NFL Coaches Draft, Part 2

This is part 2 in a series begun on Friday. For a review of the rules for this draft, see here.

17) New York Jets: Steve Spagnolo (STL)
The Jets hitched their wagon to the Brett Favre express last year, investing lots of cash in offensive and defensive free agents. This improved both sides of the ball, but now that Brett’s gone, they don’t have a QB. Enter Spagnolo, who knows how to get consistent pressure from his front 7. With Spags’ pressure schemes, whoever is quarterbacking the Jets won’t have to do it all. They can be brought along a little slower, just limiting mistakes at the beginning.

18) Chicago Bears: Mike Singletary (SF)
Chicago’s defense was an absolute force in 2006, getting the team to the Super Bowl despite their quarterback. A combination of injuries and complacency has leveled off that unit a bit. Enter one of the heads of the mid-80’s Bear defense. Singletary will get his players to play for him, and will challenge the defense to hit the bar they set so high back in 2006. He also was able to coax a respectable finish out of the dog’s breakfast of an offense he had in San Francisco. In Chicago…well, at least he gets a 1000% improvement at the quarterback position.

19) Tampa Bay Buccaneers: John Fox (Car)
Tampa is at a crossroads. Their defense, which has carried them for over a decade, is old and broken down. Their offense hasn’t been anything of note since…well…ever pretty much. When you’re pining for the days of Brad Johnson, that’s not good. Fox would bring a brand new approach, as he’s a proponent of size on defense and a strong running game. Tampa has been a cover-two defense relying on speed since Dungy, but they need all new players anyway, so if you’re going to tear down and rebuild, this is the perfect time to do it. Tampa also won’t have to worry about Fox’s biggest weakness: his man-crush on Jake Delhomme.

20) Dallas Cowboys: Jon Gruden (FA)
Dallas really needs one thing from their coach: someone secure enough to tell Jerry Jones to butt out, and secure enough for Jones to listen. As a function of picking 20th in this draft, the only coach who fits that bill is Gruden. Add to that a good quarterback for him to play with, and Gruden should be able to coax better seasons out of the Cowboys.

21) Philadelphia Eagles: Norv Turner (SD)
Philly has gotten a lot of contending seasons out of an offensive coach who lets the defense do its thing. Norv Turner is a step down from Andy Reid, but he will finally commit to a running game, and thus probably extend McNabb’s career (and life) by a few years. With McNabb policing the locker room, Turner’s softness won’t be as much of a hindrance.

22) Minnesota Vikings: Mike McCarthy (GB)
All of the pieces for a run are here in Minnesota, except a quarterback who can get the job done. Enter McCarthy, who successfully brought Aaron Rodgers out of the shadow of Brett Favre, and who managed to get Favre to play quarterback instead of gunslinger (until the NFC Championship game at least). McCarthy won’t attach his chances to Tarvaris Jackson, and whoever he brings in instead, he’ll be able to work with.

23) New England Patriots: Josh McDaniels (Den)
With Belichick (long) gone, New England nabs its offensive coordinator from Tom Brady’s 2 most impressive years (the 2007 storming of the league and the 2006 performance with Reche Caldwell as his #1). Presumably McDaniels would be comfortable enough with Tom Brady that he wouldn’t feel compelled to run him out of town for a chance at Matt Cassell.

24) Atlanta Falcons: Mike Smith (Atl)
Mike Smith took a team stuck under the dark cloud of Mike Vick’s dogs and took them to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback. With him still around, Atlanta is very willing to see what year 2 brings.

25) Miami Dolphins: Tony Sparano (Mia)
Is okay with Bill Parcells commanding most of the attention: check. Has the respect of the players: check. Is creative enough to introduce a formation new to the NFL: check. Won a division including the Patriots: check. Sparano may still be very much an unknown, but Miami was very happy with what they got last year, so they bring him back.

26) Baltimore Ravens: John Harbaugh (Bal)
Harbaugh won over the defensive leaders of the team, and steered this team with a rookie quarterback to the AFC Championship game. Baltimore doesn’t need more than 5 seconds to make this pick.

