It’s That Time Of Year …

The NFL regular season just ended and like the regularity of the swallows returning to Capistrano [Hat Tip to The Ink Spots] we can expect a lot of commentators to focus on three tried and true story lines for this time of the year:

1. Head coaching candidates for position openings (currently there are 5 open slots)
2. The paucity of Black head coaches in the NFL
3. Which players may/should receive a franchise tag from their current team.

As I peruse the reports on top coaching prospects for this NFL offseason, I see a lot of familiar names (Eric Bieniemy, Sean Payton, Dan Quinn and loads of coordinators on successful/playoff teams in 2022).  I cannot even pretend to have any “inside info” here from either a coach’s perspective or a team perspective; but looking at the process from afar, there seems to be almost a Catch-22 in it.

Imagine that a team needs a new coach, and the GM starts a search and then the GM and the owner sit down with several candidates for “intense interviews”.  Who makes the hiring decision?  The GM?  The owner?  My point here is that if the owner walks away from that “interview” viscerally opposed to Joe Flabeetz as his next head coach, it makes no difference if Joe is actually a reincarnation of Vince Lombardi.  If the owner and the coaching applicant get it on like oil and water, the applicant will not get the job.

And there is a rub…  Successful NFL head coaches have a way of establishing a close working relationship with the players on the team; the common image is that the coach and the player are so tight that the player would “run through a brick wall for the coach”.  That being the case, how come I never read about a core bunch of the players on the team joining the GM and the owner for the interviews of the new applicants?

I am not advocating for the inmates to run the asylum here; my point is that the billionaire team owner is one category of society and a locker room full of NFL-caliber players is a very different segment of society.  It seems to me that a coaching applicant must relate to an owner in at least a neutral way but that same applicant – if he is to be successful – must relate to the players in a totally positive way.  And I simply do not believe that any billionaire owner has his finger on the pulse of the team to be able to divine that sort of potential player/coach interaction in an isolated interview process.  But that is how it has always been done and that is how it is going to be done in the early months of 2023…

Regarding the racial makeup of the cadre of NFL head coaches, I understand the narrative behind the reporting.  Having said that, the reporters who constantly bombard us around this time of the year with “The Count” of Black head coaches ought to consider the audience.  With the firing earlier this week of Lovie Smith by the Texans – – yes, the Texans have fired two Black head coaches in two successive seasons with both coaches having been on the job for only one season – – there are 2 Black head coaches among the 32 NFL teams.  There is also 1 Black head coach on the job on an interim basis and there is 1 Hispanic head coach on the job.

As an NFL fan and a consumer of news about the NFL and its teams, I already know that information; in fact, it took me less than a minute to take a mental tour around the NFL and count on my fingers the data presented above.  So, I do not need this information; it adds no value.

Now imagine Sam Glotz our there who does not follow the NFL and considers the game itself to be barbaric and whose sporting preferences lean toward race-walking and billiards.  Sam does not know the demographic information that will be included in the reporting; but simultaneously, he does not care about that information.  My point here is that those types of reports do not find wide swaths of readership who both care about the data and did not know the data prior to reading the report in front of them.

The best I can hope for in terms of speculation on new head coaches and how the demographics of the cadre of NFL head coaches might change this year is for the number of such expositions to be small.  However, looking at which players might get a franchise tag attached to their career is far more interesting because it can spur debate/discussion that has a finite lifespan.  So, here are seven suggestions I have relative to franchise tag decisions – – in alphabetical order so no one thinks this is a prioritization:

1. Saquon Barkley – Giants:  Finally, a season where he was healthy and available …
2. Lamar Jackson – Ravens:  Reports say the player – negotiating without an agent – and the team are still at odds over a totally guaranteed contract.  However, the Ravens’ offense in 2022 after Jackson suffered a knee injury simply imploded.  I think he gets “the tag” if there is no agreement on a long-term deal.
3. Josh Jacobs – Raiders:  The team did not pick up Jacobs’ fifth-year option so he will be a free agent this year.  There will be a market for his services so the Raiders might want to avoid an “open market” and simply lock him up for one more season.
4. Daniel Jones – Giants:  The team did not pick up Jones’ fifth-year option so he will be a free agent this year.  The Giants’ situation is complicated by the Saquon Barkley situation noted above; the Giants have two productive offensive players on expiring contracts and only one franchise tag…
5. Darron Payne – Commanders:  He had a great year in 2022 but the team has some decision-making to do here.  The team has already paid Jonathan Allen big bucks; Montez Sweat’s contract is up at the end of next season; Chase Young’s payday is looming.  So, how much cap space does the team want/need to devote to the defensive line?
6. Tony Pollard – Cowboys:  Yes, the Cowboys also have Ezekiel Elliott at RB, but my “eyeball test” says that Pollard is the main-man in Dallas these days.
7. Geno Smith – Seahawks:  Smith had the best year of his career by a wide margin in 2022 and led the team to the NFC Playoffs.  If any sort of “bidding war” starts over his future services, the Seahawks might pre-empt that with a franchise tag.  Or not…

Finally, Dwight Perry may have retired from his post at the Seattle Times, but I still have some of his commentary on my clipboard; so, let me close with this observation today:

“The Packers’ Sean Rhyan has been suspended for six games for a PED violation.

“But were they really performance-enhancing? Ryan is Green Bay’s third-string right guard.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………