by the Steelers right?.....WAMMO ! 6-10 IN 2003. Oops, guess the organization should have given him the axe huh? Well, not so fast now. The Steelers AGAIN decide to hold on to Cower despite popular opinion and what happened?

15-1 in 2004, where they lost to the eventual champion Patriots in a GREAT game and then 11-5 in 2005, where they qualified as the 6Th seed in the AFC Playoffs before they decided to get straight up magical and slap the upstart Bengals right out of the dance, squeak out the Peyton Manning Colts in a nail biter, then bash the Jake Plummer Broncos, who had just made the Patriots look human, on the way to a convincing win over the Seahawks in the Superbowl.

By the way they did all that with a 2nd year QB and a running back who couldn't walk down his own staitcase without an injection.

My point of course is this.....it is hard as hell to win a game in the NFL. Always has been. To win a lot of games, or god forbid a title, is damn near impossible.

Did Jack Del Rio deserve to get fired? Ya , probably. But I wonder, if they had stuck with the coach, and somehow found a franchise quarterback in the upcoming draft????.....................Jack Del Rio might have become a hall of fame coach.

Think about it.