Worst Head Coach in the NFL This Year

[pskov]

Okay, a LOT of hate has been spread around various coaches onm the boards in the last few days. So, whilst some of them get fired (and some get extensions ;)) who do you think actually did the worst job last year?

[Vikings13]

Callahan lost complete control over his team, so he gets my vote, narrowly edging out Spurrier who did nothing in DC.

[Die Hand die Verletzt]

Got to be Callahan. From Super Bowl to 4-12!!!!!

[Jon]

No matter how much I want to pick Erickson (I believe the Niners would have won several more games with the Mooch as coach), Callahan gets my vote. He just stunk.

[sabotai]

Has to be Callahan. Like it was said before, from Super Bowl to 4-12.

[NYFAN]

don't forget Gruden... From Super Bowl champion to right next to the raiders...

[Dutch]

Originally posted by NYFAN
don't forget Gruden... From Super Bowl champion to right next to the raiders...

Thankfully this poll is for worst job this year and not honorable mention. :)

[ISiddiqui]

I don't get why Erickson is on this list. A decent kicker and the team is 10-6 at least.

[pskov]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
I don't get why Erickson is on this list. A decent kicker and the team is 10-6 at least.

Niners fan rip him all the time so that's why I stuck him there.

Agree that he hasn't done that poor a job, though.

[ISiddiqui]

Oh, I'm not blaming you, my friend. It was a general question because I always hear about how Erickson did a bad job.

[JAG]

Pretty tough to choose between Callahan and Spurrier. I chose Spurrier because I was more familiar with the job he did; if it's not worse than Callahan, it had to be close.

[clintl]

Erickson is a step down from Mariucci, but he was nowhere near as bad as a lot of other coaches in the league, and not all of what went wrong was his fault.

[Fouts]

I'd vote for Schottenheimer. The man isn't very creative.

[stevew]

Whats with Cowher taking basically the same steelers team from last year, and turning it into crap. Im suprised the steelers only lost 10 games this year.

[Raiders Army]

Callahan.

Timmie Brown's rant: link (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/keown/031230.html)

Fired? (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1697093)

[tucker342]

Callahan gets my vote.


I don't think they should fire him yet, give him another year, I mean hell, they did go to the superbowl last year.

[corbes]

I voted for Spurrier, but only because I didn't read far enough down the list to vote for Callahan.

[Wasabiak]

If what is being said about Callahan is true, can i sue him if i had a bunch of Raiders on my fantasy team?

[TroyF]

Wow. . . I don't think there is a question here. Gregg Williams far and away did the worst job of any coach in the league. From the Bills passing on something like 20 consecutive 3rd and 2 or less plays to taking a defense that added Lawyer Milloy and Takeo Spykes and making it look like a bunch of idiots, he was there all year.

Callahan? OK, maybe he deserves to lose his job. Maybe he didn't do a great job of coaching. Yet, who could have made the Raiders a good team this year? Gannon played horribly when he was in, injuries decimated the entire roster and the youngest skill position guy should be in a rocker.

Everyone talks about the Super Bowl last year. . . I'm of the opinion it was a masterful job getting them that far last year.

Sorry, I think a lot of coaches could have had the Bills with an above .500 record this year. I think very few could have won with Rick Mirer and two 38+ year old WR.

[JAG]

TroyF, living in D.C. I've been following Spurrier much of this year and I can tell you he probably did a worse job than Williams. They added a Pro Bowl caliber guard to a line that had two former Pro Bowl tackles in their prime and still had ridiculous protection problems. The biggest embarassment there was after being crushed by the Bills, they had two weeks to address this and looked like they didn't do anything when they got crushed by the Cowboys the following week. They added a good receiver in Laverneus Coles and still had no decent passing game. Spurrier changed his offense almost week to week from NFL-ized to Fun n Gun. He admitted he had no idea what was going on on special teams or the defensive side of the ball ("You'll have to ask the defensive coaches about that." he said on more than one occasion). The dicipline problems coming to light now about players taking cell phone calls during meetings, showing up late, practicing at half-speed, and whatever else. He made an absolute head-scratching call of a slow-developing run play on a 4th and 1 on the Redskins own 20 yard-line against Seattle that would've made Barry Switzer proud (it did work however), but I admit I can't recall any other game mismanagement he did this year and pretty much every coach screws up a call here and there.

Outside of the game management issues, that right there is almost a manual for How to Fail as an NFL Head Coach.

[TroyF]

Jag,

Maybe so, but those two "pro bowl" tackles played like a couple of 12 year olds and it didn't have squat to do with the protection scheme. They were HORRIBLE and couldn't block anyone or anything at anytime.

I'm not saying Spurrier didn't do a poor job. Clearly he did. Yet I'm sick of hearing about his protection schemes. If the two tackles don't shape up and play, I don't care what protection scheme they use. . . they'll still suck.

