Grading NFL head coaching hires: Patriots ace it, Cowboys get a ‘D’

The market always seems flooded with brilliant coaches that every team should be clamoring to hire. Some have years of experience and success. Some are more about potential. But all bring promises of better days.

Of course, most of them don’t work out and sometimes the optimism fades quickly. And more often than not, the same teams are right back on the coaching carousel in a couple of years.

But for right now — in this early offseason moment — all of the teams that hired new coaches are convinced they picked out a winner.

Time will tell if any of them are right, but for now, here’s a ranking of the six new head coaches this offseason, with the New Orleans Saints still eyeing what’s left of the field:

Once Bill Belichick was off the market, there was no better candidate available than the 49-year-old Vrabel. The Patriots knew it, which is why they quickly fired Jerod Mayo after just one season, underwent a sham of a search, and hired their old linebacker (2001-08).

Vrabel spent the last year off from football after a terrific six-year run in Tennessee, which included a 51-45 record, three playoff berths and one run to the AFC Championship Game with the Titans. He is considered a strong and natural leader, which a young team like the Patriots clearly needs. And while he’s not the offensive whiz a lot of teams want to pair with young quarterbacks, he brought one with him in new (and old) Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

After a year of watching Mayo struggle with learning how to be a head coach, the Patriots won’t need to offer any learning curve to Vrabel. He is as ready to take over a team and start winning as any coach who was in the market for a job.

Grade: A+

Mike Vrabel returns to New England, where he once starred as a player.

There’s only one reason why Vrabel was considered a better choice than Carroll by almost everyone this offseason: Age.

Maybe that’s unfair, but Carroll is 73, which is a big enough number that made many overlook the fact that he’s one of the most successful coaches in football history. He’s one of only three coaches who have won both a Super Bowl championship and an NCAA Division I title. And in 14 years in Seattle, he had a record of 137-89-1 and took the Seahawks to the playoffs 10 times.

Is age an issue? It’s really in the eye of the beholder. Carroll is known for his youthful enthusiasm and his ability to relate to and reach his players, despite being old enough to be their grandfather. And there certainly has been no evidence that he’s out of touch in any way with the modern game.

So credit the Raiders for looking past his age and looking at his experience and his ability to build a strong culture in the organization — something they clearly desperately need. Few coaches have proven to be better leaders than Carroll, which must be what co-owner Tom Brady saw when he pushed the Raiders to hire him.

If they can find Caroll a quarterback and some players, he’ll find a way to make them win.

Grade: A

Pete Carroll returns to coaching after one season away from the NFL.

The next spot is probably a tossup between the two Detroit Lions coordinators who got jobs this cycle, since everyone in the NFL seems to believe that both of them will be excellent head coaches. But the Bears and Johnson get the nod on this list in part because teams have been hot for Johnson for two straight offseason hiring cycles.

Also, they really needed an offensive-minded coach for young quarterback Caleb Williams, so this couldn’t possibly be a better fit.

Williams is everything to the Bears’ future after they drafted him No. 1 overall last April, and his first season certainly was alarming at times. The talent is clearly there, but it needs to be harnessed, and the old coaching staff did a terrible job at that.

The 39-year-old Johnson, if nothing else, seems like the perfect coach to get the best out of Williams. He turned Jared Goff into one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Detroit, and under his direction, the Lions’ offense ranked in the top 4 in each of his three seasons as offensive coordinator and averaged 29 points per game. It was also generally considered to be one of the most creative schemes, and one of the most difficult to prepare for, according to several defensive coaches.

The expectations are going to be high because the Bears have a talented roster, and there’s a belief that with a little growth from Williams, they can make a run at the playoffs, even in the crazy competitive NFC North. It won’t be easy, given the competition. But Johnson looks like the perfect coach to make it work.

Grade: A-

Ben Johnson will be tasked with guiding Caleb Williams in Chicago.

They rushed their way through 17 different candidates, including some who clearly had no shot at getting the job (Rex Ryan? Mike Locksley? Really?). But give Woody Johnson this much: He certainly landed on an excellent choice.

Glenn has been universally hailed by his former players, teammates and coaches as a dynamic leader who is more than ready for the big chair. He also wanted the job. He played in the Jets organization for eight seasons (1994-2001) and worked there as a scout (2012-13). He knows about their dysfunction. Yet he still wanted this, and has been telling people that for years.

So it’s nothing but good news for the Jets that they ended up with one of the top candidates on the market. The only problem, of course, is that they’ve been here before. Todd Bowles was a top-of-market choice when the Jets hired him. Robert Saleh was coveted by a lot of franchises too. And Adam Gase … well, forget about him. The point is the Jets have hired hot assistants before only to see their choice go down in flames.

Maybe Glenn’s strong brand of leadership and ability to relate to players will be exactly what the Jets need to cut through the chaos that always surrounds them. They just really better hope that Johnson leaves him and new general manager Darren Mougey alone to run the franchise. If he continues to interfere, don’t expect anything to change.

Grade: B+

Aaron Glenn finally landed the head-coaching job he sought in New York.

He is as responsible as anyone for resurrecting the career of quarterback Baker Mayfield and turning the Bucs into an offensive juggernaut. They averaged 29.5 points during his one year as their offensive coordinator. He’s also a branch off the Sean McVay coaching tree. So it makes sense that the Jaguars are banking on his offensive mind to do the same with quarterback Trevor Lawrence and an offense that clearly took several steps back the last few years.

The Jaguars might have given Coen, 39, a little too much power, though, considering he’s only been an NFL offensive coordinator for two years and an NFL assistant for five. He never appeared to be their top choice until it was clear nobody wanted to work with incumbent GM Trent Baalke. That included Coen, who turned them down … until they fired Baalke and reportedly told Coen he could basically choose the general manager.

Oh, and they are also reportedly paying him $12 million per year, which isn’t that far off what the Bears are giving Johnson, who was widely acknowledged as the top candidate on the market.

Coen feels like a consolation prize and a risky bet by a team clearly searching for the next McVay, the Rams coach who was Coen’s boss for his first four seasons in the NFL. It’s a generally successful coaching tree, though, so he was certainly worth a shot.

Grade: B-

Liam Coen landed his first NFL head-coaching job with the Jaguars.

The 51-year-old Schottenheimer might turn out to be an excellent coach for the Cowboys. But the fact that nobody around the NFL seems convinced of that is telling. And the process that led them to Schottenheimer was, to say the least, incredibly dysfunctional and flawed.

To review: They waited a week into the offseason to part ways with Mike McCarthy when his contract expired, after refusing to engage him in contract negotiations during the season. By then they had rebuffed the clear interest from Bill Belichick, who instead exiled himself at the University of North Carolina, and they let the other franchises looking for a new coach get a week-long head start. They also didn’t bother talking to any of the top assistant coaches on the market, including Johnson, Glenn, or Coen. They just flirted a bit with Deion Sanders.

Then, after all that, they turned to the offensive coordinator hired by the man they just let go.

They did not have a thorough or serious search. And it sure appears like they took both the cheapest option they could find and the one least likely to challenge Jerry Jones’ power. This was hardly the move of a team that feels it’s on the verge of making a run at a Super Bowl championship or serious about competing with the NFL’s best.

But this is what the Cowboys do. It’s like an extension of their inaction in free agency. They are just allergic to big, bold moves.

Grade: D

Brian Schottenheimer was a surprise pick to lead the Cowboys.

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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