27) Indianapolis Colts: Jim Caldwell (Ind)
As much as the previous three coaches are still quite unknown commodities, Caldwell is entirely unknown. All we know is Indy felt good enough about him to anoint him Tony Dungy’s successor last season. Add to that the fact that Caldwell has been learning under Dungy for years, and you feel pretty good about him. Peyton Manning certainly signed off on this, so Indy will roll the dice with Caldwell (it’s not like there are a ton of attractive options out there at pick 27).

28) Carolina Panthers: Jim Mora (Sea)
Carolina has been a run-first, defense-oriented team for years under John Fox. Jim Mora is a defense-first, run-first coach. If anything, Mora reminds one of a younger, more energetic Fox. He should be able to relate to Steve Smith and maybe keep him from punching out another teammate, which is a big plus. He also has spent the last 2 years learning under Mike Holmgren, so you have to feel good about him being a better coach his second time around.

29) New York Giants: Jack Del Rio (Jax)
Del Rio tends to coax great efforts out of his team. He also occasionally goes about motivating his team in odd ways (one year he brought an ax into the locker room and his punter subsequently cut himself on said ax and was lost for the season…oops). He has made Jacksonville into a 2nd-tier contender with a strong running game and not much at quarterback, relying on the defense to keep the scores low. Eli Manning is better than anything Del Rio’s had to work with under center, but he’s at his best when the defense is leading the way and he doesn’t have to do too much. That plays into Del Rio’s scheme preference.

30) Tennessee Titans: Dick Jauron (Buf)
Tennessee needs someone who will remain steady throughout the ups and downs of the 16 game season. Dick Jauron is very steady (sometimes you wonder if he’s alive on the sideline). Jauron hasn’t had great success outside of one season with Chicago, but Tennessee is more talented than most of his teams in the past have been. Jauron’s been at his best with a steady veteran quarterback (or at least not JP Losman) and an opportunistic defense, which sounds just like the current Titans team. Yes, picking Jauron is taking a chance, but Jauron won’t come in and try to remodel the #1 seed in the AFC last season.

31) Arizona Cardinals: Wade Phillips (Dal)
Believe me, I'm as shocked as you are. When I sat down for this exercise, there were a bunch of coaches I was sure would be on the outside looking in once the first round was complete. Wade Phillips was prominently on that list. But then I got to Arizona, and I couldn’t fit a coach to their current team. They have hitched their offense to 37-year-old Kurt Warner, so their window is not very wide, and it only came together for them when their defense stepped up to the plate. Phillips, for all his faults, is a good defensive coach, and will get plenty of pressure on the opposing quarterback. His problem is he’s a big softy, and has no control over his locker room. Well, that and the fact that in-game decisions and adjustments tend to overwhelm him. However, with Kurt Warner leading the offense, Phillips’ inability to control his locker room can be mitigated, as Warner can command respect and lead the offense. That leaves Phillips to concentrate on what he does best, attack the opposing offense. Could this end in spectacular failure? Definitely. But players coaches tend to start off well and then fall off in year 2 or year 3. By then, Warner will likely be done and Arizona will need to rebuild anyway.

32) Pittsburgh Steelers: Raheem Morris (TB)
Pittsburgh prefers to find a young coach they believe in who can last for 10-15+ years. They hit big on Chuck Noll, they hit on Bill Cowher, and it looks like they hit on Mike Tomlin. Raheem Morris is similarly unknown right now, but Tampa’s braintrust, who liked Gruden a lot, felt good enough about him to oust the Super Bowl winning coach in favor of Morris. League insiders believe Morris will be an outstanding head coach, and he sounds exactly like what the Steelers look for when they look for a new coach once every 15-20 years.

So there you have it. 32 teams draft, 28 end up with new coaches. I hope this was an interesting diversion in the hours leading up to the actual NFL draft. Enjoy the real thing at 4 PM today.