[JAG]

I agree, they did suck, but they weren't solely responsible for blocking Strahan or any number of defensive ends earlier in the year: in his scheme, numerous times, that responsibility fell to the tight end. With no help. Commentators and columnists were blasting him for it. Any scheme like that does indeed play a part in a team's inability to protect a QB. It's not just that though, the fact that it took multiple weeks to figure this out was beyond unacceptable.

Having said that, the tackles sucked in pass protection too. I just find it surprising that they slipped so much from last year to this year and I think the environment around them due to the coaching fiasco played a part in that.

[Leonidas]

Was the Jon Gruden exlcusion just an oversight or is it believed he really did any better than Wannstedt or Tice?

[Darkiller]

I think Callahan has been a real asshole this year.
Not only did his coaching was obviously BAD since the Raiders drop from AFC champions to 4-12 but he completely lost his team by HIS FAULT ripping his players like I had never seen anyone do before.

This is miserable.
I hope this guy never coaches again in the NFL.

[Butter]

Gregg Williams. Bledsoe looked clueless all year, and their defense was dreadful even though they've got talent.

Callahan's 2nd, but that team was getting old last year, and were frankly due to hit the wall pretty hard sometime soon.

[Thomkal]

What no Dave McGinnis from the Cards on this list? Oh wait that's right, my Cards suck no matter who the coach is. :) I voted for Fassel, but I easily could have gone with Tice, Callahan, Spurrier, or Williams...one of which will likely end up the Cards coach now. ;)

[Fritz]

10-6, WTF is Wanny doing on this list?

[QuikSand]

I thought Gregg Williams was the worst, but I certainly can understand the voting for Callahan.

[albionmoonlight]

This vote went just like I thought that it should.

I think that Calahan was the worst, but that one could make a colorable argument for either Spurrier or Williams. The numbers seem to be bearing that out.

[Butter]

Originally posted by Butter_of_69
Callahan's 2nd, but that team was getting old last year, and were frankly due to hit the wall pretty hard sometime soon.

What I meant to say was, "Callahan's can't be considered that bad, considering he was clearly bent on sabotaging the Raiders season."

Although, one could consider signing Rick Mirer as an act of sabotage unto itself.

[pskov]

Originally posted by Fritz
10-6, WTF is Wanny doing on this list?

I just listed the candidates who had received criticsim here and also in the media. Hence why Wanny and Erickson are on it but Cowher and Davis aren't (no high profile media bashing).

[Godzilla Blitz]

I vote for Williams, as he seemed to have the most talent and accomplish the least with it.

[BuffaloHusky]

Gregg Williams gets the nod from me. It wasn't just the fact that he did the least with the most talent of all of these coaches, but the fact that he couldn't control Gilbride really pissed me off.

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by BuffaloHusky
Gregg Williams gets the nod from me. It wasn't just the fact that he did the least with the most talent of all of these coaches, but the fact that he couldn't control Gilbride really pissed me off.

He should have brought in Buddy to do the job. :)

[Kodos]

Originally posted by Fritz
10-6, WTF is Wanny doing on this list?

I voted for him (of course). The guy has tons of talent on his roster, but he consistently fails to win big games. And he loses to teams like Houston that they should dominate (especially before the emergence of Domanick Davis). The guy cannot get the team up for big games. He can beat up on crappy teams, but when a good opponent is at hand, count on a loss. Plus, he refuses to address problems with the offense, and instead focusses on bringing in players to a defense that is already good enough to win a championship if the team had a good offense.

You seem to be Dave's biggest champion on this forum. What is it about him that you like? :confused:

[clintl]

Originally posted by Kodos
I voted for him (of course). The guy has tons of talent on his roster, but he consistently fails to win big games.

I think you overestimate the talent the Dolphins have. Other than Ricky Williams and maybe Chris Chambers, they don't have anyone on offense at a skill position that's better than average for their position. As far as I can tell, they play about to their talent level - a borderline playoff team. I'm not saying that Wannstedt is the best coach around, but I think it would take a truly elite coach to get them to play any better than they have played the last few years.

[Kodos]

But it's his fault that they didn't address any of the problems on offense. "Let's pick up another linebacker with our first pick, rather than a lineman or a receiver. That'll get us to the Super Bowl!"

[clintl]

That's a GM issue, not a coaching issue. And it hardly rises to the level of incompetence that results in mass mutiny, as was the case in Callahan's situation.

[DeToxRox]

I voted Tice; You DO NOT go 6-0 and not make the playoffs. It requires finishing out 4-6 in the NFC, and he couldn't do it.

He had losses to The Raiders, Cardinals, Giants and Chargers, as well as the Bears. They should've been 11-5 EASILY.

[Kodos]

Originally posted by clintl
That's a GM issue, not a coaching issue. And it hardly rises to the level of incompetence that results in mass mutiny, as was the case in Callahan's situation.

Dave was in control of personnel. That's why they are looking for a GM now, to try to minimize his incompetence.

[clintl]

So, he belongs maybe in a poll of worst GMs, not worst coaches.

[TroyF]

Originally posted by clintl
That's a GM issue, not a coaching issue. And it hardly rises to the level of incompetence that results in mass mutiny, as was the case in Callahan's situation.

I wrote a little bit above about Callahan, but I think there needs to be more said about him.

While he was a complete and total fool for acting the way he did, how many coaches in his position would have been able to control that locker room when things started to go downhill?

This is a team that spent time sniping at Gruden every chance they could get last year. They kept their mouths shut around Gruden because they won. Ditto Callahan last year. I think this is a team that would have made ANY coach look foolish once they knew their season was over.

Lets be real, once Oakland lost Gannon, their season was complete. Nobody was going to lead them into the playoffs with a average (at best, and that's only fully healthy) defense and 38 year old WR.

So now you have two types of players on the roster. Pissed off veterans who realize they put off retirement for a wasted season and free agent guys who are looking at an exploded cap figure and know a two to four year rebuilding project is just around the corner.

Combine that with a coach that has as much power as any of us on this board in major personell decisions and you have a recipe for disaster.

We can all sit here and say Callahan handled the job horribly. Again, I wouldn't argue with that in the least. Yet even had he handled everything perfect, odds are he would have lost that locker room once the wheels came off the team. I don't think his idiotic comments or bad coaching led to the 4-12 record by the Raiders. They were a .500 team coming into the season (no matter what last years record showed) and lost their starting QB, had you told me Gannon would have missed that much time, I could have called the record within a game.

One more thing: Despite what everyone is saying, the Raiders did play pretty hard down the stretch, save for a couple of games. They beat Baltimore, gave Denver everything they could handle, went into KC and nearly upset the Chiefs. . . their biggest failure was blowing up on national TV.

[Leonidas]

Still no one addresses the Jon Gruden issue. Is his rep so overpowering that he can go from winning the SB with Tony Dungy's talent in one year to being a middle of the pack team in just one year and not be considered to have had one of the worst coaching jobs this year, if not ever? All this while not even going through too harsh of a rash of injuries. He may recover next year, but for the time being Gruden needs some arrows flung at him.

[Tasan]

Gregg Williams did so little with so much talent its almost criminal. I think Callahan was a victim of his team finally playing to their age.

[pskov]

Originally posted by Leonidas
Still no one addresses the Jon Gruden issue. Is his rep so overpowering that he can go from winning the SB with Tony Dungy's talent in one year to being a middle of the pack team in just one year and not be considered to have had one of the worst coaching jobs this year, if not ever? All this while not even going through too harsh of a rash of injuries. He may recover next year, but for the time being Gruden needs some arrows flung at him.

Everyone knows that Gruden is an offense based coach, that is where his 'genius' shows through. In hisi firstt year in the superbowl run, the Tampa D was overpowering the other teams, creating turnovers constantly and racking up scores in key situations. This year however the D, whilst still playing at a good level, hasn't reahed the dominaing presence it had last year. However, the offense was much improved with B.Johnson playing very well, McCardell had a career year and even the Jones/Pittman RBBC looks as if it will work well. Gruden has kind of done the job he was bbrought in for (to upgrade the offense and not rely on defense to win games), defense is Kiffin's job.

Of course, the Head Coach is ultimatley responsible, but I'm pretty certain that Gruden doesn't dabble too much with Defense and leaves that to Kiffin, so how much can he be blamed for the relativley poor performance of the defense? After all, he has kept to his side of the bargain.

[Buccaneer]

Ok, I've been doing some reading, esp. with this week's firing. I just don't get all of the votes for Callahan. Everyone was praising him last season when he took Gruden's team to the SB. This season, he still had the same players except one key one got hurt and they all got one year older. I think he deserved to have gotten fired since he lost control but since he took this team to the SB, either he did the greatest coaching job of all time last season or perhaps this season was more in line with expectations.

My vote was for Bills' Williams.

[wishbone]

I voted for Ericson because I feel he's another retread garbage coach that shouldn't have been hired in the first place and because the Niners didn't really have any excuses for their record this year other than poor execution and poor decision making. Mooch had 22 wins the last 2 years with basically the same players. Erickson comes in and makes promises about the offense, fails miserably and if we can say that teams don't make mistakes with certain coaches (Parcells) then we can say that teams with other coaches will make more mistakes.

[MrBug708]

Not many votes for Erickson. He's a lousy professional coach right along with Terry Donahue as a GM